This first feature by celebrated filmmaker Toshio Masuda, who co-directed Tora! Tora! Tora! with Kinji Fukasaku and Richard Fleischer, launched the wave of Nikkatsu films noirs in the 1960s.
Yujiro Ishihara (Japan’s answer to Elvis Presley, whose eponymous memorial hall is visited by 600,000 fans every year and who also stars in I Hate But Love) plays a reformed criminal who tries his best to resist avenging the death of his former partner. Naturally, Ishihara also sings the film’s famous theme song.