|
|
Non-Japanese yakuza-movie fans (all three of us) have been waiting for a single-volume introduction in English to the genre for years, and at last Mark Schilling, movie reviewer for the Japan Times, has provided this interesting but rather disappointing guide. It's better than nothing, of course, but there are so many missed opportunities with the book. Instead of being a fun, flippant guidebook to an extinct genre, it's going to end up collecting dust on library shelves in some remote corner of the "cinema studies" section.
First the good points. Schilling has interviewed some of the major players in the industry, and includes illuminating interviews and profiles of cult directors Kinji Fukasaku, Teruo Ishii, Seijun Suzuki, Takashi Miike and Rokuro Mochizuki as well as ubiquitous yakuza movie stars Sho Aikawa, Noboru Ando and Bunta Sugawara. Miike on why Japanese films aren't that stimulating anymore: "There are enormously talented people outside the industry... game designers, manga artists, musicians, designers." Ishii on the legendary Battles Without Honor series: "I don't rate them that highly. The first one or two are all right, but after that they are hard to take." Mochizuki on the real yakuza: "When you see yakuza up close, you realize there aren't any good ones. The worst ones move up in the ranks." The high point is Seijun Suzuki - the maverick Nikkatsu director who's currently being feted internationally as a genius. Suzuki shoots down almost every comment Schilling makes about his movies, while sounding the death knell for yakuza films: "Both Nikkatsu and Toei's yakuza movies are pretty much finished."
There are also reviews of 123 yakuza films, and it's this section that provides most of the problems. Considering most of the films are unavailable outside Japan, the chance of seeing these films with English subtitles is almost nil. Schilling provides "helpful" synopses, explaining every twist and turn in the Machiavellian plots. The grammar becomes as labyrinthine as the plots, and the stories are simply mind-numbing. And while Schilling claims watching yakuza movies is "a guilty pleasure," you would never guess it from his plots and critiques. The synopses are high on plot mechanisms, but low on telling details. The critical essays are full of background details, but lack any enthusiasm or praise. One wishes a more entertaining writer (such as Chuck Stephens or Patrick Macias) had taken on the task. Schilling makes it seems like a chore rather than a pleasure.
It would be more helpful to have a few recommendations to take to the video store. Which is the best film in the classic, long-running series Jingi Naki Tatakai, Hibotan Bakuto, or Gokudo no Onnatachi? Schilling's dense prose is mostly nonjudgmental - it's hard to tell which films he really loves. When his real feelings do show through, they tend to be negative: Kitano's yakuza befriends gangbanger in South Central movie Brother "never develops momentum either as a thriller or an essay on East-West friendship... The ending is simply an embarrassment." Schilling can also sound like a schoolteacher: he ends his review of Dead or Alive with "Miike is capable of more."
The choice of films reviewed is also rather skewed. The truly awful rape-revenge movie Freeze Me is included, but Sharkskin Man is mentioned in the intro but never reviewed. Revenge 2, Kurosawa Kiyoshi's lightweight sequel is reviewed, but the far superior, completely riveting Revenge 1 is not. Miike's gruesome Ichi the Killer is in, but his grandiose yakuza epic Agitator is not. Most of Kitano's films are included (and the review of Brother is cut and pasted verbatim into the introductory essay), but no mention is made of the numerous endless series of V-cinema yakuza movies pumped out monthly by KSS and Museum. It would also be interesting to learn exactly who finances yakuza movies, and who watches them. Many seem like lessons in yakuza iconography and philosophy, aimed at young chimpira adepts.
The book includes over 50 still photos and posters from Yakuza movies, but unfortunately all these are in black and white (sneers, tattoos, and scars really deserve color). It also includes a bibliography, glossary, guide to DVD stores, and Finding Guide to directors and actors - but no index.
Richard Jeffery
back
|
|
|
