Ironfinger (1965)/ Golden Eyes (1968)

The 1962 - Dr. No has been released in cinemas worldwide and is a huge hit. The following year comes From Russia, With Love (my favorite James Bond film) and that is followed by Goldfinger, James Bond has become an international sensation and it is only a matter of time before other studios jump on the bandwagon by producing 007 knock offs, such as Matt Helm, Derek Flint, Fathom Harvill, Modesty Blaise, and Andrew Hoshino.  Wait.....Andrew...who? Sadly, the adventures of Andrew Hoshino are hard to find in the United States (though they can be seen on Huluplus), they are so obscure that both films, Ironfinger and Golden Eyes, have less than 20 votes each. It's rather a shame, because both films are extremely entertaining.

Ironfinger follows Andrew Hoshino as he tracks down an arms dealer, Mr. Le Bois. Standing in his way are warring Japanese gangs, the Akatsuki family and the Aonuma, and a cool hitman, Komori, who uses acid to dispose of his victims. He forms an alliance with bumbling Detective Tezuka and sexy hit woman Yumi, who specializes in explosives.

The films is rather ambiguous as to what Hoshino's profession really is.... an INTERPOL agent or a hit man? Hoshino is a rather compelling character, he often puts on a cowardly demeanor so his enemies will completely underestimate his abilities. He is also somewhat of a bumbler; he constantly gets caught by the villains and is extremely clumsy at times: there's one scene in which he attempts to roundhouse kick a group of thugs, only to miss them and fall completely on his ass. What saves his neck is his ability to improvise under high pressure situations. This comes in handy as Hoshino is constantly being captured by the villains.

Early in the movie he is tied up in a taxi cab, that is stationed in an underground parking structure, and is being watched over by a dim witted henchman.  Hoshino notices a can of shaving cream resting on the passenger seat and evolves a plan. The villains have confiscated his suitcase and brought it up to their office to rummage through it. Hoshino tricks the henchman into believing that the suitcase has a radio transmitter hidden in it and that it's sending out signals to other INTERPOL agents, who should arrive very shortly. While he is telling the henchman this story, Hoshino uses a blade hidden in his wrist watch to cut through the ropes binding his hands together.  He then starts screaming that he is fellow INTERPOL agents have arrived. The henchman gets out of the car to check and is relieved to find the parking structure is still empty. He walks back inside of the cab and gets sprayed in the face with shaving cream. Hoshino ties up the henchman and then goes on his merry way. Later on in the film, Hoshino incapacitates another henchman (who uses a hearing aid) with a toilet plunger.

Akira Takarada is extremely charismatic as the hit man Hoshino. It's interesting to contrast Takarada's portrayal of Hoshino with Sean Connery's take on James Bond. Bond always has a cool demeanor and always seems to be in control, even when he was in the villain clutches, he is a professional and it shows, not to mention he is quite the lady's man. Hoshino is almost none of these things, he's extremely confident, but is quite inept at times. It's to Takarada's credit as an actor that despite his bumbling ways, the audience still takes Hoshino seriously as a hero. Takarada has wonderful comic timing, but he also can be serious when the scene calls for it. In fact, it's amazing just how effortlessly Takarada goes from being a bumbler to a cold hearted assassin, often in the same scene.

The most interesting aspect of Ironfinger (at least to me) is the character Yumi, played by Mie Hama. Shortly after the release of Ironfinger, Hama would portray agent Kissi Suzuki in the Connery-Bond film You Only Live Twice. However, despite brandishing a gun, Kissi Suzuki is more of a decoration (Hama spends most of her screen time clad in a white bikini) than an actual character. She doesn't appear until the film is nearly two thirds over, so there really isn't much time for character development. Hama is much better served in Ironfinger, where her character is often a driving force in the narrative.

Towards the end of the film Komori abducts Hoshino and has him taken aboard a plane, that is being piloted by gun smuggler (and Le Bris lackey), Mr. Huang. Yumi witnesses the kidnapping and follows them to the airport. She runs back to the hotel to inform Detective Tezuka of the abduction and the two of them form a rescue plan. Yumi has chartered an airplane and the two of them fly after Huang and Hoshino (who is tied up). Yumi sends a message to Komori (via one of of Le Bris goons posing as a bellboy) that she planted a bomb on the plane and it will explode any minute. Komori radios this information to Mr. Huang and he promptly bails out, leaving Hoshino to his fate. Yumi then pilots the chartered plane, while Tezuka uses a rope ladder to climb onto the plane Hoshino is trapped in. It is a success! Tezuka safely lands the plane. Meanwhile,  Yumi  goes back for Huang, who is still parachuting down, and takes him out with the propeller of the airplane. Yumi parachutes to safety and watches as the plane explodes in mid air. It's at this juncture in the narrative that Yumi loses clothes and spends the rest of the film in red bra.

