Blood and Obedience: Onimasa (1982)

 

 It’s no secret: I unabashedly love Gosha and adore my beloved Nakadai aka the Greatest Actor Alive. They are a match made in heaven, Gosha’s artful brutality combined with Nakadai’s dark charisma always works for me. Onimasa is more than just another yakuza film and might be their best collaboration.

 

 Onimasa: The Japanese Godfather aka The Life of Kiryuin Hanako aka Kiryuin Hanako No Shogai: The decades long tale of Boss 'Onimasa' Masagoro and his adopted daughter, Matsue as their lives see massive changes in Japanese society and politics. Masagoro is not the man he thinks he is while Matsue tries to find herself within the world she was forced into. It covers 1917-1940, the lifespan of Kiryuin Hanako, Matsue's younger sister and Masagoro's biological daughter.

 You can go back and find a whole series on the 4 decade career of Hideo Gosha (The Line Between Sleaze and Prestige - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). His career was prolific with a couple dips but came back stronger each time. Onimasa was one of his comebacks and one of the first in the 1980s when he hit the final stretch of his life and career, bridging the his masculine focused films into his more female focused work he’d end on. This is the perfect blend of both sides of his career.

 

Following the auteur line of thinking, Gosha fits snugly inside that category. There are the recurring themes, actors, crew, etc that repeat throughout his 4 decade career. Onimasa features Nakadai Tatsuya, Iwashita Shima, and Tanba Tetsuro. All of whom had worked with Gosha many times over the years. Along with the consistent use of the protagonist being a lower class outsider brought into a violent situation with upper class connections, the standard Gosha-isms are clear and present. 

This features the 2 types of female characters he explored throughout his career. One being noble with a sense of hope and the other being unapologetically mean-spirited with no time for anyone in the way. Both of these character types are always from troubled upbringings but always find a way to survive with dignity as they see it. All of his typical characters get examined and play with what he'd done before. These are fully embodied in the Kiryuin clan and their orbit in Onimasa, particularly in the titular Kiryuin 'Onimasa' Masagoro (Nakadai), Kiryuin Matsue (Natsume Masako), and Uta (Iwashita Shima).

 Whilst on that topic, the film itself is a purely crime/gangster epic in the vein of films like Battles Without Honor And Humanity series, The Godfather  series, and Heat. Onimasa rides that line between the prestige of The Godfather and the brutality of BWHAH. The crossovers are obvious - family, national history, your place in society, and power. These are the universal themes in this genre but the difference maker is making it unique (which has become an overused term but still is valid).

 

Natsume Masako as adult Matsue

Nakadai Tatsuya as 'Onimasa' Masagoro

 All the crime epics mentioned are particularly focused on men and masculinity. Onimasa follows suite (slightly) but the crux of the film is between father, Masagoro, and his adoptive daughter, Matsue. The start of the film introduces the seed of familial conflict and questions of obedience. Matsue goes to visit her sister, Hanako, who just died from a miscarriage, after receiving a letter from her. By the end, the context and reason for the cold open has been unveiled and goes straight for the gut. The letter read, “Help me, Father.” Masagoro’s dead and Matsue is the only Kiryuin left. She hadn’t seen her sister in years. They had not left things on good terms. Hanako married a rival yakuza from her father’s rival gang out of spite. The Kiryuin clan had been massacred in a failed rescue attempt. Nothing is simple. The time-jumping lets the epic sensibilites sink in. 

 

 This film is not only about the downfall of a yakuza family but it’s also the destruction of the old guard and their values in the face of rising fascism and militarism. On a macro-level, it’s the subjection of power between generations, within families, and within society all focused on the relationship about father and daughter - Masagoro and Matsue.

 Masagoro aka the titular Onimasa is a tyrant, a low level goofball of a tyrant but still a tyrant. We first hear about him via Matsue’s parents. They owe him a child. In addition to the promised boy, he detects the strength in young Matsue and takes her too. The boy runs away but Matsue has to takeover the mantle that both of them were supposed to bear. This becomes the focus. Matsue is the loyal, traditional daughter that does what her father asks without question in the spite of shifting into a modern woman. The opposite goes for her sister, Hanako - rebellious and socially stagnant with the times. Matsue and Masagoro are vessels through which everything is illustrated on screen.

 

Child Matsue (Sendo Nobuko) seeing what her future is supposed to be

 Matsue represents the emotion. Actually, no she doesn’t that’s the basic and oversimplified way of looking at it. She is trapped in a violent and stagnant family stuck changing world where she has no real future. Smart and savvy isn’t enough to free herself from her family. Education and the onset of leftist political theories light a fire in her that forces her to give up on family and fight for the life she wants. Her birth family could never provide, even a sliver of those opportunities. They were weak, physically and socially. The Kiryuin clan is strong but outdated. Matsue's caught in-between the violence of the past with the chaos of the future and survives on her own terms. I don’t think by the end, she's fully realizes her own place in the world yet but is on the cusp of it. Granted, it was 1940 so things were going to get even more chaotic in the next years. 

