A very interesting and bizarre discovery. Basically, the story is Scarface (1932) but the incest element is turned up to eleven.
But what really makes this movie is the performances, Katsu and Otani are excellent and have wonderful chemistry to a point where you believe they are siblings and there is always that tension between them that is well-handled. The characters are well-written and fully developed to allow these scenes to play out well though. I love the arc that Katsu's character Minoru takes through this movie, turning from an aggressive Yakuza member that fights anyone who goes after his half-sister, Akane. In the end, coming to understand that in order for Akane to live her life he must let himself die so that his commanding presence no longer keeps her from living her life. And while Minoru is a character that is hard to sympathize with how many people he beats up for merely inconveniencing him, his backstory is not fully explained, but Masumura does a great job at presenting a tragic life that Minoru seems to be trying to have Akane escape out of. He can be a major asshole, but despite the tragic life he has led, he is still willing to work in the Yakuza just to keep Akane from ever living the life he has led. He's a noble man who doesn't realize that the problems he faces can sometimes be his own fault as well, there is even a scene when he is confronted for blaming his mother for his problems, and of course, he hates facing the fact that he deep down can be responsible for himself. It's incredibly tragic and saddening
I love how the Minoru character is handled though, he is not a John Wayne badass who just shoots and hits everybody, (although he does plenty of that) he's a deeply insecure man who lashes out when feeling like his manhood or Akane is threatened (and therefore his manhood) which is beset by the upbringing he had to endure. And Katsu does a great job presenting this character as exactly that.
The movie is also incredibly well-framed, obviously, the fight scenes are fantastic, due to the sheer brutality. But even in simple dialogue scenes, Setsuo Kobayashi's cinematography utilizes wonderful framing, most of the time with 3 characters in the same shot layered to get everyone's reaction (which well informs the scenes).
This is not an "action" film as it is referred to on IMDB, the fight scenes are great, but the movie is way more of a deep character study on these tragic people beset by tragic upbringings. It's a weird film, with an offbeat pace, but it has great performances, beautiful framing, and excellent character writing. This is a gem that might not be for everyone, but it's worth watching simply because it's an incredibly well-made movie.
