After watching Outlaw: Gangster VIP 2 (1968), I had a series of amazing revelations. First, that really is the title (at least the one Arrow Video decided to go with). Second, it came out in April 1968, just a few months after the first movie. Third, no less than five movies in this series came out in 1968 – it’s almost a shame the sixth skids into 1969, but that’s a movie for another day. Fourth, these movies are almost impossible to research: there aren’t even Wikipedia articles, in English or Japanese.

VIP 2 is like the Force Awakens of yakuza movies, rehashing the plot of the last movie with minor twists – even though it spends the first several minutes recapping everything that happened last time, like some extended Previously On. The more I think about it, the more I realise this movie is more like television, multiple episodes hitting the theatre in the same year. I guess it makes sense, before home televisions became popular, but then I think by the end of the ’60s Japanese cinema attendance was in decline due to television, so who knows.