If you ask most American gearheads about their favorite on-screen representation of Japanese car culture, you’re likely to get a raft of answers naming the usual suspects: Initial D, Speed Racer, or Tokyo Drift’s Americanized take from the Fast and Furious franchise. A few hardcore fans might even name-drop Wangan Midnight, a series about a demon-possessed Datsun Z that’s more obscure outside of Japan but which spawned 13 entries in its home market.

Almost no one will offer up the grand-daddy of Japan’s automotive cinema scene, a 1972 classic that has more in common with modern-day Michael Mann than it does nitrous oxide or mountain touge. Hairpin Circus hails from an era where less was more in terms of what directors chose to put on the screen, at least when it came to dialogue and plot, preferring instead to bask in the reflected glory of a nighttime Tokyo and the souped-up ‘70s sports cars that patrolled its streets.

If you haven’t seen Hairpin Circus, it’s available in its entirety on YouTube. Check out my full review of this intriguing film for Hagerty.