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Detective No. 27
Jun 7, 2006

Konichiwa baka gaijin!

So I played Yakuza 0 earlier this year. It was a lot of fun and had a fantastic story. It got me thinking about the yakuza genre. I wanted to get into it. So with some brief research, I made up a list of essential yakuza movies that I’m going to watch. In no particular order:

Tokyo Drifter
Branded to Kill
Ryuji
Sonatine
Ichi The Killer
Drunken Angel
Battles Without Honor Or Humanity
A Colt Is My Passport (Thanks FreudianSlippers!)
Yakuza Weapon*

I don’t have a particular schedule set, but I’ll try to watch one whenever time permits. I’m not great at reviewing/analyzing film, so I’ll appreciate anything any of you have to say about them. I’m open to more suggestions. So far I’ve seen Ryuji and Tokyo Drifter. I saw Drunken Angel, but it was a few years back and I’m due for a rewatch.

*I didn’t see this recommended or on any essential lists or anything like that. It was $4 at Fry’s, figured why not? Could be schlocky fun.

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Detective No. 27
Jun 7, 2006

Tokyo Drifter (1966)
Dir. Seijun Suzuki

Trailer: https://youtu.be/b1iFw0DY0Gw
Available on dvd, bluray, and streaming on Filmstruck


Tokyo Drifter follows a man named Tetsu The Phoenix. He’s a former yakuza hitman turned straight. But he can’t catch a break because a bounty is on his head. He decides to leave and become the titular Tokyo Drifter. The story is basic, but it sets
Tokyo Drifter is the most colorful movie I’ve seen in a long time. But it opens in black and white. It resembles the kind of B&W photography you’d see in a newspaper. The whites were super bleached out. Very pulpy. Tetsu shows his restraint while unceremoniously beat up. While this happens, a yakuza talks about Tetsu’s deadly reputation, where this brief cutaway is shown:

http://i.imgur.com/qJIhysU.gifv

The theme song plays and the rest of the movie is in color. And it won’t let you forget that. In the first act, Tetsu wears a light blue jacket, and his apartment is blue, and blue generally follows him everywhere. The main antagonist wears a red coat. Pretty simple but effective color coding. The lounge where Tetsu’s girlfriend sings at is golden yellow, giving a heavenly look.




I had to cut myself off. This movie really makes me regret not having the resources to make my own screenshots.

The movie is edited fast and loose. One scene has Tetsu seemingly get run over by a train, only for him to be staggering away slightly banged up. He lives up to his moniker. Tokyo Drifter’s tone wildy shifts from deadly serious to cartoonish.
Tokyo Drifter’s soundtrack is jazzy and the theme will get stuck in your head. Tetsu sings it like a calling card as he drifts from place to place.

I wish I had something more insightful to say. Tokyo Drifter is the kind of movie I was hoping to see when I sought out to get into this genre.



MacheteZombie
Feb 4, 2007
Tokyo Drifter is one of my favorite Criterion blind buys. It's such a great movie.

I haven't seen most of your list though. Looking forward to your reviews to get some sneak peaks.

I, Butthole
Jun 30, 2007

Begin the operations of the gas chambers, gas schools, gas universities, gas libraries, gas museums, gas dance halls, and gas threads, etcetera.
I DEMAND IT
Tokyo Drifter is the best kind of insane for an entry into Yakuza films, especially after being brought up on Western crime dramas.

I really wanted to get Arrow's Battles of Honor and Humanity boxset, but now it's out of print and obscenely expensive anywhere I look.

I'm not sure if it strictly qualifies as a Yakuza film, but Takeshi Kitano's Violent Cop is well worth a look in too.

So Icey Seifuku
Dec 26, 2007

I, Butthole posted:

Tokyo Drifter is the best kind of insane for an entry into Yakuza films, especially after being brought up on Western crime dramas.

I really wanted to get Arrow's Battles of Honor and Humanity boxset, but now it's out of print and obscenely expensive anywhere I look.

