Jirocho Fuji 1 1959 Written by Fuji Yahiro and directed by Kazuo Mori. Kazuo directed over 90 films between 1037 and 1976, he directed a bit of TV after that, finally retiring in 1980. He passed away 9 years later at the age of 78. He directed 10 episodes of the Zatoichi TV series from 1974 and three of the Zatoichi films with Shintarô Katsu.
Jirocho Fuji is a Japanese action film about the legendary yakuza Shimizu Jirocho, the biggest Boss in Shimizu. There are dozen's of movies about him. He's played here by Kazuo Hasegawa, who started acting in 1927 and retired in 1968, he passed away in 1984 at the age of 76. I think the only other movies I've seen him in are Gate Of Hell and The Loyal 47 Ronin. It's hard to find copies of Japanese films before the 60s with subtitles.
This film takes place in the middle part of his life, he's a raising boss in the city of Shimizu. He's a much more level headed man than the other yakuza bosses and one less prone to cheat his customers and murder his fellow yakuza to gain an advantage. He'll fight when he has to and he wins. He's got to fight a couple of other bosses who want his territory.
Raizô Ichikawa plays a friend of his called Nikichi and Shintarô Katsu plays his one-eyed best pal Ishimatsu. Shintarô adds some humor to the movie as his character is a bit of drunk with a tendency to get into fights. Lucky for him he's a good fighter. The action scenes are fairly good, plenty of sword waving and people slashing.
The copy on YouTube isn't very good but it's watchable. There's a link in the title above. Same as the sequel below.
Jirocho Fuji 2 The Chivalrous 1960 Written by Fuji Yahiro and directed by Kazuo Mori.
More yakuza action between Jirocho and other rival yakuza gangs. Some of these guys are absolute scum. Nice to see them put down.
I was entertained by both films but wished the video quality was better.
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