"Three Seconds Before Explosion".... Japanese movie review, part two

 

 Release Date: October 21, 1967 Length: 84 minutes.... Director: Motomu Ida

Based upon Haruhiko Oyabu's novel "Destruction Order #1, subs by Hideko92

 Did say I was going to review a few films before starting on my next drama series and almost all will be older films such as this is. I just love Japanese movies from about 1958 to 1988, the next twenty years were decent also but not as good though most were worth watching. But the movies from the last fifteen yeas have really taken a nose dive, what made films from Japan so enjoyable, interesting and unique is that they were so different than American films.

 

 But these days MONEY talks too much and just about every film has gone 'Hollywood' so I don't even bother with new films. Which is fine by me as there are so many older ones to view, even though I've seen well over a thousand that's just the tip of the iceberg and I'm looking forward to reviewing many of these older movies. The major criteria for me is that every film(98%) will be ones that I have never seen, most will be action ones from the 1960's and the early70's. However Korean movies these days are just as good as they've always been so when a newish movie is reviewed it'll probably be from Korea.

 Main Cast: The film is in color but those above two are promo pics from the Nikkatsu studio site and surprised they still had a page for this movie as it's 57 years old! Not much info there about the cast though and that's the case with every other site but least I could find who played each character. One major reason for viewing this is that it starred Akira Kobayashi and he's one of my all time fave actors. Have seen him in at least ten other films though won't be reviewing those but will still have at lest two more with him coming up. He was born in 1938 and is still a bit active even though he's 86 in age, he doesn't do acting these days but does have his own site and is very active with the world of golfing. Below is the main cast and while I did find who played who the names weren't all complete but guess that's okay as I tend to use just last names for males, first names for females to make it easier to tell them apart.

 Main Cast: These screenshots will look extremely odd and have never seen dimensions such as these. Older films tended to be 2:35x1 or 4:3, for this film the screenshots were 852x336 or about a 5:2 ratio which to me is very odd and rare. At first those dimensions were noticeable but got used to them and by the end of the movie it wasn't bothering me.  

**** Of course you'll be reading all about what took place in these posts but here's a mini synopsis on what will be taking place. After the War the Japanese government had stolen a vast amount of jewels and gold from an emerging nation called Rabaley, in turn they were stolen from the Japanese government. They're now in the hands of a man named Takashima and three groups are after the stash he has, they have four days to get. In four days the Rabaley nation will lose all rights to it, whoever has control of the jewels at the time will be the legal owners. So the hunt is on for the huge amount of jewels that are worth $30 billion, this film was made in 1967 and today the jewels and gold would be worth over.... $280 billion!!!! So in a nutshell that hunt is what will be taking place in this film, so many from 1964-67 were similar to this movie which is a combo spy and action film though most plots were different.

Akira Kobayashi as Mitsugu Yabuki.... The star of the film and a master spy/saboteur who works for the secret Internal Affairs Bureau of the Japanese government. Yabuki grew up in an orphanage and because of that was unable to land a decent job until this spy gig. His concentration is 100% towards work as he refused the advances of two attractive women in this movie, he works solo but at one time was semi-friends with the next character. Yabuki had been a boxer before joining the Internal Affairs Bureau organization, perhaps he was too skilled as he killed a man and was forced to quit the sport.

 Hideki Takahashi as Yamawaki.... Had worked at the same government organization as Yabuki, they were friends but not too close. Yamawaki had left fourteen months ago because of a woman which is a no-no for a spy, the woman is Nana and he's still dating her plus she's an undercover spy for Yamawaki. His current gig is protecting the jewels for Takashima, just four days to go before the deadline expires and can this 'ace' keep them safe?

Katsue Takaishi as Nana.... Singer at the Casba club but more importantly is an undercover spy for Yamawaki. Plus is his girlfriend and she's the reason Yamawaki left his government position. Like too many others she gets killed in the final ten minutes.

