Since its 1968 release, Kôsaku Yamashita's 23rd motion picture, Big Time Gambling Boss, has garnered praise from Japanese gangster film enthusiasts from novelist Yukio Mishima ("a masterpiece") to writer-director Paul Schrader ("the most complex and introspective of all the yakuza films"). Fourth in Toei's 10-film Gambling Den series, its a prime example of the ninkyo eiga or chivalry film.
The mutual admiration has a neat symmetry in light of Schrader's script, written with his brother Leonard, for Sydney Pollack's 1974 crime drama The Yakuza, in addition to his own 1985 cinematic portrait Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.
Written by Battles Without Honor and Humanity's Kazuo Kasahara, the 1934-set Big Time Gambling Boss begins as Arakawa, the leader or oyabun of Tokyo's Tenryu clan, suffers a stroke. Confined to his bed, he can no longer lead, so the clan unanimously elects the well-respected Nakai (Kôji Tsuruta, an actor of significant gravitas and authority) to take his place, except he refuses, because he's a transfer from Osaka. Instead, he proposes the original Tenryu member and "sworn brother" Matsuda (Lone Wolf and Cub's burly Tomisaburô Wakayama).
Nakai's inability to become a full-fledged member recalls Robert De Niro's Irish-American mobster, Jimmy Conway, in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas who can never become a made man, because he isn't Italian. Matsuda, unfortunately, is serving a five-year bid for a murder committed on Arakawa's orders, so shady advisor Senba (Kinji Fukasaku favorite Nobuo Kaneko) proposes the oyabun's malleable son-in-law Ishido (Hiroshi Nawa), a decision that will leave everyone dissatisfied, and once Matsuda is released on parole--all hell breaks loose.
Big Time Gambling Boss, which revolves around a high-stakes gambling party to celebrate the new oyabun, becomes saturated with blood in the final reel as brother fights against brother. "In our world," Nakai offers by way of a rueful explanation, "loyalty to the clan is all we have." When his every attempt at diplomacy fails, he turns to murder.
If the women in the film make less of an impact than the men, it isn't because Yamashita ignores them. In fact, they share their husbands' loyalty to the clan to the extent that Nakai's wife (Hiroko Sakuramachi) does something shocking when she feels she's let the Tenryu side down. She may not be a major character, but her actions contribute to the outcome.
Though Big Time Gambling Boss doesn't glamorize yakuza life, it isn't a strict morality tale either. By the end, Nakai laments that circumstances have turned him into a "thug." His problems don't result from his yakuza identity, but because he's surrounded by members who aren't as honorable--after all, treacherous colleagues are no more exclusive to the underworld than the corporate boardroom or stock trading floor.
This high-definition transfer comes complete with context-rich extras including visual and written essays from Japanese cinema authorities Chris D. (Gun and Sword: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980), Mark Schilling (The Yakuza Movie Book: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films), Stuart Galbraith IV (Japanese Cinema), and journalist Hayley Scanlon.
What public library shelves would this title be on?
Big Time Gambling Boss would fit with International, Japanese-language, and crime film shelves in public libraries.
What kind of film series could use this title?
Big Time Gambling Boss would elevate a series on the yakuza film, particularly the chivalry films of the 1960s. In a larger context, it could provide contrast with the 1970s films of Kinji Fukasaku, which feature some of the same actors. Nobuo Kaneko, for instance, appears throughout the entirety of Fukasaku's Battles Without Honor and Humanity series.
What type of instructors will use this title?
College and graduate-level instructors of Japanese cinema could make good use of Big Time Gambling Boss a first-rate example of a yakuza film. Though violent, especially towards the end, it's less explicit than the "true account" films of the 1970s.