Guest Invincible Armour Posted January 1, 2006 Share Posted January 1, 2006 I Just got these 3 films , I have not watched them yet , anyone seen them , I would be intrested in some reveiws. Thank you IA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ToothbrushFu Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 I've seen the first two. I liked them a lot. The second is better than the first, and supposedly the third is even better again (but I haven't seen that myself yet). Junko Fuji makes a very charismatic heroine, and its nice that she isn't some unrealistic superwoman - she'll fight with a knife if she has to but if there's tons of blokes trying to kill her she'll pull out a gun and shoot them. :lol You also get great supporting stars like Ken Takakura and Koji Tsuruta, and of course Tomisaburo Wakayama (in a sort of comic recurring role). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Linn1 Posted January 3, 2006 Member Share Posted January 3, 2006 and note I say perhaps, this is my all time fave series of films from Japan. They really do get better as they go with excellent stories and acting. It's also one of the few series where the character changes as the films go along and more events happen in her life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Invincible Armour Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 Have seen all 3 now , I can see what you ment , Some high level acting , combined with a decent level of action , Thanks Bye IA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest razorclam Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Are these available on region one dvd yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ToothbrushFu Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 AFAIK the only legit DVDs are the Japanese R2 ones, which don't have English subs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fabhui Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 AFAIK the only legit DVDs are the Japanese R2 ones, which don't have English subs Anyone know where I might be able to get my hands on non-legit releases of these movies on DVD with English subs for either sale or trade??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ToothbrushFu Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Have a look on the cannibal king website that gets advertised around here occasionally, I think they have some of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Yakuza954 Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Yeah, thats where I got mine. www.kurotokagi.com/ I enjoyed these movies a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted December 5, 2010 Member Share Posted December 5, 2010 An excellent series indeed. Norifumi Suzuki served as screenwriter in 7 of the 8 films, and directed 1. While westen fans usually know Suzuki for his exploitation films, his career actually goes much further. He was first a seminal yakuza film worker at Toei from mid 60's to early 70's, an exploitation maestro from early 70's to mid 70's, and finally hit the mainstream gold with the awesome and hugely popular 10 part Truck Yarou series (1975-1979). Red Peony Gambler stars Suzuki's niece, the official goddess of yakuza films, Junko Fuji She nowadays goes by the name Sumiko Fuji. Japan's most talented actress, Shinobu Terajima, is her daughter. Talk about talent in a family... Fuji's co-stars included the official gods of yakuza cinema, Ken Takakura and Koji Tsuruta. Bunta Sugawara also stepped in later on (plus had a villain part in the 3rd film). Sugawara had been a star at Shin Toho, but he switched studio (relatively unusual at the time) and had to start from the bottom. He made his way to leading roles in Toei's old school ninkyo yakuza movies by the end of 60's, and became a true super star in the 70's. Tomisaburo Wakayama plays the comic relief and Bin Amatsu (the blind swordsman in The Street Fighter) is the villain in almost every film. The like so many others at the time, the Red Peony series keeps bringing back the same actors in new roles again and again. This is how you developed true genre actors and role specialists! Some other actors that frequently appear include Asao Koike (the regular star of Teruo Ishii's exploitation movies), and screen legend Kanjuro Arashi whose IMDb entry was missing about 140 movies the last time I checked. My favorite films in the series are parts 5 (Tekkaba retsunden, 1969), 8 (Jingi toushimasu, 1969), and 3 (Hanafuda shobu, 1969). But the entire series is good, not a single bad instalment there. The movies are, of course, a bit repetitive, but that's how the genre was built. The core elements were shared by almost every movie in the genre. These include: - The protagonist is a wandering yakuza (or possibly released from prison) who arrives a new town at the beginning of the movie. - The town ruled by two yakuza families, one honorable and one dishonorable. - Early on the protagonist will meet a stranger (the film's major co-star) and make friends with him. Often it later turns out the stranger is tied to