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Yakuza War: The Japanese Godfather (Japan, 1977) [DVD] - 2.5/5
By 1977 the jitsuroku yakuza film genre was nearly dead. Kinji Fukasaku released his final yakuza films that year, while his colleague Sadao Nakajima still went on for a few more years, but the films weren't getting any better. Ultra violence and documentary style gangster films just weren't the big thing anymore, and the producers were telling filmmakers to try and appeal to female audiences. Violence was cut down, more drama was written into the storylines and running times were extended to make the films bigger. Novels were often used as source material. It was the beginning of the end.
The Japanese Godfather is a sort of transitional film. It runs way too long at 132 minutes, but at the same time it still retains some of the ruthless violence and graphic sex that characterized the mid-70s yakuza films, including director Nakajima's own Okinawa Yakuza War (1976). Highlights include manly man Bunta Sugawara pulling bullets out of his vest with his bare hands, and short tempered bodyguard Sonny Chiba yelling at a man and pulling him from the clothes AFTER unloading six bullets into his chest times.
Toei gathered basically every big name actor they could get for this film, and called it “30 years of Toei men†on the poster. Of course, there had been similar star gatherings before, but this time it felt more like an attempt to lure the audiences to the theatre one last time. The cast includes Sugawara, Chiba, Koji Tsuruta, Tsunehiko Watase, Mikio Narita, Hiroki Matsukata, Asao Koike, Tatsuo Umemiya, and many others. The sequel would add Toshiro Mifune to the cast. There was, of course, a certain charm to having all these guys in the same movie.
* Original title: Yakuza senso: Nihon no don (ã‚„ãã–戦争　日本ã®é¦–é ˜)
* Director: Sadao Nakajima
* Chiba's role: Major supporting role
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles)
Sonny China being a gentleman
Bunta Sugawara removing bullets from his west
Alan Delon, sorry, I mean Sonny Chiba, doing bodyguarding for Koji Tsuruta
Yakuza mobile
Hiroki Matsukata enjoying the view
Car on fire
Gangster meeting
Yakuza rests on the floor
Sonny Chiba grabbing a man by the chest AFTER shooting him six times!
By 1977 the jitsuroku yakuza film genre was nearly dead. Kinji Fukasaku released his final yakuza films that year, while his colleague Sadao Nakajima still went on for a few more years, but the films weren't getting any better. Ultra violence and documentary style gangster films just weren't the big thing anymore, and the producers were telling filmmakers to try and appeal to female audiences. Violence was cut down, more drama was written into the storylines and running times were extended to make the films bigger. Novels were often used as source material. It was the beginning of the end.
The Japanese Godfather is a sort of transitional film. It runs way too long at 132 minutes, but at the same time it still retains some of the ruthless violence and graphic sex that characterized the mid-70s yakuza films, including director Nakajima's own Okinawa Yakuza War (1976). Highlights include manly man Bunta Sugawara pulling bullets out of his vest with his bare hands, and short tempered bodyguard Sonny Chiba yelling at a man and pulling him from the clothes AFTER unloading six bullets into his chest times.
Toei gathered basically every big name actor they could get for this film, and called it “30 years of Toei men†on the poster. Of course, there had been similar star gatherings before, but this time it felt more like an attempt to lure the audiences to the theatre one last time. The cast includes Sugawara, Chiba, Koji Tsuruta, Tsunehiko Watase, Mikio Narita, Hiroki Matsukata, Asao Koike, Tatsuo Umemiya, and many others. The sequel would add Toshiro Mifune to the cast. There was, of course, a certain charm to having all these guys in the same movie.
* Original title: Yakuza senso: Nihon no don (ã‚„ãã–戦争　日本ã®é¦–é ˜)
* Director: Sadao Nakajima
* Chiba's role: Major supporting role
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles)
Sonny China being a gentleman
Bunta Sugawara removing bullets from his west
Alan Delon, sorry, I mean Sonny Chiba, doing bodyguarding for Koji Tsuruta
Yakuza mobile
Hiroki Matsukata enjoying the view
Car on fire
Gangster meeting
Yakuza rests on the floor
Sonny Chiba grabbing a man by the chest AFTER shooting him six times!
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