ACF 938: "Ryuji" screens at Japan Society tonght

Ryuji © 1983 momo k.

Ryuji
Directed by Toru Kawashima
With Shoji Kaneko, Eiko Nagashima,
Koji Kita, and Kinzoh Sakura
1983, 92 min., 35 mm, color
In Japanese with live English subtitles
When: Friday, March 18th, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Where: Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, NYC
Between 1st and 2nd Avenues
International Premiere!
Buy tickets online
From March 14–June 30, 2011: 50% of all ticket sales
will go to Japan Society's Earthquake Relief Fund

"One of the only great yakuza pictures made since the Battles Without Honor and Graveyard of Honor in the seventies."--Kinji Fukasaku, in Chris D.'s Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film

Ryuji is more than just a film, it is the final testament of a dying man, a young stage actor eager to find an interesting role on the big screen. His name is Shoji Kaneko. He likes writing and yakuza cinema, and chooses to write the story himself--the portrait of a young yakuza who (following the usual conceit) wants to leave the underworld, for the sake and love of his wife and daughter, after a long stint in jail. A fragile film, not unlike the performance of the lead actor/writer, who succumbed to cancer one week after the film's release.

Ryuji seems to be haunted by his disappearance, as if anticipating the mourning of its own central figure. With a realism reminiscent of the Actors Studio's famed method (the actor joined a real gang to capture the essence of the role and the world in which the yakuza live), the drama comes to life with the support of a formidable cast (notably, the actor's real-life daughter). An anti-noir film with unusual sheen and clarity, Ryuji is touched with breathtaking moments of loveliness and hints of peace, the blend of moral brinksmanship, and restrained visuals.

The pleasures of the film reside in the mischievous yet tolerant recognition that behind brutality lies human frailty, in its infinite range. The manner of its delivery is so disarmingly graceful--lacking neither emotional impact nor aesthetic punch--that you can almost feel the blood of the film flow.

ACF Comment: With a "gang" consisting of only three members and almost all the violence directed within that group, Ryuji is not your typical yakuza flick. But it's a terrific drama and definitely should be seen. ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars, very highly recommended.

This screening of Ryuji is part of the Globus Film Series:
Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence

ACF 935: "A Yakuza in Love" will be shown at Japan Society tonight

A Yakuza in Love © 1997 Toei Co., Ltd.

A Yakuza in Love a.k.a. Villainous Love
Directed by Rokuro Mochizuki
With Eiji Okuda, Yuna Natsuo, Shunsuke Matsuoka
When: Thursday, March 17, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Where: Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
Between 1st and 2nd Avenues
1997, 110 min., 35 mm, color
In Japanese with English subtitles
Print courtesy of The Japan Foundation
International Premiere!!!
Buy tickets online
(Note that from March 14–June 30, 2011, 50% of all ticket sales will go to Japan Society's Earthquake Relief Fund.)

"Like no other yakuza film you're likely to have ever seen."
-- Chris MaGee, Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

A dark, delicate, comic and complicated telling of a hard-as-nails, simple love story. Boy meets girl; boy falls in love, boy drugs girl. Boy and girl start a rather twisted, chemical-fueled affair. Things get sour. The boy is a low-ranking ne'er-do-well yakuza in an ill-fated gang, fighting a losing battle with their rival gang. The girl... well, the girl is just a waitress who should probably know better.

Auteur Mochizuki (Onibi: The Fire Within; Another Lonely Hitman), director and co-writer, has fashioned this unlikely romance between two mismatched lost souls into a black comedy of startling directness and intensity, following the old boy's fumbling (and often funny) attempts at romance through questionable methods of courtship (which include kidnapping into the bargain).

Generously spiced graphic sex scenes alternate with moments of lyricism and otherworldly calm, subtly layering the characters and their path to ruin. As the strange relationship blossoms, the yakuza's drug addiction and unstoppable habits of destruction threaten to destroy everything...

ACF Comment: I really found this an engrossing film. While the protagonist is far from sympathetic, both he, the female lead and several other characters are richly drawn and masterfullly depicted. My rating is 3.5 out of 4 stars, very highly recommended.

