Based on leftist writer Yoriyoshi Arima's story, Tokuzo Tanaka (b. 1925), a popular action film director, made the third installment of the successful "hoodlum soldiers" series. The series features an odd couple of army deserters-intellectual Arita (played by Takahiro Tamura) and tough and rough Omiya (played by Shintaro Katsu, well known for his Blind Masseur Zatoichi series). In this exciting comedy they repeatedly join and escape from the Japanese army in China. They meet a group of prostitutes and are soon operating a brothel. Omiya falls in love with one of the prostitutes and marries her, however, their adventure must move on. With no sentimentality, this highly entertaining series created uniquely attractive (anti-)heroes who expose the corrupt military system and fight brutal and evil officers with extraordinarily explosive power. The series attracted a number of followers among office workers who perhaps felt suffocated by the rigid, hierarchical corporate system and discovered a great outlet for their frustration in the subversive actions of Omiya and Arita.-Kyoko Hirano