Battles Without Honor and Humanity (film)
Battles Without Honor and Humanity | |
---|---|
Directed by | Kinji Fukasaku |
Written by | Kazuo Kasahara Koji Shundo (concept) Kōichi Iiboshi (original story) |
Produced by | Koji Shundo Goro Kusakabe |
Starring | Bunta Sugawara Hiroki Matsukata Nobuo Kaneko Kunie Tanaka Goro Ibuki |
Narrated by | Asao Koike |
Cinematography | Sadaji Yoshida |
Edited by | Shintaro Miyamoto |
Music by | Toshiaki Tsushima |
Distributed by | Toei |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Japanese: 仁義なき戦い, Hepburn: Jingi Naki Tatakai) is a 1973 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. The screenplay by Kazuo Kasahara adapts a series of newspaper articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi, that were rewrites of a manuscript originally written by real-life yakuza Kōzō Minō. It is the first film in a five-part series that Fukasaku made in a span of just two years.
The violent, documentary-like film chronicles the underworld tribulations of Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), a young ex-soldier and street thug-turned yakuza in post-war Hiroshima Prefecture. Starting in the open-air black markets of bombed-out Hiroshima in 1946, the film spans a period of more than ten years. The plot consists of a changing of the guard of new families and organizations with the same feuds and people, punctuated by the gritty violence.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity won the 1974 Kinema Junpo Awards for Best Film, Best Actor (Bunta Sugawara) and Best Screenplay (Kazuo Kasahara). In 2009, the magazine named it fifth on a list of the Top 10 Japanese Films of All Time. Due to the series' commercial and critical popularity it was followed by another three-part series, New Battles Without Honor and Humanity. The film is often called the "Japanese Godfather"[1] and marks a departure from traditional yakuza movies which had, for the most part, been tales of chivalry set in pre-war Japan. The overall tone of the series is bleak, violent and chaotic, expressing the futility of the struggles between yakuza families. In the western market it is also known under the titles Tarnished Code of Yakuza (Australia), War Without a Code, and The Yakuza Papers.
Plot
In 1946
Three years later, in 1949, Hirono gets into a fight with a man named Toru Ueda at a gambling den. Since Ueda is a blood relative of Okubo's, Hirono commits yubitsume in apology to Okubo. Okubo accepts, but asks Yamamori to take Ueda into his family and perform a favor for corrupt politician Shigeto Nakahara by eliminating a vote for his rival Shoichi Kanamaru, who is supported by the Doi Family in a political dispute over allotment of public resources. Sakai kidnaps one of Kanamaru's allies before the vote, allowing Nakahara's side to win, and goes into hiding afterwards. Doi finds out due to Kanbara bragging about it while drinking and beats him severely, then goes after Yamamori. However, out of loyalty to Hirono, Wakasugi stops Doi from killing Yamamori and a deal is brokered: Wakasugi will become a guest member of the Yamamori Family while Kanbara takes his place in the Doi Family.
Six months later, Doi starts moving against Yamamori and prepares to form an alliance with the Kaito Family from
With the
Hirono is then paroled due to a
Cast
- Bunta Sugawara as Shozo Hirono
- Hiroki Matsukata as Tetsuya Sakai
- Nobuo Kaneko as Patriarch Yoshio Yamamori
- Tatsuo Umemiya as Hiroshi Wakasugi
- Kunie Tanaka as Masakichi Makihara
- Goro Ibuki as Toru Ueda
- Shinichiro Mikami as Uichi Shinkai
- Tamio Kawajias Seiichi Kanbara
- Tsunehiko Watase as Toshio Arita
- Harumi Sone as Shuji Yano
- Keiji Takamiya as Shinichi Yamagata
- Toshie Kimura as Rika Yamamori
- Asao Uchida as Patriarch Kenichi Okubo
- Hiroshi Nawa as Patriarch Kiyoshi Doi
- Eiko Nakamura as Suzue Kunihiro
- Mayumi Nagisa as Akiko Shinjo
- Kinji Nakamura as Shigeto Nakahara
- Takuzo Kawatani as an unnamed Doi family member
Production
Battles Without Honor and Humanity adapts a series of articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi that ran in Weekly Sankei (週刊サンケイ, Shūkan Sankei),[2] that were rewrites of a manuscript originally written by real-life yakuza Kōzō Minō while he was incarcerated in Abashiri Prison.[3][4] The memoirs detail a yakuza conflict in Hiroshima.
