Yabuki (Bunta Sugawara) is the toughest gangster out there, one who
machineguns his enemies and even kills his allies once they become a
burden to him - and the only person he trusts is his mother. But then he
steals a suitcase full of drugs from the Yakuza and the Yakuza tries
everything in its power to force him to return it, like killing his whole
gang and such. Finally they even come after him, but he is one step ahead,
slits his girlfriend's wrists (in a non-fatal way), has her call the
police and then has himself arrested for attempted murder, just when the
Yakuza close in to catch him. In prison, Yabuki has little problems
staying ahead of the competition, and many an enemy of his suddenly show
up dead, but the Yakuza even has some cops on its payroll, and one of them
interrogates Yabuki's mother until she dies ... and this news leaves
Yabuki devastated, so he and fellow inmate Negura plan a break-out - a
break-out that's facilitated by the police, since Negura is their
undercover man. Negura soon manages to weasel himself into Yabuki's
trust, and Yabuki even shows him where the drugs are hidden ... but then
Negura runs across an old adversary of his, who of course spills the beans
about Negura's real identity and Negura ends up dead. Finally, Yabuki
manages to find a boat that can bring him and his girlfriend to Korea ...
but at this point, the Yakuza has already taken his girlfriend hostage,
and when faced with htat fact, Yabuki first claims to no longer care about
her, which ends in her getting her throat slit, then Yabuki machineguns
down all of his adversaries before - himself gravely injured - dragging
off his girlfriend's body. Trashy but cool piece of Japanese
gangster cinema with Bunta Sugawara almost hauntingly c onvincing in the
lead role. Of course, whole chunks of this film's plot were stolen
directly from Raoul Walsh's classic White Heat from 1949, and of
course, Yokohama Underworld: Machinegun Dragon can't even dream
about matching that film's impact - but taken on its own, as a piece of
fast-moving genre entertainment, the film is still pretty enjoyable - if
of course a bit bland.
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