A scene from “Burai” (Provided by Rabbit House Co.)
Director Kazuyuki Izutsu’s sympathetic portrayals of social outsiders have culminated in “Burai” (Outlaw), his first film in eight years, which follows a yakuza gang leader’s postwar life in the Showa Era (1926-1989).
The story begins in 1956, when the economic white paper declared that Japan was no longer “postwar” because of its miraculous recovery from the ravages of World War II.
Masaji Ito, a junior high school student living in a provincial city, beats up his selfish father and starts working as a day laborer. After his first arrest on suspicion of extortion, Ito goes in and out of prison while using his unique wit to manage a small yakuza clan.