Lead actor Bunta Sugawara claims that he had the initial idea to adapt the memoirs to film. He said that six months before the movie was released, he was on the cover of Shukan Sunday with Tatsuo Umemiya and read this issue that also contained the first installment of the series while on the Shinkansen. Upon arriving in Kyoto he gave it to Toei producer Koji Shundo and told him to read it. Days later, after Shundo still had not done so, Sugawara bought another copy and insisted again. The actor asked Shundo to cast him in an adaptation, with Goro Kusakabe producing and Kinji Fukasaku directing.[5]
Screenplay
Kazuo Kasahara received the order for the screenplay on September 1, 1972. He revealed that while Toei had gotten the rights to adapt the series from Iiboshi and Weekly Sankei, it seemed they had not bothered to ask Minō. Because the journals were written objectively and therefore easy to read, Kasahara had to flesh them out with details to make it dramatic. Despite Toei advising against it, Kasahara went to Kure with producer Goro Kusakabe on September 29 to meet Minō.[2]
When Kasahara and Kusakabe first asked Minō for permission to adapt his story, he declined not wanting to receive further scorn from his fellow gang members, which he had already received for exposing the inner workings of the lifestyle.[6] However, after learning that Minō and Kasahara both served at the Otake naval officer school in Hiroshima, Minō agreed to help clarify details about the journals but still did not approve a film adaptation.[2]
When he returned to Tokyo, Kasahara told Toei he could work with the incidents in Kure, but not the events that followed in Hiroshima because they were too complicated and they agreed. Although Minō had to be the protagonist, Kasahara found it difficult to create a character based on the notes he had taken and so developed the story around yakuza underboss Tetsuhiko Sasaki, who rebelled against Kyosei-kai leader Tatsuo Yamamura and was killed. He envisioned Bunta Sugawara portraying the character (he later learned Sugawara had already been cast in the role), but said the day before shooting Sugawara was instead cast as Hirono (who is based on Minō) and Hiroki Matsukata took over as Sakai (Sasaki).[2]
Kasahara used the 1936 film
Filming
When Shundo selected Fukasaku to direct he received backlash from his Toei colleagues, who felt the director could not make the film "interesting" or "commercial" enough. Shundo himself did not like Fukasaku's earlier films, stating that he made them for his own enjoyment only, but changed his mind after seeing 1972's Street Mobster.[6] Kasahara was against the selection of Fukasaku.[2] Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane explained the two had worked together previously and fought over a story Fukasaku disliked, although the two eventually worked over it, the director left the project due to ill health. However, when Fukasaku read the Battles Without Honor and Humanity script he said he would not change a thing and the film was green lit.[7] Filming began in November 1972.[8]
Set in post-war Japan, Fukasaku drew on his experiences as a child during World War II for Battles Without Honor and Humanity. At fifteen he worked with other children in a munitions factory that was regularly bombed. The director recalled "even though we were friends working together, the only thing we would be thinking of was self-preservation. We would try to get behind each other or beneath dead bodies to avoid the bombs.... I also had to clean up all the dead bodies.... I'm sure those experiences have influenced the way I look at violence." The film, noted for its "extreme violence," opens with Japanese soldiers, during America's occupation of their country, stealing food and murdering for a bowl of rice.[9] Using hand-held camera, zoom lenses and natural lighting to create a "gritty, chaotic look," the director showed his generation's struggle to survive in the post-war chaos.[10] The shaky camera technique has since become a trademark of the director.
Toei producer Masao Sato remarked that unusually Fukasaku shot the film in Toei's Kyoto studio, despite being under contract to Toei Tokyo.
Yamane and Kenta Fukasaku both agreed that the series does not focus on specific lead actors, but is an ensemble piece with the supporting actors energizing it. The stars are narrative characters, with the low-ranking yakuza that are endlessly killed off the real focus of the movies.[13] Sugawara said that this was the first Toei, and even the first Japanese, film to not have the lead actors in every scene.[5]
Release
Battles Without Honor and Humanity has been released on home video and aired on television, the latter with some scenes cut. In 1980, the first four films were edited into a 224-minute compilation and was given a limited theatrical release and broadcast on Toei's TV network. A Blu-ray box set compiling all five films in the series was released on March 21, 2013, to celebrate its 40th anniversary.[14]
All five films in the series were released on
Reception and legacy
Battles Without Honor and Humanity earned its distributor $4.5 million at the box office,
The film is credited as one of the first modern yakuza films; prior, movies about yakuza were known as
Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane believes Battles Without Honor and Humanity was popular because of the time of its release; Japan's economic growth was at its peak and at the end of the 1960s the student uprisings took place. The young people had similar feelings to those of the post-war society depicted in the films.[28] Yamane also stated that for the rest of his career Fukasaku was approached many times by producers to create movies similar to Battles, but always turned them down wanting to move on to films he found interesting.[29]
American director William Friedkin stated that Fukasaku's trait of never redeeming bad characters and not catering to have the good guys win in the end was a "profound influence" on himself. He went on to claim that this is something one cannot do today in American films.[30]
A restored version of the film, from a 4K 35mm print original negative to 2K digital by Toei Labo Tech, was screened at the Cannes Classics section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.[31]
Notes
- ^ Mark Schilling notes that this is the distributor's share of the film's theatrical revenue, roughly half of its total earnings.
