Gritty and cynical, Retaliation is a hardboiled precursor to Kinji Fukasaku’s revisionist yakuza pictures of the 1970s.

Yasuharu Hasebe’s follow-up to Massacre Gun is another thrilling Jô Shishido gangster flick (co-starring the great Mieko Kaji) and a highlight of the Nikkatsu studio’s “borderless action” films, hyper-stylized genre movies channeling cinematic new waves, pop sensibilities, and modernist technique.