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Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: January 17th, 2023.
Director: Kosaku Yamashita
Cast: Nobuo Kaneko, Tomisaburo Wakayama, Koji Tsuruta
Year: 1968
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Big Time Gambling Boss – Movie Review:
Kosaku Yamashita’s 1968 film, Big Time Gambling Boss, takes place in Tokyo in 1934. The film literally opens with Arakawa, the aging boss of a yakuza gang, lying in bed surrounded by his confidants. Far too sick to continue to lead the gang, he needs to pick a replacement while he still can.
The man that he picks is Shinjirô Nakai (Kôji Tsuruta) but Nakai himself feels unsure of this choice and suggests the older and more experienced Tetsuo Matsuda (played by an instantly recognizable Tomisaburô Wakayama, famous for the Lone Wolf & Cub movies). The catch? Matsuda is currently in jail and those above Nakai in the organization don’t care to wait for his release. As a compromise, they choose Kôhei Ishido (Hiroshi Nawa), a younger recruit who they figure they can easily bend to their will should the need arise.
Things are fine, until Matsuda is released from prison, at which point a power struggle starts to form, eventually reaching a boiling point as the different factions involved all find themselves gunning for the top spot. Matsuda is told he can’t go against the will of the clan, but he doesn’t quite see it that way. We’ll leave it at that in an effort to avoid spoilers.
Written by Kazuo Kasahara, who also wrote Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Cops Vs. Thugs and plenty of other yakuza films from the sixties through the early nineties, Big Time Gambling Boss is actually the fourth film in the ten film Bakuchi uchi (Gambling Den) series but you don’t need to be familiar with the other entries in the run to enjoy and appreciate this film. Dealing heavily with the themes of loyalty and betrayal, mainstays of the yakuza film genre, Big Time Gambling Boss is a very well-made film with very strong production values. This Toei picture features great sets and locations, strong costume work, a solid score from Toshiaki Tsushima (whose music for Kinji Fukasaku’s The Yagyu Conspiracy found its way into the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume 1), the movie also benefits from excellent cinematography from Nagaki Yamagishi that, when combined, do a nice job of building dramatic tension at key moments in the story.
Kosaku Yamashita’s is very strong. The movie builds quite well, introducing characters with care and attention to detail so that as the conflict that becomes central to the storyline starts to increase, the movie becomes more interesting and tenser because of it. He also coaxes excellent performances out of his central actors. Kôji Tsuruta is excellent in his part, believably portraying all of the drama and conflict that his character has to deal with as the story evolves in a manner that makes his character, if not relatable (assuming that most reading this aren’t’ yakuza!), at least understandable. Tomisaburô Wakayama throws his weight around in the movie really well, playing the heavy (not unusual for him) with plenty of strangely compelling charisma and just crafting with his work an eminently watchable character. Hiroshi Nawa also does very strong work in the film, and if he doesn’t have quite the same screen presence as the other two, (few actors of this era in Japanese cinema had the same screen presence as Tomisaburô Wakayama!) he’s still very good in the role and a definite asset to the cast and the production as a whole.
Big Time Gambling Boss – Blu-ray Review:
Big Time Gambling Boss is presented on a 50GB disc, framed at 2.35.1 widescreen and presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition, with the feature allotted 27.6GBs of space. By any standard, this is a very nice transfer. Picture quality is strong throughout, offering impressive detail along with good depth and texture. Skin tones look nice and lifelike and we get good black levels as well. There aren’t any problems with noise reduction or edge enhancement and the picture is free of obvious compression artifacts. As far as print damage goes, there’s virtually none to discuss, but the film does retain the natural film grain you’d want it to. All in all, the movie looks great on Blu-ray.
The film gets a 24-bit LPCM Mono option in the original Japanese language with subtitles offered up in English only. The track is clean, clear and nicely balanced throughout. For an older mono track, there’s decent depth here, mostly noticeable when it comes to the film’s score. The subtitles are easy to read and free of any obvious typographical errors.
Extras start off with Ninkyo 101, a featurette with Mark Schilling, the author of The Yakuza Movie Book, which runs for fifteen minute and goes over the history of the 'chivalry' films. This goes over yakuza hierarchy and its significance to these stories, early yakuza movies and figures that influenced them, how Japanese politics had an effect on yakuza films, Toei's involvement in the post-war yakuza movie trend, the importance of Kinji Fukasaku's films, key actors and directors involved with the era, the anti-establishment themes that the movies deal with, how the second wave of OV (straight to video) yakuza movies reinvented the genre and Takashi Miike's work in the genre, Takahi Kitano's work in the genre and some of the modern filmmakers still making moves about cops versus gangsters. It’s an interesting talk worth listening to, especially for those who may not have as much experience with yakuza films as it serves as an excellent primer.
Up next is Serial Gambling, a visual essay by genre expert Chris D, the author of Gun And Sword: An Encyclopedia Of Japanese Gangster Films 1955 - 1980, that talks about the origins of the feature attraction and its place in the Toei gangster movie pantheon. Here, over twenty-five minutes, he provides an admittedly spoiler-filled talk about the conflict between brotherhood, duty and honor and one's moral compass, the specifics of the series' name, the main cast members of these films as well as the directors involved with them, what makes Big Time Gambling Boss different from the other films in the series, the themes that the movie deals with, some of the key plot points and their impact on the story, Kosaku Yamashita's directing style and his career overall. It's a pretty deep dive into the film's history and it does a great job of peeling back the layers of the movie and its history.
Finishing up the extras is a gallery of promotional imagery, a trailer (“Bloody tales of life and death! A yakuza massacre!”), static menus and chapter selection options.
Note that as this review is based off of a test disc we can’t comment on packaging or inserts or confirm that it will match finished, retail product. Should finished product be made available, we’ll update this review accordingly.
Big Time Gambling Boss - The Final Word:
Big Time Gambling Boss is tense, exciting, dramatic and violent. It’s a very well-directed and well-acted movie that benefits from a great cast. Radiance Films’ has done a very nice job bringing this film to Blu-ray with a great presentation and some genuinely interesting extra features as well. A very strong release for great film.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Big Time Gambling Boss Blu-ray screen caps!
