The Yakuza Film Rundown

Kamikaze Taxi (1995)

2012-08-26T11:54:00.000-10:00

The phrase Kamikaze Taxi probably conjures an image of a taxi tearing down the road in a destructive suicide attack on its target - and much like the titles of a lot of 90's Yakuza films, it seems little more than a marginally applicable title meant to sound cool and violent (Like Blood or Wild Criminal, for example). But during this hefty three hour movie, Kamikaze Taxi takes on a much deeper

2011 Yakuza Film Awards

2011-12-31T10:42:00.001-10:00

With 2011 drawing to a close, we are going to revisit the Yakuza movies that were dutifully examined this year with the first annual Yakuza Film Award Show. Five movies have been reviewed this year, and each, in their own way, had something to offer. So we'll be highlighting those offerings by awarding the best of the best with The Yakkie - a golden statuette of Takeuchi Riki. Nothing says

Score (1995)

2011-12-25T18:18:00.001-10:00

If you ever wondered what would have happened in Quentin Tarrantino's Reservoir Dogs if Pumpkin and Honey Bunny from Pulp Fiction showed up at the warehouse, well Score is your answer. A total rip off of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs (and a plethora of others), Score is the story of a group of guys in cool suits with black ties and cool shades who rip off a jewelry store, and meet up at a

Party 7 (2000)

2011-08-06T15:52:00.002-10:00

Although more a movie containing Yakuza than a traditional Yakuza movie, Party 7, Katsuhito Ishii's 2000 followup to his frenetic Sharkskin Man and Peach Hip Girl is possibly still worth a look - and the latter movie is exactly why I threw this one in the Netflix queue in the first place. Despite the sometimes negative reviews of Sharkskin Man, I thought it was GREAT, and so I decided to track

Blood (1998)

2011-06-17T18:21:00.003-10:00

Takeuchi Riki's 1998 (presumably- no make that very likely) straight to video flick Blood (Wolf's Blood in Japanese) is a B movie in the same vein as Wild Criminal - part Yakuza film and part crime drama. Takeuchi's bread and butter is playing good guys who do bad things, and the character of Nakajo Takuya fits the bill. He's a seasoned killer-for-hire who (in the stereotypical fashion of these

Tokyo Mafia: Yakuza Wars (1995)

2011-04-30T08:06:00.001-10:00

Takeuchi Riki, the undisputed world heavyweight champion of V-Cinema stars in the four-part epic (well, not really epic - it's no Dune) Tokyo Mafia. The first movie in the four part series is Tokyo Mafia: Yakuza Wars, which tells the tale of an ex-Yakuza member, Yabuki Ginya (played of course by Takeuchi) who builds his own syndicate from the ground up, first just to make a buck, but by the end

Outrage (2010)

2011-04-23T18:48:00.003-10:00

After a decade or so break from the Yakuza genre, Kitano "Beat" Takeshi is at last back at it again with Outrage - and with a vengeance. I've never really been a "fan" of Kitano, but also never really not liked any of his movies; I've always been sort of ambivalent, probably brought on by everyone else worshiping him back in the late 90's when he started getting big in the West (My anti-hipster

2010 Yakuza Film Wrap Up

2010-12-18T15:30:00.000-10:00

It's time to wrap up 2010 with the best and worst of the Yakuza films reviewed this year. Six films have been reviewed this year, and here is the list: 6. Yakuza Zombie. A bumbling low-level Yakuza who is double crossed and killed is reanimated by the spirit of a vengeful Yakuza. It wasn't an outright obvious comedy, but it was pretty preposterous, so I'm assuming it's a comedy, but you just

Wild Criminal (1999)

2010-12-12T13:33:00.004-10:00

The subject of this Yakuza Film Rundown is Wild Criminal. Released in 1999, and presumably straight-to-video, Wild Criminal falls into the low-budget exploitation category that contains movies like Sunny Gets Blue and Zero Woman. But, hey, no one does low budget straight-to-video Yakuza exploitation like Takeuchi Riki, and in this Yakuza Film Rundown, he does it again in Wild Criminal. Granted,

Yakuza Zombie (2001)

2010-11-09T21:32:00.001-10:00

These days, zombies are everywhere, and back in 2001 they even invaded the Yakuza. Since I missed Halloween, the subject of this Yakuza Film Rundown is fittingly Yakuza Zombie (実録外伝　ゾンビ極道), directed by Sasaki Hirohisa. This is also my entry to the Wildgrounds 2010 Japanese blogathon, since this time around it involves Japanese cinema. Ultra-low budget and presumably straight-to-video, Yakuza

Another Lonely Hitman (1995)

2010-09-19T19:40:00.000-10:00

This Rundown's Yakuza movie is Another Lonely Hitman, directed by Mochizuki Rokuro. This movie takes us back to the early days of the "new school" of Yakuza Films that would ultimately result in movies like Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer, Gozu, and Yakuza Demon. But Another Lonely Hitman predates even the earlier new school stylish Quentin Tarantinoish Reservoir Doguesque features like

Shinjuku Incident (2009)

2010-08-02T12:12:00.001-10:00

I took a chance and got my hands on Jackie Chan's 2009 Shinjuku Incident - believe it or not, a Chinese-directed Japanese Yakuza film, and was actually shocked at what I found. Jackie Chan can really act! Considering his endless stream of mindless fight movies, comedies, and comedic buddy movies, and other combinations of the sort, I really didn't think he had it in him to pull off a serious

Like a Dragon (2007)

2010-07-10T20:34:00.003-10:00

Takashi Miike's 2007 film Like a Dragon (龍が如く) is definitely not a "traditional" Yakuza movie, but since it was based on a video game of the same name, that's understandable. It's a slicker, more flamboyant, and fantastical version of the Tokyo underworld than you'll find in the more typical Yakuza films. It's more along the lines of what you'd find in Takashi Miike's 2000 City of Lost Souls.

Miike's Graveyard of Honor - The AnimEigo Release

2010-07-03T13:53:00.005-10:00

I recently received the AnimEigo release of Takashi Miike's Graveyard of Honor, the subject of the last Rundown - and boy am I happy! The main disk contains the full movie with removable subtitles, and even allows you to choose the color of the subs - yellow or white (I'm sure this has been done before, but I don't ever remembering seeing it, so I'm already impressed right out of the gate) -

Graveyard of Honor (2002)

2010-06-19T18:32:00.004-10:00

Like I mentioned in the introductory post to this blog, it’s rare to find a movie in which the main character is the villain, but when you do, he’s usually likable in his own maverick way, or eventually finds redemption in one form or another (Christian Bale in American Psycho is one evil dude, but he's likable. Anakin Skywalker wasn't terribly likable as a whiny teenager, or as a dark

Welcome to the Yakuza Film Blog

2010-06-12T19:13:00.011-10:00

As the webmaster of the Samurai Archives Japanese History Page, one would assume that my favorite Japanese film genre would be the Samurai film. A reasonable guess, however, my number one film genre of all time is the Japanese Yakuza film - which is where this blog comes in. The Yakuza film is a genre all by itself, and really doesn't have a contemporary Hollywood counterpart. After all,