Nao Kanzaki: My current watches for September #4....

 

 Beginning this on September 23rd and hope it can be completed by the 29th(it was!), I always take the final day of a month off. I revived this series exactly a year ago and have had forty of these posts in that time though thought the series would only last 3-4 months. But these posts have become slightly popular and have a feeling a few viewers are curious about what I've recently watched, most of the time the movies are ancient ones in B&W which I've never viewed. As of now have watched an American TV series and it's become the norm to begin off with one as I've bought so many boxsets but only one in the last five months. Have watched one movie and for a change it's a newer one from 2008, it was the first of a trilogy and seeing as how the set of three films was just $5 thought what did I have to lose? Nothing at all as the first movie was much, much better than I had expected, sure many of you have seen this horror/sci-fi film which I'll discuss further on down. Think I know what the second film will be which is a Japanese one from 1973 and that too looks to be mighty good. For now have no clue what the final movie will be but it will be a foreign one.

 Use this space often to talk about favorites who have disappeared for such a long stretch and sadly the leader of that pack is Haruka! Who I adore to no end and have for a decade, she was an HKT favorite of mine even before her surgery which she hadn't been using to her advantage. With you readers Haruka is a massive Superstar and know you've been missing her so much but there hasn't been anything I could do about that. But the Gods above have heard our weeping and in such a shocker it was announced ten days ago Haruka would be releasing her fourth photobook on November 26th, thanks to a commentor for that tip. That is such fabulous news so there should be a few posts for her coming up but probably not until the second half of October. As many know back in 2021/22 Haruka did have some surgery done, she went from being very Hot to Hotter than the Sun! But then in 2024 she backed off from most activities such as acting and don't think she had new books or magazine spreads last year. Which to me is such a waste as Haruka did spend some good money on her enhancement and you'd think she would have been busier than ever which didn't happen, more on her coming up next month.

 Seeing as how there's been 3-4 of these posts a month there's no women left who have pulled a Houdini act lately and vanished without a trace which is a good thing so there's none of them to talk about. Coming up soon will be the twelfth yearly faves list and the countdown begins right after December 1st. The list has always contained ten to twenty women, it all depends on how many qualify. For many years it was six posts and until 2023 usually 28 to 32 had six or more posts but as you know it's getting harder these days. So now have a new rule with five posts needed to be eligible for the yearly list, in 2025 seventeen qualified and this year it may increase to twenty! The amount of posts have stabilized this year and actually there's been an increase for my favorites, so if twenty are eligible the list will have a dozen women. Think I have a fairly good idea already who #1 will be for this year who is right below, when the first list was done way back in 2014 Masami Nagasawa was my first Queen of the year and what a massive favorite of mine she was for about a decade.

 One very big positive about the potential twenty who may qualify for the list is that it'll be the first time for at least three women. For the most part can't see myself introducing anyone new and the three are women who have had posts for a little while but never five or more in a year. Such as Yuria and in all honesty if she could have been averaging six to eight posts a year she'd be in the running to be my all time #1 Queen! She had close to ten total posts until 2020 and then disappeared for a while. Yuria had retired for a few years due to health issues but made a return in 2022 though until this year did only 3-4 more posts. But she did have a post a month from January to April and did say she was my number one woman of the year up until then! But I knew the posts for Yuria would come crawling to a halt and she still needs one post to be eligible which I will make sure happens. Even though many will have double the amount of Yuria's posts she'll still have a higher spot on the list than they will, eight out of the twenty will not make the list! Another favorite who needs one post is Nagi from Nogi, she will have that post soon and if she remains somewhat busy in the future she'll make the top ten every year as long as I keep blogging....

 Wrote the above up on the 23rd, it's now the next day and did view a pair of films like I mentioned. The first was a Japanese film from 1973, I had been in a slump picking good films that I hadn't viewed but that choice was a grand slam and may be even better than the American movie I watched. But the other was only so-so and think I'll pass on reviewing it, I only do those mini reviews for about half the films I watch so the three movies I usually have are the best of the six to eight I watched. The movie was a British one from 1955 titled "The Quartermass Xperiment" and it should have been a film that I enjoyed. The movies I enjoy the most are older ones from the 1950's/60's that are in B&W plus have either a horror or sci-fi story. That movie checked all those boxes and for the first fifty of the 82 minutes it was a fine film but kind of limped to the finish line so I was a bit disappointed with it. But then again I was a bit confused about some things plus I was a bit tired for it was the second film I had watched in a night so I will view it again in a few weeks and will do a mini review on it then. There was a remake in 1967 and that too looks good so wonder if I should have reviews for both films in one post?

