Novel
A couple years have passed, Matsuzaki is divorced and has a daughter and is still up to his old compulsive gambling, boozing and womanizing even as he stares middle age in the face. At his daughter's school he meets a teacher who's similarily obsessed with horserace betting and who's also frigid - something he does his best to therapize. He also reconnects with his ex-wife, who just so happens to be the literary agent and love interest of another writer of the gambling genre. An epic gambling battle between the two ensues.
Original Concept
The continuing adventures of Matsuzaki (Eiji Okuda), a racing tipster for a sports paper. In this sequel to 1993's The Wicked Reporter, Matsuzaki befriends a mysterious old bettor at the track named Tokudaiji (Kei Sato). The man turns out to be a well-connected millionaire and invites Matsuzaki to his home... While the sequel covers the familiar territory of gambling and gangsters, Mochizuki also attempts to tactfully approach such subjects as gender dysphoria, transvestism, and infidelity.
Original Concept
More than his indie debut Skinless Night, this was the film that launched Mochizuki on his distinctive trajectory through the crime and yakuza genres. Matsuzaki (Eiji Okuda) is a racing tipster for a sports paper, a lowlife who spends half his time drunk, hangs out with yakuza and other riff-raff and complicates his sex life by succumbing to advances from his girlfriend's sister. As played by Okuda, he's also a figure of considerable hangdog charm. Less a plot-based movie than a guide to the several forms of high stakes gambling in Japan, this centres on his attempt to help a friend swindled in a bent mahjong game. Hakuryu appears (memorably) as an inscrutable yakuza in a black leather jacket. The film's success led to two sequels.
