Three Gamblers

1967 ‘三人の博徒’ Directed by Shigehiro Ozawa

Three closely associated gamblers have adventures in Yokohama, Hokkaido, and Macao. Gambling trio endure hardships to rescue Naojiro’s family.

Koji Tsuruta Kyōsuke Machida Ryō Ikebe Sanae Kitabayashi Tōru Abe Tatsuo Endō Hōsei Komatsu Akitake Kôno Shigeyoshi Fujioka Takashi Ebata Kenji Kusumoto Ryuko Azuma Yoshiko Yamada Jûkei Fujioka Hideto Kagawa Takashi Noguchi Kyônosuke Murai Gorô Naniwa Masaharu Arikawa Tetsuya Yamaoka Michimaro Otabe

Alternative Title

Sannin no Bakuto

crime drama

85 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Temple of Schlock ★★★★ 1

Viewers expecting just another ninkyo eiga from Toei will be disoriented by this film's opening shot: a pullback from Our Lady of Penha Chapel to one of the 32 cannons atop the Fortaleza do Monte in Macao. Yes, this is certainly shaping up to be Shigehiro Ozawa Week here at the Temple, isn't it? And I only have 60 or 70 more of his movies to watch.
Four years after killing each other's boss -- and nearly killing each other with axes during work detail -- Naojiro (Koji Tsuruta) and Sugiyama (Kyôsuke Machida) emerge from Abashiri Prison as sworn brothers and head home to Yokohama. Sugiyama's clan has been disbanded thanks to the rotten Koizumi brothers (Toru Abe and Shigeyoshi…
Review by Tom Moffat ★★★

Routine ninkyo eiga from one of Toei's less interesting directors. The Macau setting doesn't enliven things much but is an opportunity for some anti-Chinese racism - the chutzpah of the making one of the villains a sexually predatory Chinese drug dealer, given the then recent history of the two countries, is incredible. The prostitution plot, the absence of a good oyabun and the machine gun climax are perhaps early indications of the genre taking a decadent turn, although Toei would continue churning out straightforward versions of this sort of material for at least another half-decade.
Review by ProfessorGuts ★★★★

"Three Gamblers" is a flawed, but rather good revenge yarn about a yakuza named Naojiro (Koji Tsuruta) who wants revenge on his clan for forcing his wife into a sex trafficking ring while he was in prison. He travels to Macao with his sworn brother, Sugiyama (Kyôsuke Machida), to find his wife and kill the leaders of his clan.
This film doesn't waste time at all and moves at a hare's pace throughout the film. We get to see Naojiro murder a rival yakyza boss, Naojiro gets sent to prison, his wife is forcibly given drugs and raped (it is implied), 4 years pass by, and Naojiro gets out of prison to find out what happened to his wife. This…

Recent reviews

Review by Tom Moffat ★★★

Routine ninkyo eiga from one of Toei's less interesting directors. The Macau setting doesn't enliven things much but is an opportunity for some anti-Chinese racism - the chutzpah of the making one of the villains a sexually predatory Chinese drug dealer, given the then recent history of the two countries, is incredible. The prostitution plot, the absence of a good oyabun and the machine gun climax are perhaps early indications of the genre taking a decadent turn, although Toei would continue churning out straightforward versions of this sort of material for at least another half-decade.
Review by ProfessorGuts ★★★★

"Three Gamblers" is a flawed, but rather good revenge yarn about a yakuza named Naojiro (Koji Tsuruta) who wants revenge on his clan for forcing his wife into a sex trafficking ring while he was in prison. He travels to Macao with his sworn brother, Sugiyama (Kyôsuke Machida), to find his wife and kill the leaders of his clan.
This film doesn't waste time at all and moves at a hare's pace throughout the film. We get to see Naojiro murder a rival yakyza boss, Naojiro gets sent to prison, his wife is forcibly given drugs and raped (it is implied), 4 years pass by, and Naojiro gets out of prison to find out what happened to his wife. This…
Review by Temple of Schlock ★★★★ 1

Viewers expecting just another ninkyo eiga from Toei will be disoriented by this film's opening shot: a pullback from Our Lady of Penha Chapel to one of the 32 cannons atop the Fortaleza do Monte in Macao. Yes, this is certainly shaping up to be Shigehiro Ozawa Week here at the Temple, isn't it? And I only have 60 or 70 more of his movies to watch.
Four years after killing each other's boss -- and nearly killing each other with axes during work detail -- Naojiro (Koji Tsuruta) and Sugiyama (Kyôsuke Machida) emerge from Abashiri Prison as sworn brothers and head home to Yokohama. Sugiyama's clan has been disbanded thanks to the rotten Koizumi brothers (Toru Abe and Shigeyoshi…