 The format for these posts has been one I've been comfortable with and have been using it for most of this year. Which is of leading off with some of my favorite Japanese gals, then taking a look at a (half) season of an American TV show and then ending off with a trio of film reviews, sometimes also add in a bonus section featuring an actress. Might be wise to do some gradual changes and think I'll do a minor one for today. As I said won't be reviewing that British film so what should end off the post(?), try to have a movie from three different countries. But won't for today and will end off with a second Japanese movie which is the change but not of having two movies from Japan. The change will be that the film will the first of an ongoing movie series from 1968-71 and am planning on having one movie a post for the next two months. There's eight films in the "Red Peony Gambler" movie series, about seven years ago bought the first four films at an excellent American site for Japanese films. Which has closed down and what a shame as their DVD's were inexpensive plus their service was terrific, their main reason was too many movie viewers these days stream them so I feel like a Dinosaur! I've finally obtained the other four movies in the series and am looking forward to them so thought a good idea would be to have reviews for the first movie all the way to the eighth which means one review for the next eight posts! That idea popped into my head after deciding not to review that British movie, that's the minor change for today and let's finally get on with my recent watches..... these intros keep getting longer and longer and....

 Not sure why I keep doing posts for this classic series, probably because it's my all time #1 TV show and do wonder if anyone else reading this has seen it? I had heard of "Gunsmoke" but didn't know much except it was the longest running Western to air on TV but had always thought it was a bit of a fluffy show. I was so wrong with those thoughts as what an intense and action packed series this has been, I took a huge chance with buying the above $175 boxset as it was on whim and did I luck out! That is a lot of money for a DVD boxset but when you look at what in contains it's actually a bargain! The set has 143 discs and is quite heavy(!), those discs contain 635 episodes that are 440 hours in length plus there's quite a few special features in the last two of six sets in the box. This series ran for twenty years, 1955-75, and can understand why it wouldn't appeal to most of you viewers but of all 2,000 DVD's I've purchased this boxset is my pride and joy!

 Am currently halfway through the eleventh season which has 32 episodes, the first ten seasons averaged 37 episodes but as time went on TV series became much shorter. Have watched up to the 393rd episode so there's 242 more to go, am trying to stretch this out for as long as I can. Finished up season ten in August and have been doing a season every other month, said I would be viewing season eleven in October. But want to devote that month to Horror movies and TV series so watched this a bit earlier than planned, will take a break and view part two of this season at the beginning of November. For four early seasons "Gunsmoke" was the top rated TV show but as time went on those ratings slipped, seasons ten to twelve had an average position of 30th in the rankings but then it rebounded and finished in the top ten five more times. I don't know why the ratings dropped as so far this has been my favorite of all the seasons and all sixteen episodes to date has been a huge winner! This aired at 10:00 pm on Saturday nights so wonder if that was a reason for the ratings drop as so many of the young folk are out and in 1965/66 is when Rock and Roll became the most dominant kind of entertainment. As mentioned this series does feature a lot of action and this season was more suspenseful than any other plus the stories and writing were all top notch. One major positive is the stability of that cast, one major character named Chester Goode(Dennis Weaver) left during the ninth season but all the others have stayed around such as the biggest star James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon. But in this season the other character's roles became larger and more important such as Doc Adams(Milburn Stone) and Festus Haggen(Ken Curtis) plus the guest stars were all superb and many became stars later on.

 So not much more I can say about this epic TV Western and think this is the sixth post I've talked about the show so if you're interested in it those other posts have so much more info. The setting was Dodge City in Kansas, the time is currently 1875 and it seems that hasn't changed since season one yet at the Boot Hill Cemetery you see gravestones with dates from the early 1880's!!!! This classic was the first ever Western series I watched though had seen Clint Eastwood's terrific 1960's movies. Watching this has led me into viewing a few other Westerns such as "Have Gun, Will Travel" which is so terrific and talked about it in one of these posts. Another series I got was "Rawhide" and did watch the first season which I did enjoy but that was a year ago so need to start on it again. That was a long running series that aired for seven seasons and had 217 episodes so a goal of mine is to begin on it again before the end of the year. In this eleventh season of "Gunsmoke" the opening scene where Marshal Dillon was in a duel finally changed as it had been the same for ten seasons, the main cast were introduced after the first scene and before this season it happened during the ending credits. After these pics is a mellower scene from this season which was the final one to be aired in B&W so seeing everyone in color will be such a shock to me!

