Suicide has long been used as a form of social protest in Japan. In this film, set in 1703, samurai culture is being transformed by the emergence of a new merchant class. Elements of the social contract are beginning to unravel, and some unscrupulous people took undue advantage of these changes before the social order was re-created. In this story, a rich merchant gives his clerk an I.O.U. instead of wages. When the impoverished clerk presents the paper to the merchant at the agreed upon time asking for payment, the man flies into a rage and pretends he never wrote it and claims the clerk is trying to defraud him. Then he sets his henchmen on the clerk to administer a beating.

Kinichi and Akiko meet when they visit their fathers in prison. After successfully gambling on a bicycle race, they spend an enjoyable day together at the beach.

A model gets involved with some gangsters trying to pull a big deal.

This is the final part in the Tough Guy or Bad Reputation series that starred Shintaro Katsu as Asakichi (sort of like a early 20th century yakuza non-blind Zatoichi). The series ran for sixteen films, with a number of famous Japanese directors (Tanaka, Makino, Mori) and you can read more about it here: link
I'm fairly certain the DVDr I sourced for this was taped off of Hawaiian television at some point (it has that "look") and hopefully it will be released officially on DVD somewhere and these subtitles can be added to it (the rest of the series is available on DVD in Japan, but not this one.) The video quality *obviously* leaves much to be desired, but I noticed that there was a lot of Masumura activity on KG so this might be of interest.
A quick summary by dbborroughs from imdb:
Quote:
Set in 1937, this is the story of Asakichi, who is played by Shiuntaro Katsu, best known as being Zatoichi in 26 films. Asakichi has been disowned by his father for gambling, so he heads off to make his living in cockfighting. He, in quick order, wins some money, takes up with a fallen geisha and quickly comes in conflict with the yakuza. Besting their top man, Asakichi, is drawn into the life of a yakuza despite his efforts to remain outside of it.

Having botched his entrance exams to a prestigious university, the dim-witted but earnest Hikoichi Otsu (Fujio) refuses to swallow his pride by doing the decent thing and admitting his failure to his mother back home in the country. His plight is made more desperate by a recently opened department store in his hometown threatening to engulf the family business and his father's dying words that without a degree one has no future in a rapidly modernising Japan. Not wanting to lose face, he just puts on his uniform anyway and turns up to his literature classes as if he were a bona-fide freshman. He looks sure to get away with his charade too, until a chance encounter with the leader of a group of student radicals named Soratani (Itami) throws him way out of his depth.

The first story concerns an attractive young woman who works in a Tokyo nightclub. Her plan for a solid financial future has a double whammy. In the second story, a beautiful young woman is employed by an unscrupulous real estate agent to convince male clients to invest in worthless property. The last story is about a widowed geisha who has no real financial worries and who falls in love with a forger.

On his release from prison a young yakuza, along with his brother, decides to turn his back on criminal life instead of taking over the position of his recently deceased father, boss of the Asahina clan. But their exit proves more difficult than planned when their rival clan steps in to exact revenge.

Tied to a mountain between her brutalizing spouse and her secret lover, disaster strikes; the authorities accuse her of murder and prompt a confession.

A young woman undergoes psychiatric treatment after she no longer hears music and develops sexual hang-ups.

A 16-year-old girl works in a factory to pay her late father’s debt. When she makes up her mind to become a hostess, a boy approaches her with kind and gentle manners...(Also occasionally known in English as “Play”)

Two car manufacturers spy on each other to try to find out details and prices of a new sports car each is about to launch.

A middle-aged factory engineer trains, marries, and ultimately loses a teenage bride after she enslaves him to her whims.

Yuko is sent to the coastal regions to be raised away from the rest of her sophisticated family where she finds out from her ill grandmother that she is not who she thought she was.

1965 film by Yasuzō Masumura

Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two other companies.

1966 Japanese film directed by Yasuzo Masumura

1966 film by Yasuzō Masumura

After a businessman is murdered, an investigation identifies a suspect who is then put on trial for that crime.

The story of an orphan girl, brought up in naive, rustic innocence by an elderly relative, who is suddenly exposed to the brutality, greed and deceptiveness of the outside world when her grandmother dies.

The four principals in a love affair collide when jealousy, blackmail and suicide enter the picture.