Two old gambling buddies: one became the law, the other became legendary.
Magistrate Toyama no Kin-san is ordered to catch the phantom thief Nezumi Kozo, who is robbing daimyo and wealthy townspeople. Under the name of Nezumi Kozo, there is a small wholesaler Jiro. And once Toyama and Jiro, when they were young, were comrades who spent all their time gambling and having fun with women in the Yushima Tenjin area...
Acting
Ogata and Wakayama's weary, knowing chemistry.
Direction
Tanaka's melancholic framing of masculine nostalgia.
Production
Lived-in Edo sets that feel genuinely inhabited.
Director
Tokuzō Tanaka
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Nezumi Kozo was a real folk hero, the 'Japanese Robin Hood,' with over 100 films about him—this subversion makes the lawman the protagonist.
Wakayama, fresh off Lone Wolf and Cub, insisted on doing his own rooftop stunts at 51, terrifying the production.
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