Member kungpowmaster Posted February 22, 2009 Member Share Posted February 22, 2009 Hi, Today I bought the box set of The Yakuza Papers. It was a blind buy, but I am thinking 70's Japanese gang war films must be good. I expect action and violence. Did I make a good choice? Comments? Carl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted February 22, 2009 Administrator Share Posted February 22, 2009 You've made a fantastic purchase! All the films in the set are well worth owning, and the distributor did a beautiful job on this DVD set. Have you seen BATTLE ROYALE? Well, this is early, classic work by the same director- Kinji Fukasaku. These films are excellent in every way- direction, cinematography, scripting, action, et. The first few minutes of each one is filled with a lot of information, dialogue, newspaper headlines, and narration- all subtitled. So I watched the beginning in slo-mo, reading all the info, then restarted it and watched the visuals. After the first few minutes though, it's not so dense. Please let me know what you think of these when you watch them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Alex Posted February 23, 2009 Member Share Posted February 23, 2009 the action and violence will probably not be what you expect exactly, but this whole series is indeed phenomenal. the first one may be one of the greatest yakuza movies ever made period Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member HAZ Posted February 23, 2009 Member Share Posted February 23, 2009 I tried watching the 1st film & my head started to spin. I had no clue what was going on. I'm going to try this again, though. Too many good actors in this to pass it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted February 23, 2009 Administrator Share Posted February 23, 2009 I tried watching the 1st film & my head started to spin. I had no clue what was going on. I'm going to try this again, though. Too many good actors in this to pass it up. Yeah Haz- I know what you mean! As I mentioned above, this first film especially, kicks off with a ton of info. It's not a film to watch while drinking a bunch of beers, smoking a joint, BSing with friends, or when you're tired. It demands your full attention. But after the beginning, I found it easy to follow. I just had to pause the picture and get a good look at the characters as the appeared, read the subs, et. Then I restarted it and everything was smooth. This entire series is superb. Another good one to check out is GRAVEYARD OF HONOR. Takashi Miike did a remake of it, and his version's also very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yakuza954 Posted February 24, 2009 Member Share Posted February 24, 2009 The first film is a bit overwhelming, what with all the different faces being shoved in your face and all the different yakuza clans/affiliations to remember. It all becomes second nature however, and imo the first film is easily the weakest - from then on after, all the rest get better and better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tosh Posted February 24, 2009 Member Share Posted February 24, 2009 Good thing you bought it because it will be something you'll want to watch over and over. One of the greatest movies of all time, I wouldn't let all the people in it throw you off, there's really only a handfull to keep track of as the rest usually bite it by the end anyways. Good thing about the boxset is there's a timeline to follow to keep track of the characters, it's a great thing to have as characters change actors sometimes, and then to make things even more complicated they recycle old actors who's parts die into new characters later in the movies. I've gotten into so many arguements with people claiming this is a far better movie than the Godfather, 99% of these people have never even seen the Yakuza papers before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yakuza954 Posted February 25, 2009 Member Share Posted February 25, 2009 The thing about the Yakuza Papers, is I don't think the first film stands very well on its own. It's a part of a collective whole. By itself, its not so special, but when you watch it with the other parts, it becomes something great. The characters get older, change, and more likely than not, get killed off. The fun part is watching it all happen. The number of movies though, and how they're all interconnected, is what makes it hard to judge the Yakuza Papers in comparison to other movies. For example, I can't single out any movie from the series and say I like it better than some of Fukasaku's other work, like Sympathy for the Underdog or Yakuza Graveyard. I just don't think any of them are as strong individually. Collectively, yeah, I think they're great, but I still give the advantage to a standalone movie that is able to tell an entire story in only an hour and thirty minutes and remain memorable. Sort of like Zatoichi - because of the series length and the way you become become attached to the character, it's the most memorable Samurai film series of all time. But compared to individual standalone films like Harakiri or Seven Samurai, none of the movies really match up. Sure, you're guaranteed at least decent entertainment in all of them, but the "anthology" mindset in which they were made prevents any of them from truly standing out on their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Alex Posted February 25, 2009 Member Share Posted February 25, 2009 The thing about the Yakuza Papers, is I don't think the first film stands very well on its own. It's a part of a collective whole. By itself, its not so special, but when you watch it with the other parts, it becomes something great. I would disagree with this entirely. Imo the first one is the strongest of the series as far as individual value. We are presented with a group of men as they embark into a life of crime, with the main focus planted firmly on one central character and his relationship with the rest of the group. We are given to understand