The Wicked Reporter

More than his indie debut Skinless Night this was the film that launched Mochizuki on his distinctive trajectory through the crime and yakuza genres Matsuzaki Eiji Okuda is a racing tipster for a sports paper a lowlife who spends half his time drunk hangs out with yakuza and other riffraff and complicates his sex life by succumbing to advances from his girlfriends sister As played by Okuda hes also a figure of considerable hangdog charm Less a plotbased movie than a guide to the several forms of high stakes gambling in Japan this centres on his attempt to help a friend swindled in a bent mahjong game Hakuryu appears memorably as an inscrutable yakuza in a black leather jacket The films success led to two sequels