Gangster VIP / The Velvet Hustler

GANGSTER VIP (BURAI YORI – DAI KANBU), 1968, Nikkatsu, 93 min. Dir. Toshio Masuda. Tetsuya Watari is the young Goro, born into poverty, seeing his little sister and hooker mother die of disease while still a child. All grown up, Goro is called to a bar to defend his boss, but finds that his friend (Kyosuke Machida) from reform school is the assailant. Wounding Machida with his knife lands him in stir; several years later when he’s released, he’s catapulted back into a mob war with unprincipled new boss on the block, Yoshiro Aoki. In Japanese with English subtitles.

THE VELVET HUSTLER (KURENAI NO NAGARE BOSHI), 1967, Janus Films, 97 min. Dir. Toshio Masuda. Tetsuya Watari is a free-wheeling hitman who whistles while he works and likes to sit in a rocking chair on an old pier when he’s not boffing babes or offing his expendable human targets. Tatsuya Fuji does a rare turn here as a dogged police detective. In Japanese with English subtitles.