 Ryoji Hayama as Uezaki.... Head of the main gang trying to swipe the $30 billion of jewels from Takashima. Like most leaders he's a toughie giving orders but never gets his hands dirty. Uezaki's left hand man is Komiya who is both smart and ruthless. It appears that Uezaki may have have a foreign boss who is Galen, we met him in the final twenty minutes and is from Germany where he was once an ex-Nazi spy. Seems this gang also has another leader who is Tachibara who we only saw in two scenes but his name was mentioned often.

Hiroshi Nawa as Komiya.... Uezaki's main hitman but to me was much smarter than his boss and dealt with the many tense situations very coolly. Komiya is a large man but is also very agile, wasn't his fault that the gangsters failed at the end.

 Asao Uchida as Tachihara.... On the right below, (quasi)leader of Uezaki and his gang but we only saw this man in two scenes though his name was mentioned often.

Takashi Kanda as Takashima.... Head of the Sanei company which is a legal outfit and was the uncle to the deceased Yukiko. Not too much screen time for Takashima but most of the plot revolved around him as he's the one with the valuable jewels. It was never revealed how Takashima got the jewels worth $30 billion but though they're stolen if he can keep them for four more days they're his legally.

Ruriko Ito as Yukiko.... Secretary to Takashima and was also his niece. Yukiko had been kidnapped by Uezaki's gang and if Takashima wanted to see her alive again they wanted his jewels! Which he wouldn't give up and by accident Yukiko was killed by her uncle's security guards.

 Ying Lanfang as Arisa.... Spy from China who works for Uezaki and did develop a crush on him. Arisa has seduced many enemy spies, she tried her moves on Yabuki with no success. We didn't see much of her and was killed during the final scene.... she was ultra attractive!

Kazuo Kitamura as Sugiyama.... Boss of the secret Internal Affairs Bureau government organization which makes him Yabuki's superior. He was another character who we only saw in  a few scenes but he was an important man and had recruited Yabuki for his team.

 There were a few other characters but most were minor ones and it was hard finding out their real names. One was Yang who was a henchman for Uezaki, another who was slightly important was a German named Galen. He was a former Nazi spy and has somehow got mixed up with Uezaki's gang many years prior. Galen arrived in Japan on the final day of this jewel case, he's in the second screenshot while Yang is in the first.

 Was surprised there was no trailer to be found, this film is only57 years old!!!! But someone did make a two minute clip featuring a few scenes and added some subs to make it campy. It was a fun movie and to an extent this short video is too, that eerie and annoying sound right at the beginning is what we heard in the first minute of the film.

 

 As I said in part one almost all of these older films I love viewing aren't classics and there's nothing wrong with that. Most of the movies that will be reviewed are older action packed ones and to me what makes them worth watching is that all are so entertaining, fun and usually very interesting. You could check the YES box for all three categories for this film and while it could have been a bit better will give it a grade of 8.4/10, bet most films in this genre will be getting grades right around that. So if you enjoy action packed films that don't have any gore, vulgarity, drugs, sex, etc. then this is one that is recommended and to me you don't need those listed things for an enjoyable film. Will have more reviews coming up, though I've seen well over a thousand older films there's still so many more to get to and have no idea what could be up next. Most films aren't the easiest to get but all are on DVD and I have well over a thousand of those(!).... to the dismay of my wallet!

 What also helps is that most of these older films are around 85 minutes in length, you're not giving up much time to view one plus because they're shorter the action never drags. We left off with the Internal Affairs Bureau agent Yabuki infiltrating a gang run by two men named Uezaki and Komiya. Yabuki is posing as a tabloid writer who says he knows where the valuable Rabaley Jewels are stashed but he needs the help of these criminals as the jewels are well guarded by a man named Yamawaki who used to be a colleague of Yabuki's. If you're reading this have to presume you've read the above post and it is essential that you do or this review will make no sense. There's only two days left before the deadline to find the jewels expires, if they can't be stolen back from the owner of the Sanei Company Takashima he will legally own them and let's finally get to part two of this review. The goal is to have this post like the above one with only three segments, should be able to do that without leaving any key details out.