In addition the film, there will be a Special Exhibition Preview:

From 6:00-7:30 pm, ticketholders get an exclusive sneak preview of Japan Society’s spring exhibition Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art, opening March 18. Among 40 installations of sculpture, painting, video and photography, from some of the most evocative artist living and working in Japan today, are such genre appropriate works as a dress with yards of blood streaming from it, a bevy of geisha grandmothers, happy-go-lucky school girls committing harakiri, a life-size glass bulb bedazzled taxidermy deer, and a spectacular 23-foot mural of mountains composed of thousands of dead salarymen.

ACF 934: "Dead or Alive" at Japan Society

Dead or Alive © 1999 Kadokawa Shoten Co., Ltd.

Dead or Alive / Hanzaisha
Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa
When: Tuesday, March 15, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Where: Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
Between 1st and 2nd Avenues
1999, 105 min., 35 mm, color
In Japanese and Mandarin with English subtitles
Print courtesy of The Japan Foundation
Buy tickets online

Introduction with Director Takashi Miike!!!!!

A mind-boggling carnival of ultra-violence, massive drug use, punch-drunk camerawork and unending stroboscopic editing, perfectly calculated to induce an outbreak of rapture that will leave the viewer shaking and ringing from the shock. Miike's legendary Dead or Alive pits a yakuza of Chinese descent (Riki Takeuchi) against a Japanese cop (Sho Aikawa) in the mean streets of Tokyo's crime-infested Shinjuku area, prowled by warring factions that vie for supremacy. Their fated encounter, propelled by an astonishing opening reel of hyperspeed action, leads a truly out-this-earth, apocalyptic conclusion, perhaps the most spectacular showdown ever committed to celluloid. Visuals, courtesy of "Hana-bi" D.P. Hideo Yamamoto, are slick and arresting and give a proud, bloody-minded majesty to the trip.

ACF 932: Three great Yakuza flicks playing at Japan Society today

Japan Society's Globus Film Series Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence continues today with three more terrific films.

Cops Vs. Thugs © 1975 Toei Co., Ltd.

Cops Vs. Thugs
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
With Bunta Sugawara, Seizo Fukumoto, Reiko Ike,
Nobuo Kaneko, and Yoko Koizumi
1975, 100 minutes, 35 mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles
Print courtesy of The Japan Foundation
Sunday, March 13, 3:15 PM
Buy tickets online

"Fukasaku at the peak of his powers."--Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp, The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Cinema

With this film, which has all the grunting doggedness of the real thing, Fukasaku puts the spotlight on the forces of grand corruption and the ferocious business of butting heads with the law. 1963: The Kurashima City police have spent the past seven years eradicating the yakuza gangs, at the root of much mayhem. The last two remaining gangs, Ohara and Kawade, are in tatters, with the Ohara boss in prison. But with the police force full of corrupt officers, the gangs begin to prosper once again. Soon it's not only Cops vs. Thugs, but Thugs vs. Thugs and Cops vs. Cops. With genre supremo Bunta Sugawara as a police detective who makes Dirty harry look like a rent-a-cop.

Battle without Honor and Humanity (Pt. 3): Proxy War © 1973 Toei Co., Ltd.

Battle without Honor and Humanity (Pt. 3): Proxy War
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
With Bunta Sugawara, Akira Kobayashi, Tsunehiko Watase,
Shingo Yamashiro, Reiko Ike, and Nobuo Kaneko
1973, 91 minutes, 35 mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles
Sunday, March 13, 5:30 PM
Buy tickets online

The centerpiece of the five-film postwar yakuza arch-epic/classic is almost impossibly alert to the constant transactions of power within the unrepentantly violent world of Hiroshima gangsters. Inspired by real-life events, these Battles breathlessly accumulates unabashed close-ups of bloodletting and wounded bodies flying left and right, front and back. The film has the most treacherous plot of the lot--plotting, counter-plottings, alliances and betrayals will leave viewers dizzy and with only one certainty, that of violence; by fair means or foul, mostly foul, we are led into battle and bloody murders, with jitsuroku ("docudrama"-style) star Bunta Sugawara at the center of it. This is your chance to witness Japanese gangster violence in all its seedy, futile but spectacular glory.

