Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima
Knowing who to trust can mean the difference between life and death, especially for someone like Shoji Yamanaka (Kinya Kitaoji), a gambler fresh out of prison on an assault charge, who ends up falling in with the Muraoka gang of yakuza in Hiroshima following a street brawl, in which the boss' niece, Yasuko (Meiko Kaji), intervenes to save him from a savage beating by the vicious gangster, Katsutoshi Otomo (Shinichi Chiba). As Yamanaka strives to repay his debt to Tsuneo Muraoka (Hiroshi Nawa), he becomes yet another pawn in the bloody game of the underworld elite.
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Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima is the sequel to Battles Without Honor and Humanity, and takes place around the same time--and shortly after--the events of the prior film. Largely set in the city of Hiroshima, the film focuses on Yamanaka, and his turbulent, bloody place in the Muraoka gang, and their eventual war with a faction of the Otomo family, led by the wild Katsutoshi. The protagonist of the preceding film, Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), also factors into the plot, his friendship with Yamanaka during their time in prison together retconned into the story. But Yamanaka is not the same kind of stoic, hero-type that Hirono was in the first film; Yamanaka is a bit skittish, too quick to anger and seeks violent retribution against those who wrong him, a trait which is sometimes exploited by Muraoka. Yamanaka's biggest grudge is with Katsutoshi following the severe thrashing the punk gives him, and from which Yamanaka swears to kill him when he gets the chance. The dynamic between Yamanaka and Katsutoshi represents the two manic yet different ends of the violent spectrum of Deadly Fight in Hiroshima. Essentially, Katsutoshi is the cruel bully, and Yamanaka is the quiet boy in this proverbial schoolyard, whose resentment builds into anger. Yamanaka is frequently in a position where he has made some mistake and has to pay a terrible price for it--from his introduction where his cheating in a gambling parlor ends with him assaulting someone, to allowing himself to become involved with the widowed Yasuko, which in turn incurs the ire of Tsuneo Muraoka. His shyness and introspective qualities are the opposite of the bravado and arrogant swagger of his antagonist, Katsutoshi, who sneers and smashes things with his wooden sword to get attention. Katsutoshi is almost always in a constant state of agitation, and his refusal to adhere to his father's will seems like the perfect excuse for the vandal to run amok and start a war with the Muraoka clan through a series of guerrilla assaults. Where Yamanaka is usually ignorant of the circumstances which place him in dire straits, Katsutoshi seeks them out with the intent of causing havoc. He is, in fact, so unhinged that when he and his new gang storm the Muraoka home at night and shoot up the place, he rolls around like a maniac, still wearing his sunglasses for the nighttime raid, and even a woman's hat. In the rare moments when Hirono reunites with Yamanaka, he tries to help his troubled friend--even in ways that might dishonor him--because he sees how Yamanaka is being used in a way not unlike how he was under his former boss, Yoshio Yamamori (Nobuo Kaneko). Hirono has struggled to keep his newly founded family fed--one of his clan even resorts to cooking a stray dog for meat at one point, which forces Hirono to reconsider an offer by Yamamori to protect an ally on the run from the Muraoka clan. Hirono knows that the whole arrangement is sour to begin with, and ultimately tries to aid Yamanaka in his task to assassinate his quarry all the same.
Deadly Fight in Hiroshima is no less violent and bloody than its predecessor, although the scenes of aggression are almost universally frenzied and wild, all reason seemingly abandoned. Take the previously mentioned raid on the Muraoka home by Katsutoshi; the action is so scattered--with bullets flying all over and swords slashing indiscriminately--that it is virtually impossible to know how the chaos will resolve until the dust settles. Even when Katsutoshi and Yamanaka are battling in the street, there is a mixture of animal brutality in the brawl, that a deeper, wilder current runs through this primal conflict. Like Yamamori with Hirono, Muraoka has essentially "bought" the loyalty of Yamanaka through the gift of a Swiss watch at the behest of Yasuko to show pity on the recently released convict. The watch is certainly nice, and Yamanaka is wearing it in virtually every scene after, but Muraoka understands that it is really an investment in a kind of "property", and that he knows that with Yamanaka's urge for revenge against men like Katsutoshi and his love for Yasuko, Muraoka can prod him into killing men who stand in his way with little effort. What's surprising is that Muraoka appears much like a fatherly man--he even considers his niece, Yasuko, to be like his daughter--so he doesn't come across as a manipulator...but then none of the truly good ones do. When Yamanaka hears that Yasuko is supposed to be married to her late husband's younger brother while he rots in prison for the rest of his life, he cleverly breaks out by faking an illness. A colleague on the inside tells Yamanaka that Muraoka has been pushing her into this arranged marriage. When he confronts Muraoka, believing Yasuko has been waiting for him--in reality, Muraoka had her secreted back to Hiroshima--Yamanaka falls prey to one final deception by Muraoka, manipulated into performing another assassination. Hirono only slightly factors into the main narrative in Deadly Fight in Hiroshima, but when all is said and done, there is a bitter irony to the finale which echoes the first movie. It becomes clear to Hirono that this terrible cycle of despotic lords of crime using men's honor against them and treating them no better than pawns isn't a game that has any signs of slowing.
Recommended for: Fans of a brutal and intense Japanese gangster (yakuza) film, loosely adapted from true events set in and around Hiroshima in the early 1950s. It is a story of the escalation of violence and the mad bloodshed that follows.
Deadly Fight in Hiroshima is no less violent and bloody than its predecessor, although the scenes of aggression are almost universally frenzied and wild, all reason seemingly abandoned. Take the previously mentioned raid on the Muraoka home by Katsutoshi; the action is so scattered--with bullets flying all over and swords slashing indiscriminately--that it is virtually impossible to know how the chaos will resolve until the dust settles. Even when Katsutoshi and Yamanaka are battling in the street, there is a mixture of animal brutality in the brawl, that a deeper, wilder current runs through this primal conflict. Like Yamamori with Hirono, Muraoka has essentially "bought" the loyalty of Yamanaka through the gift of a Swiss watch at the behest of Yasuko to show pity on the recently released convict. The watch is certainly nice, and Yamanaka is wearing it in virtually every scene after, but Muraoka understands that it is really an investment in a kind of "property", and that he knows that with Yamanaka's urge for revenge against men like Katsutoshi and his love for Yasuko, Muraoka can prod him into killing men who stand in his way with little effort. What's surprising is that Muraoka appears much like a fatherly man--he even considers his niece, Yasuko, to be like his daughter--so he doesn't come across as a manipulator...but then none of the truly good ones do. When Yamanaka hears that Yasuko is supposed to be married to her late husband's younger brother while he rots in prison for the rest of his life, he cleverly breaks out by faking an illness. A colleague on the inside tells Yamanaka that Muraoka has been pushing her into this arranged marriage. When he confronts Muraoka, believing Yasuko has been waiting for him--in reality, Muraoka had her secreted back to Hiroshima--Yamanaka falls prey to one final deception by Muraoka, manipulated into performing another assassination. Hirono only slightly factors into the main narrative in Deadly Fight in Hiroshima, but when all is said and done, there is a bitter irony to the finale which echoes the first movie. It becomes clear to Hirono that this terrible cycle of despotic lords of crime using men's honor against them and treating them no better than pawns isn't a game that has any signs of slowing.
Recommended for: Fans of a brutal and intense Japanese gangster (yakuza) film, loosely adapted from true events set in and around Hiroshima in the early 1950s. It is a story of the escalation of violence and the mad bloodshed that follows.