the opposing yakuza family by codes of loyalty. The characters will become friends by heart and enemies by duty. This struggle is a repeated theme in the genre, just taking slightly different forms. - There are also plenty of repeated scenes, such as gambling scene where a dishonorable yakuza attempts to cheat, and a final walk in which the main character walks through the town to the enemy's place, ready to finally right the wrongs, with the film's theme song playing on the background has he walks. It ALWAYS snows when this happens! Junko Fuji. Her character is an interesting mix of masculinity and feminity. A sort of mother in a man's world. It's called Red Peony Gambler... it's bound to have gambling. Ken Takakura. The coolest Japanese actor of all time Koji Tsuruta. A huge yakuza film star, almost equal to Takakura, sadly almost unknown internationally. Bunta Sugawara getting his first hero role in the 6th film. Typical low angle lensing by director Tai Kato. Tomisaburo Wakayma. He's always doing something silly. Bin Amatsu. Every time playing a new character (cause he always gets killed). Every time evil (cause evil never dies, and nor do Toei executives). Welcome to Japan, Ms. Red Peony. Tetsuro Tamba in the 5th movie. Kanjuro Arashi. An unbelievably prolific actor and a veteran of Teruo Ishii's Abashiri Prison movies. Broken cloth reveals Junko's tattoo. Another screenshot from my favorite film in the series (no. 5) Final walk. It's snowing, as usual Still image from the dvd extras Behind the scenes. Filming the 5th film. The official unsubbed dvds are in Toei's limited time low priced batch at the moment, so you can get them for 3000 yen or less each. http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/search3.html?q=hibotan+bakuto&media=&r=any&step=20&order=score Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member daisho2004 Posted December 6, 2010 Member Share Posted December 6, 2010 Yes CK has the entire collection of this series and I still haven't seen them yet myself. I heard that it is an excellent series as well if you like Yakuza films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BlackLamaFaction Posted December 6, 2010 Member Share Posted December 6, 2010 I have seen the first three films in this series. I liked Gambler's Obligation and the Hanafuda Game better than the first one. It was kind of interesting to see Tomisaburo Wakayama play such a goofball, it really made me respect his range as an actor. He was actually pretty funny. I was disappointed by Ken Takakura's absence in part 2(Gambler's Obligation). He was easily my favorite character. What I've seen of this series I like, it felt like a more authentic portrayal, especially in capturing the details of the Yakuza code and their way of doing business in everyday life. Junko Fuji is absolutely magnetic on the screen you can't take your eyes of her, she is the perfect balance of strength and feminine vulnerability. I am going to have to get my hands on the rest of the films eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WuxiaFan Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 Takuma, Awesome pictures and descriptions! This is one of my favorite female yakuza series. I've watched the first 4 films and haven't finished since. This renews my interest to finish the series! Junko Fuji is simply awesome in this series! It's also weird to see Tomisaburo Wakayma in a bumbling/comedic role after knowing him as Ogami Itto in LWC! Highly recommend the series! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted December 7, 2010 Member Share Posted December 7, 2010 Takuma, Awesome pictures and descriptions! This is one of my favorite female yakuza series. I've watched the first 4 films and haven't finished since. This renews my interest to finish the series! Junko Fuji is simply awesome in this series! It's also weird to see Tomisaburo Wakayma in a bumbling/comedic role after knowing him as Ogami Itto in LWC! Highly recommend the series! Thanks, and oh you gotta continue cause the fifth I would consider one of the most epic grand movies ever. For me, it's the film where all genre elements just came together and worked perfectly. Wakayama in a comedy role reminds me of Bunta Sugawara. Most international fans know him as a yakuza tough guy, but in the 10 part Truck Yaro series he's playing a comedy character... and does a lot of physical comedy and face twisting... and btw, I think sometimes there has been confusion about the order of the 5th and 6th film. The 5th film (Tekkaba retsuden) is the one with Koji Tsuruta and Tetsuro Tanba. The 6th film (Oryu sanjo) is the one with Bunta Sugawara. 5th film 6th film Getting back to the second film (1968), directed by Norifumi Suzuki, there's a pretty famous fight scene in it. Suzuki later used almost identical scene in his pink film Ero shogun to 21 nin no aisho (1972), starring Reiko Ike Ike actually plays a ninja in Ero shogun, but it's not an action film really, mainly drama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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