Battles without Honour and Humanity

I don't get what's with those people who think "Battles Without Honor Or Humanity" has something to do with "The Godfather". The only notable similarity is that both delve into the criminal underworlds. But so what ? "The Godfather" didn't invent this genre. Furthermore the story in "Battles" was adapted from newspaper articles describing various yakuza activities. What Kinji Fukasaku created is a brilliant, violent tale about the dark and unforgiving nature of the Japanese crime syndicates it is also a story about friendship and betrayal.

This is a tale about a group of young men who after the end of the Second World War find themselves outcasts from society, under pursuit by the authorities. They inevitably bond together and form a new crime syndicate under the leadership of boss Yamamoto. As their organization grows in power so do the internal struggles between them begin to escalate. Slowly, either from pure greed and the corruption of power or by Yamamoto's careful manipulations. It's hard not to draw comparison with "Battle Royale" Fukusako's most notable film released in the late nineties. Both present a similar in a way situation: friends fight friends for their own survival.The only difference being that here that is done in a much more subtle way. But the elements are still the same, characters are likable well fleshed-out and the viewer is thrown into an internal struggle of his own when he sees them killing each other. Fukasaku's type of narration is one that involves multiple points of view, we don't have such a strong focus on main character as most movies do, there is one of course Shozo Hirono (played by the ever great Bunta Sugawara) but he serves the role of executing the movie's catharsis, he is the one who becomes a witness to all the madness and senseless killings and it is his final actions that define that, his realization and his rebellion to it all, his final display of grief to friends lost for nothing.

The acting is superb on all fronts, with a diverse cast of characters who offer a different perspective with their own point of view. Fukasaku demonstrates his great skill as a director, his technique perfectly fitting to the movie's tone. By using a fast-paced, erratic, nearly chaotic style the action scenes offer us that taste of brutality we wouldn't have felt had they been directed in a more traditional manner. Fukasaku strays from the established formula of people getting killed fast and easy with one or two bullets instead he shows us an alternative to that : a slow, painful exercise, one that more accurately portrays the yakuza's violent lifestyle. Yet there are no large body counts, the battles are often predetermined with one side attacking an individual or small group from the other, by surprise and in overwhelming force. There really is no honor in the Japanese underworld.

"Battles Without Honor Or Humanity" is the epitome of humanity's own self-destructive nature. The one that drives us to aim for a higher financial and social standing on any means. With no regard for friends, family, honor or trust.

Although based on a true story, this film owes a lot to The Godfather, which was released a couple of years before. However, there are quite a few differences. For a start, there are many more main characters. At least twenty. And they are introduced at such a rate as to make it impossible to follow the lot. No less than ten characters are introduced (each with a name and description subtitle) in the first two minutes. The key word for this film is - chaotic. The opening scene is of Japan just after the end of WWII. The camera uses the now-familiar form of WobblyScope, tumbling all over the place as it chases the young thugs who chase misbehaving GIs and then run away. The progression is highly episodic from there. Although Shozo is the lead character and narrator, much screen time is spent on at least a dozen others. Really, if you are non-Japanese, like me, you'd need a map of all the characters and their changing relationships to have any hope of following the story. However, this is not a big problem because, mainly, it is one of the aspects which the filmmaker is trying to convey. That the people who were drawn into these gangs often had nothing much else to do, and were not particularly men of honour. The Japanese title refers to the total breakdown of the old code, where honour was everything. The only character who acts with anything like honour here is Shozo, who looks continuously stunned as powerplays and double-deals swirl around him. This film is a terrific antidote to the "honourable gangster" films. Well-worth watching. Also, it produced at least 4 sequels, all starring Bunta.

Japan post-war was a lawless land where many mobster created his own gangster families called Yakusa, this first episode covers since 1945 until 1956, introducing several sub plots each one are linked altogether, on many phases of those enemy families working in black market, prostitution, guns and narcotic drugs, as always they had betrayal, cheating, murders and many twists and turns, also too much complex in numerous splited stories, the characters have been killing along the picture, few them remained until the end as the leading role Shozo Hirono as low profile hired killer, Japanese cinema is regarded to me the fifth best in the world, those amazing pictures brings to us an eastern unusual culture!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8

Based on a true story Battles Without Honor is a kick ass trip through the rise of the yakuza in post war Japan. Beginning in 1945 and traveling through the next 12 or so years this is the tale of a group of friends who come together in order to survive the cruelties of post-war, and post-bomb Japan and then spend the next decade killing each other as they change sides in a perpetual gang war.

This film has just about everything. Moments of violence, hysterical comedy (The finger), drama, and there is even hints of romance as a moll tries to hide her beau. Its brutal and nasty and probably very close to reality.

Some reviews paint this as having come in the wake of the Godfather, but while that may have gotten the movie made, the tone is different. There is no honor, there is no loyalty, there is only violence, violence and more violence, usually ex-friend on ex-friend. Despite there being "gangs" its really everyman for himself. American and European films of the same period often painted things as much less cut throat and that there really was familial loyalty, that idea is somewhat alien here as people switched sides if it kept them alive.

This is a near perfect film in many ways. It picks you up from the opening minutes and carries you along to the end. Its wonderfully of a time and place and extremely well acted all around.

There are only two problems which are minor. First, I think the film requires a bit more familiarity with what was going on in Japan post war. While I have had some knowledge of that, I was a tad lost at the start since I wasn't instantly aware of what I was seeing. The second minor flaw is that its jump through time story telling can be a bit disorienting. Its not that the plot threads are lost, its just that it takes a minute to know who the older people are.

Over all a great film.

8 out of 10, although it probably should be 9 out of 10, since I'm just in a down mood.

After just finishing the entire series (5 films in all) I must say that this series is DEFINITELY worth a watch, especially for fans of dramas centered around crime families with a healthy dose of violence to help spice things up.

It follows mainly Shozo Hirono, and his journey from an ambitious and stoic slum-dweller in the bombed out crater of the Hiroshima bomb site. As him and his war buddies climb the ranks of the Yakuza, greed, honor and betrayal force the families into various conflicts in a never ending cycle of power struggles.

Stylistically this film, and all the others, are excellent, with a consistent jazzy theme accentuating the more important points and giving each entry a familiar feel to the last one, yet not one which ends up feeling boring or overused. The camera work is fantastic and the scene composition is where I am most reminded of the Italian-American titan of cinema that this review invokes. Many of the scenes are around crowded tables at family meetings or in shadowy bars with table lamps and cigarette smoke twirling in the air.

All in all I love this series and if you have a chance, absolutely watch all five. If anything give this first entry a chance and you will not be disappointed.