A yakuza gang selects a good-for-nothing street vendor to stir up trouble in enemy territory.

A yakuza gang selects a good-for-nothing street vendor to stir up trouble in enemy territory. With a flashy suit, a gun and a pocketful of money, he feels like a king but when trouble comes knocking, he realizes that waving a gun and pulling the trigger are two very different things.

After the major studios refused to finance it, director Sadao Nakajima (The Japanese Godfather Trilogy) took this project to New Wave bastion the Art Theatre Guild. With a deeply impressive performance by Tsunehiko Watase (Sympathy for the Underdog) that predates Robert DeNiro's indelible turn as Travis Bickle in Scorsese's Taxi Driver by three years, Aesthetics of a Bullet is a lost gem of 1970s Japanese cinema ripe for rediscovery.

Bonus Materials

• High-Definition digital transfer
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Robert Schwentke (2026)
• New interview with filmmaker Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (2026)
• Archival interview with Sadao Nakajima (2023)
• Trailer
• Newly improved English subtitle translation
• Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing

 

Cast & Crew

Actors:

•       Tsunehiko Watase
•       Miki Sugimoto
•       Mitsuri Mori

Director: Sadao Nakajima

Additional Details

Label: Radiance

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Language: Japanese

Run Time: 100 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 05/19/26

UPC: 760137209096