The third and final mid 70s Takuzo Kawatani vehicle, unrelated to the two Ossan of Kawachi films. Kawatani is a small time Osaka thug hanging out with his scarred aniki Isao Natsuyagi. There's a wonderfully pathetic fight at the end with Kawatani and fellow piranha X just scratching each other's faces and crying their eyes out, but other than that there's not much truly outrageous stuff in the film, nor as much piranhas as the title would have you expect. The film is neither very funny nor violent, which was perhaps to be expected from director Kosaku Yamashita. In the 60s his name served as automatic recommendation for any film he made. In the 70s he somehow lost his touch, perhaps not keen on the modern yakuza mayhem, and his films became lifeless. Note: this was a standalone film with no follow-ups. The other Piranha Corps film listed by Chris D. and IMDb does not exist.
Violent Money Network (暴力金脈) (Japan, 1975) [DVD] - 3/5
If you ever wondered what a capitalist corporate & society satire would look like as a Toei jitsuroku yakuza film, here it is. Hiroki Matsukata stars as boxer turned small time thug who makes a living by marching into company offices and starting trouble until they pay him to leave, or he gets paid by a third party who has hired him to make trouble. Scriptwriter Kazuo Kasahara based the character on a man called Kaoru Ogawa whom he interviewed while doing research for Battles without Honor and Humanity. This is quite a different type of film though the cast, crew (Fukasaku was originally set to direct before being replaced by Sadao Nakajima) and the underlying mentality are largely the same. Also, there's no explicit violence or sex until Reiko Ike walks into the picture around the 50 minute mark in one of her better drama roles. The lack of violent mayhem makes this a smaller picture than some of its contemporaries, but the Nakajima - Matsukata pairing produces energetic results, and there are nice supporting turns by Takuzo Kawatani (thug) and Tomisaburo Wakayama (Ike's sugar daddy), among others. Also features an extremely funny cat killing scene.
