Release Date: July 2, 1988 Director: Haruo Ichikuraa
Length: 94 minutes Subs were done by Mashhamid
**** The below character info was carried over from the drama recaps as the main five characters were the same, did make some edits though very few.
Main Cast: What a popular long running series this has been in Japan, perhaps it has more of a following than of any other drama/movie franchise! There have been at least three seasons of this drama, a few TV specials plus eight regular movies, the last one just came out a month ago! The main five characters below each have two screenshots, the top is from the drama and the other is one from this movie. No editing was done for the characters but did add in the guest stars for this movie.
Hiroshi Tachi as Toshiki Takayama.... You'll see him referred to as Taka often in the screenshots. He's about a 35 year old man who is an investigator of serious crimes and the gangsters go out of their way to avoid him! Takayama has a bit of a 'cool persona' about him and is an ace with guns, he's the partner of Oshita but seems they didn't start working closely together until the first episode. While both are aces with guns their methods also get them in hot water with their superiors but the pair usually come out on top at the end as far as solving cases go. Below is Takayama hopping on a motorcycle, he is an ace rider.
Kyohei Shibata as Yuji Oshita.... About the same age as Takayama but looks younger. During the first episode Oshita blurted out he's got a bit of a shady past and it surprised many he became a sergeant. He knows how to pick a lock and some other methods criminals use, sure we'll find out more as time goes on. Like his new partner Takayama he is quite adept using all guns, unlike his partner Oshita isn't much of a 'people person' as Takayama is the one who often interviews witnesses, criminals or others.
Atsuko Asana as Kaoru Mayama.... Member of the Juvenile Division which shares the same office as the Investigative Unit which Takayama and Oshita are a part of. Karou has gone out to crime scenes with the detectives but they never let her get in on the real action. However she is a tough woman who used to be a regular officer and knows how to use a gun well. Beginning with the fourth season she became goofier than ever which has been annoying.
Toru Nakamura as Toru Machida.... Not a rookie but hasn't been an inspector for all that long. Machida is the best fighter in the unit and also the women swoon over him but he does have a girlfriend which he said in the first show.... that may have been a lie. Think it was for since then Toru has had such a hard time finding girls to date him though he a good looking guy. He does get taken advantage of too often by Takayama and Oshita.
Shizuo Chujo as Takuzo Kondo.... Chief of the Investigation Unit, a smart man but seems to be more concerned on what he'll be having for lunch! But at one time Kondo was feared by the Yokohama gangsters and has been on the force for thirty years. Five years ago before coming chief Kondo had killed a Yakuza thug which is one reason he's so feared. In episode 45 Kudo did shave off his mustache, in the movie he was much more stern towards Takayama and Oshita.
In the third season the roles of Yoshi and Tanaka have become much larger, will add them in for season four. In the two screenshots below Yoshi is on the left, Tanaka is right next to him.
Main guest stars, there were really just three as Ogata was killed off very early. Also making a reappearance was the Juvenile Unit leader Yuko. In the drama she disappeared after the eleventh episode but did have a minor role in the first two movies.
Yoshiko Miyazaki as Hiromi Hagiwara..... Reporter for J Planning and had been doing a feature about young businessmen. That's the excuse for a story Hiromi used to get close to Nagamine as she knew he was mixed up in very many shady activities and wanted to be the first with the major scoop. Hiromi did hook up with Takayama and Oshita, they will give her info about Nagamine and Hiromi will do the same. However that didn't help her as she was another guest star that was killed by the villain and she was quite an attractive woman.
Masato Ibu as Yukio Nagamine..... Youngish businessman and a very successful one, he owns Nagamine Industries. However besides his legal activities Nakamine is mixed up in many shady ones such as gambling, drug dealing and prostitution. Those were unknown to the public save for Hiromi and also learning about the evil ways of Nagamine were Takayama and Oshita, with them on your tail the villain's days are often numbered and that was the case for Nagamine!!!! That's him below flanked by two bodyguards.
Hiroaki Iiyama as Mitsuru Ogata.... Also a character with not a lot of screen time as he was killed by Sakuma by the twenty minute mark. But he was a key character as Takayama and Oshita had been on his trail for drug dealing and he's the person who led them to Nagamine.
Previous recaps: There's 51 episodes but they were divided into six seasons, there was no break between them. Season one was episode one to nine, second season was ten through eighteen and this third ran from the nineteenth until the 26th episode. Season four has been completed which is episodes 27 through 35, the last two seasons each had eight episodes. Know there's too many to recaps to read but have the list just in case you do and it's also for me as it's easy to go back and check any post. **** Also added in the links to the first movie that was reviewed a week before this one, both were equally good.
Couldn't find a regular trailer for this movie but this video was from the Blue Ray and it looks to be the original trailer.
The above woman is Yoshiko Miyazaki who played the role of the reporter Hiromi in the movie. She was quite popular back in the 1980's and 90's as an actress, singer, model, etc. and is still busy to this day. She was born in December 1958 which now makes her 65 in age. The above top two photos are from when she was in twenty in age, she also did a fair amount of gravure modeling. The bottom two pics are of Yoshiko when she was sixty in age and from a calendar she had that came out in 2020! I've never heard of that happening and while I do prefer older women not that old but will admit she does look good for her age and don't you always learn something in these posts?!?!
