I used to watch yakuza movies, like, all the time. Old Kinji Fukasaku flicks, new shot-on-video cheapies about “outlaw” pachinko and mahjong players, anything really. I wasn’t picky. As long as there were tough guys, just out of jail, strutting around Tokyo, Osaka, and Hiroshima in bad suits and expensive sunglasses, I wanted to be there right alongside them with a punch perm hairdo shouting "Aniki!"
But like I was trying to let on in that post about Riki Takeuchi below, they really don’t really make them like they used to. In fact, they barely make them at all! Following the hearty “V-cinema” boom of the ‘90s, lead by directors like Takashi Miike and Shigeru Ozawa, the turn of the century has seen yakuza movie output slow to barely a trickle. And I’m not sure who to blame. Could it be the film industry’s fault for allowing the TV producers to take over the racket? Had the Japanese people wimped out by betraying the burning flame of manly passion? Or was it just a matter of time until the cycle began anew?
Such were the questions I was asking myself when I stumbled across a copy of the new YAKUZA MOVIE COMPLETE GUIDE last month at Tower Records in Shibuya. Produced by Cosmicpub, a 1500 yen investment gets you 80 full color pages of scowling street punks and troubled men in power. Think lots of grainy, high contrast pin-up shots of Hiroki Matsukata , Show Aikawa, and the ever-enigmatic “Hakuryu” (but no Riki Takeuchi, oddly enough).
Detailed coverage of series like Waru, New Don of Japan, and Osaka Yakuza War makes it easy to get caught up on the V-Cinema turf battles of the last few years. Helping much in this area is the overwhelming bonus DVD that comes packaged with the Complete Guide (Otaku USA style), which runs nearly three hours and contains 101 trailers in all. That's a lot of sake cup ceremonies, fake pistol gunfire, and filmed-in-public beatdowns!
Now the bad news…The majority of the titles in the Complete Guide hover around the 2002-2005 mark. Passing mention of five new productions for '08 aside, there's not much to do except to push the back catalog titles. It's pretty clear we are well past midnight on the doomsday clock. Someone needs to hit the reset button on this genre, and fast.
If I sound desperate, it’s only because of how much the last page of the Yakuza Movie Complete Guide bodes ill for the future. It's a full page ad for a new Hitoshi Ozawa movie called Unregistered Daycare (think: “Kindergarten Yakuza”). But flip the pages back a bit, and see if you don't disagree that Ozawa and his gang are much more warm and lovable when stabbing someone in the stomach with a dosu sword. Now that's entertainment!
Speaking of recent yakuza films, I just came across the listing for a DVD box set called 893239 (Yakuza Nijuusan Ku). Have you seen this? Any good? It sounds interesting (and even has some animation directed by Ide Yasunori) but it's kinda pricy to just order out of the blue.
Posted by: Brian | March 01, 2008 at 10:27 AM
separated at birth: patrick macias and steven cojocaru!
Posted by: otakuSUV | March 02, 2008 at 01:30 AM
I don't really see it myself. My nose and mouth are way bigger than his. But coming from a sad little habitual troll like yourself (AKA magnumzine, holger, jcccnc, and bab), it's probably supposed to be a compliment of some sort.
Posted by: Patrick Macias | March 02, 2008 at 10:20 AM
yes, i really like yakuza movies, of the relatively few i've seen... even been tempted by some of those lower-rent ones featuring takeuchi in the past... but, no, i'm kind of hoping some american companies would plough this furrow a little more.
there must be a whole host of books about genres out there, i'm sure, and it would be nice to hear about some more of them. some, even though they're clearly in japanese, get fantastically detailed and obsessive, heavy with the pictures sometimes too... i like the 'king of v-cinema' one i picked up cheaply.
tempted by this yakuza movie mook, even though it's a recent focus.
here's the amazon listing for those interested in picking it up :
http://www.amazon.co.jp/やくざ映画完全ガイド-DVD付-COSMIC-MOOK/dp/477475093X/
...btw, i've seen the trailer for that 'kindergarten yakuza' movie, which, on one level, perhaps hints at the levels it's currently sunk too. not that it looks bad, but it looks perhaps odder than it is because it stands out as a rarity with an approach that's not too familiar, rather than part of a slew with anything better to draw people's attention.
