Japan Organised Crime Boss (1969) The Yakuza Movie Before Yakuza Movies

It’s curious the idea that there was a time when the modern yakuza movie wasn’t a thing, but as yakuza film historian Akihiko Ito says, in the extras of Radiance Films lush new release of Kinji Fukasaku’s Japan Organised Crime Boss, that was once the case. They used to be period pieces in the same historical eras as Chanbara and Jidaigeki, and it was in fact Fukasaku who was instrumental in making these types of movies more modern. The story goes that Fukasaku wanted to impose the modern world and its trials and tribulations onto a traditional, historic style of storytelling. In particular, he was fascinated by the idea that powerful nations waged war on each other through smaller proxy forces or countries. And with the Yamaguchi-gumi in the public eye at the time, he crossed these two ideas to create the influential but not particularly well-known Japan Organised Crime Boss (1969), and since then, the inner-city Yakuza movie has become one of Japan’s most famous cultural exports.     

Coming out of jail and hoping for a quiet life, Yokohama yakuza, Tsukamoto (Kôji Tsuruta) suddenly has to lead his gang after their patriarch is killed in a Proxy War for gang territory. Despite obligations, rivalries, blood brother kinship and a powder keg of a situation created by the Danno family, Tsukamoto tries to stop the violence from reaching boiling point. Yet despite his best efforts, his small group is caught in a crossfire between a big yakuza group from Osaka who are at war with the Tokyo alliance for control of the city. Tsukamoto’s gang used to be the local proxy gang, but after the death of their boss they stepped down and in their place stepped a local rival gang fronted by the hot-headed Miyahara – Tomisaburô Wakayama (Lone Wolf & Cub and The Bounty Hunter) in a manic performance. Tsukamoto tries to keep the old yakuza code intact but he is no match for the new thugs who live and fight without honour, and the powers at be’s desire to make the Yakuza more legitimate. The omens aren’t good as this little, local gang face impossible odds as they try to keep their heads off the chopping block, whilst also saving face – a true losing battle. 

It’s best to watch a movie with an understanding of the time it was made as it prevents you succumbing to the idea that a “thing is bad” because you go in with modern notions swirling around your head. Yet, watching Japan Organised Crime Boss divorced from the content that followed in its wake is quite the trick due to the famous faces throughout. There’s the aforementioned, infamous Itto Ogami (Wakayama), and there’s also the face most synonymous with the Yakuza movie, Bunta Sugawara (Shozo Hirono from the Yakuza Papers saga), who features in a minor but dramatically important role. Comparatively the leading man, Kōji Tsuruta, is largely unknown in the West with his most famous turn coming in Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy. And lets not forget Noboru Andō as Ooba, the famous former Yakuza turned actor (Sympathy for the Underdog, The Wolves, and Violent Streets). Despite the scales of popularity, each of these stars have a little bombast to their fame, which is completely counter to this early Fukasaku production, because this is a politically motivated movie which has more in common with the solemn titles from Italy’s Years of Lead (say Francesco Rosi or Elio Petri) than any of its Japanese peers.

As a political piece, it doesn’t manifest in the way you think as this is a movie about the machinations of the yakuza, as contrary to popular belief it’s not just a group of hard men with dragon tattoos on their backs beating each other up with bikes on the streets of Kamurochō. There is that element to the movie with the proxy gang fronted by Miyahara, for sure, but more of Fukasaku’s production is based around honour, respect of blood brother bonds, patriarchs and the history of these centuries old traditions. These movies prior to Kinji Fukasaku’s involvement were set in the days of feudal Japan, and for the Yakuza the world around them has changed whilst they stay the same with their moral codes that have been prevalent for hundreds of years. Contrary to video games and movies’ cool factor, the world of the Yakuza is very, very old fashioned and conservative. 

The bombast may not be like more recent Japanese crime movies, that’s not where the interest in this new addition to Radiance Films’ stable comes from. The interest comes from the intergenerational conflict caused by the rift between those who would go to war to save face, and those who realise that the only way that the yakuza fraternity can exist is to tone down the extreme behaviour and violence. In that, Japan Organised Crime Boss is a fascinating document that led us to where we are today. And that place is a world where the yakuza are nigh on indistinguishable from business conglomerates, gone are the gangs of young men with pompadours parading the streets looking for a fight – you have to get away from the big cities for that sort of thing. 

With all that being said, Kinji Fukasaku’s Japan Organised Crime Boss, with its see what you say title, is a pivotal central text of a genre. Whats more its a portrait of a time when Japan was interrogating its role in the world, defined by age old tradition whilst coming to terms with the modern world as the nation rebuilt itself after the decimation of World War II, a theme that fascinated Fukusaku along with his peers like Nagisa Oshima, Masaki Kobayashi, Shohei Imamura and the like. The release of this movie from Radiance is completed a visual essay by Nathan Stuart, the aforementioned interview with yakuza film historian Akihiko Ito, an archival interview with Kinji Fukasaku, a booklet featuring new writing by Stuart Galbraith IV and some typically handsome box art by Time Tomorrow.

Rob’s Archive – Japan Organised Crime Boss