Two Lives, Two Yakuza (1964)
竜虎一代
An early ninkyo film from before the genre had truly established its form. Koji Tsuruta plays an honourable outlaw who saves an older man from an ambush. It turns out the man is the head of a hard working clan appointed to a railway construction project. A ruthless yakuza gang is also trying to get their share of the project and attempts to sabotage the work. After the old man dies, his son (Sonny Chiba) and daughter (Junko Fuji) try to complete the project. Tsuruta joins them while also falling in love with a local woman working in a bar (after all, Tsuruta always was more of a lover than his stoic colleague Takakura).
- Date of release
- 1964-09-23
- Runtime
- 1h 39m
- Genres
- Crime, Drama
- Director
- Tsuneo Kobayashi
Casting
- Koji Tsuruta — Shinjiro Kusakari
- Sumiko Fuji — Yukiko Matsuhashi
- Shigeru Amachi — Seiji Nawate
- Takeshi Katō — Makoto Misugi
- Eijirō Yanagi — Genichiro Matsuhashi
- Sonny Chiba — Shinichi Matsuhashi
- Yoshiko Sakuma — Kumi Kitajima
- Kenji Ushio
- Fumitake Ōmura
- Akikane Sawa
Recommended
- Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima 1973 · ★ 7.3
- Sympathy for the Underdog 1971 · ★ 7.1
- Female Yakuza Tale 1973 · ★ 6.1
- House of Bamboo 1955 · ★ 6.2
- The Yakuza 1974 · ★ 7.1
- Plunder Road 1957 · ★ 6.9
- Agitator 2001 · ★ 6.4
- Cass 2008 · ★ 5.9
- Graveyard of Honor 2002 · ★ 6.3
- Belly 1998 · ★ 6.3
- Siberian Education 2013 · ★ 6.8
- In the Blood 2014 · ★ 5.8