Tetsu (Hideki Takahashi) and Kenji (Kotobuki Hananamoto) are brothers, very different in temperament but bonded by blood. Tetsu is a hardened yakuza hitman who finds himself on the other end of a Yakuza altercation, but is saved by more sensitive and artistic Kenji, leaving Tetsu’s attacker dead. They are both forced to skip town for…
Eighteen Years in Prison [Radiance] Blu-ray Review
Noboru Ando plays Kawada, a former soldier of a suicide squadron in WWII who is now trying to find meaning in his life and forms a gang with his friend Tsukada (Asao Koike) to steal goods from occupying American soldiers in order to setup an organization to take care of the families of fallen Japanese…
Sympathy for the Underdog [Radiance Films] Blu-Ray Review
Kôji Tsuruta is Gunji, a yakuza who has spent the last ten years in prison after partnering with the Daikato gang to take out a rival clan. Upon his return to Yokohama, he finds that the Daikato have basically taken over the town under the guise of going straight. Gunji decides to start over in…
The Shape of Night [Radiance Films] Blu-ray Review
The film introduces us to a jaded prostitute named Yoshie Nomoto (Miyuki Kuwano who I recognized from Kurosawa’s Red Beard as well as her earlier performances for Nagisa Oshima in Cruel Story of Youth and Night and Fog in Japan) whose latest client takes a shine to her and want to rescue her from the…
The Roundup: No Way Out [Capelight] Blu-ray Review
Taking place several years after the previous Roundup film, Don Lee returns once again as Detective Ma Seok-do, this time investigating a murder which leads to getting mixed up with the Japanese Yakuza and an illegal drug-trafficking operation. Detective Ma goes about it in his usual manner, not afraid to beat the ever loving shit…
Yakuza Graveyard Blu-ray Review [Radiance]
Springing forth this summer from Radiance is the underseen gangster flick Yakuza Graveyard from acclaimed Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku beautifully restored on blu-ray for the first time. Tetsuya Watari plays a rage-filled cop named Kuroiwa who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty in pursuit of his goals. Kuroiwa, sickened by his department’s unofficial and…
Massacre Gun (Arrow) Blu-ray Review
Most Japanese gangster movies of the 60’s and 70’s are little more than cleverly-achieved exercises in style over substance, with plenty of lurid violence and salacious sexuality to pleasure their thrill-seeking audiences. Maybe they’re fun to watch, but after your first viewing you might not feel compelled to grant any of them an encore. Massacre…