Friday saw the launch of a trio of Hideo Gosha classics over at Film Movement+ with Samurai Wolf, Samurai Wolf 2: Hell Cut, and yakuza thriller Violent Streets. All three titles were restored in 2K and previously screened for select theatrical audiences, and are now available for streaming.
One of the best-kept secrets of Japanese genre filmmaking in the 1960s and ’70s, 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.
Film Movement is taking the mantle on the films’ launches as of Friday. Alas, Film Combat Syndicate has a trio of exclusive clips from each film you can check out below, just above each description.
SAMURAI WOLF
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. (1966 | 75 minutes | Japanese with English Subtitles)
SAMURAI WOLF 2: HELL CUT
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. (1967 | 72 minutes | Japanese with English Subtitles)
VIOLENT STREETS
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. (1974 | 96 minutes | Japanese with English Subtitles)