Red Peony Gambler

When the head of the Yano yakuza family is assassinated, his daughter Oryu dissolves the clan and embarks on a journey to find her father's killer. ==Cast==

• Junko Fuji as Ryuko Yano, better known as Red Peony Oryu • Tomisaburo Wakayama as Boss Kumatora • Kyosuke Machida as Fujimatsu, the Immortal • Nijiko Kiyokawa as Otaka • Ken Takakura as Katagiri • Rinichi Yamamoto as Fugushin • Isamu Dobashi as Minagawa • Yuriko Mishima as Kimika • Masaru Shiga as Kame • Kōjirō Kawanami as Tajima • Masako Araki as Otatsu • Kunio Hikita as Takizawa • Yaeko Wakamizu as Kumasaka • Kyōnosuke Murai as Senzō Yano • Minoru Ōki as Kakuai • Shingo Yamashiro as Kichitarō • Nobuo Kaneko as Boss Iwatsu ==Production==

Red Peony Gambler was conceived by Toei's Shigeru Okada to compete with Daiei's successful female-led yakuza film series Woman Gambler, which began in 1966 and starred Kyoko Enami. Junko Fuji, daughter of Toei producer Koji Shundo, was cast as the film's lead. It was her first leading role, despite having been in 50 of the company's prior films. ==Release==

In 2024, a 4K restoration of Red Peony Gambler was released in a Blu-ray box set with its first two sequels by Eureka Entertainment in the United Kingdom as part of the Masters of Cinema series, and by Film Movement in North America. ==Reception==

The success of the first Red Peony Gambler film made Junko Fuji a star. In 1974, Paul Schrader called her the yakuza film genre's most popular female lead and one of the genre's three biggest actors, alongside her male co-stars Ken Takakura and Koji Tsuruta. He also wrote that Western cinema has no equivalent to the Oryu character; "a gracious, polite woman who, given the proper circumstances, can exact violent physical revenge upon the man who oppress her without ever losing her sense of femininity." Toei's Sister Street Fighter series starring Etsuko Shihomi was created when Okada directed Suzuki to create a "karate version" of the Red Peony Gambler series in order to capitalize on the martial arts film boom. Movie Jawns Christopher La Vigna praised Red Peony Gambler as gorgeously shot and beautifully scored, and Junko Fuji's performance as "masterful-always poised, graceful, and powerful". ==Sequels and spinoffs==

In 1970, Wakayama's character in the Red Peony Gambler series, Boss Kumatora, was given a two film spinoff series titled , which also features Fuji as Oryu. ==References==