I'm not sure if it strictly qualifies as a Yakuza film, but Takeshi Kitano's Violent Cop is well worth a look in too.

Aside from Violent Cop, a significant amount of Takeshi Kitano's films either are about or involve Yakuza elements.

Boiling Point (1990)
Sonatine (1993)
Kids Return (1996)
Hana-bi (1997) - This along with Sonatine's critical acclaim, helped establish Kitano in the eyes of the Japanese public as a real director and no longer what essentially was seen as "someone doing it as a hobby."
Brother (2000)
Outrage (2010)
Beyond Outrage (2012)
Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen (2015)

So Icey Seifuku fucked around with this message at 07:55 on May 25, 2017

Frogfingers
Oct 10, 2012
One of the most fun movies I've ever seen is Showdown in Little Tokyo. One of Brandon Lee's only roles, he's paired up with Dolph Lundgren, a weird Japanophile/hard-boiled detective. It's stupid, I love it.

flashy_mcflash
Feb 7, 2011

If you find yourself with a few serious yakuza films in a row, throw in Miike's Yakuza Apocalypse to break things up a bit. It's pretty off the wall but I think it's worthwhile.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3675748/

Fate Accomplice
Nov 30, 2006




Are 'Outrage' and 'Beyond Outrage' considered classic?

Mantis42
Jul 26, 2010

Wow, its a coincidence you made this thread because I just picked up the Criterion of Tokyo Drifter and watched it today. Honestly, outside of how good the film looks at times, its kinda of a mess. The plot doesn't really matter, I guess, but the film still spends a lot of time on it anyways. The editing is annoying and reading that Seijun Suzuki was fired for making incomprehensible films seems appropriate. On the other hand, the climax and opening are fantastic, as is the scene early on where the girl is killed.

Still think I'd prefer basically any Sonny Chiba flick over it, however.

Uncle Boogeyman
Jul 22, 2007

ketchup vs catsup posted:

Are 'Outrage' and 'Beyond Outrage' considered classic?

I dunno if Outrage is a classic (it's definitely not as good as Sonatine or Hana-Bi), but it's a lot of fun if you wanna watch two hours of Yakuza guys killing each other in increasingly outlandish ways.

Nroo
Dec 31, 2007

2 films I don't see here but really enjoyed were Cruel Gun Story and Youth of the Beast.

SmokaDustbowl
Feb 12, 2001

by vyelkin
Fun Shoe
hana-bi is amazing

Cemetry Gator
Apr 3, 2007

Do you find something comical about my appearance when I'm driving my automobile?

ketchup vs catsup posted:

Are 'Outrage' and 'Beyond Outrage' considered classic?

Outrage is great, but I don't know if I consider it a classic. Basically, Kitano came up with all these cool ways for Yakuza to die, and then he scripted a film around that. It's inventive, it's entertaining. The plot can be summed up as let's stab everybody in the back and watch the body count rise up. It is a successful film, in that it's not attempting to be high drama. It's no Sonatine though.

Mantis42 posted:

Wow, its a coincidence you made this thread because I just picked up the Criterion of Tokyo Drifter and watched it today. Honestly, outside of how good the film looks at times, its kinda of a mess. The plot doesn't really matter, I guess, but the film still spends a lot of time on it anyways. The editing is annoying and reading that Seijun Suzuki was fired for making incomprehensible films seems appropriate. On the other hand, the climax and opening are fantastic, as is the scene early on where the girl is killed.

Still think I'd prefer basically any Sonny Chiba flick over it, however.

