Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza

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With his penultimate film, Uchida revisited one of his popular prewar titles, 1936’s Theatre of Life, an adaptation of Shiro Ozaki’s eponymous novel. Three-time Seijun Suzuki collaborator Goro Tanada wrote a gangsterized adaptation of Ozaki’s story for Uchida at a time when the yakuza had eclipsed the samurai genre as Toei's main cash crop. Protagonist Hishakaku murders a man in a quarrel over a barmaid and goes to jail. In his temporary absence, his girlfriend Otoyo, a former geisha, falls for Hishakaku’s brother, inciting a dangerous love triangle that, in typical yakuza fashion, ends tragically.

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Cast

Kōji Tsuruta actor Tomisaburō Wakayama actor Sumiko Fuji actor

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Ken Takakura actor Takeya Nakamura actor

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Minoru Ōki actor

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Kinzō Shin actor

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Bin Amatsu actor Rinichi Yamamoto actor

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Kunio Murai actor Shingo Yamashiro actor

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Tatsuo Endō actor

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Hiroshi Nawa actor

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Seiichirō Kameishi actor

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Nobuo Yana actor

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Keiichi Kitagawa actor

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Hiroshi Date actor

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Seiya Satō actor

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Koji Sekiyama actor

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Kōsaku Okano actor