Posted by: logboy | March 03, 2008 at 01:29 AM
I just saw Miike's recent yakuza-fest Ryu ga Gotoku which I thought was great fun. I hadn't seen Miike do cartoon Kabuki-cho in a long time and there's some very good gags it. The closet point of comparison would be his City of Lost Souls.
I'm super addicted to the video game the movie based on, so that probably added to the enjoyment as well. Torrents are all over the place, but the English subs on the VCD version blow. Avoid.
Posted by: Patrick Macias | March 03, 2008 at 10:49 AM
...waiting on 'ryu ga gotoku' (like a dragon) - there was a korean edition advertised and packaged as having subs, then, when copies started to arrive on foreign shores, people discovered there are no subs on the disc! .. i've seen subs patches, seen torrents, but to be perfectly honest, although it's always tempting, i don't get involved in those things as far as films are concerned. what i've noticed, and what i fear (i think) is that things take so much time to manage that once you delve into downloads you draw your own attention towards that as a separate field of interest and you'll lose track of the upcoming projects, new releases, DVDs (and whatever else...) in terms of official releases; at least, you'd have to have a superhuman rare talent for too much trivia to cope with what should be made plainly obvious by good business practice, if we saw it regularly.
hell, even regular DVD buyers suffer from not wanting to take part in the digging-up of information and supporting the scene as a whole, simply because there's so little in terms of advertising, trailers, specs, determination, inspired choices and general vibrancy from the industry that licenses and releases japanese stuff into america that you're left doing all the effort in order for them to feel even more rewarded for the small slice of cash that lands back on their laps, as they bemoan an ever-decreasing industry but fail to see where they pretty much all fall flat, all of the time.
so, i'll stick to my film efforts trying to compensate for all those things, and just keep pushing for some decent stuff, some broader appeal and some more specific insight to be used to bring us stuff that likely has a good deal of potential fandom awaiting, but which doesn't quite match the typical narrow vision and supposed cherry picking attitudes we normally get stateside.
for the life of me, considering we're now seeing some stuff being picked up fairly quickly from miike's recent work - media blasters hopped onto 'crows zero' quick smart - i can't figure out why nobody is declaring their reasons for not having been successful in licensing 'waru', 'sun scarred' and 'detective story' from his other stuff. is 'like a dragon' even coming to america?!
btw, only yakuza movie on the radar for america, at least the only one that stands out in my memory right now, is hideo gosha's 'the wolves' from animeigo, in the next couple of months.
Posted by: logboy | March 05, 2008 at 12:59 AM
A great find! To bad i can't understand or read a lick of Japanese. Unless they are constantly repeating yakuza eiga chants (from women) "Ata!", (from disgruntled bosses) "Baka!", (the old man) "Nani?" and as stated (from underlings) "Aniki!". So basically, my japanese language skills are tutored from yakuza eigas.
As for "Like A Dragon", I know where to find a very very good copy with English subs. I don't know why distributors aren't gobbling up Miike films. I'm not waiting forever, so i'll settle for what i can get. If you're reading this website, i'm sure you know where to go.
Waru and Scars/Sun from my understanding will be available soon. just not from companies like MediaBlasters etc. Family and Bodyguard Kiba's have made there way here, you can get boxsets cheap on the internet. I love the genre as well, but I would like to read an english version of the 90's+ VC films. the worse, the better. wishful thinking.
spm
Posted by: SPM | March 18, 2008 at 11:26 AM
A great find! To bad i can't understand or read a lick of Japanese. Unless they are constantly repeating yakuza eiga chants (from women) "Ata!", (from disgruntled bosses) "Baka!", (the old man) "Nani?" and as stated (from underlings) "Aniki!". So basically, my japanese language skills are tutored from yakuza eigas.
As for "Like A Dragon", I know where to find a very very good copy with English subs. I don't know why distributors aren't gobbling up Miike films. I'm not waiting forever, so i'll settle for what i can get. If you're reading this website, i'm sure you know where to go.
Waru and Scars/Sun from my understanding will be available soon. just not from companies like MediaBlasters etc. Family and Bodyguard Kiba's have made there way here, you can get boxsets cheap on the internet. I love the genre as well, but I would like to read an english version of the 90's+ VC films. the worse, the better. wishful thinking.
spm
Posted by: SPM | March 18, 2008 at 11:27 AM