Minbo, or The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion

A hotel is besieged by the yakuza. The men sit in the lobby, shout, drive customers away and demand money from the management. The management does not know what to do; it chooses to pay and the demands grow. Then a lawyer comes to the hotel: Mahiru Inoue is a specialist and her method is simple. The power of the yakuza rests on people being frightened and not knowing the law. She begins training two young employees. Jūzō Itami writes and directs. Nobuko Miyamoto plays Inoue. The film makes the yakuza neither frightening nor honourable; the men are shown as types who shout, bluff and are helpless before the law. That is the opposite of the yakuza films of the period. The production had consequences. Shortly after release Itami was attacked with knives outside his home by several men and wounded in the face and neck. The attackers were established to belong to a yakuza organisation. Itami went back to work after leaving hospital and continued to make the matter a subject of his films. Several cinemas showing the film were also attacked. The narrative is built like a training film: which demands are unlawful, what should be said and where to apply are set out one by one. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese comedy and social satire. Who it is not for: the humour is of its time, the narrative is didactic, and some passages repeat.