ACF 106: Roughneck @ Japan Society

All photos copyright Nikkatsu Corporation

Roughneck / Arakure

Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe

With Akira Kobayashi, Masako Izumi, Tatsuya Fuji

Japan, 1969, color, 86 min

Japan Society's inaugural Monthly Classics series concludes this Friday. Entitled NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s Nikkatsu Action Cinema and curated by well-known author and critic Mark Schilling (The Japan Times and Variety), it has featured a total of eight films never before screened in the U.S.

In Roughneck, the final film in the series, Akira Kobayashi plays Yuji, a "reckless troublemaker." He becomes involved with both an otobun (a younger gang brother) who's trying to go straight and a hot springs geisha, who's the lover of a local yakuza boss whose gang is being challenged by an outside rival.

Roughneck will be shown at Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues, Manhattan, on Friday, May 2nd, at 7:30 pm.

For more information or to buy tickets, click here.