Pop art colors everywhere! Crazy camera angles! Extreme closeups on sunglasses! A hero with his own theme tune that he sings/whistles to let the bad guys know that he's coming/they haven't succeeded in killing him! Apparently the directer, Seijun Suzuki was a constant thorn in the flesh of his studio, who kept trying to get him just to churn out profitable B-pictures, but he kept being more and more imaginative and playing with the form. They'd even severely trimmed his budget for this one, but you wouldn't know it. It's wildly imaginative - I'm just not sure it's a coherent picture. Here's basically what I understood. The hero, Tetsuya (AKA Tetsu the Phoenix), was the right hand man for a Yakuza boss Kurata, who decided to go straight and bought a building in Tokyo. The film begins with Tetsu being beaten up by the members of a rival gang because he refuses to fight back, this being part of going legit. Tetsu at this point always wears a sky-blue suit (which seems to survive the savage beating fairly unscathed - he's not called "The Phoenix" for nothing), while meanwhile, the head of the rival gang, Otsuka always wears a bright red suit (along with his designer shades). Tetsu idolizes Kurata and is fiercely loyal to him, viewing him as a father figure. Kurata, meanwhile, is struggling a bit to pay off the mortgage on the building to the person he's buying it off, Yoshii (no, not this one), and the money is coming due immediately. Tetsu goes to Yoshii, who seems only to have one employee, an annoyingly giggly (and comics-obsessed) secretary and cuts a deal whereby Kurata only has to pay some of it now and can promise to pay the rest monthly. Yoshii is reluctant, but is impressed by Tetsu's loyalty to Kurata, and his offer to lay down his life if they can't repay, and agrees. But it turns out the giggly secretary is an Otsuka plant, and Otsuka calls up pretending to be Tetsu and lures Yoshii to his office (which is above the aforementioned groovy "Jazz" club - lots of dancing in silhouette), when Yoshii is there and realizes it's not Kurata, Otsuka claims that Kurata has sold his debt to him. Yoshii still doesn't believe him but is bullied into signing over the deed for the full sum owed in cash. But then Yoshii is shot in the back, just as Tetsu arrives, having worked out what has happened. However, while chasing after Otsuka and his men, he falls down an elevator shaft (!) and appears to be left for dead. MEANWHILE, Kurata arrives and accidentally shoots the giggly secretary (she deserved it). This seems to produce a kind of stalemate (at least, it does when Tetsu escapes the elevator shaft and comes back to save Kurata from Otsuka's men) where Otsuka can't make trouble because otherwise he'll be shopped for shooting Yoshii, and Kurata can't make trouble because he shot the secretary. And this is where I got a bit confused, but I think the idea is that Tetsu arranges for other gangs to join up with Kurata (so he's no longer legit?) to protect him from Otsuka, and meanwhile he agrees to take the rap for the secretary and goes on the lam (or, "drifts"), despite the obvious anguish this causes "his girl," a nightclub singer Chiharu (who has her own theme song, that we hear repeatedly). So off he goes, in his pretty blue suit and speckless white coat and shoes, to roam Japan. While on his travels, he is chased by Otsuka's main hitman Tatsuzo The Viper, but keeps escaping him, even when they face off in front of that oncoming train (although this appears to result in the Viper losing a couple of fingers - it's not clear). Along the way he encounters another ex-Yakuza, who used to be a rival, nicknamed "Shooting Star," who helps him out,
but they can't truly get along because Shooting Star scoffs at Tetsu's persisting loyalty, and says the best thing he ever did was cut all ties and go it alone, while Tetsu is morally appalled by this stance. They meet up again in the last city Tetsu goes to, where an old ally, Umetani, takes him in, and they all take part in a massive fight in a western-themed bar (complete with zaftig white exotic dancer, who takes quite a shine to Tetsu). But as they are celebrating, we cut to Tokyo and we see Otsuka cutting a deal with Kurata
whereby the latter gets to have his building back if he betrays Tetsu. And horror-of-horrors, he does! Turns out Shooting Star is right about the no-honor-among-thieves business. Kurata calls Umetani and demands that he off Tetsu, but Shooting Star helps him escape (and Umetani lets him). Cue final shootout back in Tokyo, in the Roman-themed nightclub Chiharu (whom Otsuka wants for himself) sings at.
Apparently this movie was fairly radical because of its cynical attitude to the Yakuza honor code. That and all the disjointed psychedelic grooviness.
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