This film essentially begins with a yakuza assassin by the name of "Goro Fujikawa" (Tetsuya Watari) being involved in a knife fight against several other gangsters from a rival clan. Although he successfully fends off most of them, one just happens to lunge at him when his back is turned and Goro survives only because a colleague named "Masahiko Hayashida" (Tatsuya Fuji) steps in between them and takes the full force of the knife himself. Minutes afterward, both Goro and the seriously wounded Masahiko are arrested by the police and subsequently sent to prison. The scene then shifts to Goro being granted parole but just before he leaves prison he visits the infirmary where Masahiko lies in bed dying from his wounds. And with his last breath, Masahiko asks Goro to deliver a message to his sister "Shinobu Hayashida" (Chitose Kobayashi) who has not come to visit him the entire time. Naturally, being a man of honor, Goro acknowledges his friend's request and immediately sets out to find her. Along the way, however, he encounters some yakuza gangsters who are taking advantage of a couple of different women--and one of them just happens to be Shinobu Hayashida. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, although this is the fourth film in a 6-part series, it isn't really necessary to watch any of the previous movies beforehand as they are all pretty much stand on their own and, at best, only relate to one another indirectly. Along with that, they all pretty much follow the same basic pattern. Not only that, but for some odd reason, Chieko Matsubara is typically cast as Goro's love interest in each and every film--but sometimes plays a different character. I don't know why. Be that as it may, I thought that this particular film was slightly better than its predecessor and I have rated it accordingly.
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