When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.
Acting
Mitchum's exhaustion is a performance; Takakura's silence speaks volumes.
Direction
Pollack shoots Tokyo as alien planet to the American gaze.
Score
Dave Grusin's koto-tinged jazz haunts every frame.
Director
Sydney Pollack
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Paul Schrader wrote the script at 24, his first sale, after becoming obsessed with yakuza films at Tokyo's Shibuya art houses. The original draft was reportedly twice as long and twice as bleak.
The film coined 'yakuza' for American audiences years before the genre exploded; Ken Takakura was already Japan's biggest star, making this an unprecedented East-West co-lead.
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