Tag: Yasuharu Hasebe

Yasuharu Hasebe’s RETALIATION (1968) – The Blu Review


Review by Roger Carpenter

After laboring for close to a decade as an assistant director for Nikkatsu Studios, Yasuharu Hasebe burst onto the scene as a lead director in 1966 with Black Tight Killers and 1967 with the more subdued but very good Massacre Gun.  Retaliation, which starred some of Nikkatsu’s primary actors (called the “Diamond Line”), was an A-list film, in color, and was a return to a more violent yakuza tale than Hasebe’s previous Massacre Gun.

Akira Kobayashi stars as Jiro, a yakuza who has just been released from a long stint in prison.  He returns to find his family dismantled, with only his ailing boss and one loyal yakuza member remaining.  On top of this, Hino (Jo Shishido), brother of the man Jiro was imprisoned for killing, is tailing him and seeking revenge.  Jiro reaches out to another family for help in rebuilding his gang and is assigned to mediate between some factories wanting to buy out a group of farmers in Takagawa City.  The Hasama Family boss assures Jiro he will be allowed to do things his own way but moves to take things over just as Jiro finalizes the deal.  Angered by this betrayal, Jiro and Hino—who have become reluctant friends—seek retaliation towards the Hasama Family.


Hasebe’s previous effort was an old-fashioned, low-key, atmospheric film noir, filmed in black-and-white (as B-pictures were in those days) and nearly bloodless in the fashion of American Westerns during the 30’s and 40’s.  Retaliation is quite the opposite.  Because it featured some of Nikkatsu’s biggest stars at the time, it was an A-picture and was shot in color.  It also featured a larger budget which allowed for more special effects.  Thus, Retaliation is quite a bit more violent and features not just that great, bright-red blood so ubiquitous to Japanese genre films of the 60’s and 70’s, but also some nudity and other adult situations in the style of American roughies of the time.  Hasebe would go on to more success and fame with the Stray Cat Rock series and several violent pink films in the mid- to late-70’s, but his first forays into the yakuza genre are solid efforts.  Some might even describe them as cult faves or minor classics.

While Kobayashi was the undeniable star here, many other established character actors or up-and-comers populate the film as well, including the aforementioned Jo Shishido, Hideaki Nitani (Cat Girl Gamblers; Tokyo Drifter; Massacre Gun), Tamio Kawaji (Youth of the Beast; Tokyo Drifter; Gangster VIP), Jiro Okazaki (Goro the Assassin; Massacre Gun; Stray Cat Rock series), and a young Meiko Kaji, who surely needs no introduction and who is looking as beautiful as ever. One of the strengths of the film is in the acting while the story is also solid without being overly detailed and confusing, as some of these films can be.  Hasebe is a more than competent director and I feel like he doesn’t always get his due and is unfairly compared to his mentors like Seijun Suzuki.  His cinematography and use of color, while not as wildly creative as his debut, Black Tight Killers, or the films of Suzuki, is still interesting.  For example, there is a tracking shot through a series of blinds hanging up in several windows.  As two gangsters fight the camera tracks along these blinds, allowing viewers flashes of the fight through the windows.  It’s creative and fun and provides ample energy without falling back on the typical full-frame shots of men fighting.  The film is populated by many of these types of additions for viewers who watch carefully, perhaps elevating the film above the typical yakuza fare of the time.


As previously mentioned, the sex and violence quotients are upped in this film.  There are plenty of bloody gangland murders with at least one gloriously gory arterial spray that precedes Argento’s Tenebrae-style kills by 15 years.  While there’s no real sex in the film, there are a few nude shots and at least one sequence that foreshadows Hasebe’s move to violent pink films in the mid-70’s that’s a bit strong.  This is certainly an adult-oriented film.

In the end, Hasebe shows a flexibility in his film style over his first trio of films that I think is impressive, as is this package from Arrow Video USA.  Released in a two-disc (both standard and Blu) special edition, the film looks spectacular, with vivid colors and clear picture.  Similar to Arrow’s release of Massacre Gun, this release features a continuation of the Jo Shishido interview (13 minutes) with the first part being on the Massacre Gun release, another superlative video essay by Tony Rayns, this time about Hasebe and Shishido (31 minutes), the theatrical trailer for the film, and a short promotional image gallery.  As with all Arrow releases, the first printing also comes with a nice booklet with new writing on the film by Jasper Sharp.  The film can be purchased on Amazon or directly from Arrow Video at http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/category/usa/.

MASSACRE GUN – The Blu Review


Review by Roger Carpenter

Director Yasuharu Hasebe was a well-known director in Japan right up until his death in 2009.  He directed most of the Stray Cat Rock series of films in the early 1970s as well as the final installment of the Female Prisoner Scorpion series, Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song.  He became known as the “Father of Violent Pink,” after directing a series of graphically violent and sexually sadistic films for Nikkatsu Studios with titles such as Rape!; Assault! Jack the Ripper; Rape! 13th Hour; and Secret Honeymoon: Rape Train.  These films proved to be both highly controversial and very lucrative for Hasebe and Nikkatsu but, typical of Nikkatsu, the studio execs got cold feet after much bad press and began toning down their series of violent pink films.

But before all this, Hasebe cut his teeth as an assistant director for the great Seijun Suzuki, himself a controversial figure in Japanese cinematic history. After nearly a decade of working as an assistant director for Nikkatsu, Hasebe broke through as a full-fledged director in 1966 with Black Tight Killers, a delirious, candy-colored adventure about female ninjas and lost WWII treasure. Hasebe would follow up Black Tight Killers with Massacre Gun, a much more low key, black-and-white yakuza tale.


