It's testosterone-poisoned, ultra-violent and has no interest in likeable characters. It's also pretty damn cool. Our anti-hero, played by Bunta Sugawara, machine-guns a bunch of people to steal their heroin. When one of them shoots Bunta's sidekick, our hero drives a car over him three times. (The first time going forwards, then reversing back over him, then forwards again.) As for the injured sidekick, though, Bunta smothers him with a cushion and shoots him.

He's more than just a bastard. He takes that to a level for which a word hasn't been invented. He's a stone cold monster who ends up killing almost every named character in this film. His idea of a friendly hello is to punch you in the stomach... and that's if he likes you. He bottles someone in a nightclub to claim the man's girl. He has a shit-eating grin and perhaps too much love for his mother. They commit robberies together. They share intimate baths and she soaps his back while talking about penises. She has yakuza tattoos like him and gets jealous when he sleeps with other women.

MUM: She didn't last 6 months without you around when you went to jail. I bet she's fucking some other guy now.

BUNTA: Shut up about Satoko! She only left because you were jealous of her.

MUM: Oh, so you were actually in love with that woman, who's like a prostitute?

BUNTA: I told you not to talk about her! You used to be one yourself.

Mum discusses Bunta's yakuza dad, then says, "I don't want you to grow up to be garbage just like him." Er, hang on, Mum. Exactly what about your loving son suggests a worthwhile human being? Also, when she was prostituting herself to raise Bunta, waking or sleeping, she was always thinking of him.

I've seen a claim that this film was inspired by White Heat (1949). I can't confirm that, but the plots are similar and this very 1970s film also manages to be strikingly 1920s in some of its costuming choices and in Bunta's trademark weapon. He and his girlfriend (Yutaka Nakajima) wear some awesome gangster/moll outfits. Head-to-foot red is a memorable look. Also, in some ways, this is more like an American gangster film than a Japanese yakuza one (which are liable to bang on about honour and the yakuza code).

If you watch this film, what you're getting is wall-to-wall testosterone. Bunta's performance is massive and there's freaky characterisation for him and his mother, but otherwise the cast is defined mostly by how cool they are. Sonny Chiba gets a cameo. There are lots of extremely dangerous hard men, including two huge Americans who get shipped across the Pacific by the Mafia when things go pear-shaped. Mum is also not to be messed with. However, that girlfriend (Yutaka Nakajima) gets no characterisation or backstory at all. (Given her taste in men, she's not overly endowed with brains either.)

Deep? No. Predictable? Hell yes. Hard men commit violence. Copy-paste that for an hour and a half. (The only unpredictable bit is who the next victim(s) will be.) You will, though, get to see a grinning Bunta commit lots of dirty, funky 1970s murder. The incidental music's great too.