Karakkaze yarô

A film directed by Karakkaze Yaro and stars Yukio Mishima as a Bogart-looking Yakuza, who tries to go straight for his new found hard-working girlfriend. There is a great beginning to the film, which I will not reveal, and it maintains a bit of suspense as we proceed through the sleazy underground of Tokyo, and the sleazy people that live there.

Our hero does meet a decent girl, however, and tries his best to go straight. But getting out of the Yakuza is virtually an impossible task, as you will see from the film. Worth viewing for the characterizations. The storyline is a bit hackneyed after the opening scene, however.

Novelist Yukio Mishima stars as the hired gun for a down at heel yakuza clan in this top notch action flick. Unlike the previous reviewer, I think Mishima's performance is excellent, especially for those who go for that brooding James Dean attitude. Karakkaze yarô (Afraid to Die) was superbly shot in brilliant colour by cinematographer Hiroshi Murai (Sword of Doom, Samurai Assassin) and the widescreen Daieiscope process is well utilized by director Yasuzo Masumura. There are some wonderful and memorable set pieces, notably a completely twisted night club scene featuring a naughty song about bananas, and the final scene involving Mishima and an escalator. Well worth a look.

I've observed before, elsewhere, that if one is tired and starts watching an especially great film, it can have the effect of perking one up. Alternatively, one can be wide awake, and start watching an especially bad or unremarkable film, and it can have the effect of putting one to sleep. I'm not saying that it is specifically the fault of 'Afraid to die' that I fell asleep in the middle of watching, not any more than I'm saying that it is specifically an example of a bad movie. What I am saying is that for however broadly well made or enjoyable 'Afraid to die ' it, it doesn't specifically make much of an impression. And that's okay! Not every flick needs to be a revelation, or outwardly striking, and sometimes it's enough to look at something and say "yeah, it's fine" or "yeah, it's pretty good." Of course, without being actively engaging or inspiring an especial reaction, we'll also have no cause to rewatch, nor to give a particular recommendation for anyone else to check it out. And there's the rub, I suppose.

I enjoyed this. It's a worthwhile story, and one that has been told by other filmmakers from other countries with the necessary details adjusted to fit their culture: released from prison, a gangster faces pressure to give up the life, but change is hard and his seedy, violent past won't release him so easily. All involved made commendable, capable contributions to bring the saga to bear, from the writing, direction, and acting, to sets and costume design; from music and sound, to stunts and effects; from cinematography, to editing, to all other bits and bobs along the way. Some odds and ends are extra well done; others are a little less sure-footed; the sum total is just swell, even as protagonist Takeo is especially coarse, dubious, and unlikable. This is all that the feature needs to be, and it doesn't need to be more - although, if it were, then I might be inclined to speak of it more enthusiastically. I'm glad enough that I watched, but I'm also unlikely to ever think about this again.

I'm glad for those who get more out of 'Afraid to die' than I do; I've no quarrel with those who take a harsher view toward it, either. I wish there were more about this title to concretely earn my favor, but I suppose every now and again "good enough" is just that.

Yukio Mishima's lead performance in this is bizarre, and I could never work out what awkwardness was intended and what wasn't.

I guess it gives what's an otherwise straightforward yakuza film a bit more flavour, even if everyone else here is less of a wild card, acting-wise. Either they all understood the assignment and Mishima didn't, or Mishima understood it better than everyone else and was doing something genuinely brilliant.

Afraid to Die is also a little slow and repetitive in parts. I've seen better crime-dramas that came out in Japan around this time, and I've seen worse. There's a little here that's odd and intriguing, and a good deal of it just kind of gets the job done.

Karakkaze Yaro" (Afraid to Die) a 1960 gangster film by little known Japanese master of arty off-beat action dramas, Yasuzo Masumura, turned up in the series "Japanese Film Noir" at San Sebastian 2008. This film is especially remarkable for the one full-on leading role performance by famous and infamous Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima, playing a gangster-yakuza opposite Wakao Ayako, one of the most beautiful and popular Japanese leading ladies of all time. Mishima isn't much of an actor, but just seeing this Nobel Prize level writer playing a tough talking gangster is enough. The film ends with a bravura sequence -- one of the most famous in Japanese cinema -- of Mishima stabbed by a hit man from a rival gang, dying on the up escalator of a Japanese department store during the Christmas rush. This is one I have been waiting for years to catch up with, and when it surfaced at San Sebastian in September, I was not disappointed. Another rare screen appearance by Mishima was in the masterful police thriller "Black Lizard" by Kinji Fukasaku, 1968 opposite Miwa Akihiro, Japan's leading Drag Queen entertainer and said to have been his main love interest off screen at the time. Half a dozen Mishima novels have been made into successful films and he has himself been the subject of various films, notably Paul Schrader's "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters", 1985.