DVD released: September 7, 2004.
Approximate running time: 87/93 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35.1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
DVD Release: Home Vision
Region Coding: Region 1 NTSC
Retail Price: $29.95



Reviewed by:
Ian Jane on October 22, 2004.

Street Mobster

An incredibly fast paced gangster film, Street Mobster is the story of Isamu Okita (Bunta Sagawara), an aging mobster stuck in jail for killing some rivals Takigawa clan gangsters in a bathhouse a few years ago. He serves his time and once he’s released, he finds out that the old school gangsters are no longer in power and that a more vicious breed of Yakuza rules the streets. Soon after he’s out of the big house, he meets up with Kizaki, a young wanna be gangster who talks Isamu into reforming his old gang and taking back control of the territory.

Okita’s gang impresses yet another group of Yakuza and the two groups align and successfully crush the Takigawa’s. But when a rival gang leader named Mr. Owada from a different territory comes on the scene to further expand the new alliance, things fall apart and Okita and crew are kicked out for disrespecting the powerfully Owada. Okita, sick of taking orders from rival gangs and wanting control of the territory for himself, starts a gang war between all allied factions and things very soon spiral out of control around him.

Fukasaku does an excellent job of pulling us into the world of a vicious anti-hero. It’s not hard at all to find yourself rooting for Okita, even while he’s popping caps at other gangsters and trying to further expand his criminal empire. And while, yes, Okita is the (anti) hero of the film, at the same time the camera doesn’t flinch away when it’s time for him to get down to some nasty business as we see him shooting his way through the Japanese underworld.

Rounded out nicely with an evocative score and some of his trademark unusual handheld camera work, Street Mobster is a gritty and serious crime film that focuses on the violent side of the criminal element. 

Graveyard Of Honor

Graveyard Of Honor is the story of a Yakuza named Rikio Ishikawa (Tetsuya Watari) who operates as a tough for a large Yakuza gang. We witness in an almost cinema verite style his descent into the cold and uncompromising Japanese underworld – where life is cheap and survival and money are the only things that matter. When he gets out of prison, his bosses send him to Osaka to serve there for ten years until they know he’s got his act back together. He gets bored of this ‘small time’ life pretty quickly though, and soon he’s off to Tokyo to do things his way. 

We soon realize, through his erratic and violent behavior, that Ishikawa may be a little off balance. In a sense this gives him an edge in his chosen occupation as it means he won’t think twice in a ‘kill or be killed’ situation. He’s the ultimate tough guy who’s out for himself and makes no qualms about letting everyone know it. His lunatic ways allow him to work his way up from what is essentially an entry-level position within the criminal bureaucracy to one of the most feared and revered Yakuza members in town. He also develops a serious heroin addiction which further expatiates what we know will have to be his inevitable downfall. 

A violent film full of twisted and heartless characters (Ishikawa literally eats the remains of his girlfriend in one scene), Graveyard Of Honor is a film full of human scum. There aren’t any really likeable characters and you can more or less check your sense of sympathy at the door. Fukasaku doesn’t want his gangsters to serve as role models or silver screen idols, he wants them as they are – dirty, repugnant, vicious and evil – and that’s exactly how they’re portrayed. 

The Street Mobster DVD contains a Kinji Fukasaku filmography, and an interview with a former Yakuza member. While the interview may sound like a great feature to include on this release, it’s rather brief and doesn’t delve too much into what it’s like to actually be a Yakuza member or any other similar information. Finally, there are trailers included for Graveyard Of Honor, Battles Without Honor And Humanity, Deadly Fight In Hiroshima, Proxy War, Police Tactics, Battles Without Honor And Humanity: Final Episode, and a trailer for the Home Vision Zatoichi DVD releases. 

The Graveyard Of Honor DVD contains a twenty-minute video essay entitled A Portrait Of Rage that gives a basic crash course on the director and his work. It’s fairly light in that it doesn’t really go into too much detail about the man or his work but as a basic overview of who he was and what he did, it’s not bad. There is also a second featurette called On The Set With Fukasaku that comes in the form of an interview with assistant director Kenichi Oguri. He discusses what it was like to work with the late director and some of the interesting things that occurred on set. Tom Mes supplies some interesting liner notes that put the film into perspective, and we also get another Fukasaku filmography. The trailers that are on the Street Mobster release are on this DVD as well.