Truck Rascals VI: I Am A Man of Honor (1977)

directed by Norifumi Suzuki

Japan

103 minutes

3.5 stars out of 5

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Yeah, sure, let's review a Truck Rascals movie. Why not.

In case somebody hasn't heard of it, since I don't think I've ever talked about these on here before: Truck Rascals was a series of ten films that ran through much of the 1970s, produced by Toei and directed by Norifumi Suzuki. A lot of the things I say about this movie will be applicable to the series in general, because after the first one or two films, they really hit on a predictable formula and each film kind of works on perfecting each aspect of that formula. On paper it seems like it would get old after a while, but it doesn't. The two protagonists of the series are Momojiro and Jonathan (played by Bunta Sugawara and Kin'ya Aikawa, respectively), who are both long-distance truckers, taking jobs that see them driving all over Japan, usually to multiple destinations within one film.

There are things that happen reliably in pretty much every entry in the series: Momojiro falls in love with a girl, signaled by a shot of the actress with glittering stars around her head (an effect that always reminds me of something that I'd see in an Ōbayashi film, for some reason) but isn't able to marry or pursue any kind of long-term relationship with her due to a whole bunch of factors that usually culminate in him doing something that ends their relationship in favor of her continued happiness, often with another man. Momo will usually encounter a rival trucker who he almost always gets into a fistfight with at some point. There's also a perilous race against time where at least Momo and sometimes Jonathan as well have to do some ill-advised high-speed trucking across dangerous obstacles (at least one reviewer has referred to the miniatures used to accomplish these scenes as "torakkusatsu"). Jonathan tries to run out on his wife and their ten kids a lot, which is toned down as the series goes on but is still kind of gross. Despite me being able to rattle off everything you can expect out of a Truck Rascals movie, they're really good every single time.

I Am a Man of Honor sees Momo trying to help out not just one but two women. The girl he falls in love with (Masako Natsume) turns out to have a sister who went missing in the middle of an unhappy marriage, leaving behind a young son and a remorseful husband who has managed to turn his life around. But then Momo's would-be girlfriend ends up having a boyfriend too. The truck race du jour comes when Natsume's character realizes that she really does want to go to Brazil with her boyfriend after all, but there's only a few hours to get partway across the country to meet him at the airport - easily manageable in Momo's truck, but requiring a little bridge-jumping and cop-avoiding on the way. One of the things that's great about this series is that even though Momo is a total meathead he does still seem to have respect for whoever he falls in love with. There is a lot - a lot - of misogyny throughout these films, but there's something refreshing about seeing tough-guy Sugawara act like an awkward high schooler when he falls in love, trying to pretend he's good at random stuff to impress girls and being as chivalrous as he can physically manage. 

The guest star this time is Tomisaburō Wakayama, paying direct tribute to his character in the Lone Wolf and Cub series. Having a crossover between Lone Wolf and Cub and Truck Rascals kind of feels like something I would think up while laying in bed at 2 AM unable to fall asleep, but Toei went ahead and did it. Wakayama is usually the star of his own show, so it's kind of fun to see him play a guest role in somebody else's film, and the inevitable fight scene between his character and Momo is over-the-top. There's an argument between the two of them about whether or not it's right to deck out your truck with lights and murals and ornaments the way Momo does or keep it simple and un-ostentatious, which feels like a made-up argument that nobody has ever had in real life, but it's interesting.

I'm starting to get the urge to rewatch these movies after a year or so, and I'm looking forward to revisiting them now that I know what to expect. These being subbed is largely the effort of two people, one of whom I know personally, and it's wild to think that a few years ago you could not see any of this series with subtitles at all.