New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss's Head
| New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss's Head | |
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| Directed by | Kinji Fukasaku |
| Written by |
Susumu Saji Kōji Takada |
| Starring |
Bunta Sugawara Meiko Kaji Tsutomu Yamazaki |
| Music by | Toshiaki Tsushima |
| Cinematography | Tōru Nakajima |
| Distributed by | Toei |
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Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss's Head (Japanese: 新仁義なき戦い 組長の首 Hepburn: Shin Jingi Naki Tatakai: Kumicho no Kubi?) is a 1975 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It is the unrelated sequel to New Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1974) and was followed by the third and final unrelated film in the series, New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss's Last Days (1976).
The film details some of the conflicts between the Owada family and the Kyoei Group over the control of the Kanmon Straits in Kyushu. The vagabond Shuji Kuroda has promised to take the fall for the murder of Iwao Masaki, head of the rival Kyoei Group, that is being planned by Tetsuya Kusunoki. Kusunoki nearly misses the scheduled time of the hit because of a sudden urge to go shoot heroin and during the hit itself his gun fails to fire any bullets, forcing Kuroda to wrestle Iwao Masaki's gun from him and to kill the head of the Kyoei Group with his own weapon.
Kuroda serves seven years in prison for the crime. In prison he fights off a group of inmates attempting to rape another inmate and befriends the victim, who is released earlier and greets Kuroda upon his release together with another young man, Akira Kobayashi, both of whom promise their loyalty to Shuji Kuroda. He returns to Kyushu and finds Kusunoki in a deep state of heroin addiction and abandoned by the Owada family. Together they go to the Owada family's headquarters to request Kuroda's reward for serving the prison sentence but Tokuji Owada, boss of the family, refuses and only pays 100,000 yen instead of the agreed five million yen.
Kusunoki takes Kuroda to the boss's mistress Shinako's house, crashes his car into it, and makes her dig a grave while they demand the 5 million from Owada. The next day one of Owada's men, Aihara, meets with Kuroda but cannot pay the full five million and instead offers 500,000-600,000 yen's worth of heroin, which he must sell on Akamatsu's territory to earn any money at all. During the attempt to sell the heroin he recognizes Akamatsu's woman Aya as the same woman meeting with Aihara in a hotel earlier. Akamatsu's men steal the heroin and Akira Kobayashi murders Akamatsu but dies at the scene, leading the police to seize the heroin found at the scene and leaving Kuroda with nothing. A large group of Akamatsu's men soon arrive in the city looking for vengeance but Aihara promises to settle the matter. Aihara later meets with Kuroda in the presence of the boss and gives him the full five million, explaining that he had plotted for Kuroda to kill Akamatsu for his desire to go independent after becoming successful under Owada. Kuroda demands extra compensation for the additional murder of Akamatsu and Owada agrees to pay for Akira Kobayashi's funeral. At the funeral it is revealed that his real name was Shigeru Sasaki.
Aihara takes Owada to a Ginza bar he owns that is being run by Akamatsu's widow Aya, who becomes his new woman. Owada warns Kuroda that Aya is bad luck and every man who is with her ends up dead, though he might still like to sleep with her once. Owada's "big brother" Asajiro Nozaki, head of the Nozaki family of Osaka, arrives and pressures Owada to name Aihara as his successor. Instead he names Izeki as his successor and participates in a bonding ceremony with Kuroda in front of the others as witnesses, against the protests of Aihara. Kuroda and Izeki also participate in a bonding ceremony and become sworn brothers.
Owada later visits his daughter Misako at Kusunoki's bar and expresses an interest in retiring but she will not return home with him. Kusunoki visits Aihara's bar and demands money from Kuroda then returns home to find that Misako has thrown away all of his heroin, which drives him into a rage. Misako returns to her father, who has Aihara drive Kusunoki out of town with orders to leave. Aihara confides in Kusunoki that Owada plans to marry Misako off to Kuroda and demands that Kusunoki kill Owada and Kuroda in order to keep his own life. He shoots Owada with the gun Aihara gave him but does not shoot Kuroda and is taken to an insane asylum.
At Owada's funeral Nozaki convinces Izeki to pass his nomination as successor to Aihara, who takes over the family. As part of the normal process of cleaning house it is suggested that Aihara have Kuroda killed, against which Kuroda's sworn brother Izeki protests. Instead it is agreed that Izeki will break ties with Kuroda, who will be expelled from the family and sent away. Kuroda is stripped of his pin but vows revenge against Aihara and his followers.
Kuroda learns from overhearing a phone call with Aya that Aihara will be driving to Osaka soon so Kuroda and Sugawa surprise him on the road along the way and attempt to kill him but fail. Aihara calls for help from the Morimoto family of Hiroshima and they send Aihara off in a convoy of five cars. Kuroda and his men attack the convoy but are warded off. Aihara and Izeki discuss how to proceed when Izeki receives a call from Kuroda telling him that Kuroda can see him and is coming to take Aihara's life. Kusunoki gets himself arrested but is only described as a yakuza in the newspaper, leading Aihara to believe that Kuroda has been arrested and causing him to let his guard down. One of Kuroda's men then visits Aihara's bar and shoots Aihara dead. Kuroda calls Izeki and congratulates him on being in a position to now become the new boss.
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