Review by Roger Carpenter
After experiencing huge critical and commercial success with the five-part film series collectively known as Battles without Honor and Humanity, the Toei Company asked director Kinji Fukasaku to continue the series. The original five films were based upon several magazine articles, themselves based upon the memoirs of an actual member of the Japanese mafia, or yakuza. The films proved to be so successful that Fukasaku essentially created a new subgenre known in Japan as Jitsuroku eiga, “actual record films,” or films based upon true tales of real-life adventures. But having run out of material with the first five films, Fukasaku would have to turn to more fictionalized stories as well as new characters if he wanted to continue the series. This three-film series became known as New Battles without Honor and Humanity and, though there have been other films in the series, these are the last directed by Fukasaku.
This new series stars many of the same actors from the original series but each film was designed as a standalone film instead of a continuation of one big story. The first film in the new series is simply entitled New Battles without Honor and Humanity. It tells the story of Miyoshi, a low-level assassin serving a prison sentence after a bungled hit. While in prison his sworn brother, Aoki, attempts to wrest power from the boss. Upon completion of his sentence Miyoshi is stuck between loyalty to Aoki or to his family. The second film carries the subtitle The Boss’s Head. This time out, a low-level yakuza named Kuroda takes the fall for a hit gone awry due to the bungling of the boss’s drug-addicted son-in-law. Expecting a huge payoff when his sentence is completed, Kuroda seeks revenge on the family bosses when the gang refuses to pay up. The final installment carries the subtitle Last Days of the Boss and concerns Nozaki who, after swearing allegiance to his boss, is installed as the new head of the gang when his boss is murdered. His family obligation is to seek vengeance for the murder of his boss but the yakuza law forbids retribution against high-level gang members, so Nozaki must plot revenge in secret, all the while defending himself against his yakuza family who perceive his relationship with his sister to be…well, let’s just say a little too close for comfort.
Film star Bunta Sugawara played the lead character in all five of the original films. With his ultra-cool demeanor and rugged appearance, he was perfectly cast as a hard-boiled yakuza member. Sugawara also returns as the lead in all three of the New Battles films, but plays a different character in each. Sugawara was clearly the prestige star of the films but all three installments are populated with many of Toei’s stars of the time, including Tomisaburo Wakayama, best known in the west for his iconic role as Ogami Itton in the Lone Wolf and Cub series; Hiroki Matsukata, who appeared in tons of Fukasaku’s films; sex starlet Reiko Ike, who vaulted to prominence in 1973 with the Sex & Fury series as well as such cult classics as Girl Boss Revenge, Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom, and Criminal Woman: Killing Melody; and even the great Meiko Kaji, star of the Stray Cat Rock, Lady Snowblood, and Female Prisoner Scorpion series. Each of these stars help to elevate this new series and all are very good character actors.
Aside from the solid acting what made these films so popular was the frenetic filmmaking techniques of Fukasaku. Fukasaku pioneered the use of handheld cameras and shaky shots which allowed him to get right into the midst of the action scenes—sometimes uncomfortably close. But it was this style of filmmaking that introduced an “in your face” feeling that spoke to jaded action film audiences in Japan. Fukasaku also used zooms and swings in the midst of shots, often swinging the camera across a cityscape and zooming right into a character or action. This created a sense of reality, as if the audience themselves were surveying the landscape then focusing on something that captured their attention. Finally, Fukasaku uses a freeze frame emblazoned with an epitaph each time a major character dies, similar to a newspaper announcement, which also adds a documentary-like feel to the films. But Fukasaku didn’t stop there; he continued the use of techniques such as montage to tell the stories in the film, creating a style so original to Japanese cinema that many of his films are instantly identifiable even today. The result is the creation of action-packed, exciting, violent gangster films that feel as fresh today as they did upon their original release. Toshiaki Tsushima’s jazzy, funky scores only add to the flavor of each film.
There are some downsides: first, the films can get a bit talky as each family meets for big meetings time and time again; second, far too frequently one gang member or another is wanting to “save his face” or become a “sworn brother” to someone else; and third, most of the female characters are typically relegated to empty-headed and often abused whores or whiny boss’s wives. But these flaws really only reveal themselves when watching the films back-to-back. Under normal circumstances many of these gripes might not be noticed. And actually in the New Battles series Fukasaku intentionally wrote female characters with an eye towards moving away from the stereotypes. Sure, there are still plenty of whores and whiny wives—after all, we are watching a yakuza film—but we also have female characters playing larger roles and making decisions, although even these characters are each deeply flawed, as in the third film’s main female character who is having an incestuous relationship with her yakuza brother. Another new turn for the series is the addition of car chases. While the first six films in both the original and new series sported numerous foot chases, the last two films sport extensive car chase sequences, again using Fukasaku’s kinetic shooting style which enabled him to pick up some completely amazing shots.
Overall, I found this three-film series to be engrossing and exciting. Arrow Video USA has lately picked up Fukasaku’s cause and has released some fantastic films including both Battles without Honor and Humanity series as well as other great Fukasaku flicks like Cops vs. Thugs and Doberman Cop. That said, there are still plenty of Fukasaku classics out there, so here’s hoping this is just the beginning of Arrow’s Fukasaku releases.
This limited edition box set will sell out quickly—the original box set now goes for $450+ –so if you are a fan of this director or of yakuza films, this is an absolute must-own set. Even if you haven’t been exposed to Fukasaku, you really can’t go wrong with this set. This six-disc package contains both Blu-Ray and standard DVD presentations for each film, each of which look and sound spectacular. The special features are unusually light for Arrow, but the features included are high quality, including a new video appreciation by Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane as well as two pretty extensive interviews with the screenwriter of the second and third films in this series. Theatrical trailers for all three films are present as well. And finally, an illustrated collector’s booklet that covers Fukasaku’s career as well as the yakuza genre with essays from some of the leading Japanese film historians working today, is also included. You can purchase this set from Amazon or directly from Arrow at http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/category/usa/.
