By 1964, Kinji Fukasaku had been working as a director for only three years, but had already directed eight works. That year, however, is an important one in the famed director’s long and illustrious career. For one, it gave him one of his early box office hits in “Jakomon and Tetsuo”, which starred Ken Takakura, then an actor freshly making his name and secondly, it also saw the release of what is now considered amongst his early career masterworks, the film noir tinted “Wolves, Pigs and Men”, a feature that may not have done well at the box-office upon release due to extenuating circumstances but would have an impact not just on his career but also his personal life.
Set in post-war Japan, “Wolves, Pigs and Men” follows three brothers. Ichiro, the eldest, abandoned the family to join the yakuza for a life of comfort and luxury. Jiro, the middle brother, tried to follow in the elder’s footsteps but ended up being imprisoned, leaving their ailing mother in the care of the youngest brother, Sabu, in what Sabu calls a pigsty of a slum. Upon release, Jiro returns to find their mother dead and Sabu wanting nothing to do with his brothers. However, Jiro has a plan to rob the Iwasaki Family, the yakuza Ichiro works for, of twenty million yen and recruits a reluctant Sabu and his friends to help him and his untrustworthy partner Mizuhara pull the job. However, when they end up looting as much in drugs as in cash, Sabu realises his brother plans on double-crossing them and hides the loot, an action that is to have dire consequences for him and his friends, while Ichiro is tasked with finding the ones who pulled the job by the Family.
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The movie is available from Film Movement
