"Blood for Blood" 1971 movie review, part one

 

 Release Date: June 10, 1971   Length: 86 minutes    Director: Yasuhara Hasebe

Writer: Hideichi Nagahara  Subs done by Mashhamid .... also goes by the titles of Bloody Conflict and Bloody Feud.

 If you look at the sky tonight and see a shortage of Stars don't fret.... most were in this movie!!!! Nikkatsu, along with perhaps Toei, was and perhaps still is the biggest studio in Japan and especially for movies. From about 1955 until 1972 no studio released more action films and bet over 80% of the movies I review came from Nikkatsu. But in the early 70's action and Yakuza film weren't as popular so they switched to doing Pinku films for quite a long time, most of those were decent but after a while became a bit tiring.  EDIT: Many other studios specialized in certain genres such as TOHO being the king of horror and sci-fi flicks. Those are my faves so think that's what you may be seeing next. So as mentioned before bet 90+% of the films I'll be reviewing will be before 1972 and still wonder are there any old movie fans that visit here? But I'm only reviewing a small percent of the films I view, perhaps one of three or four that I watch and most will be ones I had never seen before. The director Yasuharu Hasebe was another who was very noted, have seen many of his films but guiltily my faves from are the four he directed in the "Stray Cat Rock" movie series.

 Main Cast: Did make a wry comment about Stars above and this film certainly had many of my faves from that era. But all in all think every film reviewed over the last few weeks topped this film but often when I write a review up seem to enjoy it more as it's almost like viewing a film for the second time. A little lower down and in the next post will give more thoughts on the positives and negatives, there really were no negatives but just thought this movie would be better as the cast was so strong. Of course will explain the entire story in this and the next post, here's a quickie synopsis on what to expect. The location is the fictional K City which I think wasn't too far from Tokyo as it was an easy drive there. K City is a booming town with much construction going on plus many new businesses and factories opening up. There's two Yakuza gangs that control the streets of K City who are the clans Akiba and Shimura.

 Though Yakuza gangs they don't seem to be as tough as ones from Tokyo and do treat everyone fairly though of course their 'services' do require much protection $$. There's two gangs from Tokyo who have been noticing the boom in K City and want in on the action, those clans are Seishinkai and Udagawa. When neither gang gets their way the only solution to them is violence and blackmail, soon both of the existing K City Yakuza gangs were at war with their new rivals. There was plenty of backstabbing and deceit by these two newcomers but by the end of the film it appeared there was no one left alive from any of the four gangs!!!! 

Jo Shishido as Naoto Tezuka.... One of my all time fave actors and check out his sideburns in this film! Tezuka has just been released from  prison after serving a five year sentence but for what? That was never revealed but five years for killing someone seems the most logical guess. When his boss of the Akiba gang was murdered early on Tezuka took control of the Yakuza clan based in K City. He was a ladies man as Tezuka had a relationship with both Masae and Junko over five years prior though neither worked out.

Masaru Saito as Hiroshi Yoshinaga.... He also had a large role in the drama that I recently recapped which was "Akai Meiro" and he played a prosecutor. Yoshinaga was good friends with Tezuka though both were in different K City gangs. Yoshinaga seemed to be the leader of the Shimura clan but think it was because we never saw the main boss. He's the brother of the below woman and did buy her a diner though the two are estranged.

 Meiko Kaji as Masae Yoshinaga.... My #1 actress of all time and think this now makes it 25 movies I've seen her in! However was disappointed her role wasn't larger or more meaty as she is excellent in action roles. She is the sister of the above man, Masae had been in Tokyo for many years but returned to K City when Tezuka was released from prison. The pair once had a fling but that ended so many years ago though Masae still seems to have the hots for him. She operates a diner that her brother purchased upon her return to K City.

Tatsuya Fuko as Koji Ozawa.... Another big star who is still acting to this day and so isn't Meiko, both were so superb in the "Stray Cat Rock" series. Ozawa is a member of the Akiba gang and seemed to be up there as far as ranking goes. He was close to Tezuka and missed him so badly while he was in prison.

