Kanto Wanderer

Kanto Wanderer , Kant mushuku? , aka The Woman Sharper and Kanto Vagabonds is a 1963 Japanese yakuza film directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Akira Kobayashi, Chieko Matsubara, Daizaburo Hirata and Hiroko It. It was a programme picture produced by the Nikkatsu Company to fill out the second half of a double bill with Shohei Imamuras The Insect Woman. The film was based on a novel by Taiko Hirabayashi and had been previously adapted to the screen as Song from the Underworld 1956 by Suzukis mentor, Hiroshi Noguchi. The story involves Katsuta, a yakuza member who falls in love and is torn between giri duty and ninjo humanity. The Kanto of the title refers to a large plain on which Tokyo is located.

Katsuta chances upon Tatsuko, a con artist who he had encountered four years earlier when he had exposed her and her partner in a scam. Her partner had slashed him across the face in their escape and he bore the resulting scar in fond remembrance of her. Word that Hanako has gone missing reaches Katsuta and he inquires as to her whereabouts from Tetsu who feigns ignorance. They search for her without success and end up at a hotel. Katsuta suspects a gambling game there is fixed, but Tetsu insists on partaking and Katsuta follows. He again meets Tatsuko whose husband, Hachi Okaru, is winning the game by looking at the cards in the reflection of a cigarette case. When the others leave Okaru challenges Katsuta to a game and wins again by cheating.Diamond, who was in hiding with Tatsuko, his sister, emerges and demands to know what happened to Hanako, but Katsuta cannot tell him. Katsuta and Tatsuko fight their feelings for one another. Tensions rise between the Izu and Yoshida clan and Sato Izu begins to suspect Katsuta of disloyalty. Katsuta murders a group of rude gambler parlor attendees. Realizing he has nothing left to lose, he slays his way to a rival boss, demanding he give his fealty to Izu. When Izu is killed by Fuyu making Katsutas earlier actions moot, Katsuta states his actions were nonetheless honorable. ........

Source: Wikipedia