that these are people of honor who respect and are bound to a certain code and are willing to sacrifice for it. Both the group and the main charter have a strong self contained story arch within the plot of the movie, which reflects the changes in their character and allegiance as they are influenced by internal and external forces. In the end we see a clear resolution and a 'moral' if you will - even betrayed and used by the people he owes allegiance to, the protagonist still can't shrug of the obligations of tradition even in the face of eroding standats and values, and can only voice his frustration by the symbolically significant yet practically impotent act of shooting the picture at the funeral. Thus we have a complete cycle that can be considered as an individual entity. The sequels however are so tightly interwoven in story and at the same time loosely structured that it is impossible to get the full point of one of the movies without watching the others. Furthermore, any point regarding the gradual unraveling of the yakuza code and the political overtones made in the sequels are already covered well in the first, beyond that we have a continuous soap opera of violence and ever changing allegiances. Together they make for something significant, but none by themselves do what is accomplished in the first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yakuza954 Posted February 25, 2009 Member Share Posted February 25, 2009 Yeah, I could see how someone can think that way, but for me, there's nothing that really separates the first film from all the other yakuza movies in Fukasaku's canon. It's nothing we haven't seen in those before. Sugawara basically plays the same character in all of his other movies, and he goes crazy in all of them too. It's only in movies like Sympathy for the Underdog or Yakuza Graveyard where I feel like Fukasaku puts a unique slant on things and gives us different characters or bumps up the action ante. Another fault I would hold against the first film is that since it's the first, more time has to be spent getting to know the characters and getting introduced to them - something the later films don't have to worry about. Again, the biggest strength I find with the series, and what sets it apart from being just another Fukasaku yakuza movie, is that its not one movie but multiple movies that are all intricately intertwined. The characters and music grow on you. You don't get that with other Yakuza movies. It's just one and done, so you don't get the same kind of epic feeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tosh Posted February 26, 2009 Member Share Posted February 26, 2009 I think the subplot of the 2nd movie, deadly fight in hiroshima, made for a great stand alone movie, with Bunta in prison for almost the whole running time, it goes more into the feud 0f the Otomo and Muraoka family and the tragic love of Meiko Kaji(is there a hotter woman out there?), Sonny Chiba is excellent as the hot headed phsycopath, to bad he didn't come back for that part in the last movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tosh Posted February 28, 2009 Member Share Posted February 28, 2009 Ah correction, Shozo gets out of prison at the end of the first movie, been a bit since I watched these. Getting a friend of mine into these movies, he loved Yojimbo so I thought I'd throw this at him, it is a daunting movie to watch at first with all the characters but an absolute classic none the less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member kungpowmaster Posted March 15, 2009 Author Member Share Posted March 15, 2009 I need to watch this, as I do have it. I got so many films I haven't watched yet. I tend to think Japanese films are my favorites. Carl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Stuntman Jules Posted March 19, 2009 Member Share Posted March 19, 2009 One of the great masterpieces of 70s Japanese cinema. A little hard for someone not well versed in Japan culture to mentally process, but very rewarding if you at least try. This is Fukasaku-san's most poignant and honest depiction of the dark underbelly of his home society, along with Under the Flag of the Rising Sun and Battle Royale. That's what I love about Kinji Fukasaku, he knew what was wrong with society (in general, not just in Japan) and had the balls to stand up and criticize it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member kungfusamurai Posted March 25, 2009 Member Share Posted March 25, 2009 I bought the films hoping they would have Sonny Chiba-esque fighting. But they don't have any of that. In fact, a lot of the fighting and shooting is very haphazard, with people flailing their arms and stumbling over themselves. It's really all about the story and the unravelling of the Yakuza depicting in the film. KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tosh Posted March 27, 2009 Member Share Posted March 27, 2009 I bought the films hoping they would have Sonny Chiba-esque fighting. But they don't have any of that. In fact, a lot of the fighting and shooting is very haphazard, with people flailing their arms and stumbling over themselves. It's really all about the story and the unravelling of the Yakuza depicting in the film. KFS In a way, that's kind of what I like about this film, it made it very realistic. You have to figure, maybe 10% of people in Japan know or have learned Karate or Judo, these were just a bunch of working class people that had the misfortune of having the atom bomb dropped on them, they weren't professional fighters, more like brawlers just trying to survive. The confrontations are the best part, how they bow up and curse at each other, then wind up in this absurd wild swinging brawl, rolling all over the place, looks like the cameraman is rolling around with them. Or when they're drunk. Best line - "If it's horse piss you want, we have plenty of it for you!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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