Suzuki is odd. I've watched both Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill, and I have to say, there's like 45 minutes in the beginning where the plot is utterly incomprehensible, and things are just sort of happening. And then suddenly, it clicks together and starts making perfect sense to me. Like, the ending to Branded to Kill is just perfect. I think what's tough is that I'm dealing with two layers of cultural disconnect. Japanese films, at least I find in general, are not afraid to sort of just jump the timeline without much notice or warning. So, one scene will end, and then the next scene will be a significant amount of time later, and you just sort of have to figure out what exactly is going on. It's tough. When I haven't watched a Japanese film in a while, I notice it more. As I get more used to that plot style, it doesn't jar me as much (although, Kurosawa doesn't ever really do that). Then you add in Suzuki's style, and you're just trying to figure out what exactly is going on and why is it suddenly night and wait, it's like 3 months later?

Samuel Clemens
Oct 4, 2013

I think we should call the Avengers.

Suzuki was part of the Japanese New Wave, so a certain amount of formal experimentation and prioritising style over narrative consistency is to be expected. His works are downright accessible compared to some of the oddball stuff people like Terayama or Hani were making during the same period.

Mantis42
Jul 26, 2010

I was describing the movie to someone today and there was and I kept recalling stuff I liked so maybe it needed to settle.

ruddiger
Jun 3, 2004

SmokaDustbowl posted:

hana-bi is amazing

I haven't found a Takeshi Kitano movie I didn't like. Even his non-yakuza movies are a lot of fun. Takeshis is really weird and has a great premise, and the one with the little kid (can't remember the name) was really good.

But this is the Yakuza thread and I will reiterate that Sonatine, Violent Cop and Hana Bi are stone cold classics. I love his establishing character shots. They're so tranquil.

ruddiger fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Jun 3, 2017

Detective No. 27
Jun 7, 2006

Looks like Violet Cop is on Prime. I'll give that a watch. I've got a review of Ryuji nearly done. Life just sorta got in the way. I'll try to finisht aht and post it tomorrow morning.

So Icey Seifuku
Dec 26, 2007

If your not adverse to a more satirical/light-hearted take on Yakuza films. Sailor Suit and Machinegun (1981) and it's recent "spiritual sequel" Sailor Suit and Machine Gun: Graduation (2016) could both serve as fun palette cleanser between more serious Yakuza films.

Detective No. 27
Jun 7, 2006

Ryuji
1983
Dir. Toru Kamashima


Trailer: https://youtu.be/_OncsbyfqDM
“I stab someone, I go to prison…
I get stabbed, I go to hell..”
Ryuji is a character study. A change of pace from Tokyo Drifter, it’s a slower film. There are no deaths, I don’t even remember a single gunshot. Ryuji is a mid-level yakuza tired of the lifestyle. He’s reached a level of success but he feels stagnant. He wants to reunite with his wife, Mariko and toddler daughter. Before, Ryuji had them both and seemed happy, but after a botched job, he got sent to prison. Mariko’s father never approved of Ryu and agreed to give her the money to spring him out only on the condition she divorce him. Ryu is thrilled and abusive when he finds out. Time passes and Ryu wants to get back together with Mariko. He sells off his casino and other ventures and lives a quaint lifestyle with Mariko. Things start out alright at first, but the low pay and Ryu’s listless personality get the better of him. In the end, Ryu leaves his wife and child and returns to the yakuza lifestyle.

The movie is filled with little moments that show Ryuji was destined to fail. A little bit before he reunites with his wife, he’s sitting at his apartment when some food gets delivered. He asks the delivery man if the job wears him out. The delivery man laughs and says “Sure does.” Ryuji returns a playful laugh, but then it turns into an unsure look.



To contrast, Ryuji has a friend who managed to successfully quit the yakuza life and run a bar. He says it wouldn’t have been possible without the love and teamwork of his wife. So what went wrong with Ryuji? I think he was more in love with the idea of civilian life than actually having one.

