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Big Time Gambling Boss (blu ray) standard edition Brand New Sealed Radiance Films

Big Time Gambling Boss (1968) directed by Kosaku Yamashita world wide blu ray debut.

An atmospheric tale of gangland intrigue written by Kazuo Kasahara (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) and starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, (Lone Wolf and Cub, The Bounty Hunter Trilogy) and genre legend Koji Tsuruta, Big Time Gambling Boss is one of the all-time classics of the yakuza genre.

Tokyo, 1934. Gang boss Arakawa is too ill and a successor must be named. The choice falls on Nakai, but being an outsider he refuses and suggests senior clansman Matsuda instead.

But Matsuda is in jail and the elders won’t wait for his release, so they appoint the younger and more malleable Ishido to take the reins. Clan honour and loyalties are severely tested when Matsuda is released, resulting in an increasingly violent internal strife.

Paul Schrader called it the richest and most complex film of its type, while novelist Yukio Mishima hailed it as a masterpiece. Radiance Films is proud to present this crucial re-discovery for the first time ever on Blu-ray.

Director: Kosaku Yamashita

Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Koji Tsuruta, Sumiko Fuji

Genre: Yakuza action

Language: Japanese (with English subtitles)

Country: Japan

Year: 1968

Runtime: 95minutes

Special Features:

Serial Gambling: A video essay by Chris D., author of Gun and Sword: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980, on Big Time Gambling Boss's origins in the Toei studio's serialized yakuza movie production and what sets the film apart (2022)
Ninkyo 101: In this video essay, Mark Schilling, author of The Yakuza Movie Book, delves into the history and impact of the classical style of yakuza film, the ninkyo eiga or "chivalry films" (2022)
Gallery of original promotional stills
Trailer