Youth of the Beast © Nikkatsu Corporation

Youth of the Beast
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
With Joe Shishido, Misako Watanabe, Tamio Kawaji,
Ichiro Kijima, and Mizuho Suzuki
1963, 92 minutes, 35 mm, color, in Japanese with live English subtitles
Sunday, March 13, 7:30 PM
Buy tickets online

Seijun Suzuki's breakthrough film is faster, rougher and wilder than most of his other outings (except perhaps the outrageously off-the-wall Branded to Kill). Raw, rugged and tumbling out of nowhere, Jo (Joe Shishido, a frequent leading man in Suzuki's films) wants employment and wants it now. Closer in temperament to a human lava flow, he's not about to let little things like a bunch of big, bulky brawlers get in the way. He barges into the headquarters of a notorious yakuza organization and there he proceeds to beat the living daylights out of the goons, points a gun at the boss and politely asks for a job. The boss is impressed and puts him on the payroll. Jo then heads over to the rival faction's gang... Repeat. In other words, all-out gang war is around the corner. This early Seijun Suzuki masterpiece paved the way for the late 1990s visual extravaganza (Takashi Miike and others).

ACF 929: Four film Yakuza film marathon at Japan Society today

Japan Society's yakuza film series Hardest Men in Town goes into overdrive today with the screening of four films, all made in the mid-sixties by Toei. There is an individual admission charge for each film.

I've seen the first three listed below and can attest that each one is fine. I'm sure the same goes for Blood of Revenge. So AsianCineFest recommends that you see as many as you can. But however many you see, your jones for yakuza flicks will be well served.

Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues, NYC. For series information and to buy tickets online, click here.

The Walls of Abashiri Prison (Pt. 3): Longing for Home © 1965 Toei Co., Ltd.

The Walls of Abashiri Prison (pt. 3): Longing for Home
Directed by Teruo Ishii
With Ken Takakura, Hiroko Sakuramachi,
Naoki Sugiura, Kunie Tanaka
1965, 89 min., 35 mm, color, in Japanese with live English subtitles
Saturday, March 12, 1 PM
International Premiere!

Forty-six years after its Japanese release, the most outstanding episode of the Abashiri series standing firmly on its own, is out in the world, and will have no issue attracting the uninitiated. Upon returning to his hometown of Nagasaki, recently released prisoner Shinichi Tachibana (Ken Takakura) wants to become a better man but must go back to his old gangster ways and former clan, the Asahi, in order to pay back a past debt. Trouble brews when the rival gang that was responsible for sending him to prison learns of his return. Left with no alternative, Tachibana decides to take them on.

Brutal Tales of Chivalry © 1965 Toei Co., Ltd.

Brutal Tales of Chivalry
Directed by Kiyoshi Saeki
With Ken Takakura, Ryo Ikebe, Yoshiko Mita, Shinjiro Ebara
1965, 90 min., 35 mm, color, in Japanese with live English subtitles
Saturday, March 12, 3 PM
International Premiere!

With this film, the honorable yakuza formula loiters on the threshold of formal perfection. Returning imperial soldier Gennosuke (Ken Takakura) finds his hometown hardly more than a pile of rubble. In short, it is Year Zero for this man whose world has been reduced to a dead zone of rusted, unpopulated townscapes. With the sheer power of his will and moral rectitude, Gennosuke must rebuild the local marketplace and protect it from the unscrupulous hands of a rival gang that couldn't care less about chivalry and honor.

Theater of Life: Hishakaku © Toei Co. Ltd.

Theater of Life: Hishakaku
Directed by Tadashi Sawashima
With Koji Tsuruta, Ken Takakura,
Yoshiko Sakuma and Ryunosuke Tsukigata
1963, 95 min., 35 mm, color, in Japanese with live English subtitles
Saturday, March 12, 5:15 PM
U.S. Premiere!

Tadashi Sawashima's Theater of Life launched the 1960s ninkyo eiga boom and is in many ways, the whole genre's blueprint. Hishakaku (Koji Tsuruta), as honorable a gangster as is humanly possible, is in love with Otoyo, a courtesan. But his obligations to the yakuza code keep them apart, not the least because of his stint in prison. During this time, Otoyo struggles against sinister gangsters who see her not as the sweetheart of a chivalrous gambler doing time for his gang, but as a simple commodity. The film made both Toei studio actors Koji Tsuruta and Ken Takakura superstars of the yakuza genre, though it's the fragile beauty of the actress Yoshiko Sakuma that impresses the most.

