Review: Two Newly Restored Vintage Japanese Crime Films From Director Kinji Fukasaku Look Great
by David Lewis
The extremely prolific Japanese filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku directed over 60 feature films in a career spanning more than 40 years. His best-known works are probably the epic, multi-film Yakuza saga Battles Without Honor or Humanity (1973-74) and his final completed film, 2000’s grisly teen satire Battle Royale, but there are plenty of other gems in his filmography.
The boutique digital outfit Film Movement‘s new digital releases of two of the director’s lesser-seen films illustrate just how flexible Fukasaku’s talents were, even when working in the somewhat limited generic conventions of the crime/gangster film. The mostly somber black and white gangster drama Wolves, Pigs and Men (1964) and the frenetic, colorful bank robbery romp Violent Panic: The Big Crash (1976) have both been carefully restored and arrive September 27th.
Wolves, Pigs and Men begins with a quick, stylish prologue that effectively reveals the simple set-up. Three brothers from the slums of a fictional Japanese city have diverged in adulthood: Kuroki (Rentarô Mikuni), the eldest, is a middle-ranking Yakuza boss who has his eye on a big score; the middle son, Jiro (Takakura Ken), is in jail for his past crimes; and little brother Sabu (Kin’ya Kitaôji) is stuck taking care of their ailing mother. When Jiro is released from prison, and their mother dies, Kuroki and his associates turn to Jiro to lead a risky theft of 20 million yen from a rival outfit known as the Iwasaki Group. In turn, he and his crony Mizuhara (Shinjirō Ehara) draft Sabu and his ne’er-do-well, musically inclined friends to take part. Things go awry, naturally, and Sabu stashes the money, only to end up trapped with his friends in an abandoned house where Jiro and Mizuhara plan to torture them all for information on the missing loot.
As alliances shift and new players enter the game, the three brothers find their loyalties split between their real family and the fast-approaching crime family. There’s also plenty of social commentary lurking just beneath the surface, exploring some of the economic inequalities of post-war Japan. It all leads up to an explosive and tragic climax, and a final scene that may have inspired the concluding shot of Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.
Film Movement has also digitally restored and released Fukasaku’s 1976 film Violent Panic: The Big Crash, an overstuffed, increasingly chaotic slice of genre mayhem that must be seen to be believed.
A plot recap is pretty fruitless, but here it goes. Veteran bank robbers Takashi (Battles Without Honor and Humanity vet Tsunehiko Watase) and Seki (Ryō Nishida) have been knocking over banks across Japan, and find themselves in Kobe for another score. Things go well, until Seki is gruesomely killed in a truck crash. Takashi plans to escape to Brazil, and his troubled, sort-of-girlfriend Michi (the excellent Miki Sugimoto) insists on tagging along. Soon, the duo are being chased by the cops, Seki’s vengeful brother, and others. But that’s not even half of it.
There are subplots involving a bumbling beat cop and his adulterous lover, an aging barfly who’s obsessed with Michi, and a corrupt mechanic who ends up in the hands of an angry customer with a taste for S&M. They all end up in a seemingly endless car chase that also involves angry locals, a wild biker gang, a TV news crew, and even an out-of-control fire hose. It’s here that Fukasaku really lets it rip, with handheld coverage of dozens of car wrecks and bloody collisions reminiscent of the demolition derby movies that were so popular in Hollywood at the time (Think Gone in 60 Seconds, The Sugarland Express, and the Smokey and the Bandit series) except way, way more violent. There’s so much happening in the climax that the protagonists are largely forgotten, although a title card lets viewers know their fate. It’s all too much, but for fans of this type of cinema, it’s impossible to resist.
Both films have been digitally restored in 2K from the original elements and look terrific. Wolves was shot in atmospheric B&W and looks crisp and shimmery. Much of the story takes place in what’s basically a warehouse, and Fukasaku expertly uses the widescreen image to create multiple levels of tension in various spots of the frame as characters are constantly trying to get the jump on one another. Violent Panic, again, utilizes a completely different style and the new transfer allows viewers to luxuriate in all the bold colors, outrageous fashion choices, canted angles, and chaotic, grisly action.
Wolves, Pigs and Men and Violent Panic: The Big Crash will both be available to rent or purchase on VOD and Digital beginning September 27th.
