Toei had already garnered a reputation for being the studio that made Yakuza movies. Between their ninkyo-eiga (“chivalry”) pictures of the 1960s to the harder-hitting jitsuroku-eiga (“actual record films”) popularised by the likes of Director Kinji Fukasaku and writer Kazuo Kasahara, Toei Company had a winning formula that brought in audiences en mass. Never satisfied with sticking with a repeated blueprint, the Fukasaku/Kasahara collaboration managed to muddy the waters further with Yakuza Graveyard, a film that finally addressed something that had been mainly glossed over to this point, the involvement of Korean citizens in the gang movement of Japan following World War II.
That being said, to say this is the sole focus of the film would be to do Yakuza Graveyard a great disservice, because, for a film that runs for just 95 minutes, it has a hell of a lot it needs to say.
Meticulously researched by Kazuo Kasahara, Yakuza Graveyard was written as a response to growing questions surrounding the lack of Korean representation in previous films, especially as there were swathes of bi-racial children following the Japanese occupation of Korea and Manchuria. Many of these children of war would head to Japan following the hostilities, or as they grew into adulthood, searching for a better life, only to be met with public disdain and hostility, not accepted as Japanese, despite their parentage. This made finding work difficult, thus leading many into a life of crime.
Both Kasahara and Fukasaku tap into this sense of alienation and lack of belonging, with 3 of our core cast revealing their “foreign” heritage. It also goes a long way in bringing down the walls that separate the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the righteous from the unjust, because there is as much evil that can be cast with a badge of authority as there can be with a gun.
It has next to no fat throughout and demands that the viewer concentrate because those not paying attention will soon become lost as nameless characters weave in and out at breakneck speed.
Tetsuya Watari plays a stoic character that is tired of the corruption he sees in the world around him. A man that tries to do what’s right, even if from the outside it is perceived as doing more harm than good. From his attempts to help those that would bring peace to the streets, to looking after the wife of a Yakuza boss he shot years before, the weight of this world weighs heavy on his shoulders and his performance reflects this daily struggle. Meiko Kaji bucks trends of women in Yakuza films by being strong and independent in a life that does not treat her as equal. She struggles between what is expected and what is needed, much like Tetsuya Watari, but with very different methods (and results).
Yakuza Graveyard is a lot to take in. It has next to no fat throughout and demands that the viewer concentrate because those not paying attention will soon become lost as nameless characters weave in and out at breakneck speed. However, for those that stay the course, it is a rewarding experience filled with chaotic action and an “in the heat of the moment” camera work, it puts the viewer at the centre of everything, so much so that they may be a need to dodge bullets.
This is another fine release from Radiance Films. The film itself has never looked better (something that really helps the more frantic moments), with added interviews and essays, this is a release that will be hard to pass up.
Yakuza Apocalypse is out now on Radiance Films Blu-Ray
Ben’s Archive: Yakuza Graveyard
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