The film is set in Tokyo in the thirties, where gang boss Arakawa is ill, and a successor must be named. The choice falls on Nakai, but being an outsider, he refuses and suggests senior clansman Matsuda instead. But Matsuda is in jail, and the elders won’t wait for his release, so they appoint the younger and more malleable Ishido to take the reins. Clan honor and loyalties are severely tested when Matsuda is released, resulting in increasingly violent internal strife.
Yukio Mishima, the legendary novelist turned insurrectionist, championed “Big Time Gambling Boss,” stating it was “a Greek tragedy of Japan.” Similarly, Paul Schrader (one of my favorite filmmakers and critics) called this “the best Toei Yakuza films” and “an art house rose to bloom from its exploitation roots.” Schrader really knows his Japanese cinema, so that’s saying something. I could not agree more with both of those icons.
Director Kôsaku Yamashita, aka Shogun (as his crew loved to call him), specialized in Yakuza films. Throughout his career, he focused on Yakuza stories that were usually set during pre-WWII. Avoiding shaky handheld cameras, which most of his colleagues preferred, Yamashita employed steady wide shots. With “Big Time Gambling Boss,” Yamashita made his best – as well as one of the best films within the Japanese Gangster genre.
The high-definition transfer and restoration overseen by distributor Radiance look exceptional. The sets, outfits, and other wonderful details pop on the screen, as well as the moody shadows, which are clean and never shroud a character in unintended darkness. It is also very cool to see these old gangsters wielding katanas instead of guns. The swords add a level of sophisticated action and the film surprisingly never falls into a familiar samurai flick.
I grew up watching Takeshi Kitano’s humorously offbeat yet always violent Yakuza films. Throughout his career, the comedian/filmmaker Kitano slowed down the story and movement – instead, he highlighted the dialogue and tension. With static camerawork and gallows humor, you never knew when the powder keg was going to blow up in a Kitano outing. Having a plethora of films under his belt, if you haven’t seen any, I recommend “Sonantine.” In “Big Time Gambling Boss,” Yamashita keeps the pace engaging, humming to a great cinematic rhythm throughout.
Taking place in Tokyo in 1934, “Big Time Gambling Boss” begins with an ailing Yakuza leader or an Oyabun who must select someone to take over the powerful Tenryu Clan. The choice comes down to three people: Ishido, the Oyabun’s son-in-law, the likable outsider from Osaka Nakai, and the imprisoned Matsuda, soon to be released on parole. Although he does not want the promotion, Ishido is ultimately selected to lead the clan, and they plan a large gambling party to celebrate him. This move upsets the hotheaded Matsuda, that just spent nearly five years doing a bid for the Clan.
The only two women with speaking roles in “Big Time Gambling Boss” are actually well-written and important for the story. With thoughtful characterization, they can succeed since the material does not just box them into generic female roles.
Before Ishido’s big party, the various customs of the ancient-practicing gangsters are displayed with little sentimentality. These ceremonies are shown with minimal artistic flair, and the costumes and sets speak for themselves. In these aesthetically pleasing spaces, the camera slowly takes us inside this criminal world that dates back to the 18th century. These ceremonies reminded me of Johnny To’s equally brilliant “Election 1 & 2.” In To’s absorbing Triad gangster outings, he similarly captures the ancient rituals performed by powerful criminals that also date back to the 18th century.
After going through the customs, Yamashita skewers the Yakuza’s contradictory code of chivalry and honor. Yamashita posits that the Yakuza code is hollow and inevitably undermines itself. For instance, in one scene, Matsuda berates the Clan for following the Yakuza code stating a blood successor should be promoted when his high-ranking status in the Clan should make him the next Oyabun. The code also overlooks the scenarios of Matsuda’s imprisonment, which was a sacrifice. This code further sublimates the people into helpless cogs grinding and lashing against one another instead of attacking the system causing it. Also, the Yakuza’s frustrating bureaucracy is displayed humorously and insightfully. The boss’s underling is the face of this bureaucracy – sporting a Hitler stache – he is such a cantankerous character whenever he speaks for the Oyabun that you want to punch him and rewrite the darn code.
Matsuda is welcomed home by some happy faces, while others wish he would have just stayed in prison. Nakai feels indebted to the clan since the Oyabun kept him out of prison. Unfortunately, his sworn brother, Matsuda, is completely enraged after an assassination attempt on his life. After Matsuda calls out the unworthy Ishido, the Clan forces the former prisoner back under house arrest. If Matsuda leaves his house arrest, he will be expelled from the Clan. This obviously further strains the already tense situation with the upcoming power vacuum. Things get even more complicated when Oyabun’s sworn brother Senba shows up. He also has his plans for power and begins making political moves.
Most filmmakers would lose their audience or their sight of the story with this dense plot, but Yamashita keeps everything together thanks to the intelligently succinct screenplay of Kazuro Kasahara (writer of the “Battles Without Honor & Humanity” saga). The pair maintain a healthy balance of important dialogue and various moments of harrowing bloodshed.
One of “Big Time Gambling Boss’s” most touching aspects is Nakai and Matsuda’s sworn brotherhood represented in the form of a teacup saucer. Nakai smashes the saucer at a cemetery when a tragic occurrence divides the two old friends. In most directors’ hands, this scene would have been unintentionally hilarious but Yamashita nails the emotional scene, gorgeously shot in the rain. I cannot recall being so moved by an ordinary object being broken in a film. After losing his brotherhood, Matsuda is dead-set on stopping Ishido’s ascension to the throne. Yamashita’s view of the traditional ways is that they are cruel or incompetent, while the newer generation struggles to adapt or die under them.
Now available on a Limited Edition Blu-ray for the first time
