Before the controversial
Japanese cult extreme provocateur Takashi Miike achieved international
notoriety for such transgressive masterworks as his romantic psychodrama Audition, the blood and entrails
drenched Ichi the Killer and the
samurai action saga 13 Assassins, the
director’s first splash from V-Cinema to the theater screen arrived with his
loosely defined Black Society Trilogy.
Beginning with the
ultraviolent triad shocker Shinjuku Triad
Society before moving onto the understated and somewhat sentimental Rainy Dog and finally concluding with
the somber Ley Lines, Miike’s trilogy
of yakuza films both revitalized the crime genre in Japanese film and echoed
the 1970s cinematic sensibilities of the ferociously realistic yakuza films of
Kinju Fukusaku (Battle Royale).
Though considerably less
flashy than his Dead or Alive trilogy
and lacking the lunatic absurdities of Gozu
or Visitor Q, the Black Society Trilogy showcases the
director trying his hand at a medium that would become his mainstay although he
still directs V-Cinema features from time to time. These three modern yakuza films of the new
millennia forecast the emergence of an important contemporary filmmaker characterized
by his excessive extremities while never losing sight of the arcs driving his
often dispossessed or astray protagonist’s narratives forward.
For years Miike’s Black Society Trilogy was only available in a poorly mastered DVD trilogy issued by Artsmagic, rendering all three films nearly unwatchable for the lack of detail and poor contrast levels, until now. Released this week on blu-ray disc, the Black Society Trilogy comes from Arrow Video in a new collectible set, housing all three features on two discs with new interviews by Takashi Miike and frequent collaborator Show Aikawa. With this, the Movie Sleuth takes a look at all three films in this underrated, lesser known series of films by Japan’s very own enfant terrible.
Shinjuku
Triad Society (1995)
From the opening montage of
rough, gritty looking scenes concerning a police officer infiltrating a Triad group
intercut with scenes of gay prostitution, Takashi Miike’s Shinjuku Triad Society displays the Yakuza and Triad underworld as
we’ve never seen before. Multilingual,
often shifting between Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese, the first entry in
Miike’s Black Society Trilogy is the
tale of tough, conflicted cop Kiriya (Kippei Shiina) who will use any means
necessary to bring down the notorious Dragon’s Claw gang including resorting to
rape and torture to get his detainees talking.
Meanwhile Kiriya’s brother Yoshihito just so happens to be the attorney
for the very gang he’s determined to bring down.
All the while internal
warfare echoing the ultraviolence of the Outlaw
VIP Gangster films seems to happen both without warning and with a great
deal of arterial spray. Touching on the
black market including but not limited to drug and organ dealing and a
particular rumination on male prostitution, Shinjuku
Triad Society gives viewers fascinatingly conflicted characters while
serving up the harshness of the crime underworld without compromise or
exit.
For instance, scenes of
heterosexual and largely homosexual rape play out in real time but unlike the
forthcoming Dead or Alive or Ichi the Killer, these scenes don’t so
much play for shock as they illustrate the harsh realities of this underworld
and the contradictions of the characters.
Furthermore, we’re given enough information and back histories of every
character that we understand the motivations behind their transgressions.
While the Yakuza genre more
or less gets a much needed booster shot with Miike’s transgressive, often
coarse approach to the proceedings, this film unmistakably forecasts the impish
prankster that would explode the world in Dead
or Alive and give birth to an adult in Gozu. Though on the surface it tells a
straightforward ensemble Yakuza piece, Miike litters it with such extremes that
the uninitiated will most definitely recoil at the myriad of horrors unfolding
onscreen.
Clearly a microbudget effort
spoken of the same breath as Kinji Fukusaku’s relentlessly gritty Yakuza films
of the 1970s, Miike’s grimy aesthetic is both hard on the eyes and oddly
appropriate for this kind of ugly and sordid tale of criminal investigation. Fans accustomed to Miike’s over the top brand
of ultraviolent extremes and jet black humor will find Shinjuku Triad Society a somewhat more sobering experience
comparatively, but fans of the hard boiled Yakuza crime genre will come away
feeling elated by the rough and ragged world being presented here. Not for all tastes but Miike die-hards are
urged to check this one out immediately as it displays the emergence of an
original voice in Japanese film flexing his big screen muscles for the very
first time.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki