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Rating: 8 stars

Tags

Japan Netflix yakuza

All movies seen on 11/28/2009

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Wandering Ginza Butterfly (1972)

Directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi

Action | Crime | Drama

Most recently watched by sensoria

Overview

Gang leader Nami (cult film legend Meiko Kaji) kills a member of a yakuza group and goes away to prison. Upon her release three years later, she’s a shamed woman confined to living in the shadowy world of sex clubs and street gangs. She returns to the city to live with her uncle, a billiard-hall owner, and after befriending pimp and ne’er-do-well Ryuji (Tsunehiko Watase), she gets a job working at a hostess club in the chic Ginza neighborhood, where the expensive shops and neon lights conceal a dark world of crime and sexual slavery. But when a rival gang attempts to muscle in on the club, Nami becomes enmeshed in a violent struggle that forces her to wield a skilled pool cue to defend her uncle’s business, and eventually a short sword to wreak bloody vengeance upon her enemies.

Length 86 minutes

Actors

Meiko Kaji | Tsunehiko Watase | Akiko Koyama | Mieko Aoyagi | Meg Flower | Tomiko Ishii | Yayoi Watanabe | Chie Kobayashi | Rieko Maruyama | Kayako Sono | Toru Yuri | Shun Ueda | Keiichi Kitagawa | Matasaburô Niwa | Gen Shimizu | Kôji Nanbara | Hiroshi Itsuki | Tatsuo Umemiya | Takeshige Hatanaka | Rena Ichinose | Yoshiko Iwamoto | Seiya Satô | Haruo Tanaka | Tatsuya Kameyama | Gôzô Sôma | Iwao Dan

Viewing History (seen 2 times)

Viewing Notes

Holy shit do I love 60s/70s Japanese cinema, particularly the earlier Nikkatsu studio, yakuza and revenge films. Meiko Kaji is as excellent as ever here (and gorgeous, natch) in this Toei film. Think it’s great to see the final bloody climax happen after an intense billiards contest. Visually this film is excellent w/an equally fine enka soundtrack.

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