 Truck Yarou: Goiken Muyou (1975) Toei DSTD02092 SYNOPSIS Truck Yarou: Goiken Muyou follows the adventures of two long-distance truck drivers. First Star (Bunta Sugawara) is a free-wheeling bachelor who has no plans on settling down. Jonathan (Kinya Aikawa) is married with seven kids (!) and his wife is pregnant with another one. Both drive flashy trucks outfitted with multi-colored lights, horns, paintings, etc. One day after a long haul, the boys stop at a restaurant to fill their stomachs and empty their bowels. First Star bangs on the door of the restroom stall and tells the occupant to hurry up because he's has to take a massive dump. He is surprised when the occupant turns out to be a beautiful woman (Yutaka Nakajima). He quickly tries to save face and accuses a bystander of making the rude comments. He follows the woman back into the restaurant and discovers that she is a waitress there. He is in love but he has competition. First Star's buddy, Jonathan, is also smitten by her. As one would expect, this creates competition between the two even though Jonathan is married. They hit the road again but First Star can't get the waitress out of his mind. He is so obsessed with her that he has trouble concentrating on his driving and ends up crashing his truck into a tree on the side of the road. After getting out of their trucks to survey the damage, they notice a yakuza beating up a guy, Senkichi (Masayuki Yuhara), outside a strip club. Initially the boys don't take an interest in the fight but when it starts taking place in and around their prized trucks, First Star gets pissed and comes to the aid of Senkichi and fights off the yakuza. Senkichi then asks First Star if he can be his assistant. First Star initially refuses but changes his mind when Senkichi starts complimenting him on his beautiful truck. Jonathan becomes jealous of First Star's new friend and their long-standing friendship begins to fall apart. However, the relationship between First Star and Senkichi soon sours. First, Senkichi screws up First Star's request to deliver hamanasu flowers to his beloved waitress. Not only does Senkichi get the wrong type of flowers (carnations instead of hamanasu) but he delivers the flowers to the wrong person (fellow driver Mona Lisa Okyo instead of the waitress). Mona Lisa Okyo (Junko Natsu) has a secret crush on First Star and, after receiving the flowers, she now mistakenly believes that First Star feels the same way about her. Second, he causes First Star to lose a race against a rival driver, Dragon (Makoto Sato). Not only is First Star's pride hurt but he's now out of a lot of money as a result of losing the race. First Star decides he has had enough of his new assistant and dumps Senkichi off in the middle of nowhere. First Star then goes to the beach for some rest and relaxation. While First Star is playing in the ocean, his old buddy Jonathan drives up and joins him in the ocean. They exchange glares but they soon start playing together in the ocean and even do a little sumo wrestling on the beach. Their friendship is restored but they are in for a big surprise. Upon returning to their trucks, they discover that someone has abandoned a young girl in the cab of First Star's truck. They argue over who will take care of her and Jonathan decides he'll take care of her. He's already got seven kids so one more won't make a difference. Will the boys be able to find the parents of the abandoned child? Will widow Mona Lisa Okyo find love again? Will First Star be able to win the heart of the waitress? REVIEW Truck Yarou: Goiken Muyou is an excellent lowbrow comedy, drama, romance, action, travelogue hybrid that delivers equal amounts of laughter and tears. The chemistry between the two leads (Bunta Sugawara and Kinya Aikawa) is great and they are both able to effortlessly switch from comedy to drama. The film provides a perfect introduction to the recurring characters and gags that would form the foundation of the Truck Yarou series. The film was the first in Toei's enormously popular and successful Truck Yarou series (10 films total). Toei created the series to exploit the "art truck"/"dekotora" (decoration truck) subculture. From 1975 to 1979, Toei would release two Truck Yarou films a year (one in August and one in December). Every film except the last one was in the local box office top ten for their respective year of release. The film was written and directed by Norifumi Suzuki. He also directed all nine