Akai hankachi (1964)

Director:

Toshio Masuda

Writers:

Toshio Masuda (writer)
Ei Ogawa (writer)

Release Date:

3 January 1964 (Japan)

Genre:

Action

Plot:

A hot-shot detective in Yokohama kills a witness during a drug investigation. He flees to the countryside and evades his past for several years...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Explosion | Gun | Investigation | Unrequited Love

Cast

Yûjirô Ishihara
Ruriko Asaoka
Hideaki Nitani
Nobuo Kaneko
Shinsuke Ashida
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tamio Kawaji

Also Known As:

Red Handkerchief (literal English title)

Runtime:

Italy:99 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Nikkatsu

Great film for fans of Japanese Karaoke

First, this film seems to be available in Japan only. I purchased mine on a recent trip to Tokyo. I believe it was about 3600 yen (around $32) It is region 2 encoded and will plan only on "all region" machines or machines imported from Japan (I have a machine from Japan)

There are no subtitles or alternate language track, so you need to be able to speak Japanese to appreciate the movie.

What is the main interest? The hero Mikami is played by Ishihara Yujiro.

Ishihara Yujiro (now deceased) was the brother of the current outspoken governor of Tokyo, Ishihara Shintaro who cowrote "the Japan that can say no." about 15 years ago.

Ishihara Yujiro is a sort of John Wayne for Japan - the man's man. The movie theme song is one of the most famous "Enka" Karaoke songs.

Plot: opening with a criminal running through foggy back alleys of the Yokohama harbor. Elite policeman Mikami (Ishihara) and his partner Ishizuka (Nitani) in hot pursuit. The crook stashes a mysterious briefcase in a little "Oden" stand and runs on, only to be hit and killed by a truck. As the police grill the elderly owner of the Oden stand, Mikami goes to notify his daughter (Asaoka) who thinks her father is drunk again and sends Mikami back with a sweater for her father. During the interrogation, it comes out that Mikami is going to be on Japan's olympic pistol team. The father won't talk. As Ishizuka walks the old man across the courtyard, suddenly the old man turns, knocks Ishizuka over, grabs his gun and begins firing wildly. Rushing from the building, ace-shot Mikami pulls his service revolver and kills the old man with one shot. Needless to say, the daughter is furious... too bad, because she was Mikami's love interest. In the ensuing scandal, Mikami is forced to resign. Four years later, real-man Mikami is working in the Hokkaido snows on a dam construction project drilling holes in the cliff when the police investigator Tsuchiya arrives to tell him that there is something peculiar about his former parnter's subsequent financial success and marriage to the old man's daughter...