Sosyun Kotiyama

The film takes place in the Edo era ( XIX century ). Sosyun Kotiyama is the name of the protagonist of the story. Dressed as a monk, Kotiyama is in fact a professional swindler, while Osidzu, the woman with whom he lives, runs a gambling establishment on the top floor of his house and a bar on the first floor. At the beginning of the story, we see Kotiyama being deceived at 50 ryo Usimatsu, a shogi street player (Japanese chess game). Being the six of the local gangster Morita, Usimatsu was used to deceiving others, but in this case he conducted him. The second hero of the film, Itinojo Kaneko, is a former samurai , and now a ronin , a kind of “ racketeer, ” he raises money from the temple merchants, whom the gangster Morita is “covering”. He walks with a stick, because he has one leg shorter than the other. Collecting a tribute, he often has to deal with a sweet sake vendor, young beauty Onami, with whom he flirts.

Onami worries about his brother, the slacker Hirotaro, who, as it turns out, regularly visits Kotiyama's gambling house. When Hirotaro accidentally steals a small knife from the aging samurai Kitamura, he unknowingly takes possession of the valuable family treasure entrusted to Kitamura by his late lord, who in turn received it from the shogun. Hirotaro goes with this knife to an amusement establishment to Otizu, Kotiyama's mistress. There he meets Kotiyama himself, introducing himself as his “adult name” - Naojiro. Together with Kotiyama, he goes to a geisha's house, where he meets his old girlfriend, Mitose. Mitose's geisha had an eye on Moritaia’s gangster, who had already bought her from a geisha’s house, but she decided to escape with Hirotaro. Jealous Otizu does not let them in his institution (Kant, a neighbor, told her that Kotiyama often goes to the Onami shop and that Naojiro Hirotaro is her brother). Not knowing where to go, the young couple decided on a desperate step - double suicide. The girl died, and to the surviving Hirotaro, Moritaia is demanding to give 300 ryos for her, the money that they were paid for her ransom from the institution.

While Hirotaro is hiding, his sister Onami realizes that she will have to sell herself, which, incidentally, awaits Moritaia from her. Learning of this, Hirotaro kills the villain. Kotiyama and Kaneko, who became friends with Onami, find a girl in Kanty’s house, rescue her and hide her from Otizu, promising to return soon with the required amount. Still jealous, Otizu betrays Onami. Kotiyama and Kaneko are returning with money, but Onami is already taken. Hirotaro bursts in, chased by the Moritaia gang. Otizu is blocking the path of the bandits. She will be killed, but she will have time to tell Kohiyama where she was taken by Onami. Kotiyama and Kaneko are fighting to the death with the gang so that Hirotaro could escape and save her sister ...

• Tojuro Kawarasaki - Sosyun Kotiyama
• Kanyemon Nakamura - Itinojo Kaneko
• Setsuko Hara - Onami
• Sensho Ichikawa - Hirotaro, aka Naojiro
• Shizue Kawarasaki (in the credits - Shizue Yamagishi) - Osidzu
• Daiske Kato (in the credits - Enji Ichikawa) - Kant
• Sukedo Sukedakaya - Kurai-no Usimatsu
• Choemon Bando - Seizo Moritaia
• Shoji Kiyokawa - Daizen Kitamura
• Junko Kinugasa - Mitosese

•   Japan - The national premiere of the film took place on April 30, 1936 ^[1] .
•   - first shown to the Russian audience on September 24, 2008 as part of the 10th retrospective of Japanese cinema in Moscow (in the Central House of Artists) ^[2] .

• "Sosyun Kotiyama" (English) on the Internet Movie Database