is a 1975 Japanese

yakuza film is a popular film genre in Japanese cinema which focuses on the lives and dealings of ''yakuza'', Japanese organized crime syndicates. In the silent film era, depictions of ''bakuto'' (precursors to modern yakuza) as sympathetic Robin Hood-l ...

directed by

Kinji Fukasaku was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking," Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty yakuza films, typified by the ''Battles Without Honor ...

. The film details the internal conflicts between members of the Owada family on the

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

side of the

Kanmon Straits The or the Straits of Shimonoseki is the stretch of water separating Honshu and Kyushu, two of Japan's four main islands. On the Honshu side of the strait is Shimonoseki (, which contributed "Kan" () to the name of the strait) and on the Kyushu ...

. It is the unrelated sequel to '' New Battles Without Honor and Humanity'' (1974) and was followed by the third and final unrelated film in the series, '' New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Last Days of the Boss'' (1976).

Plot

In June 1968, Shuji Kuroda, a petty criminal, agrees to take responsibility for the murder of yakuza Iwao Masaki, head of the Kyoei Group, on behalf of Tetsuya Kusunoki, son-in-law of boss Tokuji Owada, but Kusunoki, strung out on heroin, is unable to perform the hit. Kuroda is forced to do it himself and gets a seven-year sentence for murder. In prison, he fights off a group of inmates attempting to rape fellow inmate Katsuo Shimura and befriends him. When Kuroda is released, Shimura, who already finished his sentence, greets him along with another young man who gives his name as Akira Kobayashi; the two promise their loyalty to Kuroda as they both wish to become yakuza. Kuroda returns to

and finds that Kusunoki has been abandoned by the Owada Family due to his worsening addiction. They visit the family's headquarters to request the five million yen Kuroda is owed for serving Kusunoki's sentence, but Owada refuses to keep his word, shifting responsibility to the penniless Kusunoki. Kusunoki and Kuroda abduct Owada and his mistress Shinako, threatening to kill her unless Owada honors the deal. The next day, Owada Family officer Shigehiko Aihara meets with Kuroda and gives him a large parcel of heroin, telling him to sell it to Owada's sworn brother Takeo Akamatsu while he comes up with the rest of the money. Kuroda goes to see Akamatsu and recognizes his girlfriend Aya as the same woman he saw kissing Aihara in a hotel earlier. Akamatsu's men steal the heroin and badly beat Shimura, leading an enraged Kobayashi to stab Akamatsu to death in revenge before the yakuza's bodyguard kills him. Aihara steps in, agreeing to protect Kuroda from retaliation until the dispute is settled. Kuroda receives the full five million, with Aihara explaining away his actions by claiming that he wanted to assassinate Akamatsu for trying to leave the family without Owada's consent. Kuroda demands extra compensation and Owada agrees to pay for Kobayashi's funeral and induct Kuroda and Shimura into his family. A few days later, Aihara takes Owada, Kuroda, and other family members to a club he owns that is being managed by Aya, who is now his mistress. Owada's "older brother" Asajiro Nozaki, boss of the Nozaki Family of

