Sympathy for the Underdog
Films from Japan
•
1h 32m
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku • Drama • With Kôji Tsuruta, Tomisaburô Wakayama • 1971 • 93 minutes
Returning from a ten-year prison sentence, former gang leader Gunji (Koji Tsuruta, Big Time Gambling Boss) finds that his turf has been taken over by his former enemy, now a large crime syndicate with a legal corporate front. Looking for new opportunities, he gathers his old crew and heads for the island of Okinawa.
Up Next in Films from Japan
-
Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat In Space
Directed by t.o.L • Animation • With Takeshi Katô, Hisayo Mochizuki • 2002 • 92 minutes
Arguably the only Japanese anime ever made inspired by both Hello Kitty and Thomas Pynchon, TAMALA 2010 is a futuristic techno fever dream that follows the adorable wide-eyed kitty Tamala on her home world of...
-
Plan 75
Directed by Chie Hayakawa • Drama • With Chieko Baishô, Hayato Isomura • 2022 • 113 minutes
In a near dystopian future, Japan’s government launches PLAN 75, a program encouraging the elderly to terminate their own lives to relieve its rapidly aging population’s social and economic burdens. In Ch...
-
Tattooed Life
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • Drama • With Hideki Takahashi, Masako Izumi • 1965 • 87 minutes
Tetsuo (Hideki Takahashi, Fighting Elegy), a low-level yakuza is double-crossed by his boss and attacked. His younger brother Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto, This Transient Life), an aspiring artist with no c...