Ryohei Uchida as Goro Hoshino: One of the main leaders of the Seishinkai gang from Tokyo, what a conniving, slippery weasel he was! There will be much about Hoshino in the review and he's so underhanded it's hard to list all of the cruel things he did!

Hajime Mitamura as Kyuzo Matsuzawa.... Son-in-law of the Akiba leader and was married to the below woman. Bit of a wimpy man and father in-law allowed the Seishinkai gang to hold Kyuzo as a hostage while some wheeling and dealing was going on. He was killed by the rival Yakuza group 2/3's of the way through though it was made to look like a suicide. For all that Kyuzo was only in a few scenes.

 Yasuko Sanjo as Junko Matsuzawa.... Like her above husband she didn't have much screen time, she recently gave birth to their first son. Before Tezuka went to prison five years ago he was head over heels for Junko, would they have gotten married if not for that prison sentence? Hard to say as Junko did despise the Yakuza life despite her father being the leader of the Akiba clan

Kenjiro Uemura as Akiba.... Obviously the leader of the Akiba Yakuza clan based in K City, though a gangster was a decent man who was killed at about the twenty minute mark of the film. He was the father of Junko who married a member of her father's clan but it appeared Akiba didn't think too highly of his son-in-law.

Jotaro Togami as Shinjiro Komine.... Leader of the Seishinkai clan who are based in Tokyo but trying to take over K City. What a devilish man Komine was though not as bad as his second in command Hoshino, both got their just dues at the end.

Akiyoshi Fukae as Arai.... From the Udagawa gang who are also from Tokyo and trying to gain a foothold in K City. Arai wasn't the gang leader, we never met that person nor anyone else from the gang except for him. While it wasn't a large role his death was very key to the story.

Toru Tamura as Tetsu.... Not 100% sure this is the man that played Tetsu but looked at the ages of the cast and think I figured it out. Tetsu was the youngest of the Akiba clan and had been used badly by Hoshino. Testu for so long wouldn't reveal Hoshino had killed his main boss Akiba which ended up resulting in two more of his mates dying. Plus later on Hoshino convinced Tetsu that the above man Arai was against the Akiba clan which wasn't true.

 As is the case for most movies there were a few other characters but none were all that important nor were their roles large. One thing I have not had good luck with is finding trailers for these films. It is true they are over fifty years old but most other films have trailers or at least some sort of videos that have highlights, there's sadly ZERO for this movie. But as mentioned do watch many films and only have reviews for about a third of those so how about a video for a superb movie that won't be reviewed?  There's no trailer for this film either but the video is about three minutes and has some highlights from the 1967 film "A Colt is my Passport". Jo Shishido also had the lead role in that and in my opinion it's his best movie, I recommend this film so highly and have viewed it at least 25 times, probably more. Though it came out in 1967 it was filmed in black and white which to me is a positive as it gives movies that 'noir' vibe.

 

 Let's finally get to the meat of this post which is the movie though that section above is hard to beat for info. None of these older films from about 1960-72 will probably ever get a 9/10 or above for a grade but the above one would easily. However none will get lower than a 8/10 but this one didn't get much higher than that though it was a decent film, maybe when I write this up my opinion will change a bit. What may hurt some films is doing too many reviews as anyone can get tired of doing anything even if it's something enjoyable. So was thinking will have two more movie reviews then switch to a 1966 drama for about a week. Then back to films, back to the drama and so on for a while as not to get tired of either one. No big deal how it all pans out but to me the biggest positive is that I've gone back to viewing these very older film and had gotten out of that for no good reason.

 Most of what will take place in the movie and this review is above though of course the info there is just the tip of the iceberg. Did say there were no major negatives about this film which is true and the next post will have my final thoughts about this film that was good but could have been better. This was an 86 minute movie and back then the credits didn't take up too much time as the movie went right to the end and had no ending credits. What hurt the movie in my opinion was it's sluggish start, not that it was boring but not much took place in the first 25 minutes. That is normal for films as to set things up but for an action/Yakuza movie it doesn't always work out so well. **** The location of this movie is the fictional place of K City which doesn't appear to be all that far from Tokyo. There weren't a huge amount of outdoor scenes and probably because the shooting location was Tokyo but that had nothing to do with the story. My fave part of writing these posts up is the part from here on up and wonder how it would work out if I stopped here, gave a grade and posted a hundred screenshots? Have no clue and perhaps one day as an experiment will try that, enough of my inane blabbering and on to this action/Yakuza film that was released in 1971.