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, arrives and pressures the aging Owada to retire and name a successor. Owada surprises everyone by naming Seiji Izeki as his successor rather than Aihara. He and Izeki then swear individual oaths of brotherhood with Kuroda. Owada later visits his daughter Misako at her husband Kusunoki's bar and asks her to live with him once he retires. Misako refuses, but when she throws out the rest of Kusunoki's heroin stash, he hits her and she runs to her father. Aihara and his men pick up Kusunoki with orders to shoot him and dump his body under a bridge. However, Aihara instead tells Kusunoki that Owada plans to marry Misako off to Kuroda and that he deserves payback for the way his father-in-law treats him. Kusunoki is given a pistol and goes to Owada's house, where he shoots his boss in cold blood but collapses from physical exhaustion before he can kill Kuroda. The family covers up the incident by arranging for him to be put in an insane asylum. At Owada's funeral, Nozaki convinces the weak-willed Izeki that because he has neither the money nor the temperament to be boss, he should nominate Aihara in his place. The officers, who all hate Kuroda, decide to kill him, but when Izeki protests, Nozaki and Aihara order him to break off his oath with Kuroda and oversee his expulsion from the family. Kuroda accepts his expulsion but swears revenge, asking Aya for help killing Aihara. Through a phone call, he learns that Aihara will be traveling to Osaka and recruits Shimura and Sugawa, a family member who opposes Aihara's power grab, to back him up. The group follows Aihara's motorcade, staging an unsuccessful ambush on the highway before being lured into a trap and having to shoot their way out. Aihara reaches Osaka and goes into hiding before learning that a man calling himself "Kuroda" (really an injured Sugawa) has been arrested for carrying an illegal weapon. Believing he's safe, Aihara lets his guard down and attends a party thrown by Nozaki in his honor. Shimura, posing as a guest, approaches Aihara and guns him down before being shot dead. Kuroda contacts Izeki and instructs him to step in as the new boss. Izeki then gives Aihara's former position in the family to Kuroda.

Cast

Bunta Sugawara was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 200 feature films. Dropping out of Waseda University, he worked as a model before entering the film industry in 1956. After years of work, Sugawara finally established himself as a famous actor at the ...

as Shuji Kuroda *

Mikio Narita was a Japanese actor. He was most famous for playing villains. He often worked with Kinji Fukasaku. Narita graduated from Haiyuza Theatre Company acting school and joined Daiei Film. His career as a screen actor started in 1963. His film deb ...

as Shigehiko Aihara *

Tsutomu Yamazaki is a Japanese actor. He won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor in 1984 for '' The Funeral'' and '' Farewell to the Ark''. Yamazaki is well known for his role "Nenbutsu no Tetsu" on the television jidaigeki ''Hissatsu Shiokinin'' and ''Shin His ...

as Tetsuya Kusunoki *

Kō Nishimura was a Japanese actor who appeared in supporting roles in such films as Akira Kurosawa's '' The Bad Sleep Well'' and ''Yojimbo'', Kihachi Okamoto's ''Sword of Doom'', Yoshitaro Nomura's '' Zero Focus'', and Kon Ichikawa's '' The Burmese Harp'' ( ...

as Tokuji Owada *

Tsunehiko Watase (July 28, 1944 – March 14, 2017) was a Japanese actor known for portraying Rintaro Kano in ''Keishicho Sosa Ikka 9 Gakari'' ("Homicide Team 9"). He won the award for best supporting actor at the 2nd Japan Academy Prize for '' The Incident'' an ...

as Kunimitsu Sugawa *

Junkichi Orimoto was a Japanese actor. Orimoto often worked with Kinji Fukasaku and Sadao Nakajima. He started his acting career at the Shinkyō theatre company in 1949. His first film appearance was in the 1952 film ''Yamabiko Gakkō'' directed by Tadashi Imai. ...

as Seiji Izeki *

Yuriko Hishimi is a Japanese actress. In 1965, she signed a contract with Toho. Following year, she made her film debut in ''Taifu to Zakuro''. She portrayed Anne Yuri in the Japanese television series '' Ultra Seven'' (1967–1968) and subsequent appearances in ...

as Aya *

Meiko Kaji is a Japanese actress and singer. Since the 1960s, she has appeared in over 100 film and television roles, most prominently in the 1970s with her most famous roles as outlaw characters, best known for her performances in the film series '' Stra ...

as Misako *

Nenji Kobayashi is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 23rd Japan Academy Prize for ''Poppoya''. Kobayashi signed with Toei in 1961 and started his acting career with small roles. Filmography Film * '' Soshiki Bōryoku'' (1967 ...

as Katsuo Shimura *

Kan Mikami is a Japanese folk singer-songwriter and actor. His music, heavily influenced by American blues, was popular in Japan in the 1970s. He re-wrote the lyric of the song " Yume wa Yoru Hiraku" for his cover version in 1972, which was banned for its ...

