Kinji Fukasaku follows his Yakuza Papers series with a film focusing on the other side of the coin, a police department where the yen far outweighs the law. Bunta Sugawara plays a guy who emerged from the wreckage of postwar Japan and by a twist of fate wound up a cop instead of a yakuza. No matter, because he’s so corrupt he’s basically a criminal anyway, delivering witnesses to his yakuza buddies and looking the other way while they murder rival gangsters. But with a gang war breaking out, a new boss is installed: an anti-corruption police reformer. This bad lieutenant is going to have to choose sides, or get down and dirty.

Print courtesy of the Japan Foundation. Presented with the support of Japan Foundation New York.