Red Peony Gambler (aka The Valiant Red Peony) (1968)
Directed by Kosaku Yamashita
Written by Noribumi Suzuki
Starring Junko Fuji, Ken Takagura
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour, 38 minutes

Red Peony Gambler 2: Gambler’s Obligation (1968)
Directed by Noribumi Suzuki
Written by Noribumi Suzuki and Tatsuo Nogami
Starring Sumiko Fuji, Tomisaburô Wakayama
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes

Red Peony Gambler  3: The Flower Cards Game (1969)
Directed by Tai Kato
Written by Hisakichi Ishimoto, Noribumi Suzuki and Motohiro Torii
Starring Sumiko Fuji, Ken Takakura, Kanjûrô Arashi
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour, 38 minutes

All three films newly restored and now available digitally

by Christopher La Vigna, Staff Writer

The first entry in the series, 1968’s Red Peony Gambler, produced during the golden age of ninkyo eiga (“Chivalrous Yakuza films”) follows Miss Oryu (Junko Fuji), also known as The Red Peony, on account of the stunning tattoos of the aforementioned flowers on her shoulder. Oryu is a gambler of great skill, wandering through Japan at the right in the middle of the Meiji Restoration period, a time of great social and cultural upheaval in the country. We learn that Oryu was a Yakuza’s daughter, but was engaged to be married into a merchant family, to spare her from the Yakuza life. However, when her father, the clan’s boss, is slain, things quickly unravel. Her engagement is canceled, the clan quickly abandons any plans to avenge their boss’ death, and Oryu is left utterly alone, sidelined simply because she is a woman in the male dominated world of Yakuza. She chooses to become a wanderer, carrying the crest of the Yano clan in her heart. 

She also always has one item on her person: A wallet belonging to her father’s killer, left at the scene of the crime. From the moment it’s introduced, the viewer is anxious to see it matched to its owner, and to see Oryu get her vengeance. This righteous revenge gets set into motion right at the film’s start, when Oryu foils a cheating card player in a gambling den, simultaneously making enemies with local rogues, while also catching the eye of noble Yakuza Katagiri (Ken Takagura).

The film is gorgeously shot, augmented with a beautiful score. Junko Fuji’s performance as Oryu is masterful-always poised, graceful, and powerful. One gets the sense that she is always in control of every situation the film puts her in.  As she befriends local Yakuza, garnering admiration and respect, the viewer finds himself charmed by this almost fable-like world of power, cunning, and honor.

In the followup, released the same year as the first film, Red Peony Gambler 2: Gambler’s Obligation, Oryu has been taken under the wing of a Yakuza boss who controls a small silk farming town. When vicious loan sharks murder the boss (at the behest of local politicians who are looking to shore up power amidst the ever-changing hierarchies of the time), Oryu vows to avenge her benevolent boss.

While the action came in fits and spurts in its predecessor, saved largely for its explosive finale, Red Peony Gambler 2 boasts a greater number of fight sequences, staged largely in wide shots with droves of katana-wielding extras running around chaotically, the camera gliding through as key players slash and punch their way through the scenery. This sequel also seems to be a touch more cynical when it comes to its romantic portrayal of the Yakuza as out outlaws with strict sense of code and duty; Various members of the gang immediately go to work for the loan sharks after their master is slain, and Red Peony is forced to remind these goons, with strong words and even stronger actions, what true loyalty and strength look like.

In the series’ third entry, Oryu gets involved in a host of troubles as she joins up with the Nishinomaru family, a noble and highly respected Yakuza clan that is set to host its annual gambling festival. Their rivals, the Kimbara Clan, plan to usurp power in the region by sabotaging the festival. Oryu endeavors to help her adoptive clan save its festival, while also dealing with an impostor Red Peony who is ruining her good name, helping two young lovers escape the devastation of an arranged Yakuza marriage, and falling in love with Shogo Hanaoka (Ken Takakura) falling for a brave and stoic gambler from the Kimbara Clan whose honorable ways are at odds with the devious family he finds himself a part of.

While most films would struggle under the weight of such a dense plot, director Tai Kato weaves through the overlapping storylines easily, with story beats and character arcs naturally flowing into one another. The film manages to show both tragedy and triumph, hope and despair, and at its conclusion, we know that Oryu has even more grand adventures ahead of her. There are additional entries in the Red Peony Series, and as someone who was thoroughly won over by this initial trifecta of romanticized Yakuza yarns, I intend to seek out and watch the remaining films as soon as possible.

As the seventies rolled on, Japanese crime films would begin to tell much darker, harsher, and realistic stories of violent Yakuza exploits–Kinji Fukasaku’s 1976 neo noir film Yakuza Graveyard comes to mind as an example–films like those of the Red Peony Gambler series draw the viewer into a mythic world of honor, survival, and even love (though Oryu’s luck with suitors is, shall we say, not so good). It speaks to the wandering spirit that dwells within us all, and is why the films of the Red Peony Gambler endure nearly sixty years later.