References
- ^ Croce, Fernando F. "Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Japan, 1973): (Jingi Naki Tatakai)". cinepassion.org. Archived from the original on November 22, 2008. Retrieved May 16, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f Kasahara, Kazuo (2015) [1974]. "Jitsuroku: My Personal Account of the Screenplay - The 300 Days of Battles Without Honor and Humanity". Battles Without Honor and Humanity Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD. Translated by Akita, Sho. Arrow Films.
- ISBN 1-84511-086-2. Archived from the originalon January 19, 2008.
- ^ a b "Battles Without Honour or Humanity". Time Out. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
- ^ ISBN 1-880656-76-0. Archived from the originalon October 17, 2007.
- ^ ISBN 1-880656-76-0. Archived from the originalon October 17, 2007.
- ^ "Kantoku: Remembering the Director". The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity Complete Boxed Set - Special Features (DVD). Home Vision Entertainment. 2004. 12:30 minutes in.
- ^ a b c d "7、8秒のフィルムをやるから、悪役の華を咲かせて死ね」俳優たちに愛された監督・深作欣二の仁義 「仁義なき戦い」外伝〈3〉". Daily Shincho (in Japanese). December 1, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
- ^ "Kinji Fukasaku, 72; Japanese Director of Edgy, Violent Films". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
- ISBN 1-880656-76-0. Archived from the originalon October 17, 2007.
- ^ a b "Jitsuroku: Reinventing a Genre". The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity Complete Boxed Set - Special Features (DVD). Home Vision Entertainment. 2004. 15:05 minutes in.
- Film Society of Lincoln Center. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.)
{{cite journal}}
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(help - ^ "Jitsuroku: Reinventing a Genre". The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity Complete Boxed Set - Special Features (DVD). Home Vision Entertainment. 2004. 5:14 minutes in.
- Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
- ^ Erickson, Glenn (November 2004). "The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor And Humanity: The Complete Box Set". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on September 8, 2007. Retrieved September 2, 2007.
- ^ "Battles Without Honour and Humanity (Arrow Video) Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD [Limited Edition]". Arrow Films. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
- ^ a b Schilling, Mark (2015). "Aftermath of Battles Without Honor and Humanity". Battles Without Honor and Humanity Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD. Arrow Films.
- ^ "Awards for Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)". IMDb. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
- Asahi Shimbun(in Japanese). Retrieved August 22, 2014.
- ^ キネマ旬報「オールタイムベスト・ベスト100」日本映画編 1995 (in Japanese). tcp-ip.or.jp. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
- ^ キネマ旬報「オールタイムベスト・ベスト100」日本映画編 1999 (in Japanese). tcp-ip.or.jp. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
- Complex. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
- ^ "The best Japanese film of every year – from 1925 to now". British Film Institute. May 14, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
- ^ "10 great Japanese gangster movies". British Film Institute. March 20, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
- ^ "The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
- ^ "Japanese Genre Firebombs Send Codes of Honor up in Flames". The Village Voice. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
- S2CID 144459712.
- ^ "Jitsuroku: Reinventing a Genre". The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity Complete Boxed Set - Special Features (DVD). Home Vision Entertainment. 2004. 3:35 minutes in.
- ^ "Kantoku: Remembering the Director". The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity Complete Boxed Set - Special Features (DVD). Home Vision Entertainment. 2004. 2:03 minutes in.
- ^ "Friedkin on Fukasaku". The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity Complete Boxed Set - Special Features (DVD). American Society of Cinematographers: Home Vision Entertainment. 2004. 3:16 minutes in.
- ^ "Cannes Classics 2015". Cannes Film Festival. April 29, 2015. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
Further reading
- Sugisaku, Taro; Uechi, Takashi (May 1998). 仁義なき戦い 浪漫アルバム [Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Romantic Album] (in Japanese). ISBN 978-4198608460.
- Gerow, Andrew (January 2000). "Fukasaku Kinji, Underworld Historiographer". University of Southern California. Archived from the original on January 7, 2007.
- da Silva, Joaquín (November 2003). "Fukasaku and Scorsese: Yakuzas and Gangsters". Eiga9.
- Hutchinson, Rachael (2019). "Fukasaku Kinji and Kojima Hideo Replay Hiroshima: Atomic Imagery and Cross-Media Memory". - Published online on May 30, 2019.
External links
- Battles Without Honor and Humanity at IMDb
- Battles Without Honor and Humanity at AllMovie
- Battles Without Honor and Humanity (in Japanese) at the Japanese Movie Database