Blood of Revenge © 1965 Toei Co., Ltd.

Blood of Revenge
Directed by Tai Kato
With Koji Tsuruta, Junko Fuji,
Kanjuro Arashi, Masahiko Tsugawa
1965, 91 min., 16 mm., color, in Japanese with English subtitles
Print courtesy of The Japan Foundation
Saturday, March 12, 7:30 PM

"An absolutely standard period yakuza movie."--Time Out Film Guide

The outstanding performance by Koji Tsuruta, the yakuza genre's first star, is the most commanding reason to see this film, in addition to über-stylist Kato's masterly and distinctive mise en scène. Osaka, 1907: Asajiro (Tsuruta) lives between a rock and a hard place: he has to keep his business clean and running, tame his late oyabun's hot-blooded son and suffer the throes of his impossible love for beautiful geisha Hatsue (Junko Fuji). Life is tough, but misdeeds will not remain unavenged and trickling blood will swell to a flood, of course.

ACF 926: Yakuza lecture & film screening at Japan Society tonight starting at 6:30 PM

Japan Society will be presenting two programs tonight. At 6:30 PM, journalist and author Jake Adelstein will give a talk entitled Yakuza in Popular Media & Real Life: Cracks & Chasms. It will be followed by a screening of the yakuza film Onibi: The Fire Within.

Adelstein is the only American journalist to have gained admittance to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police press club. For many years, he wrote for the Yomiuri Shinbun, the newspaper with the largest circulation not only in Japan, but the world. He chronicled his experiences in his book Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, which was published in 2009 It provides a rare look into real yakuza culture in Japan, as opposed to the image the yakuza want to project, thereby revealing much about how the major groups really function and what the taboos are of depicting yakuza in Japan.

I came across Adelstein's book several weeks ago, and put it on my "to read" list, which is almost as long as my "DVDs to watch" list. When I learned of his lecture, I bought the book and began to read it immediately. It's both incredibly informative and interesting, and I say this as someone who is not particularly interested in "true crime" reads. Also Adelstein strikes me as someone who's as honest as anyone can be. How else to describe someone who admits that he was probably responsible, albeit indirectly and unintentionally, for the rape, torture, and murder of one of his sources?

So I'm going on advance record as stating that Adelstein's talk is sure to be fascinating. And whether you make it there or not, give serious thought to checking out his book.

Onibi: The Fire Within © 1997 GAGA Corporation

Onibi: The Fire Within
Directed by: Rokuro Mochizuki
Starring: Yoshio Harada, Reiko Kataoka,
Sho Aikawa, and Ko Kitamura
Japan, 1997, 101 min., 35 mm, color
In Japanese with live English subtitles

Onibi will be shown at 8:15, following Adelstein's talk.

Coming from a man who started his career as a porn director, this is a surprisingly spare and emotionally savage film. Often regarded as Rokuro Mochizuki's masterpiece, Onibi injects both sexual passion and subdued sentiment into the macho world of yakuza cinema. Within the confines of the genre, Mochizuki artfully builds a parable of implacable fate, probing the leading performer's inner life with a calm intensity that is almost unparalleled. Noriyuki Kunihiro (Yoshio Harada, in one of his most unforgettable roles) is a yakuza who has just spent half a lifetime in prison, doing time for a double murder. Although his former acolytes try to tempt him back into the fold, he prefers to put his aging but still strong body to more honest work. He finds love in the person of young pianist... and trouble soon follows.

Part of the Globus Film Series:
Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence

TICKETS
Lecture only: $12/$8 Japan Society members, seniors & students
Film only: $12/$9 Japan Society members, seniors & students
Lecture & Film: $16/$12 Japan Society members

Special offer for Lecture & Film available only at Japan Society Box Office or by telephone at (212) 715-1258. Offer not available online. Advance sale only.

Buy Film Only Tickets Online or call the Japan Society Box Office at (212) 715-1258, Mon. - Fri. 11 am - 6 pm, Weekends 11 am - 5 pm.

