It’s a bit of a shame most
Western filmgoers who hear the name of the late prolific Japanese director
Kinji Fukusaku can only name his portions of Tora! Tora! Tora! and his now world infamous Battle Royale. The man made countless
films throughout the 1960s and 70s at an almost geometric rate and for better
or worse set himself apart from his more formalistic contemporaries including
but not limited to Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu with his gritty, frenetic
and frequently drab aesthetic. With a
boundless, manic energy the camera can barely keep up with, Fukusaku would no
doubt pave the way and arguably influence the visual schema of director Takashi
Miike whose Dead or Alive series,
however lunatic, looks more and more like a Fukusaku film series with each
passing day.
One thing is for sure,
second to soon to be Japanese surrealist Seijun Suzuki, Fukusaku was the grand master
of the yakuza picture who singlehandedly redefined the genre with his now
iconic Battles Without Honor and Humanity
film series co-written with impeccably detailed realism by screenwriter
Kazuo Kasahara. It’s no surprise that
after the success of that film series led by actor Bunta Sugawara that this
loose trio of creative artists would reunite once again for what is often
referred to as one of the greatest yakuza films of all time, Cops vs. Thugs.
Set in 1963 Kurashima, the
film follows detective Kuno (Sugawara) who recognizes a ticking time bomb
separating the Kawade gang aided by political connections and the Ohara gang
aided by police connections is about to go off.
Working closely with best friend Ohara lieutenant Hirotani (Hiroki
Matsukata) to maintain balance at what seems like a perpetual Mexican standoff
between the two warring yakuza clans punctuated by occasionally random
outbursts of violence, all mostly seems well despite the gray moral areas of
the underworld’s participants. But when
a young by-the-books chief of police eager to make a name for himself invades
and shakes up the fragile balance governing the Kurashima criminal and
crime-fighting alliances, all ultraviolent and chaotic Hell begins to break
loose on the streets and alleyways of Japan.
It’s up to Kuno to try and restore order separating the cops from the
criminals before too many more bodies begin to fall.
Much like Miike’s Dead or Alive 2, Cops vs. Thugs is as much about yakuza depravity as it is about the
tender bonds of friendship and how circumstance beyond anyone’s control can bring
about demise for everyone. Guiding the
viewer through this maze is Sugawara’s hard-boiled detective Kuno who
instinctively knows the terrain and is forced to make a choice that will either
quell the chaos or fan the flames. For a
film so seemingly bereft of a moral compass, it’s an oddly sentimental, even
conservative viewpoint that manages to imbue human warmth to the inhuman.
Shot in Fukusaku’s now
trademark shaky camerawork which would no doubt inform the aesthetic of
directors like Paul Greengrass replete with his key use of the freeze frame on
moments of mayhem and frequent use of canted angles, watching Cops vs. Thugs feels like a ride in a
derailed boxcar tumbling down a cliff.
At times Fukusaku’s war zone is hard to keep up with, moving a mile a
minute with bodies, severed heads, guns and daggers bouncing about the frame
coupled with screams and explosions.
Also aiding the film’s
grayscale mood is the film’s funky guitar rock soundtrack by frequent composer
Toshiaki Tsushima (Battles Without Honor
and Humanity), giving the film a vague sense of tension as well as a
somewhat somber feeling of hopelessness.
Like the characters and the world within the film itself, it’s a strange
yet appropriate dichotomy to have with the counterbalancing musical moods
rapidly shifting between excitement and tragedy.
Despite the social critique
being rolled out in Fukusaku’s wild cops and robbers epic, much like Michael
Mann’s Heat this is ultimately a character
study about two friends on opposite sides of the fence who must choose between
maintaining their bond or bringing each other down for the good of the
city. Though Cops vs. Thugs can be off-putting, even shocking for some for it’s
almost constant wallow in illicit and unsavory behavior with almost no one
coming out of it clean, if there’s one thing Fukusaku’s masterpiece does
beautifully it proves even bad people deserve good stories.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki