A painfully overcomplicated yakuza flick, but it gets by on good performances and fantastic direction. I could barely follow the plot - boiled down, it's a pretty simplistic story of a turf war. Akira Kobayashi stars as a gangster newly released from an 8 year prison stint. He immediately meets up with Jo Shishido outside of the prison. Kobayashi killed his brother in the turf war that landed him in prison, and Shishido has vowed to kill him. He doesn't succeed, and later they become allies when Kobayashi is appointed head of one wing of the gang, though Shishido still has vowed to kill him when all is said and done. There are a lot of recognizable character actors here. Meiko Kaji also appears as Kobayashi's love interest - it's a small role, though. I didn't even recognize her until about halfway through the film. The meek love interest is just not a good fit for her. The fight sequences are all fantastic, even if I did find myself thinking "Now who's this being gutted now?" most of the time.