Koji Tsuruta — Actor (107)
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A Gambler's Certain Death (1969) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
必殺博奕打ち
director: Kiyoshi Saeki actor: Koji Tsuruta / Isamu Nagato …
other title: 必殺博奕打ち
Part 7 in the Gambling Den series. This time Koji Tsuruta is a gambler who feels sympathetic towards a woman whose naive husband is driven to a debt trap by a rotten gambling den owner (Tatsuo Endo) and his dishonest card dealer (Isamu Nagato). The plot is standard stuff and features too much talk, but there's also a decent balance between melodrama and lyricism in the form and storytelling. Tsuruta was a perfect fit for these kind of roles, with the stoic and emotional sides nicely mixed in his screen persona.
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Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza (1968) [Movie] IMDb TMDB
人生劇場 飛車角と吉良常
director: Tomu Uchida actor: Koji Tsuruta / Tomisaburō Wakayama …
other title: 人生劇場 飛車角と吉良常
With his penultimate film, Uchida revisited one of his popular prewar titles, 1936’s Theatre of Life, an adaptation of Shiro Ozaki’s eponymous novel. Three-time Seijun Suzuki collaborator Goro Tanada wrote a gangsterized adaptation of Ozaki’s story for Uchida at a time when the yakuza had eclipsed the samurai genre as Toei's main cash crop. Protagonist Hishakaku murders a man in a quarrel over a barmaid and goes to jail. In his temporary absence, his girlfriend Otoyo, a former geisha, falls for Hishakaku’s brother, inciting a dangerous love triangle that, in typical yakuza fashion, ends tragically.
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Battle of Roses (1950) [Movie] IMDb TMDB
薔薇合戦
director: Mikio Naruse actor: Kuniko Miyake / Setsuko Wakayama …
other title: La Bataille de roses / Batalla de rosas …
Following the death of Mr Masago, his wife Satomi loses the family's cosmetics company to Mr Mogy due to huge amount of withdrawal debt caused by her husband. Mogy blackmails Satomi's sister Hinako into marrying him, so he will not send Masago to jail, and Satomi wrongly understands that Hinako is dating Mogy.
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Dog of Fortune (1979) [Movie] IMDb TMDB
黄金の犬
director: Shigeyuki Yamane actor: Koji Tsuruta / Yoko Shimada …
other title: 黄金の犬
From Hokkaido to Tokyo, hunting dog Goro embarks on a long and grueling journey to reach home. With the loss of his master who held a secret to a weapons smuggling case and the corruptions of those who are involved, Goro's adventure unfolds.
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Code Between Brothers 5 (1967) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
兄弟仁義　関東命知らず
director: Kōsaku Yamashita actor: Saburo Kitajima / Kyōsuke Machida …
other title: 兄弟仁義　関東命知らず
Saburo Kitajima, one of Japan’s most famous Enka singers, returns in the fifth of the Kyodai Jingi series. During the early 20th century, Ryuji from Asakusa, a wandering yakuza, joins the Narumi Family in Yokohama. However, when he confronts Shiotaro, the head of the rival family, Ryuji takes a liking to him. He ends up leaving his current family, and becomes close to Shiotaro like brothers swearing to become a full-fledged yakuza.
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The Biggest Gamble (1969) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
戦後最大の賭場　
director: Kōsaku Yamashita actor: Koji Tsuruta / Ken Takakura …
other title: 戦後最大の賭場　
When Honjo is selected as Kansai district's chairman, Iwasa of the rival gang asks Itsuki to do everything possible to have Honjo step down, which puts Itsuki between a rock and a hard place.
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Fate Deals the Card of Death (1971) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
博奕打ち　いのち札
director: Kōsaku Yamashita actor: Koji Tsuruta / Tomisaburō Wakayama …
other title: 博奕打ち　いのち札
Seijiro and Shizue meet in Niigata and fall in love. Seijiro has to go back to Tokyo soon after, and they promise each other to meet again a year later. However, Seijiro gets jailed for five years. Unable to find him, Shizue gets married to a yakuza boss who can help her family business.
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Father of the Kamikaze (1974) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
あゝ決戦航空隊
director: Kōsaku Yamashita actor: Koji Tsuruta / Noboru Andō …
other title: Â kessen kôkûtai / あゝ決戦航空隊
Vice Admiral Takajiro Ohnishi could see that Japan's defeat in WWII was inevitable. He came to realize that the only way to force a negotiated solution was to convince the Americans that invading Japan would cause massive casualties on both sides. The cold logic of suicide attacks, where one man and one plane could kill hundreds, seemed the only solution. In one of the cruel ironies of fate, Ohnishi actually succeeded; he convinced the Americans that invading Japan would be too costly in lives. But what he could not foresee was that America had another way of ending the war.