Thugs of Shinjuku (1970)

• 64%
• 1970
• Crime
• Shin Takakuwa
• Bunta Sugawara
• Makoto Satō
• Shingo Yamashiro

After release from jail, Katsumata forms a rag-tag gang calling themselves the Shinjuku Brothers. His partner and co-leader is a sleazy gambling addict he met in a nightclub. Actually, they got to know each other in a comic drunken brawl as opponents. After slugging it out for quite a while, the two men admire each other's toughness and become 'Kyodai' (equal brothers). The gang is made up of 'Chinpira' or 'Yotamono' (the lowest grade of gangsters, basically petty thugs), who spend their time smashing things and hitting people. Because they are muscling in on existing territory, they quickly make enemies. When the Brothers provocatively attend the funeral of a local gangster, they narrowly avoid a beating, held back only by a senior boss who tells them that "We, as Yakuza, are the rubbish of the world, but we still hold to a moral code". The boss of bosses invites them to join a respected local council of warlords. Katsumata is suspicious of why such powerful men would extend an invitation to lowlife like himself. Their plan is pretty clear. But how will the Brothers react...