Battles Without Honor And Humanity

Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Jingi Naki Tatakai) (1973)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku

Starring: Bunta Sugawara, Hiroki Matsukata, Kunie Tanaka, Eiko Nakamura, Tsunehiko Watase

From: Toei

For something I wasn't planning on watching until a few minutes beforehand, it was a wise selection on my part to spend my time with this last night. About time I finally saw one of the films in this series—even if the four sequels aren't as good as this OG effort, I am certain to enjoy watching them sometime in the future.

This picture spends years following various people that art part of the Yakuza in Japan in the years immediately after World War II, where American occupy it for a bit and this strips away all the glamour & panache that this organization may have in some peoples' eyes. Lead character Shozo Hirono only joins the order due to circumstances, after all. Most of the film is various people in various families feuding w/ each other over trivial manners, double-crosses, attempted usurping of your superiors, etc. It does not seem like a pleasant lifestyle even if you discount the whole “cutting your pinkie off” thing, which actually happens in one scene. The setting of Hiroshima in the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropping is telling.

This movie starts off w/ a bang; besides an American soldier sexually assaulting a lady, there is some graphic violence that comes out of nowhere. The finale is also one hell of an ending. In between, there's nice acting, stylish direction from Kinji Fukasaku & a groovy score from Toshiaki Tsushima. Of course people know the music (or at least the main theme) from the 2000 film New Battles Without Honor and Humanity due to Tarantino, but aurally the soundtrack here is pretty rad. If you love “gangster films” like The Godfather or Goodfellas, this should be a delight... even if it's the opposite of those movies in that it demonizes the underworld.