A big part of why Matsue is so compelling and complicated is the performer, Natsume Masako. Sadly, she died a few years later at 27. Her final film role was the narrator in Gosha’s Fireflies In The North aka Kita no Hotaru. That’s besides the point. Masako’s portrayal of the noble Gosha woman fighting for survival is very reminiscent of international icon, Hara Setsuko. It’s the next evolution of the Hara character that she’s famous for and particularly in the Kurosawa film, No Regrets For Our Youth. A young woman caught up in the political and social changes of then contemporary Japan before true radical change would be forced onto them. Masako fully captures and embodies that special quality that Hara had, harrowing empathy. The moment you see her, you understand from her restrained anger and frustration that she wants to scream out but can’t make herself do it. The tragedy of youth in a chaotic time, being caught in between but every choice is shaky at best. It should be noted that Natsume Masako played the adult Matsue. The kid Matsue was Sendo Nobuko. Natsume and Sendo’s performances are equally great and compliment each other. Sendo’s career was steady until 1991. She came back to acting in 2018 and has not stopped.

 

 Masagoro on the other hand, is equally as complicated and arguably more compelling (but it’s my beloved #NakadaiForever so I’m a little biased). The character is in line of the typical Nakadai character - cocky, menacing, and aloof. However, there’s a twist. It’s playing off of the expectation, but it’s purposely heightened taken into a cartoon-ish realm. The mood swings are huge. The energy is off-the-charts. The menace is palpable. Gosha and Takada Koji (co-writer with Gosha for the several films) created an equally compelling and frustrating operatic buffoon. Masagoro genuinely thinks he’s an honorable samurai that helps out his community. At every opportunity, he chooses violence and tradition as the solution to every problem. With every situation, that approach only makes things worse and only loses face even more. 

 His old-fashioned sensibilities conflict with his evolving perception of the changing country. Masagoro claims to a man of the people but blindly follows his traditional boss and then when confronted with leftist views changes his lane immediate. There is no true belief or forethought behind these actions, it’s all political posturing to appease the most pressing threat at that time. Everything about him is bullshit until the end, when he goes on a bloody rampage (a regular event for the Nakadai character in a Gosha film). He's a damaged man, only then realizing that he’s a fucking fraud. He’s not a samurai, not a yakuza, and not a hero of the people. He’s a guy that only knows how to hurt others and nothing else.

 

Masagoro's first impression of Matsue

 The conflict that haunts him and his clan throughout the film is egged on because of fragile male ego bullshit. His sort-of yakuza brother, Suenaga, and him have a decades long grudge after dogfighting bets (there is a scene of dogfighting, no dog is killed on-screen but it’s graphic). This follows the Kiryuin clan from 1917 to 1940. Suenaga accuses Masagoro of being Suda’s (their adoptive father and boss) dog, hence the dogfighting subplot and not so subtle metaphor built-into that. The sad truth is, Suenada’s right. Suda doesn’t care unless one of them steps out of line and needs punishment. This abusive relationship is carried over into the similarly strained and strange father-child dynamic between Masagoro and Matsue. There is love but it’s marred by circumstance. She was stolen and forced to fulfill the duty of 2 children, which she does into adulthood before abandoning the family for political aims. 

 

Tanba Tetsuro as Suda

Iwashita Shima as Uta

Nakadai Tatsuya as Masagoro

 It’s a Gosha film, so things are not simple. This was his comeback film after a wild last few years. He was not the same filmmaker as he once was. This was a more mature and shows the full scope of what Gosha was capable of and continued to expand on . The characters and world are cruel. The violence is visceral yet grounded with real consequences. Most importantly, no one ends up happier at the end. There epitome of the Gosha women with Uta as the mean-spirited no fucks given one and Matsue as the noble with a sense of hope. They play against each other as foster mom and daughter. Their relationship is rough but adds another layer. 

 Similar to the classic, Sandakan No. 8, the film covers a dynamic and culture-shattering period transitioning between the Taisho and Showa eras. The Taisho era had an influx of Western influences and cultures (as seen in the Suzuki Taisho trilogy). During this time, Western fashion, art, and technology took a permanent foothold leading to the Japan we now know today. Onimasa goes from 1917 to 1940, the shift into Fascist militarism is interwoven into the text. Masagoro’s and Matsue's personal politics and values evolve and morph with the times.

