Tag Archives: Eitarô Ozawa

Dasso yugi / Jail Breakers (1976) Kôsaku Yamashita, Shin’ichi Chiba, Haruko Wanibuchi, Eitarô Ozawa, Action, Crime

Dasso yugi AKA Jail Breakers (1976)
The film is packed with nice stunts throughout, but the screenplay could be better. After escaping the prison Chiba teams up with a bunch of thugs, who design prison escapes for money. Unfortunately trust and loyalty are unknown concepts to these men who take turns deceiving each other. The endless “who’s-cheating-who” game has been done better in other films, and sometimes the writing is downright sloppy: when a carefully planned escape operation fails, Chiba simply steals a fire engine and drives away without anyone noticing! It also feels that director Kosaku Yamashita, who made his name with yakuza films, was a bit out of his element here. However, even with these weaknesses it’s an entertaining action comedy which compares favourably against some of the later, similar Yasaku Matsuda films like Execution Game (1978) and No Grave for Us (1979). The focus is on stunts and comedy.
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Akutô / A Scoundrel (1965) Kaneto Shindô, Nobuko Otowa, Kyôko Kishida, Eitarô Ozawa, Drama, Romance

Akuto (Kaneto Shindo, 1965)
A provincial warlord who has seized power after success in battle is our titular ‘scoundrel’. His court lady is one of those fallen down from her days in the imperial court and he intimidates her to help him seduce another ex-court woman now married to a smaller lord. She is a great beauty and his lust for her consumes him. However, true love cannot be corrupted by power and lust. The resulting tragedy unfolds as the wheel of dharma turns.
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