The Hoodlum Soldier (1965)

Original title

兵隊やくざ

Directed by

Yasuzō Masumura

Genre

war film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 42m

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 4 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A former yakuza and a failed officer candidate serve together in the Japanese army during World War Two. The film follows their uneasy bond as they navigate the brutalities and absurdities of military life.

tensegrittybleakmeasuredcharacter-drivencynicalharshslow-burn

What happens

The Hoodlum Soldier (Japanese: 兵隊やくざ, Hepburn: Heitai Yakuza) is a Japanese film directed by Yasuzo Masumura. The Hoodlum Soldier was the first of a series of nine films that followed two soldiers, Kisaburo Omiya (Shintaro Katsu), a former yakuza who has become a soldier, and Arita (Takahiro Tamura), an intellectual from a good family who has deliberately failed the officer examination. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Young Boss (1965)
• Hoodlum Soldier and the C.O. (1965)
• The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
• The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
• Samurai Assassin (1965)
• Story of a Prostitute (1965)
• Seisaku's Wife (1965)
• The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)