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Ankokugai no Taiketsu
The Last Gunfight
Japan 1960
produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka for Toho
directed by Kihachi Okamoto
starring Toshiro Mifune, Koji Tsurata, Yoko Tsukasa, Seizaburo Kawazu, Tadao Nakamaru, Sachio Sakai, Jiro Makino, Koji Iwamoto, Keiko Muramatsu, Jun Tazaki, Makoto Sato, Akihiko Hirata, Hideyo Amamoto, Akira Wakamatsu, Hiroshi Takagi, Mickey Curtis, Yoshio Kosugi, Ichiro Nakatani, Yosuke Natsuki, Fuyuki Murakami, Yasuhisa Tsutsumi, Ren Yamamoto, Akemi Kita, Kaoru Hama, Akira Naoki, Ikio Sawamura, Hiroshi Hayashi, Shiro Tsuchiya, Akira Tani, Akira Sera, Yutaka Sada
story by Haruhiko Ohyabu, screenply by Shinichi Sekizawa, music by Masaru Sato
review by Mike Haberfelner
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When Fujioka (Toshiro Mifune), a "dirty cop" who has been
sent here from Tokyo for redemption, arrives in town and almost
immediately creates a situation in yakuza Ooka's (Seizaburo Kawazu)
nightclub, things seem off to a bad start, and it shouldn't surprise
anybody that he's soon enough on Ooka's payroll as a result. But there's
more to Fujioka than meets the eye - why else would he help Tetsuo (Koji
Tsuruta), a sworn enemy of Ooka since he has killed Tetsuo's wife,
repeatedly, even save his life on more than one occasion and provide him
with a good hide-out and plenty of warning when Ooka's men move in on him?
Why also would he show such an interest in one of Ooka's top girls, Sally
(Yoko Tsukasa), who believes Ooka has killed her brother? Heck, he even
tries to save Ooka's main rival, yakuza boss Kozuka's (Jun Tazaki) life -
but to no avail. After much to and fro, Ooka's men find out Fujioka is
not the dirty cop he was taken for but a literal gangbuster, and now they
go after him, Sally and Tetsuo, and they even manage to take Sally
hostage, but virtually at the last moment, Fujioka manages to turn the
tides and get the local police on Ooka's trail. He even manages to save
Sally, but then Tetsuo, driven by hate and hate alone, makes an extra
effort to kill Ooka himself, and now Fujioka has to go after Tetsuo
himself - who won't give himself up out of free will ... but when it comes
to their final shoot-out, Tetsuo shoots another gunman who wants to shoot
Fujioka, even if that causes Fujioka to pull the trigger and kill him by
mistake ... Pretty much a run-of-the mill gangster movie of the
dirty-cop variety - which is not to say this is a bad film, as it's
well-played, well-paced and filled with colourful characters. Seriously,
if you want to have a "yakuza evening" and not strain your brain
too much, this one's definitely lots of fun to watch - but it simply lacks
that "certain something" that would make The Last Gunfight
anything special.
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