 In the early 1970's many Japanese cities were booming with new office buildings, factories and such an overall growth in the economy though it wasn't like the later bubble which did burst. K City was a place that was experiencing a huge boom and like other cities of course the Yakuza were a presence. In K City the two gangs that controlled the streets among many other things were named Akiba and Shimura. But unlike other cities where the gangs were ruthless these two clans were fair towards the citizens, of course they made money from protections, gambling and drugs but weren't known for their violence. Both gangs could have made more $$ but it appears all of the gang's members had gown up in K City and perhaps they did take pride in that. However K City isn't too far from Tokyo, some huge Yakuza clans there know a massive amount of money could be made in this boom town and want their share! That does sum up most of the story and the movie began off with the top screenshot where a member from a Tokyo gangster group was caught on Akiba turf and it appeared he was trying to rough up some of the honest people. 

 

 This unknown man had been sent by the Udagawa group, that Yakuza clan was so important to the story yet we only met one of their gangsters. This unknown man was questioned to no avail and during that time arriving on the scene was the man in the third screenshot who introduced himself as Hoshino. We will be seeing much of this devious gangster who is part of the Tokyo clan Seishinkai and told the Akiba exec Ozawa in the second screenshot about this man. Ozawa now wants to know who this Hoshino character is, how dare he waltz right into the Akiba HQ! Hoshino explained to Ozawa about the Udagawa clan and felt it was very important to meet with the Akiba leader. Who of course is named Akiba and that's him in the second screenshot above. Ozawa was against this meeting but Akiba said not to worry as these newbies wouldn't try anything inane. The leader of the Seishinkai clan is Komine who is in the screenshot just below Akiba. This first meeting was a bit short as Komine just told Akiba to watch out for this Udagawa gang who want to take over K City! That was a bunch of bull for Komine wanted to gain the trust of Akiba and take over the city for himself, so much more about that coming up. In the second to last screenshot above is the hero of the movie and we didn't meet him until almost the ten minute mark. His name is Naoto Tezuka who is the second in command of the Akiba clan, he was just released from prison after serving a five year sentence and have to presume it was for murder. The man in the screenshot after is Tezuka's best mate who just so happens to be a high ranking official of the Shimura clan, his name is Hiroshi Yoshinaga.

 The first two paragraphs are often the longest as I like to give as much info about the characters and main stories. The Akiba and Shimura gangs may be rivals but just on paper as both respect each other and never have any battles, Tezuka and Yoshinaga are even sworn brothers. The pair met up for the first time in five years and both are worried about these new Yakuza gangs from Tokyo trying to overthrow them and take over K City. Tezuka's Akiba clan is being targeted by the Udagawa clan according to Hoshino while Yoshinaga's gang Shimura is the prey of the Seishinkai family. That is what everyone is thinking but the real truth is the Seishinkai group are planning on taking over K City for themselves and will be using the gangs against each other, they were successful in doing that. There was a skirmish on Akiba turf involving some Udagawa men but that was quickly cleared up thanks to the man in the third screenshot above. His name is Arai and is a Udagawa executive, he's the only member of the clan who we saw and we never did learn who their leader was. Arai cleared the air with Tezuka who had arrived and was itching for a fight, Arai assured him his gang made a mistake and wanted no trouble with the Akiba clan which was the truth. While it was true the Udagawa gang did want a piece of K City Arai did seem honorable and thought because the city will be growing so much larger having Udagawa as their partners would be so beneficial to the Akiba clan which to me made sense.

