Description:

Kochiyama Soshun - A genre film unlike you have ever seen, based on a kabuki drama called Kochiyama to Naozamurai, based in its turn on a real figure whose name was Kochiyama Soshun.

The film takes place within the criminal underworld of Edo's Shantytown, in which a knife stolen from a Samurai and a secret love affair lead to an increasingly violent atmosphere. The title character is the leader of a Yakuza Gang and earns money by gambling while his wife, Oshizu, runs a tavern. When Naojiro, a young knucklehead, steals a small but invaluable dagger from an important Samurai it sets off a chain of events that eventually leads to his sister having to sell herself into prostitution, his girlfriend jumping to her death, the Samurai almost having to commit hara-kiri, and a lot of people getting killed in the climatic battle.

Directed by: Sadao Yamanaka
(Although he made 22 films over a six-year period (before dying of dysentery in a Japanese Imperial Army outpost in Manchuria at the age of 28), only three of them survive)

Writers: Mokuami Kawatake (Kabuki drama), Shintaro Mimura

Stars: Chojuro Kawarasaki, Kan'emon Nakamura, Shizue Yamagishi

1936 - JAPANESE with OPTIONAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES - B&W - FULL SCREEN - 82 MINUTES