sequels and wrote five of the sequels. This series is what Norifumi is best known for in Japan. With this series he was somehow able to make the impossible possible: combine lowbrow comedy with heart-wrenching drama and make it work. Not only did Norifumi make it work but he also approached each film as an opportunity to remind the viewer of the power of friendship and love and the importance of family and culture. Each film explored the ongoing friendship between First Star and Jonathan, the relationship between Jonathan and his ever-expanding family, and First Star's attempts to find his soul mate. Norifumi then sprinkled each film with elements that showcased a particular region. For example, in the first film the waitress loves hamanasu from Hokkaido and First Star takes the abandoned girl to the Nebuta Festival in Aomori and the Star Festival in Sendai. Like his Red Peony Gambler series (he wrote 7 of the 8 installments), the first film focuses on heroes who will go to any lengths to right the wrongs that they see around them. In the case of ex-policeman Jonathan, he is incensed at the treatment of the truckers by the police and decides to put his life on the line in the name of trucker rights. In the case of First Star, he is incensed at the treatment of a convicted killer by the victim's family and decides to give up the one thing he loves so that the convicted killer can have a better life. If you want an entertaining and emotional rollercoaster, look no further than one of Toei's best 70s series: Truck Yarou. CHARACTERS Momojiro "First Star" Hoshi (Bunta Sugawara) - Truck driver. He is friends with Jonathan. He is single and plans to stay that way. His truck is his wife.  First Star's Truck  Kinzo "Jonathan" Matsushita (Kinya Aikawa) - Truck driver and ex-police officer. He is friends with First Star. He has a loving wife and seven kids. He likes to claim he is a widow when he is on the road.  Jonathan's Truck  Mona Lisa Okyo (Junko Natsu) - A fellow truck driver and a widow. She has a secret crush on First Star. Since her nickname is Mona Lisa Okyo, she has a Mona Lisa painting on the back of her truck.   Yoko (Yutaka Nakajima) - The waitress that Bunta falls in love with at the restaurant.  Senkichi (Masayuki Yuhara) - The guy that First Star befriends and makes his assistant.  Dragon (Makoto Sato) - A rival truck driver who challenges First Star to a race. As it turns out, he is related to one of the other main characters in the film.  MUSIC 1) Ichiban Boshi Blues - Bunta Sugawara/Kinya Aikawa The film's great theme song sung by the stars of the film. This very memorable and catchy tune has a sweet guitar opening and is featured in almost every Truck Yarou film. One of the best theme songs of the 70s. 2) Truck Driving Boogie - Downtown Boogie Woogie Band The other noteworthy song included in the film is Downtown Boogie Woogie Band's Truck Driving Boogie. The song sounds just as you would expect. The Downtown Boogie Woogie Band also make a cameo in the film as gas station attendants:  The singer/musician cameos continue in the 2nd film with a cameo by singer Naoko Ken in the beginning of the film (she's the teacher on the school bus). 3) Kokoro no Kori - Takashi Hosokawa This is a very famous song that was a big hit for Takashi Hosokawa. In the 1st film, the song plays when First Star is thrown into the jukebox during the fight in the restaurant. First Star then kicks the jukebox in disgust. The song is next heard in the beginning of the 2nd film. First Star and Jonathan (in their trucks) ride up along the side of a school bus filled with schoolgirls. First Star, Jonathan, and the schoolgirls then join together to sing Kokoro no Kori. This is my favorite scene in the Truck Yarou series. First Star and Jonathan sing Kokoro no Kori over the loud speakers on their trucks while the schoolgirls hang out of the windows of their bus to sing along with the boys (2nd film).  INGREDIENTS Each film in the Truck Yarou series has a common set of "ingredients". Each film is almost guaranteed to have all of the following:
DVD Specs -Letterboxed and 16x9 enhanced -Japanese (DD 2.0 384 kbps) -No Subtitles Solid transfer. Original mono soundtrack. Extras -Photo Gallery (10 photos) -Teaser Trailer -Theatrical Trailer When you select trailer from the menu, the teaser trailer plays first and then the theatrical trailer. The teaser trailer has Bunta and Kinya introducing the film. The theatrical trailer has scenes not in the film.
