Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Hiroshima Death Match
Unchained Melody: The Films of Meiko Kaji
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1h 39m
The celebrated Battles Without Honour and Humanity series continues with its second episode, Hiroshima Death Match, setting aside part one protagonist Shôzô Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) to follow a side story showcasing genre icons Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter) and Meiko Kaji (Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion). Hiroshima, 1950. Demobilised kamikaze pilot Shôji Yamanaka (Kinya Kitaôji) is released from prison and finds himself hungry and broke. Following a bust up with a local gang, he earns the psychotic wrath of local underboss Ôtomo (Chiba), but Yamanaka’s suicidal impulses are soon put to good use as a hitman for another gang, befriending series hero Shôzô Hirono in the process. Despite a budding but forbidden romance with the boss’s niece (Kaji), Yamanaka’s instability and recklessness soon begin to make him a dangerous liability. Taking an even more fatalistic turn than the series’ original entry, Hiroshima Death Match tells the story of the ultimate loser, based on a true story uncovered by screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara while interviewing real-life Hiroshima yakuza for part one. A prosperous era may be dawning for the protagonists, but one with new characters and new grudges to draw them more deeply into its world of blood and betrayal.
Up Next in Unchained Melody: The Films of Meiko Kaji
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Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable
1973 • Japan • Directed by Shun'ya Itô
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Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grud...
1973 • Japan • Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe
Once again on the lam, Matsu is helped by a strip club worker who holds a grudge against the detective who's trying to find her.
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New Battles Without Honor and Humanit...
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