President Gambling - Sochoto Baku

Japanese: 総長賭博 - そうちょうとばく

This film, officially titled Gambling Boss Tobaku (1968), is one of the pinnacle masterpieces of Toei's yakuza films, which flourished in the 1960s. With a meticulous structure to the script by Kasahara Kazuo, who would later write the screenplay for the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (1973-74), the elegant visuals of director Yamashita Kosaku, and a superb performance by the lead actor Tsuruta Koji, the film depicts a drama of human relationships surrounding the succession of a gambling family's head, set in Tokyo in the early Showa period, in a solemn and beautiful manner, leading Mishima Yukio to exclaim, "What a tragedy, engineered to the brink within absolute affirmation."

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

1960年代に隆盛を誇った東映やくざ映画の頂点をなす傑作の1本で，正式題名は《博奕打ち･総長賭博》(1968)。のちに《仁義なき戦い》シリーズ(1973‐74)の脚本を書く笠原和夫の脚本の緻密（ちみつ）な構成，山下耕作監督の流麗な画面づくり，主役の鶴田浩二の名演によって，博徒一家総長の跡目相続をめぐる人間関係のドラマが，昭和初期の東京を舞台に，荘重に美しく描き出され，三島由紀夫をして〈何という絶対的肯定の中にぎりぎりに仕組まれた悲劇であろう。

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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