Two Lives, Two Yakuza

An early ninkyo film from before the genre had truly established its form. Koji Tsuruta plays an honourable outlaw who saves an older man from an ambush. It turns out the man is the head of a hard working clan appointed to a railway construction project. A ruthless yakuza gang is also trying to get their share of the project and attempts to sabotage the work. After the old man dies, his son (Sonny Chiba) and daughter (Junko Fuji) try to complete the project. Tsuruta joins them while also falling in love with a local woman working in a bar (after all, Tsuruta always was more of a lover than his stoic colleague Takakura).

• Release date
• September 23, 1964
• Runtime
• 99 min
• Genres
• Crime, Drama
• Director
• Tsuneo Kobayashi

Cast

Koji Tsuruta Shinjiro Kusakari Sumiko Fuji Yukiko Matsuhashi Shigeru Amachi Seiji Nawate Takeshi Katō Makoto Misugi Eijirō Yanagi Genichiro Matsuhashi Sonny Chiba Shinichi Matsuhashi Yoshiko Sakuma Kumi Kitajima Kenji Ushio