“This idealized account of modern Yakuza life is based on the autobiography of Noboru Ando, who was propelled into movie stardom by his role in this film. Originally, like so many, caught in the harshness of life after the war, he developed from a nice man who urges a little boy to work rather than to steal and saves a young Japanese girl about to be raped by American soldiers (she, incidentally, is a prostitute and resents his interference) to hardened criminal who breaks into the underworld by beating up the local gang representative, pimps for American businessmen, and eventually gains prestige when a city councilman asks his help in controlling a Korean gang.”