Hibotan bakuto: Hanafuda shôbu

This film essentially begins with the Yakuza gambler "Ryuko Yano" (Sumiko Fuji)--who is also known as "Oryu-The Red Peony"-walking on a road and noticing a young blind girl about to be hit by an oncoming train. Fortunately, she saves the child just in time and hands her off to her mother who is very grateful. The scene then shifts to Oryu presenting herself to a representative of a Yakuza boss only to be labeled as a cheat by some of the men there. However, since her presentation was in complete accordance with the Yakuza code she is allowed to speak directly to the boss of the Nishinomaru clan by the name of "Teijiro Sugiyama" (Kanjuro Arashi) and is accepted as a guest. It is then revealed that somebody else has been using her name for their own purposes and she is granted permission to resolve the matter as she wishes. It's also during this time that a romantic affair between two rival clans comes into play for which she is also drawn into. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this third film in the series wasn't nearly as good as its two predecessors due in large part to the rather boring nature of the predicaments Oryu was forced to resolve along with the ending which could have also used some improvement. That being said, while this was not a bad film by any means it lacked the intensity of the previous two films and I have rated it accordingly. Average.