Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

CHUTARO OF BANBA (Banba no Chutaro)

1955 – B & W – 86 minutes – REMASTERED Academy Standard (4:3)

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Starring: WAKAYAMA Tomisaburo

MORISHIGE Hisaya, YAMADA Isuzu

SHIPPING BEGINS TUESDAY, February 23

Original Story by: HASEGAWA Shin

Directed by: NAKAGAWA Nobuo

Based on the play ”Mabuta no Haha” by famed author Hasegawa Shin, this is the first major starring role for Wakayama Tomisaburo. This heartfelt story concerns a wandering gambler from Banba by the name of Chutaro. Set during the Tenpo Period, Chutaro runs afoul of Boss Sukegoro of Iioka, prior to the great showdown that formed the centerpiece of the first Zato Ichi film. Pursued by vengeance seeking swordsmen, Chutaro displays his phenomenal martial art skills, much as a preview of his internationally famous Baby Cart series. Abandoned as a child, he seeks to find his long lost mother, while at the same time fighting off numerous attacks by Iioka’s men.

HOODLUM PRIEST (Yakuza Bozu)

1969 – Color – 84 minutes – REMASTERED Anamorphic Widescreen (16:9)

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Starring: KATSU Shintaro

OGAWA Mayumi, NARITA Mikio

SHIPPING BEGINS TUESDAY, February 23

Directed by: YASUDA Kimiyoshi

The first film in the 2 part series about Ryuzen, a renegade martial-arts priest who, in addition to breaking all the commandments against sex and gambling, opens his own gambling den in direct defiance of the local yakuza boss. Exciting action and a twisty plot this movie breaks new barriers in Japanese cinema. Katsu Shintaro is superb in one of his better non-Zato Ichi roles as he fights off the advances of a love-lorn woman and risks his life to defeat the powerful gambling boss who has a stranglehold on the town. Presented in a stunning 16:9 anamorphic widescreen presentation this is entertainment at its best!

HOODLUM PRIEST & THE GOLD MINT
(Zoku Yakuza Bozu)

1968 - color - 80 min. Letterbox 4:3

Starring: KATSU Shintaro

MATSUO Kayo, NAITO Taketoshi

Directed by: IKEHIRO Kazuo

In Daiei Films answer to the Shinkai - The Wicked Priest series, Katsu Shintaro plays a wayward priest having exciting misadventures across Japan.

It’s cross and double-cross in these further adventures of Ryuzen, the wayward priest played by Katsu Shintaro as he tries to help a woman who may be the heir to a fortune get what is rightfully hers. Matsuo Kayo, who first rose to international stardom as ‘the supreme ninja’ in “Shogun Assassin” gives an outstanding performance in this clever and exciting caper tale set in the samurai era. Ryuzen agrees to help her, but is he just in it for himself, and is she really who she claims to be? When they come up against Boss Tobei it’s a virtual free-for-all as everyone struggles to walk away with a fortune in gold!