Sympathy for the Underdog

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku. Starring Koji Tsuruta and Noboru Ando. 1971. Released in DVD by Home Vision Entertainment.
Reviewed on 28 February 2007

This Japanese gangster movie has a lot of the style of one of the old Rat Pack flicks, boosted up by lots of footage of Vegas-like neon lights, a hep jazz soundtrack, shots of the gang walking in a tight-knit cluster down the street looking cool in the face of death. There’s lots of fake blood in this movie, and it all looks like the producers used red finger-paint to create the effect. The hokey quality of it doesn’t really detract from the film much—in fact, it makes it easier to stomach the violence and enjoy the movie as a sketch of revenge and a cast of over-the-top underworld characters. Tsuruta carries a lot of the movie as Gunji, the determined yakuza boss so solitary and mysterious he even puts his sunglasses on right after having sex. After being edges out of the Japanese mainland by a big mob organization that’s run like a business, Gunji takes his ragtag gang of six loyal followers to Okinawa, where he has to battle the local criminal element, including an American named Carter (who sounds like he learned English by listening to automated phone recordings) and a one-armed giant (who has a suspicious bulge beneath the “armless” side of his jacket . . . hmmmm).
The whole thing would fall apart if the actors didn’t seem to be 100% in earnest from start to finish. As it is, it’s a fast paced, enjoyable piece of fun, and you get to see some great glimpses of what Okinawa was like in the 70s.