There's probably a pretty good movie buried inside "The Yakuza", or the materials to make one. It definitely has the actors: Mitchum turns in a fine performance, as does Ken Takakura. And the movie is well shot and uses some fantastic locations.
So what went wrong? The movie is, in a word, incomprehensible. I just wasn't able to follow it from scene to scene. The set up is too complex. We are not only required to understand the honour of the yakuza, but also the unique code of ethics of the Mitchum character... and all the other western characters.
The movie feels like a puzzle for an editor to solve by taking pieces out and putting them some place else, or just discarding them completely. Trying to actually bring the story out from the shadows.
The movie does have two memorable scenes. One is an underwater assassination attempt. The other is the movie's final scene, which I won't spoil for you, except to say that I read Paul Schrader started with that scene and worked backwards. He either worked too hard, or not hard enough. This was my second viewing of "The Yakuza", and I still didn't understand the motivation for it.
So what went wrong? The movie is, in a word, incomprehensible. I just wasn't able to follow it from scene to scene. The set up is too complex. We are not only required to understand the honour of the yakuza, but also the unique code of ethics of the Mitchum character... and all the other western characters.
The movie feels like a puzzle for an editor to solve by taking pieces out and putting them some place else, or just discarding them completely. Trying to actually bring the story out from the shadows.
The movie does have two memorable scenes. One is an underwater assassination attempt. The other is the movie's final scene, which I won't spoil for you, except to say that I read Paul Schrader started with that scene and worked backwards. He either worked too hard, or not hard enough. This was my second viewing of "The Yakuza", and I still didn't understand the motivation for it.