In Inoue’s follow-up to The Winner, The Eagle and the Hawk (Washi to Taka, 1957), Ishihara Yujiro plays a seaman who joins the crew of a rusty cargo ship to avenge himself on his father’s enemy. Also on board is another new hand with a secret, played by a bluff, shirtless Mikuni Rentaro.
Ishihara’s bad attitude immediately gets him into trouble with the crew, which he escapes with his fists. He finds an unlikely ally in Mikuni, who has reason to dislike and distrust him. Ishihara also attracts the attention of the two women on board, a sultry stowaway (Tsukioka Yumeji); and the captain’s high-spirited daughter (Asaoka Ruriko), who has already been claimed by the short-fused first mate (Nagato Hiroyuki).
The story, which Inoue first scripted when he was still an assistant director, does not play out in obvious ways, just as Ishihara’s character is hard to classify. He is neither a heartless tough nor a pure-minded exemplar, but something new to Japanese films - a dirty hero with his own sense of justice and a way with a song.
Inoue shot nearly the entire film aboard a real WWII cargo ship in Tokyo Bay, halting only when a typhoon threatened to send his ship, cast and crew to the bottom. The real pitching, rolling and spray of sea water he captured add to the air of danger, excitement and, in the scenes of a cocky Ishihara singing to a wary-but-fascinated Asaoka Ruriko, erotic tension.