クレージーの大爆発 / Kureji no Daibakuhatsu / Crazy Big Explosion (1969)

Release date: April 27, 1969
Director: Kengo Furusawa
Studio: Toho
Cast: Hitoshi Ueki, Kei Tani, Hajime Hana, Hiroshi Inuzuka, Senri Sakurai, Ētarō Ishibashi, Shin Yasuda, Noriko Takahashi, Ayumi Ishida, Akihiko Hirata, Kirin Kiki, Makoto Fujita et al
Availability: Available as a DVD on amazon.co.jp; also available via streaming on Amazon Prime with a Japanese Amazon account. No known internet streaming outside of Japan.

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I've really been looking forward to this one. Who doesn't like a movie literally called "Crazy Big Explosion"?

This is part of the long-running Crazy Cats film series, starring the jazz band phenomenon Crazy Cats (sometimes "Hajime Hana and Crazy Cats"). It's far from the most obscure film I've covered here, and Crazy Cats in general remain well-known today.¹ Wikipedia - as in English Wikipedia - even had an article about Crazy Cats featured in their "did you know?" section a few months back. And yet, to my knowledge, absolutely none of the Crazy Cats films have ever been subtitled or are even really known about outside of Japan.

Crazy Big Explosion has got some appeal for tokusatsu fans, as this was Teruyoshi Nakano's first credit as special effects director, and Kengo Furusawa would later helm episodes of Zone Fighter. It's also got a basis in real history - it's one of many films based on the "300 Million Yen Robbery", one of the most famous robbery cases in Japan, in which a still-unknown perpetrator, disguised as a motorcycle cop, successfully robbed a bank of three hundred million yen in employee bonuses. (The employees were, surprisingly, fine: all the money was insured.)

As always, all images are copyright Toho. I claim no ownership. I'm just the freak who likes taking screenshots.

The film sets up the plot with a narration explaining how Japan, as of the present time, has become the #2 economy in the world and is so financially prosperous that it is now being targeted by GIB, an international underground criminal organization. GIB knows of a cache of gold bars hidden underneath Sanichi Bank, and their plan is to recruit civilians to steal it, so that nothing about the crime can be traced back to GIB.

Hirata's character shows up surprisingly early on in the film. He plays sort of a GIB middle-manager named W, who calls the shots for the agents operating under him, but ultimately reports back to a shadowy, unseen big boss. He speaks a little English.

One of GIB's agents, going by the name of Eriko, fakes a car accident to get her mark - a sophisticated criminal named Oki (Hitoshi Ueki) - to take her back to her apartment so she can loop him into the plan. She shows him some footage of a previous bank job he'd done and tells him how impressed she was - this job is actually the 300 Million Yen Robbery, which the film posits that Oki was the perpetrator of! Oki had been using the gold to finance his strange modern religious movement, and agrees to help Eriko with the new job.

peak 1960s

also, am I crazy or is this the harem room set from Adventure in Kigan Castle?

Then we go to the Hanshin-Giants game. 

Meanwhile, Hajime Hana plays Tachibana, a man who is about to be evicted with his wife and two kids. His friend Akatsuka (Hiroshi Inuzuka) comes over to tell him he might know of a way to make enough money to pay back the bank and keep his house, and although Tachibana protests at first, he is soon part of the scheme as well. The last person to be read into the plan is Kei Tani's character, Natakani, a dentist whose office is chosen as the perfect spot to begin tunneling under the bank. Along with a bank employee (Matsuda, played by Shin Yasuda) who's willing to act as a mole and give them insider information, the gang's all here.

Obviously digging a tunnel in public makes a lot of noise, so our crims need a cover story. They decide to pretend they're shooting a movie to avoid suspicion. While the guys are underground jackhammering and dynamiting their way into the bank's foundation, Oki and Tachibana are aboveground, "filming" a huge song-and-dance sequence in the streets as a distraction.

Ayumi Ishida is the singer here

This feels like a good time to remind everybody that Teruyoshi Nakano was in charge of special effects for the first time here. Teruyoshi "I wanted to blow the roof off the soundstage but Toho said no" Nakano. There are indeed many explosions in this film.

The gang gets word that the gold bars are about to be moved ahead of schedule, so they have only a few hours to complete their tunnel and steal the gold. Their explosions in the middle of the night are making the police increasingly suspicious, but finally they break into the safe where the bars are, and set up a chute system to start funneling them out. The police are there at this point, but it looks like the Crazy Cats are going to get away - until Eriko radios for backup from GIB, who hold the Cats up at gunpoint and steal the gold bars for themselves. W also calls in a tip to the police, telling them Oki and co. are the robbers.

The other GIB agent Eriko called for backup ends up betraying her, telling her that when their patsies are captured, they'll surely tell the police about her, and that will endanger the whole of GIB. He throws her out of their truck and apparently shoots her, but she survives due to having stashed a gold bar in her bra(!). She joins back up with the Crazy Cats who are now being hotly pursued by the police.

cop car demolition derby at the cheapest filming location in town, everybody's invited

Our crew then steals GIB's jet which happens to be carrying a hydrogen bomb. This they accidentally crash into the foot of Mt. Fuji, attracting the attention of the military and then of the press, who hail them as revolutionaries or something, and then the Prime Minister, who is very enthused with the idea of getting some H-bombs himself. This is not brought up again. 

GIB catches up with the crew eventually and kidnaps them back to their base, which they plan to blow to smithereens using another H-bomb (Jesus, how many did they have?) and then evacuate with the gold in their cool secret rocket.

This of course fails. W gets shot pretty unceremoniously, the base explodes anyway, and Crazy Cats steal the rocket. The narrative peaces out beyond this point; movie's over, stop thinking about logic or the fact that everybody is stuck in space. It's fine. Don't worry about it.

GORATH CAMEO

The film ends with another song-and-dance number on the moon. This was evidently the last Crazy Cats film to feature a full song-and-dance sequence with the whole band, which is too bad; this was my first real Crazy Cats experience, but they all seem like great entertainers.

Yeah this was the stuff. A goofy-ass robbery-gone-wrong movie with tokusatsu sensibilities and excellent music and cinematography. I can't say there were any specific jokes that really got me (except when Nakatani calls his landlord ojisan and the landlord says "I’m only 38!") but the overall vibe is just total silliness. Crazy Cats obviously work really well together as a troupe, and the fact that everybody watching would have already known they were a band saves the film a lot of time it might otherwise have to spend on character development. This is just the start of my Crazy Cats journey; more to come in future.

I'm queuing this up to post on July 4th so my American readers can enjoy some explosions of our own as an appropriate soundtrack.

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¹ CAST, who are better known for their extensive line of resin ornaments, produced two ornaments related to Crazy Big Explosion (see 'em both on Mandarake here.) You can also find a CAST GIB emblem for sale on Yahoo! Auctions, so you can buy it and enjoy having everybody tell you "hey, nice Shocker emblem!"