Greed in Broad Daylight

In the year he made his début, Fukasaku produced four shorter low-budget films of about sixty minutes, followed by this first feature. In a murderous tempo, fluid camerawork shows a raid on a security transport with cash for an American army base. There are seven thieves in the gang including Yakuza, street thugs, a black soldier, a Korean and an American. Because they all demand the booty for themselves, their cooperation degenerates into a treacherous tangle of racism, greed and deceit. The raid is a success, but then the crooks turn on each-other. The involvement of a Yakuza gang causes even more confusion. The film ends in a ghost town after the last fight to the death. Only the black soldier and his half-blood Japanese lover survive the fight. He stares at us with a blank expression on his face. Around this time, all the studios were making this kind of ‘un-Japanese’ action films with an international cast. The ‘un-Japanese’ element was in the attempt to turn the crash between the different nationalities into drama and to show it as reflection of the brutal power and intensity of greed. The style of this film returns in the series Jingi naki tatakai/Battles Without Honour and Humanity. Greed in Broad Daylight brought Fukasaku to the attention of several critics for the first time. For his following film, Hokori takaki chosen/The Proud Challenge – again with Saji Kan as scriptwriter and Hoshijima Ichiro as cameraman – he received widespread recognition.