ACF 921: "The Yakuza" at Japan Society

The Yakuza
Directed by Sydney Pollack
Starring Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura
Written by Paul Schrader and Robert Towne
USA/Japan, 1975, 123 minutes
When: Wednesday, March 9, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Where: Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, NYC
Between 1st and 2nd Avenues

Info and buy tickets here

The latest Globus Film Series at Japan Society, Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence, starts this Wednesday with Pollack's respectful nod to the genre. I'm not sure when I first came across the film, but I've owned the DVD (more on that later) for several years.

The Yakuza, being in English and with so many Americans involved, is a somewhat surprising choice to kick off the fifteen film series, but not at all an inappropriate one. And since the film never got much recognition, it's great to have it placed in such a prominent position in this terrific series.

Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum) and Tanaka Ken (Ken Takakura) confer

The great Robert Mitchum stars as Harry Kilmer, who served in the Occupation Army after World War II. He returns to rescue the kidnapped daughter of one of his friends, George Tanner (played by Brian Keith). Once back, Kilmer visits Eiko (Keiko Kishi), a war-widow with whom he had an intimate relationship and whom he set up with her own business. Through her, he contacts and enlists the aid of her brother Tanaka Ken (Ken Takakura), a war veteran and former yakuza.

While they pull off the rescue, matters of course do not end there. This being a yakuza film, there has to be a double cross. There's that, some fine dialogue, a couple of great action set pieces, and an unexpected revelation before resolution and reconciliation is finally achieved.

Once again, for those outside of New York or just unable to make the screening, all is not lost. As I said earlier, The Yakuza is available on DVD, from Warner Brothers, which produced the film (along with Toei Company.). It has a nice "making of" featurette that was shot simultaneously with filming. I found watching Pollack work with his Japanese crew, using an interpreter as intermediary, to be particularly interesting.

In this overhead shot, Tanaka Ken (Ken Takakura)
moves towards some of the baddies.

My only gripe with the DVD is the tag line on the front cover of the insert: "100 years ago they were called Samurai." (see the image at the top of this post.) Some numbnuts obviously thought this sounded cool and would bring in more white customers than talking about "yakuza." And while it's certainly probable that some samurai became yakuza, the statement is essentially erroneous and fundamentally stupid.

As for the film itself, The Yakuza can more than hold its own against many Japanese films in the genre. It's a very entertaining movie with a great storyline and two fantastic stars. ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; very highly recommended.

ACF 919: Yakuza films coming to New York!

Japan Society's next Globus Film Series begins this coming Wednesday, March 9th, 2010 and will run through Saturday, March 19th. A total of 15 terrific Yakuza-themed films will be shown. Four films will be shown for the first time outside of Japan. In addition to these International Premieres, there will be three U.S. and one New York premieres.

On top of this, there will be several extra-special attractions. Screenwriter (Taxi Driver) and director (Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters) Paul Schrader will introduce the lead-off film, Sidney Pollack's The Yakuza (1975), which Schrader co-wrote with Robert Towne, on Wednesday evening.

Journalist Jake Adelstein, author of the fantastic and informative book Tokyo Vice, will give a lecture entitled Yakuza in Popular Media & Reel Life: Cracks & Chasms on Thursday at 6:30. Adelstein knows whereof he speaks, having covered the crime scene in and around Tokyo for many years for one of the city's leading papers. His talk will be followed by the film Onibi: The Fire Within at 8:15 PM.

And on Friday, March 11th, following the 7:30 PM screening of The Wolves, Japan Society will host the opening weekend "Gandsta Party", with prizes for the best modern day gangster garb or classic yakuza kimono.

I have no doubt that it's going to be an incredible film series. I'll be putting up as many reviews as I can. In the meanwhile, check out the complete line-up and order tickets here.

ACF 906: Yakuza lecture and film screening at Japan Society on March 10th

Yakuza in Popular Media & Real Life: Cracks & Chasms
Lecture plus Film Screening
When: Thursday, March 10, 2010 at 6:30 PM
(Film to follow at approxiamately 8:15 PM)
Where: Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, NYC
(between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

From popular films to games and comic books, yakuza culture has been portrayed and discussed in many media. Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice--one of the rare books revealing real yakuza culture in Japan--discusses the differences between the image the yakuza want to project and how the major groups really function, and what the taboos are of depicting yakuza in Japan.

