Yakuza Graveyard

Summary

“You’re paying in blood.”

Earlier this year, Radiance Films impressed me with its inaugural Blu-ray release Big Time Gambling Boss. This was the first of many interesting Japanese films that Francesco Simeoni plans to release with his label. Francesco has a real talent for discovering and championing world cinema to share with his label’s supporters. When the release schedule for Radiance began to fill up for the year, one of the films I was most excited to purchase was Yakuza Graveyard. I had never seen the film, but I purchase every Kinji Fukasaku film that makes its way stateside on principal. Fukasaku was an important filmmaker to me in my youth dating back to when I first purchased Battle Royale on a Korean produced VCD off of eBay years before Battle Royale was widely available in our country. The Battles Without Honor and Humanity box set released by Arrow Video served as my introduction to that label, and remains one of my favorite box sets in my film collection. Over the years I have purchased and viewed nearly every Fukasaku film that has made it to Blu-ray. He remains one of my favorite Japanese filmmakers. It is also worth pointing out that Radiance Films’ inaugural release Big Time Gambling Boss was written by Kazuo Kasahara who served as screenwriter on this film. When my copy of Yakuza Graveyard arrived, I eagerly popped in the disc.

The plot of the film revolves around a morally complex police investigator named Kuroiwa (Tetsuya Watanabe) working in Osaka. His tough methods with criminals have hurt his career goals and have caused him trouble with his superiors. Two years earlier, Kuroiwa shot a criminal to death. This turned the criminal’s widow into a prostitute, and he has been seeing her since. He has a gambling problem caused by the ultimate goal of buying the widow her own bar so that she can stop working as a prostitute. The film follows the actions of Kuroiwa as he navigates the advances of both the Nishida family of Yakuza and the Yamashiro family of Yakuza. While he attempts to avoid corruption, he also begins to develop feelings for Keiko (Meiko Kaji) the wife of a Yamashiro underboss who is imprisoned. As Kuroiwa continues to arrest Yakuza, he also runs afoul of police corruption. He becomes compromised as well when he becomes friends with Iwata Goro – the new head of the Nishida family.

Yakuza Graveyard should be a blast for fans of Fukasaku’s Battles series. Yakuza Graveyard once again pairs Fukasaku with screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara who wrote the first three (and best) installments of the Battles series and Cops vs. Thugs, which is also excellent. Fukasaku’s frenetic style blends perfectly with the written word of Kasahara. It is understandable why the two worked with each other so frequently – their creative output together stands out from the pack. Kazuo was extremely adept at weaving intricate tales about Yakuza clans and the dualities of his characters. He was also very clever in tweaking the form with each of his scripts. While Yakuza Graveyard is very much a Fukasaku film about Yakuza which features sudden bursts of violence and his trademark stylized handheld camera motions during key sequences, Yakuza Graveyard plays with the form by focusing its narrative on a corrupted and morally complex police officer for the film’s duration. The intricacy of Kasahara’s earlier scripts is still present, but it has been tweaked to show the Yakuza world from a different perspective. I really enjoyed the ways in which Kasahara still had so much new to show viewers about that world after already writing so much material in his prior films with Fukasaku. It’s truly impressive. Fukasaku fires on all cylinders in the film for its duration. I love how Fukusaku films violence as a clumsy whirlwind of swinging fists and kicks that typically leaves more than one person falling on the ground and defending themselves from a place of weakness. The violence is always so fast and it sometimes looks silly, which causes it to ring true. These are not the polished fights that we have come to see in our current film climate, instead they are street brawls where people use whatever they have at their disposal to defend themselves. Fukasaku was a great stylist behind the camera and his handheld techniques and unusual camera angles will be familiar to fans of his earlier work. Fukasaku always drew the very best out of his performers, even when he would have them go to comic lengths with their characterization (such as with Nobuo Kaneko’s roles in numerous films.) He has a ton of talent to work with on Yakuza Graveyard. Tetsuya first blew me away in Seijun Suzuki’s excellent Tokyo Drifter, and it was great to see him years later in the role of the morally complex protagonist of the film. He shines in the role and is cool as hell smoking his cigarettes and wearing sunglasses indoors. The legendary Meiko Kaji lends herself to a small but important role in the film. Nobuo Kaneko is at his smarmy best as a compromised police chief. Tatsuo Umemiya is enjoyable as Goro. Hideo Murata turns in a solid performance as Hidaka, the police officer that is assigned to look into Kuroiwa’s corruption. Cinematic provocateur Nagisa Oshima shows up in the film as Muramoto. Cinematographer Toru Nakajima, who had worked on several of Fukasaku’s New Battles Without Honor and Humanity films, does solid work on the film. It has a great visual aesthetic.

At the end of the day, if you like Yakuza films, you should definitely purchase Yakuza Graveyard. It is another great collaboration between Kazuo Kasahara and Kinji Fukasaku. I am happy that Radiance Films has given this film a solid release.

Video

Radiance Films presents Yakuza Graveyard in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p. Like Big Time Gambling Boss, the transfer was provided by Toei and then additional work was performed by Radiance. Once again, Radiance has brought out the best of the materials provided by Toei. Fine detail is solid and there is a fine grain over the proceedings that looks filmic. Like many of Fukasaku’s films, softness occasionally occurs from how quickly the camera is moving. The print was cleaned up well without causing any distracting compression issues. This is another very satisfying transfer from the folks at Radiance.

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 good and sets the tone of the picture well. Dialogue is rendered clearly (from what I can tell.) I have no complaints here.

Supplements:

• Of Wolves and Men – director Kazuya Shiraishi discusses Kinji Fukasaku’s career and his appreciation for the director’s output. Shiraishi is obviously a fan and discusses the many phases of the director’s career knowledgeably.
• Kinji Fukasaku’s Influence on Kazuya Shiraishi’s Blood of Wolves – Kazuya Shiraishi discusses the specific influence of Fukasaku on his film Of Wolves and Men.
• The Rage and the Passion – in this visual essay, Tom Mes – Asian cinema expert and author of Kinji Fukusaku: Man of Rage (which is a 120 page book only included in Arrow’s excellent 4K UHD box set of Battle Royale) – examines the three collaborations between Kinji Fukasuku and Meiko Kaji.
• Trailer
• Gallery

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.25/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 3.5/5

Overall – 4.5/5

Yakuza Graveyard is a fantastic twist on the Yakuza genre reuniting Kinji Fukasaku with Kazuo Kasahara, who also wrote the early films in the Battles Without Honor and Humanity Saga, Cops vs. Thugs, and more. Radiance films previously released Big Time Gambling Boss, which Kasahara also wrote. Kasahara had an incredible ability to be able to consistently write street wise Yakuza films that managed to still be surprising while working within the genre. Fukusaku is one of my favorite Japanese filmmakers, and this ranks as one of his better films. Radiance Films has given the film an excellent release. The picture quality and audio quality are both of high quality and the supplements are well appointed. I am glad that Radiance has recently announced their commitment to several more Japanese films. If they are of the same quality as what they have provided so far, film collectors should collectively rejoice.