Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! VI: The Hero

Just before his breakthrough with Cure, Kurosawa Kiyoshi filmed this six-part yakuza comedy in just over a year, in which Yuji and Kosaku are the heroes. Despite their gangster appearance, they are sympathetic outsiders who stand up for the weak. The heroes come to the aid of a brother and sister who are having problems with the yakuza – but the brother has questionable intentions: he is trying to gain political power with the promise of “cleaning up” the neighbourhood. He becomes increasingly popular and his plans take on dystopian traits.

Kurosawa Kiyoshi, one of the modern masters of Japanese cinema, spent years making yakuza comedies for the video market. This is the last, the best and also the most Kurosawa-esque of these, as evidenced by a memorable six-minute scene shot in one take halfway through the film. What begins as a buddy comedy becomes increasingly mysterious and ends with an unforgettable climax.