It's rough for a new gang to gain a foothold.
Hot on the heels of his Cruel Story of Youth, Nagisa Oshima officiated over The Sun's Burial, which charts the symbolic decline of the Japanese Empire and thoroughly quashes any and all hopes for its resurgence. Working with co-writer Toshirô Ishidô, who had been an assistant director on Cruel Story and also co-wrote his next three films, Oshima plunks us down in a sweltering Tokyo slum where crime runs rampant and everybody screws everybody else over, lest they be screwed themselves. In such an unforgiving climate, people have to use whatever talents they possess to get ahead, which is why the enterprising Kayoko Honoo makes maximum use of her feminine wiles to stay on top of her blood-selling racket, forming alliance with whoever's convenient at the moment. If that means cozying up with up-and-coming gang leader Masahiko Tsugawa, so be it. And if it means selling out Tsugawa's gang to a rival two scenes later, then that's acceptable as well.
Caught in the middle of it all is Isao Sasaki as the newest member of the gang, whose heart just isn't in it, and who's one of Honoo's many conquests. (Their romantic interlude is one of the few times anybody is allowed to show any tenderness in the film.) Meanwhile, the older residents of the neighborhood provide less than ideal role models, starting with Honoo's father (Junzaburô Ban), a widowed junk dealer who's not above looking up his own daughter's skirt while she's sleeping. The most curious character, though, is the one called the Agitator (Eitarô Ozawa), who believes very strongly in restoring the country to its former imperial glory. Even stranger is that he's able to convince others that such a thing is even remotely possible. Then again, when all one thinks about is escaping their present circumstances, a smidgen of wishful thinking is to be expected.