After the Lecture:
Onibi: The Fire Within (at approximately 8:15 pm)
Directed by Rokuro Mochizuki
With Yoshio Harada, Reiko Kataoka, Sho Aikawa
Japan, 1996, 101 minutes, 35mm, color
In Japanese with live English subtitles

Often regarded as Rokuro Mochizuki's masterpiece, Onibi injects both sexual passion and subdued sentiment into the macho world of yakuza cinema. Jake Adelstein introduces the film.

TICKETS:
Lecture only: $12/$8 Japan Society members, seniors & students
Film only: $12/$9 Japan Society members, seniors & students
Lecture & Film: $16/$12 Japan Society members

Special offer available only at Japan Society Box Office or by telephone at (212) 715-1258. Offer not available online.

Buy Lecture Only Tickets Online or call the Japan Society Box Office at (212) 715-1258, Mon. - Fri. 11 am - 6 pm, Weekends 11 am - 5 pm.

This lecture and film screening are part of Japan Society's film series Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence, which runs from March 9 - 19, 2011.

ACF 903: "Hardest Men In Town" yakuza film series is coming to Japan Society, March 9-19, 2010

Outrage: The Way of the Modern Yakuza © 2010 “Outrage” Production Committee

Hardest Men in Town:
Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence
When: March 9-19, 2011
Where: Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, NYC
(between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

The next film series at Japan Society (NY) consists of fifteen examples of the widely popular yakuza genre.

The Japanese gangster movie genre wil be presented through its various avatars, transformations and contradictions, from 1960s productions featuring chivalrous kimono-clad, sword-wielding gangsters and gamblers to today's ruthless gun-toting villains dealing in debt, hustling hardcore porn and scheming and scamming in dark trades and deeds.

Over the past 50 years, they've remained snarling, swaggering, tattooed and inexplicably sexy. In the line-up, there will be blood and broken bones, hookers and hopheads, and plenty of juicy political blackmail… in 15 films that rack up the stiffs like Jacobean tragedies and show grand visions of manly amity and betrayal: classics and lesser known titles by Kinji Fukasaku, Takashi Miike (Dead or Alive), Hideo Gosha (The Wolves), Takeshi Kitano (Outrage), Rokuro Mochizuki (A Yakuza In Love, Onibi: The Fire Within) and Sydney Pollack (The Yakuza), among other offerings you can't refuse.

For descriptions of and showtimes for all the films that will be shown, and to order tickets online, click here.

Hardest Men in Town is made possible through the generous support of The Globus Family.

ACF 494: Buyusenki Battle Chronicle offers live-action motorcycle street gang action

Motorcycle yakuza mayhem is the norm in this new live-action DVD release from Switchblade Pictures and Section23 Films:

Mix motorcycles, drugs and yakuza under pressure and the result is bosozoku, the brutal motorized street gangs that terrorize Japan armed with swords and baseball bats.

SYNOPSIS: Kyosuke Jinnai was the leader of the "Buyusenki," the largest group of its kind in the Kanto region, but sick of the violence, he had planned to give it all up to make a family with his pregnant girlfriend. Instead, all of that was stolen from him in a moment of savage betrayal, and the man who dreamed of a life of peace has instead been transformed into an angel of death! One of his subordinates betrayed him, and Kyosuke won't stop until he knows why. The streets of Japan will be paved with blood in Buyusenki Battle Chronicle!

BUYUSENKI BATTLE CHRONICLE
Running Time: 112 min.
Age Rating: Unrated – (V, L)
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
Published by: Switchblade Pictures
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Format: DVD
SRP: $19.98

ACF 204: The General's Son at The Korea Society Thursday, January 22, 2009

The General's Son / Janggunui adeul
Directed by Im Kwon-taek
Korea, 1990, 108 min
Korean with English subtitles

The Korea Society's Classic Movie Night continues this Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 with The General's Son, an entry in the series When Japan Ruled Korea: Movies Set in the Colonial Era.

Synopsis:
A lifetime on the streets of Japanese-occupied Seoul has made Kim Doo-han (Park Sang-min) an aimless brawler. But when he learns he's the son of a legendary general, Kim rises to defend local merchants from yakuza boss Hayashi (Shin Hyeon-joon). Master filmmaker Im Kwon-taek directs this award-winning action classic, regarded by some as "the original Korean gangster movie."

