Big Shots Die at Dawn

Movie

Crime

Action

An early Okamoto yakuza film, though it's not in the Underworld series (along with The Last Gunfight and The Big Boss) despite being alternatively known as "Death of the Boss." While Okamoto did not write this film and took on the project because he was assigned and "just doing [his] job" according to an interview with Chris Desjardins in Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film, he did express a general excitement about working in action cinema (which shows through in this film's energy.)

Date: 04/09/1961

Rating: 6.2

Cast: Yūzō Kayama, Kumi Mizuno, Mickey Curtis, Akihiko Hirata, Jun Tazaki, Tadao Nakamaru, Ichirō Nakatani, Yukiko Shimazaki, Eijirō Yanagi, Sachio Sakai, Ren Yamamoto, Senkichi Ōmura, Hisashi Igawa, Kunie Tanaka, Fuyuki Murakami, Hideo Sunazuka, Masanobu Oki, Kōji Iwamoto, Kan Hayashi

Yūzō Kayama