THE RAMBLING GUITARIST

Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan, inaugurated a star system in the late 1950s, finding talent and contracting them to a series of wild genre pictures. These “Diamond Guys” films are relatively new to the U.S., and feature Nikkatsu’s leading talent at the peak of their game. Megastar Akira Koabyashi (“the Japanese Elvis”) stars as wandering street musician Shinji, who falls in with mob boss Akitsu after saving his henchmen in a bar fight. Tasked with evicting an offshore fishery, Shinji finds himself in the middle of a very unusual domestic dispute.