 

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 It's become the norm to have a mini section for Miss Kitty Russell whenever I have a section for "Gunsmoke". Didn't mention Miss Kitty above and she was an extremely important character who owned the Long Branch Saloon, a woman owning such a place was so rare back in the 1870's. Many viewers always wondered if anything had been going on between Kitty and Marshal Dillon, there was in the radio show which inspired this TV series. But there was no romance in this show though deep down the pair really seemed to love each other but glad nothing happened as sometimes a romance can bog a show down. Kitty was one sharp looker and had such a fashion sense but was also such a tough woman who got into a few scraps in this eleventh season and was also kidnapped!

 Playing Kitty was Amanda Blake and I've said numerous times how she's so close to being my #1 looking American woman! As you can see Amanda had such a figure but the 1950's/60's was a much more conservative era for movies and TV shows so of course we never saw her lounging at the pool in "Gunsmoke"! Amanda had such an interesting life but also a sad one too and died at an early age which was sixty in 1989, besides talking about her "Gunsmoke" role will also be having a review of a 1953 movie Amanda had the lead role in. Above said that for the first eleven seasons the show aired in B&W, the twelfth will be in color and that's going to be such a shock to me as by then 410 episodes will have aired. Up until now have only had photos of Amanda in B&W for that reason so below are the first color pics I've had of her and as I've said before what a forgotten ultra beauty she was!!!! After the dazzling photos is a short clip from the show and it does have some examples on why I think Amanda was just so darn attractive and alluring.... where else can you find a Blog post that features Amanda Blake and J-Pop Idols?!!!!

 

 

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 If you've been reading these "My Current Watches" posts for a while you know how much I love movies from before 1980 with my favorites being from Japan but also many other countries. Of course America is one of them and there's so many from 1940-80 that I've never seen so there's been no need to view modern movies, when I do most of the time I've been so disappointed with them. But for the first time in eons may have lucked out with a newish movie which I had never heard of but sure most of you readers have. The top two pics above are the mini set I recently bought of the three "Cloverfield" movies, today's review is for the first film and that's the title of it. That three movie set was only $5(!) and how can you go wrong with such a cheap price for three films? Didn't go wrong as the first movie was so terrific and if the others are even just so-so think I came way ahead with this purchase. The three movies add up to be 285 minutes in length plus there's so many special features, the first movie had almost an hour of them! Next month will view the other two and I've lucked out with a few other cheapie boxsets such as the seven film "Conjuring" series and that was only $15, reviewed most of those films a year ago. Another inexpensive series was for the first six "Final Destination" movies as that was only $13 and waiting for prices to drop has worked out. There's one I haven't bought yet but am so close to doing so is the "Paranormal Activities" set which has eight movies and I tend to favor movie series over stand alone films. 

 EDIT: Two days after writing the above up did purchase that boxset and once again I'm pleased with a new American film! There's an order to watching the "Paranormal Activities" films, start with the third, then the second and the first will be the third watch. Viewed that first movie which was so tremendous even though it was kind of slow but I did jump twice and the creepiness level was sky high! Unsure how I will review the films or even if I will but did have an excellent start to the eight movie series.

