Gitaa o motta wataridori

Shinji (Akira Kobayashi), a wandering street musician, gets involved with a mob boss, Akitsu (Nobuo Kaneko), after saving one of his henchmen in a bar fight. Akitsu gives Shinji a job to evict an offshore fishery, but things take an unexpected twist when Shinji finds out the owner's wife is Akitsu's actual sister.

Director Buichi Saitô is largely unknown in America, despite an impressive output. Besides a trilogy of "Rambler" movies, he may be best known for "Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril" (1972). But he seems to have the gangster film down. This film opens with a bar brawl and before long we get a burlesque night club, perhaps more what you might expect in Cuba at the time (1959).

Somehow, this film is almost completely unheard of (I am the first to review it on IMDb), but hopefully that will change now that Arrow Films has put out a great-looking blu-ray set.