GAMBLER: VICTORY WITHOUT DEATH (1967)

Here's a nice change of pace: a Toei 'gambler' movie that actually has gambling in it. No hanafuda games either -- this one is about tausagi, a dice game that originated in Kumamoto. Koji Tsuruta, our new favorite actor, plays Tsunetaro Asakura, a notorious South Kyushu gambler better known as Dynamite Tsune who has come to Chikuho looking for "a rich game of tausagi" and finds it at the home of Kaichi Ishijima (Tomisaburo Wakayama), owner of the Ishijima Coal Mine and head of the Chikuho Miners Association. Tsune loses all of his money plus a bundle loaned to him by Sugi Hanamura (Michiyo Kogure), president of Hanamura Shipping, so he goes to work for coal mine owner Arao (Kenjiro Ishiyama) as a chief foreman until he can win big and repay his debt. Meanwhile, Ishijima has been sending association goons to rough up Hanamura's stevedores in an attempt to get her to lower the fees for coal shipments, and also muscling in on Arao's deal with Hanshin Steel by promising to hook up the company president's idiot son Yoshio (Kanbi Fujiyama) with Arao's daughter Aya (Masumi Tachibana), who only has eyes for Dynamite. No need for spoiler warnings here; you've probably already guessed that there's a mine cave-in and rescue sequence, and the only way the story's going to end is with Tsune (a) wagering his life on the roll of the dice, (b) slamming his tantō into a dozen tattooed torsos, or (c) both a and b. Maybe, like me, you'll have so much fun you won't care how predictable it all is.