The ninth and final instalment of the Tales of Chivalry saga is undoubtedly the most metacognitive and slow-paced, but at the same time, human conflict is centred, as always, on the honour of a lone wolf like Hidejiro, who saves Girenjiro, a hardened gambler and cheat who is beaten up, deservedly so, but who can sing, as he demonstrates to his protector in the bathroom, and Saburo’s loyalty to the rules and regulations of the yakuza; but it also deals with the disloyalty and betrayal of Terada’s brother-in-law, Takakura’s brother, who asks him to help crush the rival family because, bitter, he has never been able to overcome the humiliation of being thrown out of the Tenjinhama Flower Festival four years ago. It is precisely the lonely Hanada Hidejiro who will back Terada, although, as is logical – not only in the plot but also in the character – signs of emotional exhaustion begin to show in Hirejiro, perhaps from so much carnage in previous instalments. That is why Terada’s cunning brother-in-law asks Hidejiro to get rid of Kazama Junichi, who, incidentally, they have already tried to stab several times without success, ambushing him outside his home, but he was absent and has come to support his father.

That is why the scene directed by Saeki, of the duel in front of the lake between Junichi (Ryo Ikebe) and Hidejiro (Takakura), although not loaded with sensationalism such as songs or melodrama in the musical score, as Masahiro Makino did, for example, who shot the sequence almost without repetition but with a series of very symbolic scenic embellishments. In any case, in this confrontation, which, as Hidejiro rightly said, ‘we hold no grudge’ despite the clash, the triumph of ninjō (人情) yakuza is evident, compassion before duty and loyalty, that is, giri 義理 to his brother Terada and, specifically, to his brother Terada’s brother-in-law, because when he was about to slash his opponent’s forehead, Junichi’s wife stepped in and died unjustly, he stopped instantly and forgot about the fight. But the brother-in-law’s disloyalty knows no bounds, and as Terada decided to cut off the fight against the opposing clan and forget the affront of four years ago, he even planned to participate in the Unuma Festival, but alas, his brother-in-law murders him and then, without loyalty but only cowardice, sends his henchmen to kill Shigure’s boss (Tsuruta). Seeing that they cannot overpower him with swords, he uses, as in other episodes of Chivalry, a gun, shooting him dead without dignity or loyalty to the rules. In fact, shortly before, he had used the desperate gambler Girenjiro to kill Shigure’s boss, despite what the latter had done to free his sister. We already know the carnage that awaits when Hidejiro and Junichi realise what has happened. A bloody and exciting ending for those of us who enjoy seeing justice prevail, even in the world of the yakuza and crime.