Korô no chi

I would describe this movie as a film noir with an 80's aesthetic, which is a pretty cool mix. The story kind of reminded me of Training Day at times - young detective who wants to do everything by the book meets jaded old cop who shows him that the lines between good and evil are much more blurred than they teach you at school. There is lots of gore and also some very humorous scenes, but the overall plot could have been a bit more creative. It's basically just a typical yakuza story about two rival gangs with cops in the middle trying to prevent a war, nothing really new.

Storyline: Yakuza movie so it involved killing and fight for turf. High ranking people entangled with yakuza. The conflict, action are more than good.

Give you the idea of how yakuza and police works.

Korô no chi, internationally known as The Blood of Wolves, is a brutal gangster movie reminding of the Japanese V-Cinema era in the mid-nineties. This type of movie could have been made by prolific directors such as Mochizuki Rokuro, Miike Takashi or Kitano Takeshi.

The story revolves around brutal, non-conformist, lone wolf police officer Ogami Shogo and his conformist, intellectual and naive partner Hioka Shuichi. They investigate the disapperance of an accountant in the late eighties. It soon turns out that the accountant was involved in a yakuza clan and tried to steal money. Ogami Shogo uses violence, menaces and connections to investigate while his partner Hioka Shuichi is shocked by such procedures and rather tries to make sure his partner will get suspended. However, the unusual team soon needs to cooperate in order to prevent a war between two yakuza clans and find out what really happened to the mob accountant.

The greatest thing about the movie are the two conflicting lead characters and their fascinating relationship that evolves throughout the entertaining movie. The film convinces with grisly fights, dirty locations and cool one-liners. The plot comes around with a few surprises towards the end which explain how the different characters have become who they are.

If you like brutal yakuza flicks of the eighties and nineties, you will certainly appreciate this nostalgic but entertaining movie. The Blood of Wolves takes its inspiration from movies such as Another Lonely Hitman, Shinjuku Triad Society and Hana-Bi. Genre fans will certainly find this movie thoroughly entertaining.

It's hard to consist without dirty things. If you would control a strong force, you should also have some forces enough to do. But I thought it was lonely to have it.

I kept scrunching up my face throughout because of the grotesque. And I felt like they smelled of middle-aged odor from the display. Also, they smelled of sweat, bloody and muddy! Particularly I couldn't forgive the beggining! It was just a grotesque terrorism!

I was just wondering, it was a suicide act to approach an enemy with a shout if they really wanted to kill him. Learn it from Golgo 13.

I think the acting carried it. If you're not used to Japanese films it might seem a bit over the top, but that's a characteristic of the culture reflected in the film style. Overall this is a well-produced story with good characters. Side note: I didn't think the action was unrealistic-- as one reviewer commented -- but it puzzled me that so many cops and criminals were paralyzed with fear when confronted with a threat. That was the main flaw I noticed.