** NOTE: This screening is on the fourth Thursday of January, but future films will continue on the third Thursday of each month.

Movies will be screened at The Korea Society in midtown Manhattan, 950 Third Avenue, 8th Floor.

Individual ticket price: $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers
Click here to buy tickets.

For more info or to register for the program, contact Heewon Kim at (212) 759-7525, ext. 355.

ACF 084: Battles Without Honor and Humanity - Free Screening

Cover art for Battles Without Honor and Humanity

as Volume 1 of The Yakuza Papers box set

available from Home Vision Entertainment

The film series OUT OF THE ASHES: Early Postwar Japanese Movies continues at Columbia University tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 11, 2008, at 6:00 PM, with a free screening of Battles Without Honor and Humanity. Directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku (Black Rose Mansion, Battle Royale, and many other great films), this 1973 film was the first in a series concerned with the conflicts between and within rival crime families in the Hiroshima area in the years after the end of World War II. Thus it is not an early postwar movie itself, but rather a classic about that period in Japanese history.

The film starts with an emotionally powerful shot of the Gembaku Domo, the "A-Bomb Dome," Hiroshima's only structural ruin left erect as a reminder of the bomb's devastation. With the city essentially destroyed and the economy in ruins, there were construction contracts to be had and black markets to be run, both prime turf for gang activity.

Bunta Sugawara (above, center) stars as Shozo Hirono, a former soldier who comes to the aid of a Japanese citizen being assaulted by American G.I.s. In prison he is befriended by a member of gang. After their release, Hirono becomes a yakuza himself. He is the central character around whom this film, and the overall series, revolves

The film is of major significance for at least a couple of reasons. Previously films about yakuza were known as ninkyo eiga, or chivalry films. These tended to pivot on the protagonist's conflict between his duties to his crime family and his feelings for an outsider, often a member of another gang with whom he has a special relationship, such as a sworn brother. Here, as the title suggests, there's little chivalry, honor, or humanity. Betrayals run rampant not only between both also within families. Bosses will sell out their underlings and vice versa.

Director Kinji Fukasaku in his younger days

Battles Without Honor and Humanity also constitutes an alternative to the official version of Japanese history. This resulted from Fukasaku being roughly fifteen years old when the war ended. Suddenly, the emperor, who adults had insisted was a god, was declared to be as human as anyone else. This instantaneous change in belief left Fukasaku and others with a great distrust of the official count of things. The movies in this series tell the story of those who were not talked about or acknowledged to have existed in official chronicles.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity will be shown at the Davis Auditorium, Columbia University. It's a must see. For more information about this and the other films, as well as a link to a map of the Columbia campus, click here.

ACF 077: "Gangster VIP" at Japan Society

Gangster VIP / Burai yori daikanbu

Directed by Toshio Matsuda

Japan 1968

Tetsuya Watari (l) and Cheiko Matsubara (r)

The No Borders, No Limits: 1960s Nikkatsu Action Cinema series continues at Japan Society this Friday, February 22, 2008, with a 7:30 PM screening of Gangster VIP.

Tetsuya Watari (Tokyo Drifter, Like a Shooting Star) stars as Goro Fujikawa, a young yakuza who tries to go straight after serving a three year sentence for stabbing a hitman from a rival gang. But as things usually go in these stories, events undermine such intentions and draw Goro back into the criminal world of violence and revenge.

Tetsuya Watari (l) and Kyosuke Machida (r)

Gangster VIP was the first installment of what became a six-part Burai series of films made in 1968 and 1969. It was based on the memoirs of Goro Fujita, a real yakuza.

For more information or to buy tickets, click here.

To view the trailer on YouTube, click here.

Images Copyright 1968 Nikkatsu Corporation

ACF 046: A Colt Is My Passport

Jerry Fujio (l), Jo Shishido (c) and Chitose Kobayashi (r)

A Colt is My Passport / Koruto wa ore no pasupoto
Directed by Takashi Nomura
© 1967 Nikkatsu Corporation
Black and White 35 mm, 84 min.