 There are quite a few reviews out there so no need to give you a vast amount of spoilers, those reviews are mixed but more tended to be positive. What an unexpected surprise "Cloverfield" was and the film came out in 2008. Above are a few photos of the monster who we only saw briefly on and off for the first 80% of the movie, it was never given a name and stands over 300 feet high. Going in didn't know one of the main cast and even after watching it still don't! It was an 84 minute film which is a perfect length though my one major complaint is that the credits at the end ran for eight minutes! Which I think is common these days and how annoying those are, least on a DVD you can hit the FF button but can't understand why hundreds of names need to be listed? This was a 'found footage' film and I like that genre with my favorite being the "Blair Witch Project" and I need to rewatch that for the tenth time. The footage found on the camcorder was filmed at two different times, the first was from April 27th when the main lead Rob Hawkins(Michael Stahl-David) and his long time female friend Beth McIntyre(Odette Yustman) spent their first night together. Also on that tape was of the pair spending the day on Coney Island, the rest of the film takes place in Manhattan on the night of May 22nd into the morning of the 23rd. A party was being thrown for Rob by his brother Jason Hawkins(Mike Vogel) and his girlfriend Lily Ford(Jessica Lucas) and what a bash it was as over fifty were in attendance. The occasion was for Rob's new promotion at his job where he would be moving to Japan soon and Jason was also going to film the entire evening on his camcorder. But he couldn't do that as he was the party's host so enlisted the aid of Rob's best friend Hud Platt(TJ Miller) to do the filming so we didn't see much of Hud's face but may have heard his voice more than any other character. When Rob saw his best buddy filming he had a minor breakdown as he had a correct assumption that Jason hadn't changed the film which contained that footage of him and Beth who is right below.

                                        

 It had been close to a month since the pair had spent the night and day together, never once did Rob call Beth so she brought her own date to his farewell party, the man on the right in the below screenshot. The party was a success though Rob was a bit down after seeing Beth with another man, the pair had some words and she left soon after but that was the only downer to the evening. Wellllllll(!!!!), things would quickly get much worse as the entire building began to shake shortly after 10:00 pm, was it an earthquake? The news stations said it was and had added in that an oiler tanker was sinking off the southern coast of Manhattan, the party zoomed up to the roof to possibly see that. However that didn't last long for they noticed the entire city was beginning to burn, a mad dash was made to the streets which were soon swamped with out of control frantic citizens. My favorite part may have been then, a huge explosion took place and of all things the head of the Statue of Liberty was thrown sky high and in the second screenshot below ended up a hundred feet from Rob and the party goers. As bad as the situation was it became instantly worse, it was no earthquake nor a terrorist attack so what was the reason for Manhattan burning to the ground along with it's buildings? There's some pics above and below of the reason which was of a gigantic creature roaming the streets, we never got a good look at it until the end and neither did the survivors of Rob's party. Who had dwindled from about fifty to five, one of those killed was Rob's brother Jason when he was trying to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, his girlfriend Lily escaped with Rob and that's her on the left in the first screenshot. Also surviving was the cameraman Hud and another partygoer Marlena Diamond(Lizzy Caplan), that makes four and the fifth will be Beth as Rob's mission was to find her as she didn't live too far away in Manhattan.

 Final paragraph and there's enough reviews out there about this action packed and very intense film. The very long scene(s) of Rob and his mates on the hunt for Beth were so nail biting, I was on the edge of my seat and that 20 or so minute scene worth the price of admission! Staying above ground would be like signing your own death warrant so the quartet traveled via the no-longer-running subway line to reach Beth's pad, there were some truly cover your eyes moments then! Such as when the tracks were swarming with hungry rats and as the special features showed those were live ones!!!! Plus we saw that massive creature had some much smaller offspring who attacked the group, one bit Marlena who I really liked and about an hour later she died because of the bite. At the time the group made it to the end of the tunnel and the Army was there, they told Rob evacuation copters were leaving at 6:00 am but first he had to get his love Beth. That too was a cool scene and mainly because her building was leaning at a thirty degree angle against another high rise! But she was saved and the quartet of Rob, Beth, Lily and the cameraman Hud made it in time to the copter pad. However in mid air the creature knocked it to the ground in Central Park, that resulted in Lily dying and soon after the 300 foot creature had Hud for dinner! We were now down to a minute or so to go, in the bottom screenshot Rob and Beth gave a final recap of what took place and the movie was of the camcorder's footage that was found months later(?). Rushed through the ending but did give most of the key details and hate to give away too many spoilers. As mentioned I tend to stay away from newer movies because most are not that good, I'll always prefer movies prior to the year 1980. But this was an exception as this was the best horror/sci-fi movie I've seen in quite a while, the final forty minutes were so intense and action packed as I truly was on the edge of my seat! So will give this movie a very high recommendation and next month will view the two sequels, have no clue if the three films are connected and after these movie photos is a trailer for the film.

