From time to time when I'm babbling on about how Bunta Sugawara is the ultimate Yakuza, I hear in reply "What about Ken Takakura?"
Intriguing, no? I assume that most of us have seen more Bunta with all the Fukasaku releases coming out post-Battle Royale, but Ken's films are far more obscure these days. I feel like I saw one, but can't find any on his imdb list that I recognize. So I've picked up a few to watch and last night watched Abashiri Prison, the first of something like 17 sequels, and which appears to be one of the defining series of his career. It also looks like he had some other big gangster series (the Gangyu series, or something like that). In Abashiri Prison he's a mobster in jail, and he's definitely a cool cat, but still, if it came down to a Yakuza showdown between him and Bunta, thus far I'd still go with Bunta.
So, I'm curious, have any of you seen his other films and care to comment? I've got the three Red Peony Gambler movies and Showa Zankyoden on tap, so I'll hold out from any final decisions anytime soon. But I'll be interested to see if anybody champions Ken.
Incidentally, as a consolation to Noburo Ando for leaving him out of this debate, it's worth noting that Home Vision has announced a very cool looking dvd release of the Noburo Ando-starring "Sympathy for the Underdog" on 2/1/05. How cool does this look (it also stars Ken Takakura and Tomisaburo Wakayama of Lone Wolf fame):
http://www.homevision.com/users/folder.asp...=1374&id=SYM020charlie
PS: Since initially writing this, I've watched Showa Zankyoden (slight spoilers to follow). Here Ken leads up one of the families, but under the explicit instructions to avoid conflict, which renders his yakuza status nearly impotent for most of the film. He's a noble guy, and in two instances shows himself to be a tough guy, but compare this to Bunta's knock-down performance in The Man Who Stole the Sun, and I still say it's not even close. Perhaps it's better to understand Ken as the equivalent of the early American western stars like John Wayne or Gary Cooper, as compared to the (essentially) Westerns Without Honor and Humanity type stars of the Spaghetti Westerns like Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef? (although in the comparative case, it's not as clear that Clint would have trumped John Wayne).