DISSOLUTION CEREMONY (1967)

This is the first of several yakuza pics by Kinji Fukasaku that bridged the ninkyo eiga he seemed to eschew in the '60s with the jitsuroku that put him on the map during the '70s. Since I prefer the former while admiring his trailblazing contributions to the latter, I find these transitional films his most interesting. Originally titled KAISAN SHIKI [DISSOLUTION CEREMONY], it opened in Honolulu on June 5, 1967 as FALLING OUT and was booked a few times at the Toei-owned Linda Lea Theater in downtown L.A. in the early to mid '70s, but has been one of Fukasaku's more sought-after films in recent years. The English-subbed version that turned up on YouTube over the summer carries the title CEREMONY OF DISBANDING.

Kimono-clad Sawaki (Koji Tsuruta) emerges from prison eight years after killing the head of a rival clan over a land dispute to find his group disbanded and all of the chiefs now wearing suits and pretending to be legitimate businessmen. Kubo (Kyosuke Machida), for example, runs a so-called talent agency that gets its clients - naive young women who want to be singers - hooked on junk so they can work off their debts stripping and hooking in Okinawa dive bars. The landfill Sawaki killed for now houses an oil complex and factories that billow pollution into the air, a deal that only benefited his friend Shimumura (Fumio Watanabe), whose construction company is presently at odds with another former yakuza chief, Sakamura (Hosei Komatsu), and a corrupt congressman (Nobuo Kaneko) over a similarly shady land deal. One of the soon-to-be-displaced tenants is Sawaki's ex-wife Mie (Misako Watanabe), who wants nothing to do with him and has kept the existence of their son a secret. Another is Dr. Omachi, who runs a free clinic on the land and once saved Shimamura's life, but is now caught between the two opposing groups.

Into this typically busy plot saunters Sakai (Tetsuro Tamba), another chivalrous sandals-and-kimono man from another era, who's out to settle the score with Sawaki for chopping off his arm during that pivotal raid eight years earlier.

“A showdown?” Sawaki says, genuinely surprised when Sakai tosses a tanto to him along with the challenge. “I haven't heard that word in a long time. I thought all the yakuza had moved on to other jobs. I didn't think there were any left.”

“I guess I'm old-fashioned,” Sakai responds, “unfortunately for you.”

A look of relief passes over Sawaki's face as he prepares to unsheathe the blade. “No – I haven't felt this happy since I got out of jail.”

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.

THREE GAMBLERS (1967)

Viewers expecting just another ninkyo eiga from Toei will be disoriented by this film's opening shot: a pullback from Our Lady of Penha Chapel to one of the 32 cannons atop the Fortaleza do Monte in Macao. Yes, this is certainly shaping up to be Shigehiro Ozawa Week here at the Temple, isn't it? And I only have 60 or 70 more of his movies to watch.

Four years after killing each other's boss -- and nearly killing each other with axes during work detail -- Naojiro (Koji Tsuruta) and Sugiyama (Kyôsuke Machida) emerge from Abashiri Prison as sworn brothers and head home to Yokohama. Sugiyama's clan has been disbanded thanks to the rotten Koizumi brothers (Toru Abe and Shigeyoshi Fujioka), the same thugs who sent the visiting Naojiro to do their killing for them. Naojiro quickly discovers that his wife Osata, who was pregnant at the time he fulfilled his yakuza obligation, was sold into prostitution by the same damn Koizumi creeps as part of a deal that involves sending teenage girls to flesh-peddling Mr. Chow (Hôsei Komatsu) in Macao in exchange for opium. So Naojiro and Sugiyama set out for Macao to find Osata and wipe out the Koizumi-Chow connection --

"But wait!" you say, "I only count two gamblers! Who's the third?"

That would be Nagano (the great Ryō Ikebe from PALE FLOWER), a wife killer with terminal lung disease who's been dispatched by the brothers Koizumi to kill Naojiro -- and also happens to be sworn brothers with Sugiyama.

Maybe I'm overrating these Ozawa-Tsuruta collaborations (there were at least 30 of them) but they really scratch the Don Siegel-Phil Karlson itch for me, plus the comic relief characters that pop in every so often are actually funny. This time it's a chubby rickshaw driver who idolizes Naojiro and Sugiyama ("Japanese gangsters are so cool"). I also like how "mafia" starts showing up in the subtitling instead of "yakuza," and the machine gun's a nice addition as well -- which reminds me: I'm probably never going to grow tired of seeing Toru Abe get his bloody comeuppance.