There are no other extras as is the norm for Toei. The original poster art is used for the DVD cover. PRODUCTS As one of the iconic film series of the 70s, Truck Yarou continues to remain popular with Japanese consumers. 1) Memorabilia Recent Truck Yarou items include... 2) Poster Art  Toei Action Film Poster Book (contains 144 posters) http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/htm/489830026X.html Another of Wides Shuppan's poster books, this volume is dedicated to Toei's action films from the Abashiri Prison series starring Ken Takakura to the Pinky Violence films to the Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba/Etsuko "Sue" Shihomi films. The original posters for 5 of the 10 Truck Yarou films are included in the book. The book is hardback and printed on high quality paper. Each poster is given a full B5 sized page. 3) Soundtrack  The soundtrack for the first Truck Yarou film (theme song and score) can be found on Bunta Sugawara Best Collection - Volume 4 [ABCS-1034] (1 CD) The CD also includes the soundtracks for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Truck Yarou films. The CD was part of Toei/Absord Music's soundtrack CD series. See my old old review of Red Peony Gambler for more information on the CD series. My only complaint about the CD is that they stuck the soundtracks for the first five films on one single CD so some music cues have been left off including my favorite music cue from the 2nd film (the one that plays when the title is shown on the screen). 4) Theme Song  If you just want the Truck Yarou theme song, there is a great alternative to the above soundtrack CD. The song can be found on Teichiku Records' Zoku Ginmaku Rock (TECN-25907) compilation released in 2003. Other theme songs on this compilation include the Zatoichi series (sung by Shintaro Katsu), Red Peony Gambler (sung by Junko Fuji), Ginchou Wataridori (sung by Meiko Kaji), Battles Without Honor And Humanity (opening instrumental), The Rambling Guitarist (Akira Kobayashi), Wolf Yakuza (Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba), Jeans Blues (sung by Meiko Kaji), Gokudou (sung by Tomisaburo Wakayama), and many more. See my old review of Red Peony Gambler for more information on the Ginmaku Rock CDs released by Teichiku Records. RELATED LINKS 1) A Truck Yarou website that includes a look at the different trucks driven by First Star and Jonathan, the trucks driven by their rivals, model kits released by Bandai, etc. (in Japanese) http://homepage2.nifty.com/470421/torakkuyarou-top.htm 2) An incomplete Truck Yarou website but it has lots of fun lists for fans including a list of trucks featured in the series, bathhouse scenes, homosexual scenes, Toru Yuri cameos, rivals, the women First Star fell in love with, etc. (in Japanese) http://www2.tba.t-com.ne.jp/TRUCK-YAROU/ 3) A site dedicated to Truck Yarou model trucks. (in Japanese) http://firststarfactory.fc2web.com/index.htm 4) A news article on the current "art truck"/"dekotora" (decoration truck) scene. Although the article labels Truck Yarou as "B" fare, don't believe it. There is nothing "B" about the series. (in English) http://www.asahi.com/english/lifestyle/TKY200406050134.html 5) A short and concise Wikipedia article covering every thing you need to know about the Truck Yarou series. (in Japanese) http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/... 6) Photos of a Truck Yarou model kit from Bandai being assembled. The truck featured is Bunta's truck from the 2nd Truck Yarou film. (in Japanese) http://www.hlj.com/~tanoue/MODEL/BAN/BAN914219-01.html 7) There have been many video games that featured art trucks. Here are a few released by Namco and Spike: Truck Kyosokyoku 8) Various art truck photo galleries (in Japanese): Dekotora Kaidou9) Complete cast/crew credits for the first film courtesy of the Toei maniacs at Team Masa (in Japanese): http://www.geocities.co.jp/Hollywood-Miyuki/2662/1975/truck01.html 10) Actor Websites (in Japanese) Bunta Sugawara Unofficial Website muldoon |
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