| The Wolves | |
|---|---|
| Japanese name | |
| Kanji | 狼 |
| Directed by | Kaneto Shindō |
| Written by | Kaneto Shindō |
| Produced by | Toshio Itoya Tengo Yamada Setsuo Noto |
| Starring | Nobuko Otowa Jun Hamamura Ichirō Sugai Sanae Takasugi Taiji Tonoyama |
| Cinematography | Takeo Itō |
| Edited by | Zenju Imaizumi |
| Music by | Akira Ifukube |
Release date | |
Running time | 127 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
The Wolves (or Wolf) (狼,Okami) is a 1955 Japanesecrimedrama film written and directed byKaneto Shindō.[1][2]
After anopening sequence showing a group of people hijacking a post office truck, amontage of press coverage and police investigations, and the arrest of Akiko, one of the gang members, the film switches to aflashback narration covering the preceding events: A group of 5 insurance salesmen and -women are facing dismissal for not accomplishing the company's sales plan, with all of them already living under precarious social conditions. War widows Akika and Fujibayashi have to raise their children on their own, Yoshikawa and Mikawa, one a hapless screenwriter, one a former car factory worker who lost his job after an accident, can hardly feed their families, and Harashima, a bank clerk fired for hisunion activities, lives in an unhappy marriage with a wife who refuses to divorce him without severance. Out of desperation, they decide to rob a post office money transport on its daily route. The coup is successful, but later the members of the group, titled "wolves" in the press, are caught one after another. The last to be arrested is Akiko, who needed the money for an operation on her disfigured son, and is already being expected by the police at the hospital where her son is treated.
Shindō had based his screenplay on an actual event, the robbing of a truck by a group of five insurance agents, including two women, who had no previous criminal records and acted out of sheer poverty. The film was produced by Shindō's and actorTaiji Tonoyama's own production companyKindai Eiga Kyōkai afterNikkatsu studios backed out of the project shortly before shooting began. Instead, Itō Takerō of the independent company Dokuritsu Eiga helped in funding the production.Wolf was shown in only a few independent cinemas and was a failure with the audience.[3] Tonoyama, who appeared in many of Shindō's films, later stated that this was his favourite role of all of the director's films.[4]