Sympathy For The Underdog was second movie i have watched from legendary director Kinji Fukasaku, first was Street Mobster, which is brilliant movie but this is a real masterpiece of yakuza cinema, everything is good from characters, plot, location, action. Koji Tsuruta is just amazing in a role of boss Masuo Ganji, one of the best acting i have seen in Japanese cinema, other actors are also great especially Tomisaburo Wakayama as a Okinawan boss, just his looks are enough to become your favorite character in the movie. This movie was definitely one of the biggest influences on Kitano's Sonatine, the story is very similliar, the location is similliar, Sonatine is excellent movie but i must admit this one is really a classic, the reason why i say in the summary " with the spirit of samurai cinema ", i saw some similarities with 7 samurais, the main boss Koji Tsuruta gathered different people around him in his gang, there were 7 of them like in a Kurosawa's classic, this was not a minus for me just plus, Fukasaku really goes deep to every character like Kurosawa in his movie. This movie is real gem and everyone who loves Yakuza movies and Japanese cinema in general must watch this.
my grade: 8.5/10
my grade: 8.5/10