 

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 First of two Japanese film reviews and haven't done that for a while. Some years ago an internet buddy of mine was talking about how small of an acting community it was years ago in Japan as you would see so many actors in seemingly every movie. After that I did begin to notice that more and more so my friend was correct and it wasn't a negative comment, these days the opposite has been taking place. There were at least three in this 1973 movie that were also in the movie review after this one, where it's very common to see the same cast is in Yakuza films. Which this movie was and before I forget the title is "Internal Sleuth", as said it's from 1973 and that was the heyday for these gangster vs. cops movies. Bet I've seen over a hundred of those from that period and surprisingly all have been quite good with one reason being the stories are usually different. Speaking of different this movie starred the below man who you will see in many more screenshots, his name is Tomisaburo Wakayama who was a very popular actor. I had never seen him in one of these modern day Yakuza flicks plus had never seen him play such a hardboiled, violent man. Wakayama had a medium sized role in the next film where he plays a goofy Yakuza leader from about 1900. But Wakayama did star in many Samurai films so of course we saw him in many duels but I've never seen him play such a brutal man which he pulled off superbly and at times his character did need to be that way, on to the three paragraph review. When I began this "My Current Watches" series a year ago it was to have mini reviews so set a limit of four paragraphs which has worked out well. But at times do need to rush through them for I've gotten into the habit of using the first to talk about the cast, add in some trivia facts and some other tidbits which to me are sometimes better than the review. 

 Wakayama plays the gritty though at times soft hearted detective Akio Okumura, he's about forty in age and married to a woman named Kayo. The pair have no children and you could tell how much they care for each other, at the end Okumura was ready to give up his life for her! The main storyline(s) revolve around the newish and ruthless Yakuza clan Seijin-kai, the first major scene involved a trio of their members illegally buying 150 guns at an American Army base. When the thugs left in their car they were stopped by a pair of Japanese security guards who had been suspicious of this departing car and rightfully so. But the pair shouldn't have done their jobs as both were shot to death, one by the driver and the other by the backseat passenger. Who was very key to the story, the gangster's name was Sugiyama who was played by a very young Kenji Ishibashi. Sugiyama had no morals and would gun down a few more before he was nabbed, it didn't matter if they were cops or fellow gangsters! Soon on the case to find the 150 guns and the killers of the two guards was the quasi hero of this movie Akio Okumura(Wakayama). He's also training the below man Kato(Hiroshi Sekiguchi) who was so gung-ho about justice but being so back in those times often meant an early death which happened to the likable Kato! Okumura also wants justice at any costs and even though he's friends with some Yakuza thugs he's never taken a bribe nor works for any gang. However there is a detective at his Tokyo precinct who is under the control of the Seijin-kai gang and he's in the second screenshot below. His name is Takimoto and to give away a spoiler he was a mole for the gang, that would end up costing Kato his life which also almost happened with Okumura who had been friends with Takimoto for over a decade so never suspected a thing until the very end of the movie.

 In the first screenshot below Okumura is talking with a man named Miyagawa, the leader of the Hashida gang whose influence has been shrinking due to the Seijin-kai gang taking over most of Tokyo. He's friends with Okumura though as mentioned he's an honest detective, the pair look out for each other and that's prevented a lot of bloodshed. Miyagawa was played by Minoru Oki who also plays a Yakuza leader in the next film but in that one he's such a dastardly man. Sugiyama had been on a killing spree after getting the Army guns, he took out two gangsters but what drew Okumura'a anger was that he also killed an officer, could the Hashida gang help out with finding the Seijin-kai thug Sugiyama? NO was Miyagawa's first response but he did eventually go to his rival's HQ, there he had no luck when talking with their chairman Ohoshi(Hideji Otaki) but made himself a marked man! The fruitless search for Sugiyama continued on for a few days but good luck finally hit when it was discovered he had a girlfriend named Michi(Tomoko Mayama) who worked at a bar. After her shift she met up with the killer and unknown to them Okumura and his young partner Kato had been tailing the pair, finally Sugiyama was arrested but only after at least five had been killed. However that arrest didn't pay any dividends for a while as Sugiyama had a strong will and wouldn't reveal where the 150 Army guns were stashed. But the kind hearted Okumura began to reveal his dark side, he tortured Sugiyama in some less than obvious ways such as depriving him of sleep which eventually worked! The location of the guns was revealed but when Okumura went there the guns were gone, was Sugiyama lying? NO again and while he was in jail someone from the Seijin-kai gang had removed the guns which were in the trunk of a car. Sugiyama did reveal to Okumura that there was a mole at the station feeding his gang with info, that's how the location of the guns was known and who the mole could be baffled Okumura to no end!

