Patience Has an End / ごろつき無宿 / Gorotsuki mushuku (‘Rogue Wanderer’) 1971

Obscure Japanese Film #41

Ken Takakura and Takashi Shimura

Isamu (Ken Takakura) works in a coal mine in Kyushi with his father (Yoshi Kato), who is fatally injured in a cave-in. On his deathbed, his dad’s last wish is that Isamu quit the mines to escape suffering a similar fate. Soon after, Isamu heads for Tokyo. On the train, he meets Yuki (Etsuko Nami), who is also on her way to begin a new life as a professional volleyball player in the big city (where they will keep running into each other). Once in Tokyo, Isamu finds work at Toei Chemicals, where his first job is to help expand their territory and build a fence which cuts off an important access route for the local fishermen, one of whom is killed as a result. Isamu soon realises he is basically a hired stooge for a company run by ruthless yakuza, so he quits. However, he has impressed Asakawa (Takashi Shimura), an ex-yakuza gone straight who now runs a street-vending business. Asakawa hires Isamu as a candy floss salesman (!), but he becomes involved in an ongoing conflict between Asakawa’s people and the same yakuza gang associated with Toei Chemicals. Meanwhile, Isamu pursues his dream of graduating from selling candy floss to running a banana stall, as that’s where the real money lies.,,

Etsuko Nami

 

What I like about this Toei production is that, while not quite an out-and-out comedy, it has a real sense of its own absurdity and provides quite a few laughs along the way. For example, there’s a scene in which Takakura pokes fun at his own famously unsmiling screen persona; his vain efforts to practise smiling in the hope it will help increase his sales are hilarious. He also spends a great deal of time struggling to learn a sales pitch filled with innuendos about bananas. Toshiaki Minami and Haruo Tanaka are amusing too as fellow vendors – the latter’s face when forcing himself to eat Isamu’s mother’s inedible home-made mochi being especially priceless. 

Takakura trying to smile

 

Yoko Hayama and Haruo Tanaka

Toshiaki Minami far right

After the mainly comic middle section, the film turns into a straight yakuza film for the well-staged and bloody climax in which Isamu finally loses his patience and goes after the bad guys with a samurai sword. The main villains are played by yakuza movie regulars Fumio Watanabe and Akira Shioji rounding out a strong cast. While Kurosawa favourite Takashi Shimura’s role is nothing special, it’s always great to see this actor and he even gets to kick some butt himself at one point.

Fumio Watanabe and Akira Shioji

Patience Has an End is not a film to be taken very seriously, but it’s fast-moving and entertaining all the way, with a strong music score courtesy of Takeo Watanabe, who seems under the influence of Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti westerns in his use of trumpets. Director Yasuo Furuhata (1934-2019) is not well-known abroad, but he enjoyed a long-lasting association with star Ken Takakura and enjoyed a very successful career in Japan. He originally wanted to make more serious films, but at this stage was stuck making yakuza fare for Toei. In later years, he had the opportunity to break away from the genre and scored a big hit with Railroad Man (also starring Takakura), for which he won a number of awards.