Delinquent Boss: Wholesale Roundup (不良番長 一網打尽) (Japan, 1972) [VoD] - 1.5/5
Part 15. This one starts out well and gritty, only to soon descend into Z-grade idiocy full of pee, poo and gay jokes. It's Looney Tunes meets the Farrelly Brothers, minus the quality. Admittedly there are moments when the humour gets so surreally bad that you can't help but to laugh in disbelief, such as priest Toru Yuri's moustache which looks like a bucketful of pubic hair glued to his face, but most of the film is just painful to sit through. Notable for being Yuriko Hishimi's Toei debut - her main function is to run around naked. At least she gets to hop on a bike. Typical to the series, the last third is more watchable than what preceded, with one particularly mad, out-of-the-blue Shingo Yamashiro martial arts moment.
+ Sonny Chiba Special: Part 75
Life goal achieved! Last week Judo for Life became the 150th Sonny Chiba movie I’ve had the pleasure of viewing! (coincidentally, the review count here is also at 75 x 2 = 150). Of course, I have no intention of stopping here.
Hey, Clouds! (Ooi kumo!) (おゝい、雲！) (Japan, 1965) [VoD] – 3/5
Charmingly cute and old fashioned Toei youth film with a slight musical swing and myriad of family / romance relationships. There’s the “Saijo family” with kids Jiro Okazaki, Ichiro Araki and Yoshiko Mita taking an initiative to pimp their single dad Isao Yamagata to the “Mishima family” mother Haruko Kato, who is a single parent to the super-cute daughters Chiyoko Honma and Fuemi Kashiyama. Okazaki is also friends with “Kuwabara family” rich kid Koji Ishizawa, who has begun suspecting his old man may have a bit more offspring than has been publicly announced. Perhaps the “Matsumiya orphans” Hiroyuki Ota and his sister Junko Fuji? And then, people start getting interested in patrilineage, falling in love, making friends etc. Thankfully there’s human relationship MacGyver senpai Sonny Chiba popping up every 20 minutes, always saying the right words (or grabbing a man and lifting him in the air). An entertaining, if highly conservative youth film, oddly enough based on a 1965 novel by Shintaro Ishihara who was better known for his rebellious work e.g. Crazed Fruit. My guess is the material may have gone through a bit of a transformation in director Masaharu Segawa’s (Four Sisters) hands.
Judo for Life (柔道一代) (Japan, 1963) [VoD] – 3/5
Sonny Chiba's first martial arts film, a partially fictionalized judo biopic based on prominent judoka Shiro Saigo (Chiba), the second student of judo founder Jigoro Kano (Naoki Sugiura). Akira Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata is based on the same character and shares some scenes, but Judo for Life focuses more on the martial arts philosophy and training, including scenes depicting how the protagonist learned his famous cat-like landing, coined the term judo, and trained with Tsunejiro Tomita (Hideo Mutota). There’s also a slight yakuza film influence (Theatre of Life had came out just 1.5 months prior). The port street ambush scene is found in both films, but in Judo for Life it’s not Kano but a travelling yakuza (Hideo Murata in a small supporting role) that jumps out of the rickshaw. Entertaining and beautifully old fashioned, one does however with there were more shades of gray between good and evil, and a stronger ninkyo-like moral / honour conflict. Also, the ending melee has Chiba play the second fiddle to his master and box office draw Murata, who is misleadingly given first billing in the film and advertising materials.