as Shigeru Sasaki, a.k.a. "Akira Kobayashi" *Asao Uchida as Asajiro Nozaki *

Gorō Mutsumi was a Japanese actor with more than 30 films to his credit. He has also appeared in numerous television shows, especially ''jidaigeki'', in which he specializes in villains, and in ''tokusatsu''. In addition, he is a stage and voice actor with pr ...

as Otone Takamatsu *

Hideo Murota was a Japanese actor who specialized in playing villains and tough guys. In 1957, he signed a contract with Toei Studio and appeared in over 1000 films. He won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Yokohama Film Festival for his role in ''Shin ...

as Takeo Akamatsu *

Nobuo Yana is a Japanese film actor. He is most famous for playing villains. Before he started his acting career, he was a professional baseball player of Toei Flyer's. In 1956, he joined Toei Flyer's but in 1958, he retired because of an injury. He jo ...

as Miyai *

Seizō Fukumoto (3 February 1943 – 1 January 2021) was a Japanese actor. Biography He started acting at age 15 in Kyoto, the capital of Japanese cinema. A specialist in film and television jidaigeki set in the Edo period, he most often played a rōnin, but ...

as Matsumoto *

Takuzo Kawatani was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in 56 films between 1967 and 1995. He was most famous for playing villains. Selected filmography Film * ''Zoku ô-oku maruhi monogatari'' (1967) * '' Eleven Samurai'' (1967) * ''Bakuchi-uchi: Nagurikomi' ...

as an Osaka detective *Sanae Nakahara as Shinako *Masako Araki as Sasaki's mother *Michimaro Otabe as Iwao Misaki *

Shinichi Chiba , known internationally as Sonny Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience. Born in Fuk ...

as an Osaka bartender, uncredited

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

Production

With the success of '' New Battles Without Honor and Humanity'', another installment was created. Fukasaku biographer and film expert Sadao Yamane feels that unlike that film, ''The Boss's Head'' features no relation to the original five-part series, but tells an original story set in a different period. Put simply, he said that the original series was about Japan having lost the war and the chaos and confusion that resulted as its youth fought to survive, whereas that

zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' () ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force or Daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. Now, the term is usually associated with Georg W. F. ...

is not seen at all in the new trilogy. Yamane said that this film and its followup, '' Last Days of the Boss'', both have women involved and realistic "car action." Screenwriter Koji Takada stated that ''The Boss's Head'' has aspects of some real incidents but is otherwise "total fiction." Takada said that Fukasaku was unsatisfied with the first installment in the new series, and that screenwriters Susumu Saji and Yozo Tanaka could not deliver what he wanted for its sequel. He said he was brought in to work on the script at producer Goro Kusakabe's suggestion when Fukasaku was at his wit's end with Saji and Tanaka, who had given up and were relaxing, playing

mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-pl ...

, and drinking. Takada suggested that Tanaka was recruited specifically to add strong female characters to the story. He said he rewrote most of what was written, but left several "Tanaka-style" lines and scenes for

. The drug-addicted character of Tetsuya Kusunoki, played by

, was already in the script before Takada got involved. He said it is rare to see a character with a drug addiction in a big role and that he personally does not like writing characters like that, but Yamazaki was able to pull off the performance. To Takada's recollection, they all spent less than a week at an inn in Itagaki writing.

Release

Arrow Films Arrow Films is a British independent film distributor and restorer specialising in world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films. It sells Ultra HD Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs online, and also operates its own subscription video on-dem ...

released a limited edition Blu-ray and DVD box set of all three films in the UK on August 21, 2017, and in the US on August 29, 2017. Special features include interviews with screenwriter Koji Takada and an appreciation video by Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane.

References

External links

* {{Kinji Fukasaku 1975 films 1970s crime films Japanese crime films Films directed by Kinji Fukasaku 1970s Japanese-language films Toei Company films Yakuza films Films set in 1968 Films set in the 1970s Films set in Kitakyushu Films set in Osaka 1970s Japanese films