 

It’s also a historical commentary within the Japanese film industry from the last decade. There’s a key dinner scene between the Kiryuin clan and a newer group. The reps for this group are dressed in western suits and played by 3 iconic Toei actors - Hideo Murota, Mikio Narita, and Tatsuo Umemiya. These 3 are not just huge stars from the time but they embody the recent wave of Yakuza films out of Toei. It’s a nod to the BWHAH series as well as showing off what Onimasa is at it’s core, a crime epic. Gosha fully embraces both subsets of Yakuza films - the Ninkyo-Eiga (honorable criminal/Robin Hood story) and the Jitsuroku-Eiga (historical and more realistic story). You have the realistic take on a Ninkyo-Eiga hero in a Jitsuroku-Eiga world.

 Here’s where some of Gosha-isms are really thrown into a new context. There’s always a reliance on at least a couple violent acts that push and complicate the plot. With the backdrop of shifting into fascist military state, violence is more than a personal act. It’s both a method of the traditional mindset and the fascist state. It’s framed as a multi-faceted force to embrace the past traditions and enforce the new regime. With all that said, the bloody rampages are still as visceral and cinematic as Gosha’s past and future films. 

He gives us the satisfying violence but then throws in a new context to make you consider, whether or not if it was necessary or needed to come to that. Subverting bloody action with a shifting POV is a tough feat to pull off. It can easily get too preachy or too little too late. The groundwork is there in the text, and there if you want to examine the action scenes or simply enjoy seeing men get sliced up. Only through leftist politics and education, anyone can break away but that comes at a cost. 

The shifting language of the violence and what causes that violence to occur are both complicated and simplistic and both at the same time. Choosing to fight against far right policies and attitudes is bad enough here but going so far as believing in leftist ideas is too far. On the same token, if a rival gang takes your precious daughter then you have to fight for her honor. Even if, she doesn't want that. That said, the rampage at the end is amazing and tragic. It's a Gosha trope, but I love this trope.

 

 Costuming and set design are 2 elements that easily get overlooked by people, I’m referring to myself mostly. The production designer Nishioka Yoshinobu (Tracked - 1985, The Geisha - 1983, and 1996’s Kagero II - sequel to the Gosha film), set decorator Nishida Tadao (Oar - 1985), and costume designer Matsuda Takashi (Fireflies In The North - 1984) really deliver and add so much to the film. Each of them worked with Gosha during his prolific rebirth in the 1980s. Those are integral and can make the difference between a great and a good film. The contrast between Matsue’s birth home and her adoptive home are stark. We barely see the birth home. It’s cramped, old, and overstuffed. In a single shot you can see everyone in the family. Our introduction to the Kiryuin house reveals a massive labyrinth in comparison. It’s shot like a horror film via Matsue’s point-of-view. The hallways are barren. It’s quiet. The first things we see on the house is a set of samurai armor and a European grandfather clock. When she’s under the thumb of her father, the house is healthy and clean. Once Matsue leaves, Masagoro’s life spirals even further. By the time she returns as the new her, it’s been ransacked.

 

 The general atmosphere is serious and realistic. Everything has a slight sepia appearance, the classic troupe of period pieces. It’s played out but works to that purpose. There are still bursts of color in the design and costumes - particularly whites, reds, blues, and blacks. Despite the realistic tones, there is one continuous fantastical element. Whenever there’s a shot of the Kiryuin house, the sky looks more and more stylish contrasting well with the Kiryuin house. Is it symbolic, an art reference, etc.? Maybe, I don’t know but it looks cool.

 

 The house is a separate character in it’s own right (it’s a cliche but bear with me). Growing up within this mix of violence, love, and duty, created the woman that Matsue turned into. It's an essential part of the film. Her room from childhood to adulthood is small and cramped while her younger sister was given a big room with everything she wanted. Their costuming is as different as night and day. One embraces color and style whilst the other dresses plainly. 

 

 Onimasa took what Coppola and Fukasaku did with the crime epic and merged into one of Gosha’s masterpieces. It has everything romance, politics, action (coordinated by 1980s Gosha regular action coordinator Doi Junnosuke), drama, and history all packed into a 2.5 hour Yakuza spectacular. Everyone and everything was wonderfully in sync. For some reason, a lot of Gosha’s films are still only available in Japan but this is not one of them. You can easily find this and it’s worth it.

 

 *Just a quick reminder, there is on-screen animal violence in a scene early-on (it’s handled responsibly and supposed to be upsetting). If that makes this a hard pass, understandable.*

 **Hideo Gosha would be perfect for Arrow or any of the major boutique labels to bring more attention to. More People Need To Be Obsessed with Gosha like me.**