Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)

 Director: Kinji Fukasaku, Starring: Bunta Sugawara, Hiroki Matsukata, and Nobuo Kaneko

Most of you reading this are probably familiar with at the name Battles Without Honor and Humanity/Jingi Naki Tatakai or The Yakuza Papers. This operatic series chronicles the decades following World War II in Hiroshima city. When I say decades, I mean actual decades. Each film covers a set of years in the life of various crime families. The first film centers on the Yamamori and the Doi. Their conflicts, team ups, and trials of co-existing in the same city.

Legendary director, Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale, 2000), helmed the series. Prior to his iconic and heavily influential series, he tackled a variety of genres mainly focusing on crime and action films.  Early on Yakuza played a significant role in his fiction. During the 1960s, Nikkatsu dominated the cheap action genre. They developed and cranked out dozens of Yakuza-eiga, mainly Ninkyo-eiga. These were Yakuza films where the gangsters are Robin Hood-esque figures who are honorable knights who fight the corruption. This subgenre died in the box office. The Jitsuroku-eiga films tookover. They were the mirror image of Ninkyos. They were not lovably flawed heroes. They were selfish men who want to succeed in the emerging economic powerhouse that was Japan.

Battles begins in 1946 with an attempted rape in a densely crowded open market. Several white men strip her as local gangsters and an ex-soldier, Shozo, defend her. The police side with the Americans to no avail. Young gangsters clash with the Doi-gumi (Doi Family), who left a young thug maimed. Shozo kills that Doi man for his new friends. In prison, he becomes blood brothers with Wakasugi of the Doi clan. Wakasugi secures a way out for Shozo, Oyabun (boss) Yamamori. He bails out Shozo and recruits him to his new Yakuza family. Things start good until a Doi man causes a ruckus at a gambling den. That Doi man has a powerful uncle, underground elder Okubo. He wants a city vote rigged. The vote gets rigged but the Yamamori clan's tolerant relationship with the Doi is over. Word gets out that the Yamamori clan got 50 million from said deal. Shozo is sent to kill Oyabun Doi. After the deed is done, Yamamori sells him out. With nowhere to go he turns himself in. Wakasugi gets revenge but is killed later that night. Again Boss Yamamori bails Shozo. He wants Shozo to kill Sakai Tetsuya, a Yamamori captain. Sakai broke away to form a new family with the remains of the Doi family. Shozo can’t kill Sakai, who continues to kill off Yamamori rivals. While getting a toy for his kid, Yamamori men gun him dead. At the funeral, Shozo shoots up the funeral display with the symbols of every prominent Hiroshima Yakuza. He walks away.

To put it lightly, the plot is dense. There are dozens of named characters that each play a specific role withing the drama of the clashing clans. I only named the primary players - Shozo, Oyabun Yamamori, Sakai Tetsuya, and Wakasugi Hiroshi. These 4 are the core of the film. Each of them are embodiments of a theme. Shozo is innocence. Oyabun Yamamori is corruption. Sakai Tetsuya is opportunity. Wakasugi Hiroshi is the harsh reality. Earlier I mentioned that this was a jitsuroku-eiga. Shozo has the aspects of an honorable criminal like in a ninkyo-eiga. Aside from that, he carries himself like an old-fashioned guy. This includes his taste in music, chivalric code, and his realization of what Yakuza life is actually. This separates him from the rest of the Yamamori. The divide is immediate and only grows as the story evolves. As the film goes on he realizes that his Oyabun can be wrong and extremely manipulative. The world of the Yakuza-gumi as Shozo understands is destroyed. Shozo is merely a tool.

The glitz and glimmer of Yakuza life isn’t shiny and beautiful. People are corrupt. People are opportunists willing to do anything to for power, not just money. Sakai saw Shozo’s 2nd prison sentence as the chance to kill off the remaining competition before shacking up with Wakasugi’s widow (and having a kid with her). Not just that but he dresses like an American gangster with the pinstripe suit.  

In line with the harsh reality of a criminal’s life, violence is treated very seriously. It’s quick, brutal, and ugly. The camera follows every violent act like a fly on the wall. You see every drop of blood, every drip of sweat, and every bullet bursting someone’s flesh. The violence is spread apart very smartly. The tension builds then someone we know gets horrifically killed. It isn’t fun. It isn’t pleasant. These are the most intimate scenes. We feel their anger. We know the exact reason behind that anger. The only result of violence is regret. The survivors are never happy with the results. 

It's a cliche to say that the camera is a character in most cases. That isn't true here. Everything on-screen is presented without any smoke or mirrors. Whether scenes take place in massive overly crowded areas or a small closed room. The claustrophobia is palpable. You want to leave but you can't. The tension can't be cut with a knife. You'd need a brand new katana by Hanzo. We see the depravity of every character in graphic detail. No one, even Shozo, comes out looking respectable.

Battles is not for everyone. It's bleak with a bleak sense of black humor. It's graphic, dense, and violent. The series doesn't lighten up from here. Personally, I love it.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity is on DVD, Blu-Ray, and various streaming services.