 

 Yamawaki is the person responsible for keeping the Rabaley Jewels hidden from Uezaki's gang and the government agent Yabuki. So to keep them confused Yamawaki has moved the jewels twice and is staying just a little bit ahead of his pursuers. It'll be hard to continue moving them and luckily there's only two days until the deadline expires. The Sanei Company owns a few warehouses, those are perfect places to hide things such as jewels and right above is a screenshot of them which we never saw until the one hour mark. Komiya in the top screenshot has brought Yukiko to one of the warehouses and was going to use her a a guinea pig to see if the any security was there, her uncle Takashima still won't trade any of the jewels for her release. However she was released by Komiya outside of a Sanei warehouse, Yukiko ran for the entrance screaming her uncle's name. However Yukiko was too far away to be seen properly so was shot to death by a security guard, that didn't seem to bother the uncle Takashima all that much and guess it wouldn't as protecting jewels worth $30 billion is more important. Now Komiya is certain where the jewels are but for a third time Yamawaki moved them once he deduced what the enemy had been up to releasing Yukiko. That man in the second screenshot above is named Yang who we didn't see too often, there were a lot of characters for an 84 minute movie. Yang works for Uezaki's gang but mainly stays at the Casba club and had developed a crush on Yamawaki's girlfriend/spy Nana.

Nana working at the club has been so helpful to Yamawaki as he's been able to hear when Uezaki or Komiya have learned the location of the Rabaley Jewels and can move them before the gang arrives there. Though Yamawaki just moved the jewels for a third time seems the gang has already learned of the location which was another Sanei warehouse though this one was abandoned. When Nana heard that she asked Yang to bring her there and being smitten with her Yang agreed. However it was just a trap to eliminate Yang which Yamawaki did above in the middle screenshot. He knocked out Yang and sent his car spiraling over a cliff to his death, that was done so Yang couldn't reveal the new location of the jewels to Uezaki. At the end of the first review Yabuki had infiltrated the gang of Uezaki and Komiya, he did prove he could be trusted but that didn't make his life much safer. After that raid at the Sanei warehouse failed Uezaki was ready to send Yabuki to his grave but the master spy was able to escape. That's in the bottom two screenshots above, that was another exciting scene with Yabuki who appeared to do his own stunts and he did flee safely. It happened 3-4 times in this film where Uezaki or Komiya tried to eliminate Yabuki and even after those times was greeted back by the gang which was so odd and that was due to the greed of the gangsters.

 I always explain most everything which takes place but of course not all and it's good to leave some things out in case you want to view a drama or movie. After that latest escape from Uezaki Yabuki was finally able to discover the location of the Rabaley Jewels and took a few to prove their existence. When he and Uezaki's gang had been at the Sanei warehouse earlier no jewels were to be found though it was a thorough search. But while some barrels were being moved Yabuki noticed the sound coming from them was odd, perhaps they were filled with the jewels amd gold? They were and secretly he returned alone later to the warehouse to grab a few of the gems. Yabuki had them checked out at a high class jewelry store named Arisa, that's the owner's name who was Chinese and is in some of the above screenshots. Think Yabuki knew she worked for Uezaki which was true and we also learned Arisa had such a crush on the Yakuza thug. Arisa checked the gems which were Grade A and she too was greedy so wanted some of them for herself! Who wouldn't but Arisa had an advantage over men as she was so darn attractive and in the past has seduced so many spies or criminals to get info for Uezaki. Arisa tried her seductive moves on Yabuki and for the first time in her life failed, when you're an ace spy women will always be secondary to a case!