 Final segment and finally Okumura was done with Sugiyama's questioning at the Tokyo precinct which meant the killer would be moved to a prison to pend trial. But on the way there the police van was intercepted by two cars, out jumped five members of the Seijin-kai gang who killed the guards and Sugiyama but Okumura wasn't badly hurt. Once again the info about a police plan had been leaked to the Yakuza by the mole, no justice could be done until he was eliminated. To make a longish story short the culprit was Okumura's long time friend in the force Takimoto, below you can see near the end Okumura finally arrested him. It does help looking at the screenshots as they go in order of the action and helps you understand the story much better. After their mole was discovered the Seijin-kai clan abducted Okumura's wife Kayo and said she wouldn't be released until Okumura removed himself from the case. Which he did but the gang didn't keep their end of the bargain, Kayo was raped numerous times and after her released killed herself because of the shame. Needless to say that sent Okumura into such a rage, he didn't care what happened to him as he stormed the Seijin-kai HQ with a shotgun and a pair of pistols but it was one again a dozen. Who were no match for Okumura and what a brutal scene that was with him gunning down seven of the gang including their chairman, that's why I said he was just a quasi-hero. The police thought that way too as Okumura was arrested and charged with seven murders, the police disowned the detective but the media did support him and the movie ended with Okumura being found guilty but his sentence wasn't revealed. Whewwww, the review covered most of the highlights but there were so many of then in this 89 minute movie, I didn't expect much going in but this was the best gangster film I've seen in a while though all the others have been solid too. There wasn't a ton of action but when there was what exciting scenes they were, especially at the end when the bad guys got their due. Wakayama as Okumura was an easy character to root for, even though he killed so many at the end it was revenge for what they did to his wife. So in conclusion this was a superb gangster film and if you like that genre this is highly recommended. There was no trailer so the video below is how the film opened up, that's Okumura with the glasses walking with his friend Takimoto who turned out to be such a thorn in our hero's side. The music in the scene is quite good and so weren't the other jazzy instrumentals in this movie.

  

 

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 Final movie review for today and this is the film series I mentioned in the intro that has eight movies and now that I've finally completed my collection would like to talk about all of them. Have seen the first two films close to ten times each but the third and fourth only about three times each but there's been no watches for a while. So started again on the first movie and will try to have one review in eight consecutive posts for this film series, will wait until I've viewed the fourth movie to begin on the other four which I've never seen. Junko Fuji, who has also used the name Sumiko Fuji, was the star of all eight films, she's such a classy and respected actress who could also play such a tough cookie as the below screenshots show. I'm fairly sure Junko is the only one to appear in every movie but she does have some sidekicks who will appear in many of them. These films also have some very popular male stars such as Ken Takakura who had a largish role in this film and also the third one but his characters were different. This first film "Red Peony Gambler" was released in September 1968 and the final one came out three years later. There wasn't much of a connection with the first four films except for them starring Fuji plus also featured a few of her 'followers', the stories are similar in a way though the plots are all different plus they all feature quite a bit of swordplay! So much happened in this first movie which lasted for 98 minutes, too much to explain all that took place. Because of that will mainly just have an overview of what took place and may do so for the next seven movies in this series, the point with with these mini reviews isn't to give away all that takes places in the hopes you may want to check out this or other movies I've reviewed.

 Fuji plays the lead role of Ryuko Yano but goes by the name of (Red Peony) Oryu, you can see her famed Red Peony tattoo right above. Oryu is the name I'll always use and she's 23 in age, five years before her father Senzo Yano was mugged and killed one night by a street thug. At the time the eighteen year old Ryuko(Oryu) was engaged to the son of a wealthy family and the location of her upbringing was the island of Kyushu. Yano's profession was of a gambler and a small time Yakuza clan leader, he was very skilled at both and had given Ryuko a solid upbringing. But it wasn't until after his death that Ryuko's finacee' learned about the father being a gambler and being mixed up with the Yakuza, once that info was revealed the wedding was off even though Ryuko was a fine young lady. When Yano was murdered in the streets just a few blocks from home the killer had dropped a wallet, that was only noticed by Ryuko who scooped it up and it's her only piece of evidence on who killed her father Senzo Yano. His Yakuza family remained active for two more years but Ryuko dissolved it and told the members all were free to live as they pleased. One who wanted to remain by Ryuko's side was the middle aged man Fugushin who reunited with his ex-boss five years later and though a bit inept is so devoted to her, he'll be in a few future movies in this series. At the age of twenty Ryuko began to go by the name of Oryu and spent the next three years honing her skills with a sword plus took after her father and became a very adept gambler. No year was ever mentioned but the movies I think are taking place in the 1890's, it was very rare for a woman back then to be associated with gambling.

 Right above is the very distinguished Oryu plus in most screenshots below. We learned about her background through a flashback and now it's present day for her, say about 1892? Oryu was the dealer at a game and stood up for a player who had accused another of cheating, that's in the below screenshots. She proved the player from the Hano Yakuza clan Ebimasa had been cheating, to save face his boss said to cut off the pinky on his left hand! Later on Ebimasa did try to get revenge on Oryu and though skilled at fighting she was no match against seven others. Until the below man arrived, Naoki Katagiri(Ken Takakura), he too was skilled with a sword and the pair repelled those from the Hano clan. That wouldn't be the first time Katagiri saved Oryu's life and though it wasn't a large role Katagiri was such a key character. He noticed the wallet that Oryu was carrying, then is when she told us viewers and Katagiri the story of her father's death. It appeared to us and Oryu that Katagiri recognized the wallet and he did but why he knew of it wasn't revealed until the second half of the film. Even though it was her most prized possession Katagiri was able to swipe it from her and Oryu didn't notice that until Katagiri had left the scene. The locations for the movie are in SW Japan, say from Osaka down to the island of Kyushu, there were trains back then but no cars or phones. 

The player Oryu saved from a beating at that Cho-Han gambling game was named Fujimatsu(The Immortal) and we'll also be seeing him in future films. He had caught up with Oryu later on and invited her to his clan's HQ for Fujimatsu was also a member of a Yakuza gang. Which was named Kumatora and was led by the Boss Kumatora played by Tomisaburo Wakayama. He had the lead role in the above movie playing such a tough as nails detective, though a Yakuza leader in this film the character was much meeker. But Kumatora was a fine leader and was respected by his gang, he instantly fell for the beautiful Oryu though the love would always be one sided, this is a character who will appear in a few more films. At the Kumatora HQ is where Oryu was reunited with her old mate Fugushin who was staying at the clan's place and was a gang member on loan(?) He had caused a ruckus at a bar which may bring Kumatora to the brink of a war with their rival Sennari clan led by a creep named Kakurai. War was averted thanks to Oryu but only for the time being, Kakurai was played by Minoru Oki who was in the above film, in that he also was a Yakuza leader but a much better person. Kakurai was an Aniki aka gang brother to Katagiri which we learned of in the second half of the film, Katagiri had recently been released from prison but we never learned what crime he committed. But what we did learn is that he had given the wallet Oryu found next to her dead father's body five years ago to Kakurai, it was he who was the murderer and five years ago he was a down and out street thug. Who rose rapidly in the ranks when joining the Sennari Yakuza family but only by being such a devious person.

 Final bit and don't want to carry this review on for too long as there's no way I can tell you all that took place. It took a long time, say with there only being fifteen minutes left in the movie, that Oryu finally learned that Kakurai was the killer of her father. Of course she wanted revenge but was told to cool it a while by Katagiri, Kumatora and another woman named Otaka who was the leader of a small Osaka gang. But when Otaka's wimpy son was kidnapped by the Sennari gang it soon became an all out war, the final ten minutes was one long, brutal and exciting fight scene. The underdog often wins in these kinds of sword fights in Japanese films, that was the case in this movie. It took a while but the six on Oryu's team beat the Sennari gang to a pulp, all that was left was their leader Kakurai. Who was stabbed to death by his ex-Aniki Katagiri who himself succumbed shortly after because of a stab wound, Oryu got revenge for her father's death but sure she wanted to be the one who had slain Kakurai. That ended the film and what a terrific movie this was as it had it all such as action, sword play, gambling and so much more! All the films will be like this but all are also so different, least the next three which I've seen. It took me a while to get the final four films but that was my fault as this is an easy movie series to find and of course will give it a high recommendation. Viewing the screenshots will help you follow the story better, I did get to the most key details but couldn't get to everything. The plan is to have one of these mini posts for the next seven posts in this "My Current Watches" series which should be doable and after the screenshots is a trailer for the film.