 But of course being partners and peaceful was not the aim of the Seishinkai gangsters and the worse of the bunch is Hoshino. There was a second meeting with the leaders Komine and Akiba, Komine said the situation was becoming very intense and wanted Akiba to do something which I'm surprised he agreed to. Which was to let the Seishinkai gang hold Akiba's son in-law Matsuzawa as a hostage until things calm down and the Akiba group agree to certain conditions, if Tezuka was there there was no way that would have happened. So Matsuzawa is now a hostage and his wife Junko just had their first son two months ago so why would Akiba agree to that? Perhaps this is the first time Akiba's Yakuza clan had been in a situation like this as controlling K-City along with the Shimura group has been a piece of cake up until now. After Tezuka heard about Matsuzawa being held hostage he rushed to meet with Hoshino and would even agree to switch places with Matsuzawa. Hoshino turned that offer down which was a mistake, perhaps he didn't realize how powerful Tezuka could be for he had just come out of prison. Akiba's daughter Junko was married to Matsuzawa, the pair recently had their first son and it was time for his first baptism at a temple. With many gang members now in K City Akiba felt it was too dangerous for Junko to be out, he went with the group's youngest member Tetsu to have the rite performed at the local temple. That rite went well but while leaving the pair were jumped by a small group of Seishinkai men led by Hoshino who stabbed Akiba to death!!!! Tetsu had been holding the baby and he was safe, Hoshino somehow convinced Testu not to tell his mates who the real killer was and that it was a member of the Shimura gang!

 Tetsu always put the best intentions of his Akiba group first but hard to believe a twenty year old could be so naive and gullible. After killing the leader Akiba Hoshino was able to convince Tetsu to tell the Akiba clan that it had been the work of the Shimura gang and somehow Tetsu went long with that plan. This was the beginning of Hoshino's plans to get the gangs fighting against each other and for a long time it did work. Hoshino would soon convince Tetsu to do something else dastardly for him which was even worse, these two incidents sadly cost the lives of so many of Akiba and Shimura members. Hoshino paid a visit to Akiba's funeral and told Tezuka the Shimura group had joined forces with the Udagawa clan, does the about-to-be new leader of the Akiba's want the help of the Seishinkai group? NO was Tezuka's reply as he doesn't trust Hoshino at all and who can blame him? No one and Hoshino seemed to think that Tezuka was a bit of a coward which was far from the truth but that did make Hoshino think of another plan to use Tetsu. Hoshino was able to convince him that the Udagawa member Arai had come to K-City to spy on the Akiba clan group and that Tezuka may be next on his hit list! Of courser that was all a lot of BS but Tetsu fell for that story easily, he went to the hotel Arai was staying at and stabbed this peaceful man to death! So now two main leaders have been killed in such a short amount of time, is there about to be a gang war beginning in K-City?

 Tezuka did meet up with his old friend Yoshinaga of the Shimura clan, Tezuka was so irate that someone from his gang had killed Akiba. But of course that never happened as it was Hoshino who stabbed Akiba to death, Yoshinaga tried telling his friend Tezuka his clan was innocent but that was to no avail. However Yoshinaga had no clue on what truly did take place, his goal right now is to find out the truth which won't happen until the next recap. There's now two gangs plus the K City police on the hunt for Tetsu because of Arai's murder and a little common sense by Tetsu would have prevented a possible WWIII. For now Tezuka is hiding out Tetsu on the second floor of Masae's restaurant and this is the first time mentioning her. Masae is the younger sister of Yoshinaga, they're not that close but he did buy his sister this eatery when she returned to K City. Masae had gone to Tokyo when Tezuka was sentenced to prison, when she heard he was about to be released returned back home. They were a couple for a while but I wonder how close they were for Tezuka also had eyes for his bosses' daughter Junko and it seemed he liked her much more but prison put an end to all of his romances. For now Tetsu is safe above Masae's restaurant but as Tetsu was told by Ozawa doesn't he realize the damage he's caused and how could he have been duped to kill Arai so easily? However Ozawa nor anyone didn't know the true story yet of what really took place with their leader Akiba, that will be in the next recap. This first one will end now and the above two screenshots plus the bottom ones below are how this will end with the Yakuza gangs about to go to war with each other! To see if that happened check out the next post and I thought the second half of the movie was much better.