Afraid to Die

Afraid to Die (からっ風野郎, or A Man Blown by the Wind) is a raunchy potboiler of a yakuza movie directed by Yasuzo Masumura and starring Yukio Mishima in the lead role.

Mishima’s character, Takeo, a yakuza member, is released from prison after attempting to murder a rival mob boss. He doesn’t want to leave the slammer, feeling safer inside.

Once out, he resolves to finish the job before the man he maimed can find and kill him. At the same time, he considers leaving “the life,” as does one of his associates. This associate is involved with a pharmacist who wants to move to Osaka and take him with her. She has somehow obtained a cancer drug still in the trial stage, one that had already killed three people during testing. The rival gang has a box of it and plans to use it to blackmail the company that developed it.

Takeo is then forced by another mob boss to make peace with the man he’s been trying to kill. Meanwhile, a lackadaisical, asthmatic hitman—known up north as “Asthma Masa”—has been hired to take him out.

Takeo also shows off his misogynistic side. The film portrays the yakuza as so thoroughly misogynistic that at times it seems the film itself is misogynistic. Takeo even tries to trick his girlfriend into taking a German drug to induce an abortion, telling her it’s for morning sickness and will make her feel better.

The ending is a bit reminiscent of Carlito's Way. Dressed in a white suit, Takeo is determined to leave the yakuza life behind, and perhaps the misogyny that comes with it, and escape the city to care for his girlfriend and their unborn child.

I’ve seen plenty of better yakuza films, but this one has its moments. Mishima makes a solid effort as a young punk gangster. I wanted to watch the film before reading Star, his novella based on his experience working on the film, which was released in English in 2019. More on Star here.