Shoji Kaneko, the actor who played Ryuji passed away from cancer a week before the movie comes out.
I can’t find a legal way to buy this movie in the States and the only place it’s streaming is a DVD rip on youtube from years ago. It’s not a great quality rip, but still worth a watch.
https://youtu.be/P-uZKu5LFfs

Mousepractice
Jan 30, 2005

A pint of plain is your only man

ruddiger posted:

I haven't found a Takeshi Kitano movie I didn't like. Even his non-yakuza movies are a lot of fun. Takeshis is really weird and has a great premise, and the one with the little kid (can't remember the name) was really good.


Kikujiro could be considered a Yakuza film at a push - Takeshi plays a gambler, albeit a crappy one. It's a very lovely film.



Low Desert Punk
Jul 4, 2012

i have absolutely no fucking money
To be honest, all you really have to do is watch all of Joe Shishido's movies. I've seen a ton of them, and not a single one has been bad. The worst I've seen is Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards!, and that one is still a great flick.

If I was at gunpoint and forced to pick a favorite movie of all time, Sonatine by Kitano might be it. I seriously recommend for anyone who hasn't seen it to change that immediately. I think it's still on Netflix, but if not, it's pretty easy to track down.

The entire Nikkatsu Noir boxset by Criterion is well worth the money, every movie on there is a classic. Cruel Gun Story just barely edges out A Colt is My Passport for my favorite, but Rusty Knife is also fantastic, which I don't think has been mentioned in the thread yet.

Anonymous Robot
Jun 1, 2007

Lost his leg in Robo War I
Sonatine is a really fantastic film if you can get beyond the incomprehensible, dreadfully handled rape scene, and that's a pretty big if.

Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe
When did Battles Without Honor or Humanity show up on Amazon Prime? I've been wanting to see that for ages.

Detective No. 27
Jun 7, 2006

So I recently got a new job and am getting used to this whole 8-5 MF schedule thing. Which is why I haven't really updated this thread in a while. I'm holding out to get Branded to Kill when the B&N sale happens in a couple weeks.

I'm watching Sonatine right now. This isn't my review, but I have to comment on the soundtrack, it's really cool. I need to track down a copy, asap.

Low Desert Punk
Jul 4, 2012

i have absolutely no fucking money

Detective No. 27 posted:

This isn't my review, but I have to comment on the soundtrack, it's really cool. I need to track down a copy, asap.

Hisaishi is a major part of what makes Kitano flicks so great. A movie like A Scene at the Sea would just fall flat without its soundtrack, I think. He would always find a way to perfectly complement that sort of eerie, disconnected feel all the movies have.

WeedlordGoku69
Feb 12, 2015

by Cyrano4747

Low Desert Punk posted:

Hisaishi is a major part of what makes Kitano flicks so great. A movie like A Scene at the Sea would just fall flat without its soundtrack, I think. He would always find a way to perfectly complement that sort of eerie, disconnected feel all the movies have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSLlX4czsZA

Gives me chills every goddamn time I hear it.

FreudianSlippers
Apr 12, 2010

Shooting and Fucking
are the same thing!

How is the Gangster VIP/Goro series?


It's on sale from Arrow right not for only like 30 quid and I'm tempted but the same amount of money could buy me three different films and I'm not quite sure about buying an entire series that I don't know much about. Other than that it's Nikkatsu and by the same dude who did Rusty Knife which is pretty drat good.

Good Soldier Svejk
Jul 5, 2010

I'm really excited to see your reaction to Ichi the Killer. I watched that movie with a group of friends in college and it was one of the weirder viewing experiences I've had. (Second probably only to the same group watching Antichrist together)

Detective No. 27
Jun 7, 2006

I swear this thread isn't vaporware! I've caught a couple more on this list. It's just been a weird time in my life, starting a new job and today I'm helping my girlfriend move from one city back to mine. If I'm not completely dead tomorrow I might type up my reactions and thoughts on Branded to Kill.

