Others have commented that the main character in this brilliant film is a burnt-out husk of a man. Although this is certainly true from one viewpoint, I would like to emphasize an alternative perspective.<br /><br />Murakawa, the gangster, is already one of the "grateful dead." He has been through so much in his life that he is indeed "burnt out," but there is also a good sense to this term. Life's vicissitudes have grounded him in a zen-like serenity beyond concerns about life and death. Life can only draw him out enough to express mild amusement. During a shootout, he stands calmly blazing away, oblivious to the bullets flying around him. It is this divine detachment that makes true "play" possible, as we witness in the playful beach scenes. His personality, or more accurately, his character, is standing on something beyond the phenomenal. He is able to go through the motions of being a gangster, but it is as if he is watching the violent play in which he is involved with a godlike detached amusement. This is much like the character Takeshi Kitano plays in "Zatoichi, the Blind Swordsman." The movie is a fusion of gangland action and Buddhist sensibility--a very Oriental gangster flick.<br /><br />The film is a masterpiece--from the serenity of the beautiful Okinawan landscape to the perfection of the musical score. It reminds me of Yeats' famous tombstone: "Cast a cold eye on life, on death . . . ," but I would revise it to say "Cast an amused eye on life, on death . . . ." The fearsome Hindu death goddess Kali, with her girdle of skulls, has one palm raised in a gesture of "fear not." So it is with the calm at the center of this violent film.