Hoshino and Tezuka have been captured and are imprisoned in a concrete cell, Yumi blows them out with plastic explosives that she uses as bra padding. Yumi, despite her professionalism, has a few quirks of her own; she sets off small explosions to startle people and finds their reactions amusing. And despite her unflappable nature, the sight of a dead rat causes her to faint.

In You Only Live Twice, Japanese woman are depicted as being second class citizens, totally dependent on men. In Ironfinger, it's the quite the opposite as Yumi is just as good as Hoshino (if not better) in their shared professions. Their birds of a feather, which makes easy to believe that they would begin to harbor romantic feelings towards one another by movie's end. Though, their romance is fairly chaste; they kiss and embrace a few times, but never quite make it to the bedroom. Bond always found time in his busy schedule to bed whatever scantily clad hottie that crossed his path.

 Hoshino and Yumi are fairly amoral characters, they could easily go either way. In the beginning, Yumi is working for the Akatsuki family at first, but switches sides when it's no longer in her best interest. Hoshino is a hit man who has been hired by a European arms dealer to take out Mr. Le Bois, he is hardly a boy scout.
Hoshino is a good guy by default; this particular assignment calls for him to wipe out gangsters and other undesirable characters. In this one instance, he and the law have the same goal, to take down Le Bois, and they enjoy a rather cordial partnership.

Golden Eyes follows Hoshino as he attempts to find a rare gold coin and the man that assassinated a little girl's father. Like the first film, Hoshino aligns himself with a sexy female assassin, Ruby, who's specialty is knives.

Also in the mix is a flaky (and sexy) woman pop singer, whose main hobby is car racing. She has entered an auto rally in Japan and unknowingly has the rare coin in her possession. On top of that, there are hit men hot on her trail. Can Hoshino save her in time?

Golden Eyes is a lot of fun, but Ruby is a less interesting character than Yumi, in that we never see her skills put to use. Early in the film, the audience is shown her ability with the knife and then movie forgets all about this until the very end, and even then it's fairly anti-climatic, as Hoshino and Tuzeka (played by a different actor) already have things under wraps. However, Takarada is always a joy to watch and it's his spirited performance that really keeps that film afloat. Plus, any film that has assassins dressed up as nuns (pushing baby carriages) is automatically good in my book.

Both films were produced by Toho, which was also cranking out Godzilla films at the same time. Naturally, there is a huge overlap between the two series. Jun Fukuda, the director of both Hoshino films, would go on to direct Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Megalon, and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.  Mie Hama and Ichiro Arishima (Tezuka in Ironfinger) both appeared in King Kong vs Godzilla. Arishima played the head of a pharmaceutical company, Mr. Tako, the man responsible for bringing Kong to Japan, and Hama played Fumiko, the young woman Kong carries around in his paw.  Akira Takarada and Akhiko Hirata (Komori) were regulars in the Godzilla franchise; Takarada appeared in six films total, while Hirata co-starred in seven. Bibari Maeda (Ruby) played the island girl, Riko, in Son of Godzilla. 
Finally, Takarada would be reunited with Hama  in the 1967 film King Kong Escapes. Hama played the memorable femme fatale, Madame Piranha.

Credits:
Ironfinger (aka 100 Shot, 100 Killed) (1965)
Cast: Akira Takarada (Andrew Hoshino), Mie Hama (Yumi Sawada), Ichiro Arishima (Detective Tezuka),
Akihiko Hirata (Komori), Toru Ibuki (Matsuki).
Screenplay: Michio Tsuzuki, Kihachi Okamoto
Director: Jun Fukuda
Running Time: 101 min.

Golden Eyes (aka Booted Babe, Busted Boss) (1968)
Cast: Akira Takarada (Andrew Hoshino), Bibari Maeda (Ruby), Tomomi Sawa (Mitsuko Saito), Andrew Hughes (Stonefeller), Makato Sato (Detective Tezuka), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Kurokawa), Nadao Kirino (Hassan).
Screenplay: Jun Fukuda, Ei Ogawa, Michio Tsuzuki.
Running Time: 79 min.