This Friday, September 28, 2007, at 7:30 pm, Japan Society is providing New Yorkers with an opportunity to see this terrific, exciting actioner. It's the lead-off film in the NO BORDERS, NOLIMITS: 1960s Nikkatsu Action Cinema series. I was fortunate in being able to see it at a press screening last week, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again on Friday.

Jo Shishido, seen later the same year in the better known Branded To Kill by Seijun Suzuki, here plays an assassin hired by one Yakuza group to kill the oyabun (leader) of a rival group. After pulling off the hit, he and his partner (played by Jerry Fujio) find their initial escape plan thwarted at the airport. They then hide out in a cheap inn in Yokohama, hoping to escape by boat. They are befriended by a young woman who works there (actress Chirose Kobayashi) and who also longs to escape.

An unexpected - and highly unlikely - rapprochement between the two Yakuza gangs, leads to betrayal by those who ordered the hit. Now Jo and his partner find themselves targeted by everyone involved.

The ending, a face-off between Shishido's character and the gang members, some in a bullet-proof Mercedes, takes place on a barren expanse of reclaimed land. It's so over the top, so delectably implausible, that you just have to love it.

A Colt Is My Passport gets a 3 out of 4 star ACF rating, solidly recommeded.

NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS is the inaugural series of a new, annual event at Japan Society called "Monthly Classics." Mark Shilling, author (The Yakuza Movie Book: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films) and critic, is the guest curator for this series. An earlier version of NB,NL was first presented at the 2005 Udine Far East Film Festival. Mr Shilling will be at Japan Society to introduce the film on Friday, and will be present afterward for a reception and signing of his accompanying book, No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema, newly edited and published by FAB Press.

Trivia:
- Shishido had plastic surgery, reportedly in 1956, that gave him his trademark "chipmunk cheeks." I'm pretty sure he also had eye surgery to give him more Occidental-looking eyelids.
- The initial target's car is a 1960 Dodge Dart, the top-of-the-line Phoenix model, I believe. My family had the mid-level Pioneer version, complete with push-button automatic transmission!)

ACF 044: Nikkatsu Action Series

A Colt is My Passport © 1967 Nikkatsu Corporation

I've covered various film series at Japan Society for Asian Cult Cinema magazine for several years now, and I've seen lots of good films and quite a few great ones there. But I've never been as excited about an upcoming series as I am about NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s Nikkatsu Action Cinema. This series marks the launch of a new annual event called "Monthly Classics" that will utilize guest curators to create film series that will feature -- have you guessed -- one screening approximately every month.

Nikkatsu produced over 500 action genre films starting in the mid-50s. Probably its best known products, at least in the U.S., are Seijun Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter (1966) and Branded To Kill (1967), the latter of which ironically led to Suzuki being terminated for making "incomprehensible" movies, as the studio suits put it. [Both of these Suzuki films, as well as several others, are available from The Criterion Collection. Enough said.]

NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS will feature eight films never before screened in the United States. The series will consist of:

A Colt is My Passport, directed by Takashi Nomura, September 28, 2007
The Warped Ones, directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara, November 9, 2007
Like a Shooting Star, directed by Toshio Masuda, December 14, 2007
Red Handkerchief, directed by Toshio Masuda, January 18, 2008
Gangster VIP, directed by Toshio Masuda, February 22, 2008
Plains Wanderer, directed by Buichi Saito, March 14, 2008
Glass Johnny: Looks Like a Beast, directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara, April 4, 2008
Roughneck, directed by Yasuharu Hasebe, May 2, 2008

Author and critic Mark Schilling, who began living in Tokyo in 1975 and who is currently the Japan correspondent for Variety, curated this show. He will introduce A Colt is My Passport, the series opener, on Friday, September 28th. Afterwards there will be a reception, and the author will be signing his book, appropriately titled No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema, which has been newly edited and published by FAB Press. Shilling's other works include The Yakuza Movie Book: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films, which I'm currently reading and enjoying.

All films will be shown with new digital English subtitles, prints courtesy of Nikkatsu Corporation. Show times will be at 7:30 PM.

NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS is co-organized by Outcast Cinema. A tour of other US and Canadian venues is planned for later in 2007 and in 2008.

For further info click on this link to the NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS page at Japan Society.