Director: Teruo Ishii
Year: 1969
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Yakuza keibatsu-shi: Rinchi!; Yakuza Law - Hanging
Genre: Anthology; Action (Gangster/Yakuza)
Plot:
A series of vignettes offering looks at Yakuza torture through various periods of time.
Review:
Edo Period-Returning home from battle, a ruthless Yakuza boss inspects his troops and tries to instill order when his subordinates begin breaking the iron-clad rules for their society. When he realizes that a subordinate is breaking suspected rules within the group, he sets out to right them only to unleash war within the group. For the most part, this segment worked wonderfully. The opening swordplay battle offers up plenty of fine bloodshed and action to start this off with, the series of interactions we see with the boss controlling the group and ruling over their exploits offers some fun and it gets really enjoyable once the action picks up with the final moments. The swordplay’s exciting and vicious while the gore here, ranging from splitting open people’s faces to body wounds and other graphic bloodshed that really works well. The main problem here is the fact that most of the men look alike due to having the same haircut, making it rather difficult to tell what’s happening to who. The gore here, while plentiful and exceptionally graphic, also looks rather silly and unconvincing, especially the scene of the two getting their ear and eye removed as penance which looks exceptionally fake and rubbery. These are really the only things really affecting this one.
Meiji Period-After being expelled from his family, a Yakuza member tries to get back in good standing with the other members of the clan which results in him being expelled from their society. Despite Yakuza code indicating otherwise, he continues to hang around in order to seek revenge on the member that ratted him out forcing the two sides to come to a violent head. This was a decent enough if somewhat problematic entry. The fact that this one tends to jump around considerably in regards to what’s happening, first with him in the family and then being locked up but treated as if he’s just going away for a few days and then reacting as if everything is occurring over the course of several days despite their talks about it being several years, is really confusing overall. Likewise, the extraneous detail placed on the inner workings and backstabbing within the group leaves very little action or torture to take place here so those not interested in the Yakuza melodrama won’t find much of anything interesting going on between the two groups which are then undone by their confusing nature anyway. The swordplay at the end is somewhat energetic enough and has some fine bloodshed to wrap things up but is otherwise a case of too little, too late.
Modern Period-Stopping an unsuccessful gold heist, the local boss worries that a coup against him will take place, but when it occurs the new boss goes wild trying to root out any and all potential rats and moles in the organization. As the police are closing in and several enemies emerge, he tries to rely on his instincts to get him through the ordeal. This one was a rather enjoyable and interesting segment. The fact that this one goes into the local hierarchy within the group, with the main series of interactions between the hitman working with the various subordinates around him which has some fun about it seeing their interactions together. As well, this one really enhances the action more than the other entries, starting with the opening ambush on the highway that turns into a full-on shootout and one of the wildest helicopter stunts ever. A later scene features a nice car ambush resulting in a shootout on the city streets or a fun gun-battle against a police raid makes for some additional action here in addition to the blazing violence shown in the finale which has a lot to like about it. The main issue is the fact that this one is just wholly confusing with all kinds of shifting alliances and confusing characterizations that make it impossible to keep track of what’s going on here. It’s also the least relevant to the code of Yakuza torture devices with the overall exploits here feeling like a traditional Yakuza film without deviating much and is rushed as a result.
Overview: ***/5
A generally enjoyable anthology on the various historical aspects of the Yakuza, this manages to blend together graphic torture and bloodshed with blazing action and some minor flaws to reach a fun time overall. Give this a go if you’re intrigued about the style or a general fan of the style, while those that aren’t much for this style should heed caution here.
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