Third generation successor

Japanese: 三代目襲名 - さんだいめしゅうめい

One of the greatest masterpieces of Toei's yakuza films that took the world by storm in the 1960s, officially titled Meiji Kyokakuden: Third Generation Succession (1965), was directed by Kato Tai. The original story was by Kamiya Gohei, and the screenplay was by Murao Akira and Suzuki Norifumi. It depicts a man who takes over as the third generation head of a yakuza family, giving up his love for an unfortunate prostitute due to the obligations of his world, and then, in the midst of the waves of modernization in the Meiji era, he is torn between his yakuza career and honest civil engineering work, until finally, he attacks the enemy camp. The conflict between the rules of the yakuza world and love, and the final attack are common patterns in many yakuza films, but with Kato Taiichi's fixed low-angle camerawork, the screen is always filled with tense beauty, and while the tragic relationship between a man and a woman is depicted in a dignified manner, it paradoxically sings the praises of love.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

1960年代に一世をふうびした東映やくざ映画の中の最高傑作の一つで，正式題名は《明治俠客伝･三代目襲名》(1965)。監督は加藤泰。原作は紙屋五平で，脚本は村尾昭，鈴木則文による。やくざ一家の三代目を継いだ男が，渡世上の義理ゆえに薄幸の女郎との愛を断念し，明治の近代化の波の中，やくざ稼業と堅気の土木業とのはざまで苦悩にまみれ，忍耐のあげく敵陣に殴り込むまでを描く。やくざ渡世の掟と愛との相克，ラストの殴り込みは，多くのやくざ映画に共通するパターンであるが，加藤泰一流のローアングルに固定したカメラワークのもと，画面がつねに緊迫した美しさにあふれ，男と女の関係の惨劇を格調高く描く中で，逆説的に愛の想念をうたい上げている。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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