Relatively prosaic first and second act, but Suzuki goes aesthetically apeshit for the far-superior finale. The shift in both visual and atmospheric tone is so dramatic, it's actually a little disconcerting. If you have the patience, worth seeing.

Not my kind of thing..

The first two-thirds are standard Nikkatsu-yakuza fare (which is not a bad thing, and some light flair is exercised in some sequences). The last third is the kind of brilliant filmmaking I go out of my way to find.

Pretty good. Not wall-to-wall insane like Branded to Kill, but quite audacious at times. Worth watching once, would possibly return to it again someday.

Last twenty minutes are what cinema was made for.

Suzuki is better when he doesn't hold back even a little bit, but this might be a technically better movie than for example Tokyo Drifter.

Mostly mediocre until the end, though there are some cool tricks sprinkled throughout, like the fast ultra close-ups on the faces and shoes.

It takes some patience to get to the good stuff.