A Spectacular Showdown
One of the great stories from Japan’s rich history comes to life in this true tale of the bloody showdown between two rival yakuza gangs in the 1840’s. The battle between Boss Sukegoro of Iioka and Boss Shigezo of Sasagawa has been portrayed many times, most notably in the first Zatoichi film, where the blind man befriends the tubercular ronin Hirate Miki, before cutting him down in one of the great duels in cinema history. This all-star extravaganza pulls out all the stops, with appearances by virtually all of the great actors and actresses from Toei’s studio at the time. Ichikawa Utaemon’s portrayal of the kind-hearted, noble yakuza boss Shigezo of Sasagawa contrasts sharply with the devious Sukegoro of Iioka. Corrupt as he may have been, his men were all willing to give up their lives for him.
Release Date
August 9, 1959Runtime
114 minGenres
ActionDirected by
Yasushi SasakiScreenplay by
Hajime TakaiwaLanguage
JapaneseBudget
$0Revenue
$0Status
ReleasedCast
Utaemon Ichikawa
Sasagawa no ShigezoChiyonosuke Azuma
Kiyotaki no SakichiKinnosuke Nakamura
Sunosaki no MasakichiKoinosuke Onoe
Kotaro Satomi
Tomisaburō Wakayama
Sentarō Fushimi
Keiko Yukishiro
Satomi Oka
Keiko Okawa
Hiromi Hanazono
Chizuru Kitagawa
Hashizo Okawa
Nadare no IwamatsuChiezō Kataoka
Chuji KunisadaMichimaro Otabe
Kajō Onoe
Tetsunosuke Tsukigata
Kyoji Sugi
Shunji Sakai
Eijirō Kataoka
Hibari Misora
Yumiko Hasegawa
Eiko Maruyama
Harue Akagi
Shinobu Chihara
Kogiku Hanayagi
Kensaku Hara
Kusuo Abe
Ushio Akashi
Koji Arima
Kenji Kusumoto
Hiroshi Kato
Yoshio Yoshida
Shin Tokudaiji
Kunio Kaga
Denjirō Ōkōchi
Kenji Susukida
Isao Yamagata
Eitarō Shindō
Ryūnosuke Tsukigata
Ryutaro Otomo
Kodayu Ichikawa
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