Karakkaze yarô

Afraid to Die is a surprisingly good Yakuza movie starring the Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima in his first of five film roles. The cinematography is excellent, and the story of a gangster released from prison who must either kill or be killed has enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. There's an incredible nightclub scene that has a showgirl singing about long, thick bananas; I'm not sure how that one made it past the censors in 1960, but now it's just plain hilarious. Mishima is very good as a kind of darker, Japanese version of James Dean.