Massacre Gun hearkens back to American gangster films of the 40’s and 50’s.  With deep shadows, a macho gangster world, and thugs dressed in crisp suits, it bridges the gap between classic American film noir and typical Japanese yakuza storytelling.  Kuroda is a mob hitman who ditches his gang after being forced to kill his lover.  Together with his two brothers, Eiji and Saburo, they embark on a bloody vendetta against Kuroda’s boss, Akazawa, and his old yakuza family.  Hasebe populated his film with genuine stars as well as actors who would become stars later in their careers.  Jo Shishido stars as Kuroda.  Already a popular character actor, his list of classic Japanese film credits is simply astonishing and his popularity would only continue to rise as he continued to work with Hasebe, Suzuki, and other genre directors in films such as Youth of the Beast, Gate of Flesh, Branded to Kill, and New Battles Without Honor or Humanity.  His highly visible cheekbones, courtesy of plastic surgery, made him a unique vision and instantly recognizable.  Jiro Okazaki co-stars as Saburo, Kuroda’s brother and an up-and-coming champion boxer sponsored by the head of Kuroda’s family, Akazawa.  When he quits Akazawa’s sponsorship in anger over Kuroda’s forced hit, Akazawa breaks his hands, ending his chances at an illustrious boxing career and challenging the brothers to an all-out turf war.  Tatsuya Fuji is the youngest brother, Eiji.  Here he has a rather limited role but it’s fun to watch an early film with Fuji who is probably best known in the west for his star turn in the Japanese art-porn film In the Realm of the Senses as well as the Japanese classic Empire of Passion.  Hideaki Natani co-stars as Shirasaka, Kuroda’s longtime friend and brother in Akazawa’s gang.  Though very close to each other they know they are on a path which will only lead to death because of Kuroda’s break with the family.  After Akazawa is murdered, Shirasaka gains control of the family, solidifying the eventual standoff with Kuroda.  Natani is probably best known for his turn in Tokyo Drifter here in America.

While the story of revenge between rival gang factions and the rivalry between two men who are sworn yakuza brothers is pretty standard Japanese storytelling of the time and appears in hundreds of these features, Hasebe films with such style and atmosphere it elevates the typical storyline.  Stylistically, the choice of black-and-white is a good one though it was forced on Hasebe since this was a B picture for Nikkatsu.  With the primary setting in a bar, Hasebe utilizes a fabulous, low-key jazz/blues score by prolific Japanese composer Naozumi Yamamoto to increase the atmosphere of the film.  The acting is terrific and the plot is concise enough that it makes sense—something that isn’t always true in yakuza potboilers of this period.  The monochromatic photography naturally lends itself to noir filmmaking techniques, though Hasebe doesn’t go all out with expressionism which many American noir films utilized.  While there isn’t much chiaroscuro, wild angles, or other expressionist lighting techniques so prevalent in many classic noir films, Massacre Gun is very obviously influenced by the noir movement.  There is a sense of melancholy throughout the film.  Each character knows the outcome well before it occurs.  The women, unfortunately limited to portrayals of sadness or fright, seem to know their men are inevitably doomed while the men predict to each other the outcome of the rivalry that is spinning out of control.  Even the viewers know that Kuroda and Shirasaka must meet in a deadly duel during the climax of the film.  The tension isn’t because we don’t already know the outcome; rather, it’s from how the characters get there.  Ultimately, there is a huge shootout on an abandoned road, spectacular in its unfolding even as it is predictable in its culmination.  But even though each shootout utilizes hundreds of bullets—it seems to take a full magazine to stop any of these gangsters—there is very little blood, Hasebe choosing to maintain the noir-ish feel of the film by having men riddled by bullets yet falling bloodlessly to the ground.


Hasebe’s sophomore effort maintains the style-over-substance formula many of these early yakuza films have, but the style is super-cool and perhaps more westernized than most of his other features.  It’s a genuine pleasure to watch Massacre Gun and a great start for viewers new to the genre, stylistically almost the polar opposite of other popular yakuza features of the same period such as Black Tight Killers, Tokyo Drifter, and Branded to Kill.

Though the film is 50 years old now, Arrow Video USA’s special edition release of Massacre Gun is pristine.  This two-disc edition (standard DVD and Blu-Ray) is simply spectacular.  The whites are blinding while the blacks are deep and dark, with myriad shades of grey in between.  It’s difficult to imagine the film looking any better even upon its premiere release.  Typical of Arrow, the release comes with several important special features including a brand new interview with Jo Shishido.  In his eighties now, it’s good to see some updated interviews with this genuine star of Japanese cinema before that star blinks out for good.  There is also a lengthy discussion by film historian Tony Rayns who outlines the complete history of Nikkatsu Studios and places Massacre Gun in a proper historical context. The discussion is fascinating.  I always appreciate the extra context provided by these discussions and applaud Arrow for including them.  Plus, the Nikkatsu story is just a very interesting story for anyone interested in Japanese genre cinema.  The original trailer is included along with a short gallery of promotional images for the film.  As always, Arrow includes a nice booklet with the first printing which features new writing on the film by Jasper Sharp.

Massacre Gun is a real gem.  For those who grew up watching yakuza films from the 1990’s or who are used to the more kinetic late 1960’s fare such as Tokyo Drifter or Branded to Kill, Massacre Gun represents a bit of a departure from these more colorful and violent films, though no less entertaining.  The film can be purchased on Amazon or directly from Arrow Video at http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/category/usa/.