Daikanbu: Burai

While many of the plot points of this first sequel to Outlaw Gangster VIP are almost exactly the same as the original, this one is a much stronger film. That may sound a bit odd, but I think the direction and script are stronger, and maybe just because I felt I knew the protagonist I was more involved in his story at this point. Whatever the reason, I'd rank this one high amongst the many yakuza movies I've seen. The film picks up a few months after the first, with Tetsuya Watari, having healed his wounds, traveling north to find Chieko Matsubara and Yumeko, the wife of his gangster friend. In pretty much the same way (defending a defenseless woman), he gets drawn back into the yakuza world. This one features very strong performances throughout, and recognizable actors include Hideaki Nitani (whom you'll recognize from several Arrow titles), Kunie Tanaka and Meiko Kaji (who performs a flamenco dance number!). Izumi Ashikawa plays the woman Watari saves at the beginning of the film. He meets her again as a prostitute in Yokohama. She has a couple of really touching scenes opposite Tanaka, who plays the crippled brother of a gangster Watari killed in the first film. She's excellent.

This film essentially picks up where its predecessor left off with the yakuza assassin named "Goro Fujikawa" (Tetsuya Watari) attempting to rejoin his girlfriend "Yukiko Hashimoto" (Chieko Matsubara) and his friend's wife "Yumeko Sugiyama" (Kayo Matsuyo) in the small town they headed for while he took care of some unfinished business. It's on the way there that he encounters a young woman by the name of "Kikue Suzumara" (Izumi Ashikawa) being hassled by some yakuza thugs and, being an expert in this field, soundly thrashes all of them. He then continues on his journey but, because he has been away for some time, finds that Yukiko has barely been able to make ends meet while Yumeko has come down with a serious illness that needs medical attention. For that reason, he quickly takes a job doing manual labor but, when he is let go by his employer and Yumeko's health continues to get worse, he reluctantly accepts the offer from an old acquaintance to join a yakuza clan headed by a man named "Go Kiuchi" (Ryohei Uchica). What he doesn't realize at the time, however, is just how unscrupulous Kiuchi actually is and this creates all kinds of problems for him from that moment on. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film shared a great deal of similarity with its predecessor but. For some strange reason, I think I liked this one a little better. In particular, I liked the relationship between Goro and his old colleague "Kosuke Asami" (Hideaki Nitani) who had several major issues to deal with including the fact that his sister "Keiko Asami" (Meiko Kajii) is dating a member of a rival yakuza organization. Likewise, having two attractive women like the aforementioned Izumi Ashikawa and Meiko Kaji certainly didn't hurt either. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this particular installment of the "Outlaw Gangster" series and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.