Battles Without Honor and HumanityViolence is a virulent plague, and its morbidity spreads and corrupts with increased exposure. Battles Without Honor and Humanity is the story of the rise and fall of the Yamamori clan of Japanese yakuza (gangsters) over roughly a decade following the end of World War II. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) is one of a group of men who are pulled into the yakuza following an act which ultimately benefits the head of the family, Yoshio Yamamori (Nobuo Kaneko). When he is released from prison, and his bail is posted by Hiroshi Wakasugi (Tatsuo Umemiya), his new blood brother from the rival Doi gang, things for the family only continue to escalate in violence and betrayal.
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Battles Without Honor and Humanity opens with a provocative series of photographs depicting the iconic image of the mushroom cloud which formed after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. As Battles Without Honor and Humanity is set in Hiroshima, the film draws a direct connection between the society which has emerged in the wake of Japan's defeat, and the violent repercussions of such a devastating scar on the national psyche. It is as if the spirit of carnage has been spread across the Japanese people, who struggle to eke out a living in the wake. This is a portrayal of Japan where heartless American G.I.s victimize women in the street, and where the power structures of future criminal empires are in the formative stages in this black market culture taking root, capitalizing on the struggles of the Japanese to survive. The violence is a corruption; although it may not be evident early on, by the conclusion of Battles Without Honor and Humanity, it is clear that the persistent rage of war exists deep within the hearts of these men who find themselves absorbed into the criminal underworld. The key players are introduced early on in their humble beginnings with subtitles and their eventual positions within the Yamamori clan. This stylistic choice is recalled later, when many of these same men are slain in the ensuing violence, a flourish found in another work by director Kinji Fukasaku, Battle Royale. The hardened men getting by in the makeshift camp in Kure, Hiroshima are tough, but not yet yakuza; however, as Wakasugi points out to Hirono in prison, no one is born a yakuza. Men like Tetsuya Sakai (Hiroki Matsukata) and Uichi Shinkai (Shinichiro Mikami) are men who happened to just be present at this decisive moment, but over time, they rise to power in the clan, and yet become mortal enemies due to a disagreement over business practices. There is substantial bloodshed in Battles Without Honor and Humanity, and moments of violence are sharp and intense. And yet most of these moments of aggression come not from righteousness, but from prideful bouts of anger by men who have become complacent in their positions of power, and exploit it with abandon. The blood feud which ultimately destabilizes the Yamamori clan comes from a disagreement between two "brothers", Sakai and Shinkai, but in reality, the flame is sparked by a third party, who recognizes the clan's history for violence and internal strife, and gives it the final nudge. This reveals that the Yamamori clan was never strong, and was comfortable in taking advantage of men like Hirono to help it rise to prominence. Hirono often finds himself at the center of events in the clan, his actions propelling its rise, like a good luck charm--but Hirono is also treated like a sacrificial lamb. When he offends a man from another clan, he cuts off his small finger as an act of contrition, which in turn ends up creating a bond between the two clans, and strengthening Yamamori's standing...all because Yamamori was too cheap to pay restitution. When Hirono is sentenced to prison yet again, this time for an assassination attempt on behalf of Yamamori, his boss claims that he will be forever in his debt. But when he has his sentence commuted (surprisingly), Yamamori has suddenly adopted a more restrained attitude toward compensating his man, and even tries to commission him to perform yet another assassination for him, valuing him only slightly more than an attack dog. It is here that Hirono is forced to confront the terrible mistake he has made in not just becoming a yakuza, but throwing his lot in with a man without honor.