I thought I was gaining a yakuza screen gem. Alas, It was a turd. An enjoyable turd, as far as turds go....I was psyched when the film starts with a gun battle. My eyebrow raised in suspicion when I noticed neither blood nor squibs from the 10 victims. I said to myself, "It's the late 60's, they were a tad squeamish on the blood...it'll still be violent." Boy, was I wrong.
Although visually stylish, it was pretty cheesey and mundane. An annoying jazz-pop score bounced around as our star grimaced across the screen, looking more like a man with the runs than a man on. Tajima is a freelance PI who wants in on the shady underdealings of the underworld. Thus, he convinces the police to let him go undercover and work his way into this new mysterious gang. He manages to find his way into their cool garage, complete with hatches and descending secret staircases...and that's it. The rest of the film, the yakuza are suspicious to the point of overkill. Any self-respecting mobster would have dumped his body long ago if they were that unsure of their new recruit's credibility. Throw in more faces of Tajima's incontinence and a mob moll who's a virgin because her sugar daddy is impotent, a really cool machine gun that's really only used to shoot through concrete (as opposed to mobsters), 2 incompetent sidekicks, and you get this.
I gave this 2 stars out of mercy. I was expecting better fare, more along the lines of Kinji Fukasaku and Bunta Sugawara...but no. I guess if you like that "Tokyo Drifter" garbage, you'll like this. Don't be fooled and don't say I ain't warned you...