Esroc
May 31, 2010

Goku would be ashamed of you.
It's only a Yakuza film in the most technical roundabout way, but I'm a big fan of Crows Zero. It's a film about a kid named Genji who wants to follow in his fathers footsteps and become a Yakuza boss. But his father doesn't think he's up to the task so sends him to a particularly violent high school mostly run by young gang members and tasks Genji with taking over the school and uniting the student gangs under one banner to prove his ability to lead. It's less a movie about crime and more about Genji learning the value of loyalty and what it takes to get it from others, but it has a lot of violence as he gains some of this loyalty by beating the holy poo poo out of 2/3rd's of the student body. The sequel Crows Zero II is pretty great also, and has Genji mobilizing the school against another rival school. The third film is mostly garbage though, as it basically rehashes the first movie but with a new cast and fails to capture anything that makes the first one great in the process.

Snowman_McK
Jan 31, 2010

Esroc posted:

It's only a Yakuza film in the most technical roundabout way, but I'm a big fan of Crows Zero. It's a film about a kid named Genji who wants to follow in his fathers footsteps and become a Yakuza boss. But his father doesn't think he's up to the task so sends him to a particularly violent high school mostly run by young gang members and tasks Genji with taking over the school and uniting the student gangs under one banner to prove his ability to lead. It's less a movie about crime and more about Genji learning the value of loyalty and what it takes to get it from others, but it has a lot of violence as he gains some of this loyalty by beating the holy poo poo out of 2/3rd's of the student body. The sequel Crows Zero II is pretty great also, and has Genji mobilizing the school against another rival school. The third film is mostly garbage though, as it basically rehashes the first movie but with a new cast and fails to capture anything that makes the first one great in the process.

Crows Zero is awesome because of the sheer number of times a slouching, distinterested dude turns into a karate fighting machine.

also, the final fight is settled through yelling.

EvilElmo
May 10, 2009
Just finished watching Hana Bi. Didn't know much about the movie.


End ending, really, really surprised me.The music, the high pan, assumed we would just get the trailers. NOPE.

So much to like about this movie, but like a lot of movies like this you need to be in the headspace to watch it. Compared to modern movies, it has a lot of quiet, a lot of strange cuts. But worth the watch. Just put your phone in another room, turn off the lights and watch it like you're in a cinema.

Lord Seo
Aug 7, 2011

I should have learned Kung-fu instead of ethics.
I recently got my hands on the Battles Without Honor and Humanity box set from arrow. Great set, and a great series. The second movie, Hiroshima Death Match is my favorite of the lot even if it is more loosely connected to the other films than any other. IT's the story of an unhinged young punk (Kin'ya Kitaōji) with a vendetta against an ambitious small time gangster (Sonny Chiba) taken up by the Yakuza and then chewed up and spit out. While the other BWH&H movies are still great, they are pretty chaotic with the time jumps and shifting allegiances. I think this is why I like Hiroshima Death Match the most, it has a core conflict that drives everything that happens in the movie and the chaos just happens around it.

The boxset also came with a nice book that gives a primer on the history of Yakuza films that has got me looking for all sorts of movies to check out.

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Basebf555
Feb 29, 2008

The greatest sensual pleasure there is is to know the desires of another!

Fun Shoe

Lord Seo posted:

I recently got my hands on the Battles Without Honor and Humanity box set from arrow. Great set, and a great series. The second movie, Hiroshima Death Match is my favorite of the lot even if it is more loosely connected to the other films than any other. IT's the story of an unhinged young punk (Kin'ya Kitaōji) with a vendetta against an ambitious small time gangster (Sonny Chiba) taken up by the Yakuza and then chewed up and spit out. While the other BWH&H movies are still great, they are pretty chaotic with the time jumps and shifting allegiances. I think this is why I like Hiroshima Death Match the most, it has a core conflict that drives everything that happens in the movie and the chaos just happens around it.

The boxset also came with a nice book that gives a primer on the history of Yakuza films that has got me looking for all sorts of movies to check out.

That's good to hear, I watched the first film and liked it, but I had a hard time following the yakuza politics. If HDM is a bit more simplified then I might like it a bit more.

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