Was thinking that Sakuma doesn't want to kill Takayama and/or Oshita quite yet as it would throw suspicion upon his boss Nagamine. Takayama and Oshita had just begun investigating Nagamine and how would it look if they were killed shortly after? Sakuma's gang was waiting for Takayama at Yano's office, when he entered Takayama was roughed up and beaten, not badly but was unconscious for a while. When Takayama arose he was holding his revolver, slumped in a chair with a bullet through his heart was the lawyer Yano!!!! Never mind that but within a minute surrounding the building were at least twenty officers from the Kanagawa prefect police telling Takayama to surrender!!!! So for the second time Sakuma had trapped Takayama who is a smart man but was fooled twice. In desperation Takayama called the Minato station hoping his partner Oshita was still there. That wasn't to be but the junior investigator Machida had answered the phone, once he heard what Takayama was going through rushed to the scene. In this movie Machida was tougher than ever, when he arrived at Yano's building he began to fire at the Kanagawa police which allowed Takayama to escape. That's right above and the following day Machida did give a lame excuse to his chief Kondo why he had been firing his gun and left out the details of Takayama. Who is now wanted by the police as the bullet that killed Yano was compared to the ones from Takayama's gun and it was a perfect match!
With neither man hitting his opponent, Sakuma appeared to have an endless amount of ammo but not Oshita who was quickly down to one bullet. However Sakuma ceased firing around that time, was he out of ammo also or did he perhaps flee the abandoned building? Neither as Oshita entered a stairwell and in a huge surprise to me and Oshita Sakuma had been shot to death, obviously Nagamine had ordered his best hitman to be rubbed out but why and who did it? For the third time this was also another trap for one of the 'hero investigators' as Nagamine had notified the Kanagawa prefect police of the gun duel, they arrived and were about to arrest Oshita(!) which is all right above. But arriving to save the day was Takayama and how did he know his partner had ended up there? Guess it doesn't matter as Takayama was able to free Oshita and the pair did flee but now both are wanted by the police. Was thinking that while the pair always solve these cases many people are also killed along the way. Such as Hiromi and it seems this had to be at least the tenth time a women was killed in a movie or drama episode. Not sure if it means anything but after someone does get killed seems like they're forgotten about too quickly.
Hope this scene wasn't too confusing to understand. When I gave my grade in the intro did lower it a bit as what took place with this possible explosion and another incident were a bit unclear. If the time on the ticket is correct Takayama and Oshita only have two hours to find this bomb or whatever it is before it explodes! The pair paid a visit to Nagamine's ritzy yet barren office, he's often flanked by two bodyguards but our heroes took care of them easily enough. As Takayama and Oshita figured Nagamine was mum and said he had no clue about any movie tickets or explosions but the pair got enough clues without Nagamine realizing it and left to save the day! On Nagamine's wall had been a city map along with a huge photo of Yamashita Park, the duo were able to connect the park with the movie tickets and quickly headed there, by now there was less than an hour to go until whatever would explode. There is a major train route which cuts through the park that the military uses, it just so happens that today the massive train will be transporting a shipment through the park at 3:00 pm. So it's finally clear to Takayama, Oshita and us viewers what will be taking place, Nagamine plans to blow up a military convoy!!!! One thing wasn't too clear or perhaps I nodded off, did Nagamine just want to blow up the weapons or to possibly steal them for his gang's own use(?), I'm leaning towards the first scenario but the second would have been wiser.
The young investigator Machida didn't have a ton of screen time but he was very important to this movie. Once again he bailed out Takayama and Oshita who needed weapons and a car. Machida brought the duo to an illegal casino even they weren't aware of and the pair were stunned at the high tech weapons there. The duo grabbed a few things and quickly tore off to Yamashita Park without Machida, would they be in time to stop this train? A problem was where was this explosive, on the train or tracks or under a bridge, etc.? You can see the action above, the pair caught up to the train and Takayama being a daredevil jumped off a bridge onto the train's roof. Oshita drove the car ahead and parked it on the tracks hoping the train would stop. It wouldn't have as Takayama discovered the train driver had been knocked out so it was him that had to stop the train. Above you will see a stuffed animal, Oshita noticed that sitting on the train tracks. With only a few seconds to go that animal had to be the bomb, though some of Nagamine's henchmen were firing at him Oshita dashed to the animal, picked it up and with no time to spare threw it as far as possible. You can see in a screenshot above that the animal did have the bomb stuffed inside, with the train being just a few feet away from where the animal had been that would have been a major catastrophe!!!!
The main reason Oshita wasn't shot is because Takayama was covering him, will have to say he looked ultra cool riding that motorcycle and it was the top moment of the film. So everything is now wrapped up save for one which is nabbing Nagamine, you know he won't go down easily but he did lose his best man Sakuma when Nagamine ordered him to be killed. Takayama and Oshita arrived at this man's office, as is the case for most endings there was a gun duel but for some reason Nagamine wouldn't go down regardless of how many times he was hit. That's because he was wearing a bulletproof vest but those can only stop bullets for so long, those weapons taken from the casino were very powerful and Nagamine ended up tumbling out of his tenth story window to his death!!!! So that makes it 53 out of 53 cases that Takayama and Oshita have solved to date, of course that's 100%. But I have been noticing that even though the cases ae solved so many others get killed around Takayama and Oshita, of course criminals will but it's often innocent people too like Hiromi in this movie. The top four screenshots below are from the final minute, you can see Nagamine falling out of his office window to his death. In the final few seconds Takayama and Oshita had gone to the junk yard where their previous car was about to become scrap metal! Naturally that happens to many damaged cars but in the trunk of this one was the two million dollar bribe they had taken from Sakuma, the bills were flying all around so guess it appears our heroes would have taken that bribe but remain mum about it. Whew, this review has finally ended and thanks for reading this longish tale, did give my grade and thoughts about the film in the intro.
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