Retaliation

Action, Crime · 1968NOT RATED

In 1969 future sexploitation specialist Yasuharu Hasebe (Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) teamed up with the inimitable Jô Shishido (Branded to Kill, Youth of the Beast) for a follow up to their yakuza hit Massacre Gun. A tale of gang warfare that features a raft of the period’s most iconic stars, Akira Kobayashi (Battles Without Honor and Humanity, The Flowers and the Angry Waves) is a yakuza lieutenant who emerges from jail to find his gang dispersed and his ageing boss in his sickbed. Shishido is the rival waiting to kill him and a young Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) is the girl caught in the crossfire. Gritty and cynical, Retaliation is a hardboiled precursor to Kinji Fukasaku’s revisionist yakuza pictures of the 1970s.

Starring

Muneo Ueda, Akira Kobayashi, Jō Shishido, Yoshihiro Ishimatsu, Tamio Kawachi, Yasuharu Hasebe, Tatsuya Fuji, Akiyoshi Satani, Hideaki Nitani, Tetsuro Nakagawa

Director

Yasuharu Hasebe

Producer

Tetsuro Nakagawa