OPENING DECEMBER 16 AT METROGRAPH IN NYC
AND ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMA IN LOS ANGELES
ON JANUARY 13
One of the best-kept secrets of Japanese genre filmmaking in the 1960s and ’70s, Hideo Gosha began his studio career in 1964 and quickly emerged as a peerless specialist in chambara (samurai) films. A few years later, a contemporary twist on the chambara formula appeared in the form of the yakuza film, and Gosha proved equally adept with modern dress action. Whether the weapons of choice were swords or snub-nose revolvers, few could match Gosha at his best for economic storytelling and sheer velocity—and these are three of his very best. All films have been restored in 2k from original broadcast elements.
SAMURAI WOLF
1966, 75 min, DCP
Deadly wandering ronin Kiba (Isao Natsuyagi) steps in to play the bodyguard of a blind woman that’s the target of another hired swordsman of equal skill in Gosha’s lean, inventively photographed, and tightly plotted black-and-white chambara, which packs a surprising number of memorable, well-developed characters into a trim runtime, and features some of the most vicious swordplay seen in any samurai film of its day, much of it caught in gorgeous slow-motion.
SAMURAI WOLF 2: HELL CUT
1967, 72 min, DCP
Isao Natsuyagi returns as the “Furious Wolf” Kiba, this time in the company of a group of condemned prisoners en route to execution, and Toshiaki Tsushima’s Spaghetti Western-like score from the first Samurai Wolf is back as well! Gosha’s fleet-footed, carnage-packed sequel faces Kiba with criminal gold speculators, a vengeful dojo operator, and the troubling memories stirred up by his encounter with a murderer who’s the spitting image of the Wolf’s long-dead father.
VIOLENT STREETS
1974, 96 min, DCP
Sometimes regarded as not only among Gosha’s finest films but among the finest yakuza films ever made, Violent Streets is a brutal, gripping, kinetic action yarn in which a retired Tokyo boss (Noburo Ando) is forced to go back into battle after a Kansai syndicate starts making moves on his home turf. From a frantic brawl staged in a chicken coop to a laidback gunman who joins a fatal firefight without ever taking off his headphones, classic scenes and characters follow fast on one another’s heels in this pulpy, pungent thriller.
