The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
DELINQUENT BOSS aka BAD BOSS aka WOLVES OF THE CITY – 不良番長 (1968)
Run Time: 1:29:00
Producer: Toei Studio
Director: Yukio Noda
Writer: Isao Matsumoto, Hideaki Yamamoto
Key Cast: Tatsuo Umemiya, Hayato Tani, Shigeru Katsumi
FILM MAKERS
The Wild Angels (1966) was the first film to coin the phrase Biker Flick, and would spur an American genre that racked up dozens of films between 1967 and 1972. But America did not have a monopoly on motorbike hooliganry. Following in our burning tire smoke, Toei Studio in Japan released ‘Delinquent Boss’ in 1968, spurring it’s own genre of biker flicks known as Bōsōzoku, which translates literally to “running out of control tribes”. Delinquent Boss and the Bōsōzoku films to follow definitely live up to the name. These films are cult classics in Japan, but virtually unknown in the States. Very little exists online. DVDs are rarer than hen’s teeth… and forget about finding a subtitled copy!
SUMMARY
Delinquent Boss (1968) is the first in what would become Toei’s most successful, longest-running bosozoku film series. The Delinquent Boss series (also known as the Wolves of the City series) lasted from 1968 till 1974 through seventeen films. The series starred Tatsuo Umemiya as the leader of a motorcycle youth gang called the Capones. Full of shock-value & “pinku” soft-core sex, nudity, violence, gunplay, & a lot of mainly pointless foolishness. Co-opting racist nazi imagery, and inventing a non-existent youth culture void of morality. The motorcycle gang takes on police, gangsters, & the general public, with frequent excuses throughout the series for women to take at least some of their clothing off & even to wield swords partially naked.
Kosaka Hiroshi is the leader of a motorcycle gang in Shinjuku and a small time swindler. He lives for money but has never been able to hit the jackpot. His luck seems to change when he hits it off with the daughter of a Yakuza. When he gets involved in a scheme to blackmail a Yakuza gang and a land developer, he soon realizes he might have chewed more than he could bite.
RELATED MEDIA
Read more: Bōsōzoku: The Rebellious Film Legacy of Japan’s Unruly Biker Gangs
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Well …. thats a little bit closer to reality … problem is … when it comes to the Bosozoku … none of them are ‘ the boss ‘ … the boss is what ever Yakuza clan the specific gang is beholden to … and the Yakuza individual placed in charge of their actions .
Any other behavior would result in … well …. you know … three to five body katana and all
😉
But … this still looks like an interesting movie at the very least 😎