Hokuriku Proxy War

Summary

“You’ll end up a lone wolf and kicked out of the circle.”

Radiance Films has championed one of my favorite Japanese filmmakers -Kinji Fukasaku- with four releases thus far – Yakuza Graveyard, Sympathy for the Underdog, Japan Organized Crime Boss, and now, Hokuriku Proxy War. These have been some of the releases by the label that have made me most excited, because I am a fan of Fukasaku’s incredible Battles Without Honor and Humanity films. The release of Hokuriku Proxy War is in many ways very important, because this film marked the end of Fukasaku’s Yakuza period. The reasons for why Fukasaku abandoned this genre after this film are explored in depth in the special features that accompany the feature, and they are not to be missed. I will discuss some of that information in this review.

In 1968, in the snowy coastal town of Hokuriku, Noboru Kawada (Hiroko Matsukata) aims to make his move up the ladder and seize power. As the film begins, Noboru has his boss Yasuhara buried up to his head in snow. He wants his boss to hand over control of the security for the bike race and speedboat races. As his boss screams, they drive Jeeps in circles in the snow around his head. He hands over the control and Noboru allows him to live. This begins a series of power grabs and confrontations between Noboru, his uncle Mantani, and a revolving set of yakuza clans that seek to control Fukui and Hokuriku. The tone of the picture is serio-comic, with a densely layered plot with many moments of manic violence, comedic cowardice, and devious plotting as the men jockey for the best position to take over the area.

Hokuriku Proxy War ranks highly amongst the best yakuza pictures from Kinji Fukasaku. The picture was written by Koji Takada whom had collaborated with Fukasaku on The Final Episode, The Boss’s Head, and Last Days of the Boss, continuations of the Battles Without Honor and Humanity films (which were written by Kazuo Kasahara before Takada took over writing duties.) For Takada, there was a sense of competition to outdo the writing of Kasahara, which led to some very interesting films. For myself, this is probably the finest of the Takada written yakuza films for Fukasaku. It is set apart by a truly unique setting. The constant presence of snow and the coastal views feel far removed from the streets of Osaka and Hiroshima. Pairing that setting with cinematography by Toru Nakajima gives this picture a strong visual edge. The writing by Takada, like in the Battles films, is drawn from true stories of yakuza characters. In this case, Takada had focused on a boss named Kawauchi Hiroshi whom he interviewed at length. Hiroko Matsukata also met with Kawauchi and based many of his mannerisms in the picture off of actual mannerisms that Kawauchi displayed. There are a lot of little details about Kawauchi that made it into the film, including his favorite song. In a case of life imitating art, in the movie there is a shootout at a coffee shop where Kawada barely escapes from a number of assassins into the woods nearby. That coffee shop in the picture was based on a real coffee shop in Hokuriku named Hawaii where Kawauchi met with Takada to discuss his life while Takada wrote the script. Just a few months after the release of the film, Kawauchi was shot to death within that very coffee shop. The death of Kawauchi, and the less enthusiastic box office reception for the film, caused Fukasaku to forever abandon the yakuza genre to focus on other types of films. For more information, I highly recommend you watch the extremely informative supplements on the disc.

The film has a great cast. Hiroki Matsukata was one of Fukasaku’s favorite leading men and worked with him on several pictures. He brings a lot to the role of the wild and rebellious Noboru, including an anxiousness where the character seems ready to pounce at any given moment. He kills it in the film. The women in the picture are particularly well written by Takada, and they are played well by Yumiko Nogawa and Yoko Takahashi. Sonny Chiba has a fun role in the picture, even though I would have loved to see more of him. He is dynamite in the scenes in which he appears. Both Ko Nishimura and Tetsuo Endo have good roles. I also really enjoyed Hana Hajime as the cowardly uncle from whom Noboru slices off an appendage in one of the best scenes. The score by Toshiaki Tsushima is well composed, which comes as no surprise given his working relationship with Fukasaku during his Yakuza films era. It is also worth noting, that the ending of this film is one of the most interesting of the yakuza pictures finales. It is truly satisfying.

If you like Fukasaku’s yakuza pictures, you definitely need to check out Hokuriku Proxy War. It’s great.

Video

Radiance Films presents Hokuriku Proxy War in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p. The transfer was provided by Toei and then additional work was performed by Radiance. Radiance has brought out the best of the materials provided by Toei, but there are a few moments where this film did not look as good as some of the other Radiance/Toei collaborations. I think opinions will vary but there are moments where the picture looks truly amazing – especially in the moments that take place in the snow such as the fight sequence outside the coffee shop – but there are also a few moments where the picture looks a little muddy. I didn’t notice any distracting compression issues. Rating this one, I felt a 4/5 was still the right score because there are so many beautiful moments in this picture that a score below that felt unjust.

Audio

Radiance Films have provided a restored LPCM mono track. As one might guess, the mono track is limited in how immersive it feels, but I thought the track sounded pretty great. The music by Toshiaki Tsushima is as good as his other work for Fukasaku and will seem familiar for fans of his work on Battles Without Honor and Humanity. Dialogue is rendered clearly. I have no complaints here.

Supplements:

• Interview with actress Yoko Takahashi – the actress he played Nobuko Nakai looks back on her work on the film.
• Interview with screenwriter Koji Takada – the legendary screenwriter discusses at length working on the film and how the script came together. He also discusses the strong women in the picture and the death of the inspiration for the film.
• Yakuza film historian Akihiko Ito on the real-life Hokuriku Proxy War murder case – this is a phenomenal piece with lots of detail about the filming of the picture and the related murder of gangster Kawauchi Hiroshi. It also delves briefly into the attempted retaliation by some of Kawauchi’s men which was partially stopped due to their frequency of viewing the film and crying during theatrical showings. Don’t skip this feature!
• Trailer
• Limited edition booklet featuring newly translated archival writings on the film

Overall Scores:

Video – 4/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 4.5/5

Overall – 4.75/5

Hokuriku Proxy War is an excellent yakuza film from writer Koji Takada and filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku. I would rank this as one of the best yakuza pictures from the director due to its truly unique setting and ripped from the headlines story. It would prove to be the last yakuza picture for Fukasaku due to the diminished box office performance and the subsequent murder of the gangster on whom the film was based. That story is investigated further in the excellent supplemental features on the release. Radiance Films has given the film an excellent release. The picture quality ranges from pretty good to very good and audio quality is solid. The supplements are some of the most interesting that Radiance has put out, which is a high compliment. This release comes very highly recommended.