Gendai yakuza: hito-kiri yota (1972)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Kinji Fukasaku

Writers:

Kinji Fukasaku (writer)
Yoshihiro Ishimatsu (writer)

Release Date:

6 May 1972 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Crime

Cast

Bunta Sugawara	...	Isamu Okita
Noboru Ando
Mayumi Nagisa
Asao Koike
Noboru Mitani
Nobuo Yana	...	Karasawa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kyosuke Mashida
Hideo Murota
Asao Uchida

Also Known As:

Street Mobster (International: English title) (UK) (DVD title)
Modern Yakuza: Outlaw Killer (USA) (festival title)

Runtime:

92 min | USA:95 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Toei Company

Movie Connections:

Featured in Yakuza Eiga, une histoire du cinéma yakuza (2008) (TV)

Quality Fukasaku street crime picture

For me Street Mobster was slightly inferior to the other old Fukasaku films I've seen, but not by much. It tells the tale of a violent street thug who loves to fight and is somewhat of an anachronism in the world of crime that he finds himself in. The film is at its most interesting in showing the clash between his nature and the new world of orderly organised crime, and although the film pans out in a predictable fashion, its familiar structure is still a joy. The pace is as rapid as one might expect and the more melodramatic elements well judged. Due to the main character always sowing the seeds of his own downfall through his ceaselessly objectionable behaviour, the film lacked something of the emotional impact of the directors other work and I also though there was something off about his relationship with his lover. The sexual politics there seemed kinda strange to me though it could just be that I don't know enough of these films. As with all Fukasaku's work the acting is uniformly excellent, particularly Bunta Sugawara as the lead and whoever played the boss Yato, his name I don't recall. Also, the action is gritty and hyperkinetic although it could have done with perhaps a little more excess. All in all, I found this a notch below Fukasaku's best, but still thoroughly worth watching.