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As Japan attempted to recuperate from its surrender in 1946, the nation tried to return to some kind of normality. However, especially during the 1960s, normal was nowhere to be seen, with a daily stream of riots, demonstrations and frequent acts of violence shaking the country. Aided by the yakuza, Japan’s political right slowly but surely decimated the nation’s left wing, exposing not only the true nature of Japan’s political caste but also leaving no doubt about the immorality of the yakuza. As author Grady Hendrix writes in her essay “Radioactive Yakuza Mutants Eat Japan” included in the Arrow Video-release of “Battles Without Honor and Humanity”, those were the times a young and aspiring director named Kinji Fukasaku experienced the daily events in his country, live and on the newsreel when he went to the cinema. Naturally, as he was planning to shoot his first films, he adopted...

Review by Roger Carpenter

Director Kinji Fukasaku and writer Kazuo Kasahara, both of the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series, team up with Fukasaku’s favorite yakuza star, Bunta Sugawara—also of Battles Without Honor and Humanity fame—to create the kinetic yakuza drama Cops Vs Thugs.

Two rival gangs vie for a lucrative land deal and it’s up to the cops to keep the balance. Detective Kuno (Sugawara) has forged an unlikely relationship with up-and-coming gangster Hirotani (Hiroki Masukata) of the Ohara gang, thus ensuring they have a competitive edge over their rivals, the Kawade gang. But when violence erupts between the two gangs over the land deal, it is up to Lt. Kaida (Tatsuo Umemiya) to settle the score once and for all. Unfortunately, Lt. Kaida is a by-the-book cop, which doesn’t sit well with the thugs as they are used to Detective Kuno’s more relaxed dealings with the gangs.

Considered by many to be director Kinji Fukasaku’s greatest single-film achievement in the yakuza genre, Cops Vs Thugs was made at the height of popularity of Toei Studios’ jitsuroku boom: realistic, modern crime movies based on true stories taken from contemporary headlines. Returning to the screen after completing their Battles Without Honor and Humanity series together, Fukasaku joined forced once again with screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara, composer Toshiaki Tsushima and star Bunta Sugawara to create one of the crowning achievements of his career, and a hard-boiled classic which is still ranked as one of the best Japanese films of the 1970’s.

It’s 1963 in the southern Japanese city of Kurashima, and tough-as-nails detective Kuno (Sugawara) oversees a detente between the warring Kawade and Ohara gangs. Best friends with Ohara lieutenant Hirotani (Hiroki Matsukata), he understands that there are no clear lines in the underworld, and that everything is colored a different shade of gray.