Yasuzo Masumura - Afraid To Die (1960)

Afraid To Die is a by the book (some might say generic) Yakuza story. Takeo (played by novelist Yukio Mishima) is released from prison, has to settle an old feud with a rival gang, falls in love with a civilian, Yoshie, gets her pregnant and tries to leave the gangster life behind him only to get bitten in the ass by it at the end. But the script has fun with the characters, twists and turns occur at every corner and the film releases a raw energy that prevents it from feeling too bland.

One theme the screenwriters Hideo Ando and Ryuzo Kikoshima toy with a lot is the idea of two worlds colliding. The phrase "maybe this is true in your world, but not in mine" is used in different variations in exchanges between gangsters and civilians, and I wonder if Masumura had as much contempt for the Yakuza as Akira Kurosawa did. One of the civilians says at one point: "in your world, the only thing that counts is who dies first".

It is precisely this idea of different worlds that plays into Takeo and Yoshie's love story. He is fascinated by her precisely because she refuses to take part in his lifestyle and tries to impose the more stable life of a civilian on him. But that also drives him mad. So mad in fact that, towards the end, he almost beats her to death. And the film seems to suggest that the both worlds of Yakuza and civilian life are not permeable. When Takeo finally decides to leave the gangster life, he (spoiler alert!) gets killed in the end nonetheless (he collapses on an ascending escalator which could indicate that he finally did the right choice and repented enough to deserve to go to heaven after all).

This idea of two worlds is also reflected in the framing of the action. As the story suggests, Masumura asserts that one cannot escape the world one has chosen to live in. The story begins in a prison, the day of Takeo's release, and the idea of imprisonment dictates the way he frames the characters. Most of the time, three characters populate a scene at a time, so that Masumura always positions them in a triangle and frames the speaking protagonist as he if he were captured between the two other characters. And if the characters are not trapped between human beings, they are trapped between objects. The narrow spaces and gutters and low-ceiling rooms the action takes place leaves them no escape - no matter if they're gangster or civilian.

A fast paced and fun ride, although it is surely by far not Masumura's best.