RETALIATION

“Quite possibly the most beautiful cinematography I've seen in a crime film.”
-- Lucas, LETTERBOXD

In 1969, future sexploitation director Yasuharu Hasebe (STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER) teamed up with inimitable star Jô Shishido (BRANDED TO KILL, YOUTH OF THE BEAST) for a follow up to their stylish yakuza hit MASSACRE GUN. A tale of gang warfare that features the period’s most iconic performers, RETALIATION stars Akira Kobayashi (BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY) as a yakuza lieutenant who emerges from jail to find his gang dispersed and his aging boss on his death bed. Shishido is the rival waiting to kill him, and a young Meiko Kaji (LADY SNOWBLOOD) is the girl caught in the crossfire. Gritty and cynical, RETALIATION is a hardboiled precursor to Kinji Fukasaku’s revisionist yakuza films of the 1970s.