DOBERMAN COP – The Blu Review

Review by Roger Carpenter

Kinji Fukasaku is probably best known for his Battles without Honor and Humanity and New Battles without Honor and Humanity series and, perhaps, for Battle Royale, made shortly before his death.  Shin’ichi “Sonny” Chiba may be best known for his violent karate Street Fighter series here in the U.S.  The prolific director and actor teamed up numerous times to make some truly classic Japanese action fare, but Doberman Cop, lensed during a time when Japanese cinema was undergoing massive change, was not a huge hit for the duo.

Like dozens of other films in the seventies, Doberman Cop (1977) got its start not as a screenplay but as a popular manga (or gekiga, a darker, more realistically-drawn and adult-oriented form of manga) that was then turned into a film. While yakuza films had been immensely popular for many years, their popularity was on a downturn while youth films featuring riotous teens and rock and roll music had gained in popularity (think the Stray Cat Rock series).  Fukasaku took the spirit of the Doberman Cop gekiga and melded it into a story that contained both a yakuza boss as well as a youth gang who rode motorcycles and operated on the edge of the law in hopes of capturing both audiences.  Unfortunately, the result at the box office was not what had been hoped for.  Nevertheless, the film is wildly exciting and plenty of good fun 40 years after its original release.

Chiba stars as Joji Kano, a cop from Okinawa.  He comes to Tokyo in hopes of solving the mysterious murder of Yuna, an Okinawan girl who had turned to a life of prostitution in the big city before being killed.  The film opens with some genuinely gruesome, if brief, special effects of a charred corpse, supposedly Yuna.  Kano arrives shortly thereafter, complete with straw hat and carrying a pig (!), as befitted the stereotypical Okinawan of the times.  (As an aside, the pig is explained as a gift to the cops for hosting Kano while he attempts to solve the murder.  The cops are supposed to cook and eat the pig, but they are horrified at the thought so Kano keeps the pig as a sort of pet, which allows for some occasional comedic inserts.)  But Kano comes to Tokyo with something else besides a straw hat and a pig—he comes with a tough-as-nails attitude that sees him gain the respect of the city cops.  This is not just some country bumpkin come to town.  In one of the film’s showcases, Kano rappels down a 40-story high rise and breaks through a window to foil a kidnapper, saving the beautiful victim and impressing the whole town with his heroics.

Meanwhile, it is discovered that Tokyo is at the mercy of a horrific serial killer who enjoys burning women alive. Yuna’s tragic death seems to be just one of many perpetrated by the sadistic killer.  The Tokyo police department simply lump the murder in with the rest though Kano isn’t so sure.  Yes, he has his country ways that cause the city cops to howl with laughter, but they have to admit he’s tough and tenacious, much like his Okinawan nickname of “Doberman Cop.”

While investigating Yuna’s murder Kano recognizes another Okinawan girl who ran away from the island several years back.  She’s now embroiled with a yakuza boss who has fallen in love with her.  She’s caught up in a life of drugs but has the talent to be a finalist for the country’s annual talent showcase.  Miki isn’t particularly happy with this life, but the crime lord has dollar signs in his eyes and won’t let his little nest egg go so easily.

Why was Yuna murdered?  Exactly who is the sad, mysterious Miki?  And why doesn’t the evidence left at Yuna’s crime scene add up?  Will Kano be able to solve the crime before he’s run out of town by the Tokyo police, or will the yakuza boss kill him for interfering with Miki?  Things really start to heat up as Kano delves deeper into the mystery.

Doberman Cop features everything good about Fukasaku and Chiba.  Fukasaku continues his energetic style of filmmaking with shakily frenetic handheld shots that put the viewer dead center in the action while Chiba impresses with (mostly) his own stunt work and violent karate fights.  There’s plenty of action and melodrama to be had.  Along with the aforementioned rappelling scene, Chiba jumps from a 40-foot roof during a chase scene and takes on all comers, even outnumbered 10 to one—something that happens frequently.  There are a couple of quick nude scenes and two or three outrageously violent, but extremely brief, scenes to up the adult-oriented content.  But at its heart, Doberman Cop is just a fun action film.  So why was the film not a huge box office success?  It’s just speculation, but neither the yakuza angle nor the youth gang angle were highlighted enough to satisfy either group. Neither story was really fleshed out in favor of filling the film with Chiba set pieces.  This likely alienated both groups. It probably didn’t help that the ending was pretty downbeat.  While there aren’t any real plot twists and no one dies tragically in the end, it’s just kind of left…unresolved.  What exactly has Kano accomplished?  Sure, he solves Yuna’s murder, but he opts to keep that information to himself, walking away from Tokyo essentially empty-handed.  I imagine the ending didn’t gratify initial audiences which didn’t help word-of-mouth.

That said, I still enjoyed Doberman Cop tremendously.  I’m okay with what I term “non-American” endings to film.  I get so tired of every American film not only resolving every loose end but wrapping it up with a big, bright bow for the audience that sometimes I just can’t stand it.  Sometimes life is messy and events aren’t resolved perfectly.  It seems Americans in particular don’t understand this as well as cinema-goers in other countries.  So I’m perfectly fine with a bit of an open ending.

The film itself is action-packed and filled with gunfights, karate showcases, foot chases, and motorcycle stunts.  There are some fun comedic sequences as well.  It also features Janet Hatta as some luscious eye-candy (her career was entirely too short) as well as the equally beautiful Eiko Matsuda, famed for her portrayal of Sada in the pornographic art film In the Realm of the Senses.  This is the very first time the film has been released in the States and Arrow Films has done a terrific job with the package.  The film comes in standard DVD and Blu-ray discs and is simply gorgeous. The multi-colored neon of Tokyo’s red light district nearly burns your retinas with their beauty and brightness and that too-bright red blood unique to Japanese genre films really stands out.  The package comes with several features including a discussion about Doberman Cop, Fukasaku, and Japanese cinema in the mid-seventies by Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane; a new interview with Chiba himself; and a new interview with screenwriter Koji Takada.  A theatrical trailer for the film is included.

Doberman Cop has just been released by Arrow Films USA and can be purchased through Amazon or directly from Arrow at http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/category/usa/.