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity has been described as the "Japanese Godfather"--although one could argue that the frenetic opening and how often Hirono finds himself as the trigger man for other increasingly dishonorable gangsters makes it more like Brian De Palma's Scarface. Both Battles Without Honor and Humanity and The Godfather are period pieces with World War II as a backdrop, where the ghost of the war remains like a residue on the characters, accenting their aptitude for violence. By descending into the underworld, they've only replaced one war for another. Both stories are also inspired by true events; Battles Without Honor and Humanity--released abroad as The Yakuza Papers--comes from a series of articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi, which in turn were accounts by a real-life yakuza named Kōzō Minō, who recalled a series of conflicts in Hiroshima between his contemporaries at that time. In this way, like The Godfather, Battles Without Honor and Humanity gives a visceral and authentic--albeit dramatized--look at the seedy underbelly of Japanese gangster power struggles in the late Forties to early Fifties. Battles Without Honor and Humanity was also a popular film in Japan, which went on to spawn a series of sequels, eventually moving away from the source material after several follow ups. The film exemplifies many of the tropes found in "yakuza films"; there are a multitude of scenes where tough guys in suits get angry with one another, start growling and roaring coarse threats, and generally flipping out. Battles Without Honor and Humanity features a lot of scenes of guys throwing punches, shooting up a room, smashing people through walls, and so on--action movie stuff. Other elements became popularized in the same way thatThe Godfather made words like "don" or "consigliere" more recognizable...moments like the one where Hirono commits yubitsume (dismembering his small finger), or sharing a sake cup for his initiation into the Yamamori clan. The popularization of yakuza films also carried over into other media due to its appeal. The stories of Battles Without Honor and Humanity were no doubt an inspiration for the popular series of video games in Japan, localized worldwide simply as "Yakuza". Battles Without Honor and Humanity features lots of action and suspense throughout the movie, as well as double dealings, internal power struggles, clan warfare, vice, and assassinations. This kind of jam-packed action loosely adapted from real-world events is no doubt what made the film such a popular sensation in Japan.
Recommended for: Fans of a violent action movie about the underworld of organized crime in Japan after World War II, dramatized from purportedly true accounts. It also has deeper themes about the dangers of swimming too close to the proverbial vortex of vice and violence, as it stains the souls of those who come too close to its pull.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity has been described as the "Japanese Godfather"--although one could argue that the frenetic opening and how often Hirono finds himself as the trigger man for other increasingly dishonorable gangsters makes it more like Brian De Palma's Scarface. Both Battles Without Honor and Humanity and The Godfather are period pieces with World War II as a backdrop, where the ghost of the war remains like a residue on the characters, accenting their aptitude for violence. By descending into the underworld, they've only replaced one war for another. Both stories are also inspired by true events; Battles Without Honor and Humanity--released abroad as The Yakuza Papers--comes from a series of articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi, which in turn were accounts by a real-life yakuza named Kōzō Minō, who recalled a series of conflicts in Hiroshima between his contemporaries at that time. In this way, like The Godfather, Battles Without Honor and Humanity gives a visceral and authentic--albeit dramatized--look at the seedy underbelly of Japanese gangster power struggles in the late Forties to early Fifties. Battles Without Honor and Humanity was also a popular film in Japan, which went on to spawn a series of sequels, eventually moving away from the source material after several follow ups. The film exemplifies many of the tropes found in "yakuza films"; there are a multitude of scenes where tough guys in suits get angry with one another, start growling and roaring coarse threats, and generally flipping out. Battles Without Honor and Humanity features a lot of scenes of guys throwing punches, shooting up a room, smashing people through walls, and so on--action movie stuff. Other elements became popularized in the same way thatThe Godfather made words like "don" or "consigliere" more recognizable...moments like the one where Hirono commits yubitsume (dismembering his small finger), or sharing a sake cup for his initiation into the Yamamori clan. The popularization of yakuza films also carried over into other media due to its appeal. The stories of Battles Without Honor and Humanity were no doubt an inspiration for the popular series of video games in Japan, localized worldwide simply as "Yakuza". Battles Without Honor and Humanity features lots of action and suspense throughout the movie, as well as double dealings, internal power struggles, clan warfare, vice, and assassinations. This kind of jam-packed action loosely adapted from real-world events is no doubt what made the film such a popular sensation in Japan.
Recommended for: Fans of a violent action movie about the underworld of organized crime in Japan after World War II, dramatized from purportedly true accounts. It also has deeper themes about the dangers of swimming too close to the proverbial vortex of vice and violence, as it stains the souls of those who come too close to its pull.