GAMBLERS AND RACKETEERS (1964)

The Kikuya Group, run by Boss Kijima (Chiezō Kataoka), controls a large share of the street vendor business in Asakusa but is beginning to feel the squeeze, both from a rival yakuza gang trying to muscle in on their turf as well as a supermarket that's due to be constructed in the neighborhood. Kijima's older son Ryutaro (Koji Tsuruta) has been disowned for killing another Kikuya member in a drunken rage and is now eking out a living as a bodyguard while staying on good terms with his immature younger brother Katsuo (Hiroki Matsukata) and school chum Mizuno (Minoru Oki), now Kikuya's second-in-command. Tetsurō Tamba plays another childhood pal, an understanding cop trying to keep Ryutaro and Katsuo out of jail. Director Shigehiro Ozawa is dismissed as "mediocre" in Paul Schrader's 1974 Film Comment article "Yakuza-Eiga: A Primer" but he was a better than average studio craftsman, as adept at handling the humor and pathos as he was at staging dynamic action sequences. This feels a lot more confined to studio sets than the other films of his I've seen, most likely a budgetary decision but one that also works thematically given the constricted lives of its characters. Tsuruta is excellent, particularly in the scene in which he reveals the true reasons for his banishment to Matsukata. When this opened in Honolulu in March 1965 the title was CRIME STREET, TOKYO.

A WAD OF NOTES (1970)

Vagabond gambler Ryuji (Koji Tsuruta) returns to his hometown of Tobata after learning from bumbling con men Kinpachi (Asao Koike) and Toramatsu (Rinichi Yamamoto) that two competing yakuza outfits, Naomasa and Mojitoku, are vying for control of the city's annual Gion Yamagasa festival, which for generations has been the responsibility of the Wakashu Union. Thirteen years earlier, Boss Wakashu's son Sanjiro (Minoru Oki) killed a few gang members during an attempted takeover, but Ryuji willingly went to prison for the crime so it wouldn't tarnish the union's reputation and compromise its control of the festival. Sanjiro has since gone blind and finding it difficult to retain control, so Ryuji schemes with Kinpachi and Toramatsu to destroy both Naomasa and Mojitoku by turning them against each other. His YOJIMBO-like plan hits a snag when he befriends lady gambler Sen (Akiko Kudô), who is indebted to Mojitoku, and further complications arise when Tetsugoro the killer (Bin Amatsu) shows up seeking revenge for his older brother, one of the gang members killed by Sanjiro. Highly entertaining, with a couple of exciting, bloody sword and gun battles and a believable relationship between Tsuruta and Kudô. This highly entertaining ninkyo from the reliable Shigehiro Ozawa really hits the sweet spot, with a cast full of familiar faces, a typically convoluted but compelling storyline, exciting action scenes and an engaging, believable performance by Kudô. Originally titled FUDATSUKI BAKUTO, it opened in Honolulu on December 29, 1970 as FESTIVAL OF LANTERNS.

HOUSE OF GAMBLERS (1970)

The Aramasa family oyabun retires just as police crackdowns on their gambling parlors force the clan into the construction business and an uneasy union with the troublesome Tanuma family. Aramasa lieutenant Ryoji (Ken Takakura) is passed over as successor because he still has one year left on a five-year prison stretch for slicing up a half dozen Tanuma soldiers. This drives a wedge between new boss Eizo (Minoru Ôki) and fellow clan member Sekine (Tomisaburo Wakayama), who is loyal to Ryoji. The situation goes from bad to worse once Ryoji returns home to find his standing in the clan greatly diminished and Tanuma looking to get even. Koji Tsuruta plays an Arimasa acquaintance who, out of obligation, accompanies Ryoji on the final walk to Tanuma's place. Tragic and frustrating for most of its running time, which helps make the inevitable bloodbath so much more cathartic, this ninkyo eiga is greatly buoyed by the presence of the Toei stock players (Takakura, Tsuruta, Wakayama, Junko Fuji) and a gripping, beautifully staged climactic sword battle. The title was UNITY OF GAMBLERS when it opened in Hawaii on June 23, 1970.

SEVEN GAMBLERS (1966)

Hanjiro (Koji Tsuruta), a one-eyed gambler with a gravestone tattooed on his back, joins forces with a one-armed con man, a one-legged priest, and a blind man when they all accept employment as bodyguards for a quarry owner on a nearby island. They soon find themselves caught between two clans fighting over the excavation rights to a mountain, and along the way they encounter a hunchback, a deaf mute, and a fire-scarred henchman (Yep, that makes seven of 'em). Also known as SEVEN ROGUES, this fast-moving yakuza pic by Shigehiro Ozawa has a good sense of humor and convincing performances, especially by Kyosuke Machida as the Zatoichi-like blind gambler and Tsuruta, who adds a sometimes comical crankiness to his noble stoic template. Both of them returned for the sequel, SEVEN FUGITIVES (aka AMBUSH OF THE SEVEN).