VIOLENT STREETS (1974)
aka Bôryoku gai
Label: Film Movement
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 95 Minutes 46 Seconds
Audio: Uncompressed Japanese PCM 2.0 Dual Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Hideo Gosha
Cast: Noboru Andô, Akira Kobayashi, Isao Natsuyagi, Bunta Sugawara, Tetsurô Tanba, Asao Koike, Minami Nakatsugawa, Kawamura Maki, Madame Joy
When a popular Yakuza affiliated nightclub-singer named Minami (Minami Nakatsugawa) is kidnapped by a Halloween masked rival clan retired Togiku-clan yakuza turned flamenco night club owner Egawa (Noboru Andô, Graveyard of Honor, a real-life Yakuza gang member before turning to acting) comes out of retirement when his Ginza district club becomes a bargaining chip in a turf war. Violent, sleazy in a pinky violence sort of way, and action-packed this hardboiled Yakuza flick is chock full of layered characters and interesting plot twists. The film opens at the flamenco club where we witness Egawa dealing with some unruly patrons; he ends up stabbing a guy in the eye with a spiked receipt holder before smashing a phone over a guys head. I love the special effects used here, it's obviously a break-away phone filled with fake blood, when he smashes it over the guy's head blood goes everywhere, establishing Egawa as a bad-ass not to be trifled with. He then goes back stage into a dressing room where his nightclub girlfriend Akiko (Kawamura Maki) accuses him of still having a thing for his former gal. In response he misogynistically slaps her to the floor, roughs her up, rips open her blouse exposing her breasts; and proceeds to have his way with her. The encounter turns into a passionately consensual thing, but it's not a perfect relationship obviously. All this is intercut with a striking flamenco performance at the nightclub, it's quite a terrific opening scenario and sets things up quite nicely, establishing Egawa as an bas-ass anti-hero who doesn't take no guff.
When a popular Yakuza affiliated nightclub-singer named Minami (Minami Nakatsugawa) is kidnapped by a Halloween masked rival clan retired Togiku-clan yakuza turned flamenco night club owner Egawa (Noboru Andô, Graveyard of Honor, a real-life Yakuza gang member before turning to acting) comes out of retirement when his Ginza district club becomes a bargaining chip in a turf war. Violent, sleazy in a pinky violence sort of way, and action-packed this hardboiled Yakuza flick is chock full of layered characters and interesting plot twists. The film opens at the flamenco club where we witness Egawa dealing with some unruly patrons; he ends up stabbing a guy in the eye with a spiked receipt holder before smashing a phone over a guys head. I love the special effects used here, it's obviously a break-away phone filled with fake blood, when he smashes it over the guy's head blood goes everywhere, establishing Egawa as a bad-ass not to be trifled with. He then goes back stage into a dressing room where his nightclub girlfriend Akiko (Kawamura Maki) accuses him of still having a thing for his former gal. In response he misogynistically slaps her to the floor, roughs her up, rips open her blouse exposing her breasts; and proceeds to have his way with her. The encounter turns into a passionately consensual thing, but it's not a perfect relationship obviously. All this is intercut with a striking flamenco performance at the nightclub, it's quite a terrific opening scenario and sets things up quite nicely, establishing Egawa as an bas-ass anti-hero who doesn't take no guff.
The Hideo Gosha flick is a pulpy and seedy Yakuza tale filled with colorful characters, starting with the cool and collected Egawa, but there are plenty of others, including his former Yakuza pal Yazaki (Akira Kobayashi, Battles Without Honor and Humanity) who might not be such a pal after all, a soda-slurping gun runner named Tatsu (Bunta Sugawara, Cops vs Thugs), a Yakuza assassin duo - one of whom is a transgendered razor-slasherwearing a white kimono (Madame Joy, Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread). We get a botched ransom handoff, a pretty rowdy encounter with the assassins at a chicken farm which utilizes a similar blood gag to the earlier phone to the skull, with Egawa smashing multiple glass bottle (pre-filled with fake blood) over one of the assassins skulls (as the killer's hand is being chewed on by a ravenous caged dog) before shanking him in the base of the skull with the broken bottle neck. It's a delightfully gory encounter - this is a flick with some solid blood effects for sure, it's heavy with wet squibs and pools of spilt blood, and during a late in the film 2-man assault on an entire Togiki-clan party some eye-popping double-barrel shotgun trauma, plus more feather-flying violence back at the chicken farm!
While the kidnapping is the imputes for Egawa's involvement there's a lot more going on here than just a kidnapping, there's plenty of power plays in position here involving double and triple crosses, betrayal, jealousy and and seedy backroom dealings that do not immediately come to light, making for kinetic and stylish Yakuza thriller, deftly executed with a pretty terrific soundtrack with flamenco elements throughout.
Audio/Video: Violent Streets arrives on Blu-ray from Film Movement in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1) looking quite pleasing, sourced from a 2K restoration from the original film elements. The source in in excellent shape, the grain looks organic, and colors look fine. The visuals are not razor-sharp though, it's got a bit of soft lensing to it at times and the blacks can be a bit milky with some of the darker scenes being a bit murky, but this look to a be an organic source limitation. Audio comes by way of Japanese PCM 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. It sounds appropriately vintage and doesn't have the widest range but it does the job, and the Masaru Satô (Ebirah, Horror of the Deep) score sounds quite nice. There's some minor age-related hiss to it at times, but it's not ruinous.
Extras for this release start off with the 20-min Tattooed Director: Hideo Gosha featurette with Tomoe Gosha which is rather fascinating, a very candid discussion of the director's personal life and professional setbacks, his infamous tattoo (which she shows a picture of in a book), and his films by his daughter. She's quite knowledgeable and gets into her father's portrayal of women, the transgendered killer, talking at Noboru Andô's storied past and the incident that gave him his facial scar, The 9-min A Street That Can’t Be Beat video essay by TokyoScope author Patrick Macias covers a lot of ground about the 'big four' actors spotlighted in the film, including info about the memorable assassins duo. I love his enthusiasm and energy, it made for a great watch. Plus we get a 16-Page Collector's Booklet with a new essay by Japanese film expert Mark Schilling. The disc us buttoned-up with HD Trailers for Violent Streets (1:31), Samurai Wolf (1:31), Samurai Wolf 2 (1:24). The single-disc arrives in a clear keepcase with a two-sided non-reversible sleeve of artwork, plus we get a Slipcover with the same artwork wrap, inside is the aforementioned 16-Page Collector's Booklet.
Special Features:
- Tattooed Director: Hideo Gosha featurette with Tomoe Gosha (19:41)
- A Street That Can’t Be Beat video essay by TokyoScope author Patrick Macias (8:44)
- 16-page booklet with a new essay by Japanese film expert Mark Schilling
- Tattooed Director: Hideo Gosha featurette with Tomoe Gosha (19:41)
- A Street That Can’t Be Beat video essay by TokyoScope author Patrick Macias (8:44)
- 16-page booklet with a new essay by Japanese film expert Mark Schilling
- Film Movement Trailers: Violent Streets Trailer (1:31), Samurai Wolf Trailer (1:31), Samurai Wolf 2 Trailer (1:24)
Screenshots from the Film Movement Classics Blu-ray:
