☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Deadly
Fight in Hiroshima (1973) – K. Fukasaku
The second film in Kinji Fukasaku’s
yakuza series is just as good as the first (Battles without Honor and
Humanity), although it takes place on a smaller scale and with fewer central
characters. Bunta Sugawara is back from
the first film but he stays on the sidelines here, present apparently only to
lend some continuity to the proceedings.
In prison, Shozo Hirono (Bunta) meets small time hood Shoji Yamanaka
(Kin’ya Kitaoji) who then takes center stage when he becomes a gun man for the
Muraoka family and falls in love with the boss’s niece. All seems to be going well until a rival gang
led by insane Katsutoshi Otomo (played intensely by Sonny Chiba in one of his
last films before international stardom as The Streetfighter) declares war on
Muraoka. Yamanaka is a pawn in the
proceedings and willingly goes to jail for the family…but then the betrayals
begin. Bloody, chaotic, and with a
hyperventilating lead performance from Kitaoji, the film keeps the tension
cranked (but it is consequently less Shakespearean than its predecessor). Not
for the squeamish.
Deadly Fight in Hiroshima by riton23
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