 That deadline to grab the Rabaley Jewels from Takashima is rapidly approaching as there's now less than a day to go, the time did fly by in this movie. Arriving in Tokyo to help out was that foreign man above whose name is Galen, he's just flown in from Germany and was once as ex-Nazi spy. Not sure what his working relationship is with Tachibara or Uezaki's gang but he seems to be their leader in a way. Though not much time left until the deadline there's something more important to Galen and that's first spending some private time with a Japanese woman! Still acting as Yamawaki's spy was his girlfriend Nana and she's been able to keep him updated on most of Uezaki and Komiya's movements. She happened to be at Galen's hotel, he took an instant liking towards Nana and wanted to spend a bit of time rolling around in the sheets with her! Which Nana did not want to see happen but being a huge man Galen forced himself on her, was there no one to protect Nana? There was in a way as across the street from the hotel watching from a window was Yamawaki who had a sniper with him. When Yamawaki noticed Nana being pounced upon he ordered the sniper to shoot which he did but missed Galen though hit a gangster. In turn Galen then shot Nana and of course Yamawaki blew his fuse and rushed over but by then Galen and Uezaki's men had escaped. However his ex-colleague Yabuki was there but was of no help as Nana's wound was too severe and she ended up dying in Yamawaki's arms, as he told Yabuki above though an ace spy/guard in the end run couldn't protect his woman.

 Did zip through this second half but left out no key details, there's one scene to go and at over ten minutes was the longest of the film. The screenshots for it are the above ones and the top four below. Before leaving the hotel Yamawaki told Yabuki the Gabaley Jewels had been moved one final time which was to an abandoned US Navy fuel depot, by now it was about 4:00 pm and in two hours the deadline expires. Yamawaki rushed to the depot to help out his boss Takashima and his troops if there was one final attempt by the gangs of Uezaki and Komiya. Of course there was, Yabuki was once again in their good graces and told the thugs where the jewels were now hidden. Think that was a plan of Yamawaki's to let the gang know so he could finally eliminate them, just because the deadline is about to expire doesn't mean they would stop trying to steal the jewels worth $30 billion. The massive gang arrived at the depot and by now there's less than an hour to go, once again Yabuki got on the bad side of Uezaki and it was kind of laughable at how many times it happened. At the depot which you can see above Yamawaki had planted mines around the building but Koimya knew something like that could happen so had brought along a helicopter! In it was Yabuki who was being held hostage, he was able to jump out and somehow landed on the roof of the depot, he blew it up though most of the frame was still standing but where had his explosives come from????

 Below the depot was the storage space for the fuel which was about a hundred feet down and stretched out into the ocean, that's where the barrels containing the precious jewels were hidden. Finally the gang was able to storm the depot and with them had been Arisa, she was shot dead later on by Uezaki and all three women in the movie were killed because of his gang. Yabuki had once again been taken hostage even though he helped the gang out by blowing the building up and allowing them to enter. Many of Takashima's henchmen had been killed in the attack but of course Yamawaki wasn't and he was able to free his old mate Yabuki. At this time there was less than three minutes to go until the deadline for the Yabaley Jewels expired and Yabuki told Yamawaki the pair better escape.... NOW! For before Yabuki had been tied up he set up explosives in the barrels containing the jewels and also bars of gold, it would go off at exactly 6:00 pm or in three minutes! So the pair were able to escape but not Uezaki, Komiya and their gang along with the owner of the jewels Takashima, as you can see above the underwater fortress was blown sky high! So that meant the jewels and gold were also destroyed so in the end run no one was able to legally own the Rabaley Jewels. There was only a minute to go in the film by now, Yabuki had a brief meeting with his leader Sugiyama and it appeared he had ideas of quitting. In the fourth screenshot below you can see that as the film ended Yabuki was holding a letter of resignation but as the film came to it's conclusion he tore it up. Perhaps that was because some sequels were planned but they never happened. So that ends this review and while not a must watch film I enjoyed it and think some better ones will be coming up though not sure what's next at this point. There's plenty of screenshots below from the film's second half to make it easier to see what took place.