Two Lives, Two Yakuza

Overview

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).

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

Fumitake Ōmura

Akikane Sawa