Kobe Kokusai Gang (1975)

Kobe Kokusai Gang (1975). Kobe Kokusai Gang: Directed by Noboru Tanaka. With Ken Takakura, Bunta Sugawara, Tetsurô Tanba, Kôji Wada.

“I was excited to see a Japanese crime flick starring Bunta Sugawara and Takakura Ken – the best known Japanese actor outside his own country, all over the world, with of course Toshiro Mifune. Both play here some low rate hoods who try to survive after the war by selling stolen goods – sugar – to some Chinese organization in Kowloon. Gangs too, who try to set them up, cheat our leads. Thatu0026#39;s an action and crime film, very far from Kinji Fukasakuu0026#39;s stuff, but still agreeable to watch for Japanese, and particularly Yakuza movies buffs like me. This story emphasizes much on the social misery that spreads all over Japan after the war. Ghettos and homeless people living among the garbage, beggars and crooks. As we see in so many other Japanese films, actors are sometimes over-acting but thatu0026#39;s the way it is. I also assure you that movie is not a comedy but a rough and somehow brutal Yakuza tale, as I expected, although not being the best I have ever seen. It is also question here of the Korean mafia. One amusing sequence where Bunta Sugarawa has sex with his girl friend whilst he reads the newspaper.”