The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity (Complete Boxed Set)

[daisho2004]

The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity (Complete Boxed Set)

I'm pissed why is it that these great Japanese DVDs always go Out of Print?!

I have copies of these movies but not the originals, and the price to buy them is total crazy! Amazon.com has it listed from 2 sellers brand new one for $180 & the other for over $299.95

I would love to see this get a BR release of the entire series.

[Takuma]

How about used copies of each five film? Those you could pick up dirt cheap. Or a used box set?

I wouldn't have high hopes for Blu Rays coming.

But yeah, a great series, though I need to rewatch the later installments. Recently showed the first two films to a friend. I think the 1st one is slightly over-rated - there's some comedic bits with the old oyabun that I don't care for (though this may have been Fukasaku's way to express distrust towards the older generations that he may have felt betrayed the youth in WWII), but the second film is terrific!

btw, have you seen Fukasaku's (brilliant) war film Under the Flag of the Rising Sun? Even though it's not hard to pick up the connection between the imagery in Fukasaku's yakuza films and what he witnessed in real during WWII, Flag really was the missing link for me... after seeing it, everything in Fukasaku's yakuza films suddenly made more sense. Though a word of warning is at place: Flag is even more brutal and harrowing than any of his yakuza films.

[KUNG FU BOB]

btw, have you seen Fukasaku's (brilliant) war film Under the Flag of the Rising Sun? Even though it's not hard to pick up the connection between the imagery in Fukasaku's yakuza films and what he witnessed in real during WWII, Flag really was the missing link for me... after seeing it, everything in Fukasaku's yakuza films suddenly made more sense. Though a word of warning is at place: Flag is even more brutal and harrowing than any of his yakuza films.

I'll echo Takuma's sentiments regarding UNDER THE FLAG OF THE RISING SUN. I never hear anyone talking about it, but I think it's a brilliant film. Highly recommended to all.

Glad I have the YAKUZA PAPERS boxed set. It's really well put together, and a cherished series in my collection.

[Vegeta84]

Yeah, I bought the boxset on day 1 of release nearly 10 years ago. Damn, time flies. I remember being the day the extended cut cut of Return of The King came out, so it was a great day.

Otherwise, yeah, while the boxset is nice, it's really the films that matter. The first two are pretty damn good. 3-5 are alright but it's weird seeing all the characters that died in the first two movies popping up in different roles. A few actors play 3 different roles in the run.

Under The Flag of The Rising Sun is also great Fukasaku.

Really hoping AnimEigo or someone else releases a few of this other films. While the three Another Battle battles aren't as great, they should also see release over here.

[daisho2004]

Here is a list of used DVD box sets click the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0002V7O1A/ref=tmm_dvd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used

[John]

I've been meaning to check out Flag as well, but as an organism I mainly subsist flowers and bunnies and Sugawara Bunta adding -ken to the end of sentences. Stepping into the socio-political meltdown of a country looks to be quite the ordeal.

[Tosh]

it's weird seeing all the characters that died in the first two movies popping up in different roles. A few actors play 3 different roles in the run.

I found the character time line to be helpful in the boxset the first couple times I watched it, I just wished Chiba would of came back for the last movie. I kind of see all 5 movies as a whole though Chiba really shines as the out of control ball scratching psychopath in the 2nd movie.

Never heard of Under the Flag of the Rising Sun, more brutal than Yakuza Papers? Sign me up!

[fabhui]

I've had these movies sitting around in my collection for a couple of years but never had the urge to sit down and watch them....think I need to get that sorted out!

[KUNG FU BOB]

You're in for a treat!

[waywardsage]

I'm mainly a samurai film fan. I've never gotten into Yakuza films. Does anyone thing I would like these?

[daisho2004]

@waywardsage: That really is a matter of Taste, I love Samurai films but I also enjoy a great Yakuza movie as well. I'd say atleast give them a try.

[Tosh]

I'm mainly a samurai film fan. I've never gotten into Yakuza films. Does anyone thing I would like these?

Absolutely, it's not only a great Japanese movie, it's an epic movie(s) period, based on a true story it shows(kind of) one man's uprising into the Yakuza after the chaos of the bomb dropping on Hiroshima up through modern(70's) time, it's brutal and unflinching, it also shows the inner working of the Yakuza, bonds are made and broken, a lot of people die, also the desolate situation of post WW2 Japan.

It's not to hard for a Samurai fan to get into these movies, the older Yakuza movies were more romanticized and have a lot of ties to Samurai, usually with a Yakuza that was a good guy and eventually follows some code of honor to help. With YP Kinji Fukasaku threw all that out the window and showed the Yakuza as power hungry sell out your own mother thugs, the action is manic(and sometimes comical) when bullets and fists start flying.

It's a must own, you really need to watch it a couple times to take it all in, there are a lot of characters, and as someone said they reuse actors that die in the previous movies, usually putting huge glasses or darking them to look like another character, I suggest buying the boxset as there's a time line that shows the families, characters cross over into different families so it can get confusing. One of my top 5 movies, I put it over the Godfather(s) as the the best mob film of all time:wink:

[Kung Foolery]

I put it over the Godfather(s) as the the best mob film of all time:wink:

haha that's a little extreme.

do keep in mind, however, these movies are VERY hard to follow, but still very cool.

[Takuma]

I wouldn't have high hopes for Blu Rays coming.

Toei will finally issue their first catalogue Blu-Ray release (other than tokusatsu or manga)!!! You could probably guess what it was gonna be...

Disc 1: Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Blu-Ray)

Disc 2: Deadly Battle in Hiroshima (Blu-Ray)

Disc 3: Proxy War (Blu-Ray)

Disc 4: Police Tactics (Blu-Ray)

Disc 5: Final Chapter (Blu-Ray)

Disc 6: Battles without Honor and Humanity: Soushuu hen (224 minute re-edit of the films) (Blu-Ray)

Disc 7: NHK Documentary: The Men who Made Battles Without Honor and Humanity (90 min) (DVD)

+ Booklet 1 (16 pages)

+ Booklet 2 (28 pages)

+ 30 Lobby Cards (6 for each 5 films)

Trailers and info screens ("conflict map") should also be found on the film discs.

The five original movies will also be available on separate Blu-Rays. The release date is 2013/03/21.

(no subs of course)

[John]

Sweet! I suppose this means another, possibly better Lady Snowblood is around the corner?

[Takuma]

Sweet! I suppose this means another, possibly better Lady Snowblood is around the corner?

I doubt. Lady Snowblood is a Toho film

Wasn't Arrow's release rather good, though? I don't have it, but I was under the impression that it was quite good. Missing the R2J extras, though.

[John]

It's better than what they usually put out, but there's some kind of gamma or brightness issue going on, so there's room for improvement...? There's a comparison at caps-a-holic.

[Takuma]

ah, ok.

Well, as far as I've understood, Toho's track record with both DVDs and BD's leaves room for improvement, so I wouldn't necessarily expect them to do better job (the German dvd in the comparison comes from the same print as the Toho dvd, btw).

Though a bigger problem is that Gojira, Kurosawa and The Crazy Cats aside Toho doesn't seem to acknowledge they've made movies in the past decades, too... they only managed to get Lone Wolf & Cub out on dvd a few years ago, and Lady Snowblood apparently came out partly thanks to Kill Bill. A Lot of 70's genre stuff like Hanzo the Razor and many Animeigo titles have never been released on Toho DVD.

[John]

I must sound so high maitenance. Thanks for the heads-up, I guess I'd better adjust my expectations.

[daisho2004]

Awesome News! That's the way you release a series, all in one box set!

But Wait its not going to have English Subtitles?