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| Images courtesy of Radiance Films |
One year before unveiling his post-WWII Japanese prison
drama Eighteen Years in Prison, former Rashomon second unit
assistant director Tai Kato turned jidaigeki realisateur did a massive four
films in 1966 starting with today’s Radiance Films release of Tokijiro Lone
Yakuza. A historical action drama
spoken of the same breath as Sonny Chiba’s Beast Fighter films with
regard to a rogue figure who tries to lead a normal nonviolent life only to
continue being dragged back into yakuza violence, the film is another shining
example of the rarely seen cinema of Tai Kato whose work is only just now
gaining traction in the West. Making its
worldwide blu-ray disc premiere through Radiance Films in a special limited
edition, Kato’s foray into jidaigeki era yakuza fare with a conflicted long
hero at the epicenter represents another stellar package from the exquisite
boutique releasing label.
Wandering swordsman and gambler Tokijiro (Kinnosuke Nakamura
from Goyokin) has had a belly full of killing when he and his buddy Asa
(Kiyoshi Atsumi) are asked by an innkeeper to take out a fellow yakuza. After it goes badly, Tokijiro reluctantly
agrees to pick up where Asa left off, killing the last member of a rival yakuza
gang but not before hastily agreeing to the man’s dying words to care for his
wife Okinu (Junko Ikeuchi) and son.
Wanting to be done with violent killing, Tokijiro and Okinu flee into
hiding much to the chagrin of his former host who wants Okinu and son dead
too. From here it becomes a tense operatically
gory explosion of bloodshed and slayings as Tokijiro, a man of honor, is forced
to defend Okinu’s family against an entire armada of yakuza assassins devoid of
any codes of conduct.
Painterly, picturesque and elegantly presented as Tokijiro
tries his best to protect the surviving family members of the man he killed, Tokijiro
Lone Yakuza is a fabulous widescreen medieval yakuza swordsman tale of betrayal
and redemption with the titular hero even walking plainly into deathtraps
seemingly out of some dogged sense of penance.
Much of this comes from Kinnosuke Nakamura’s portrayal of a clean-cut
man with a strict moral code navigating a Hellscape of amoral denizens who will
kill for a nickel. Equally strong is Junko
Ikeuchi who comes to love Tokijiro but cannot comprehend he’s also technically
the murderer of her husband.
Lensed by legendary Tora! Tora! Tora! cinematographer
Osamu Furuya who captures evening dusk skies and beaches with immaculate beauty
contrasting with the poetic bloodletting, the film is magnificently blocked and
framed between tight close-ups and carefully composed widescreen vistas. Scored by almost even more seismic film
composer Ichiro Saito of Ugetsu and The Life of Oharu, the energy
of the original soundtrack is sweeping if not fleeting with careful placement
of emotional cues for when the film’s hero finds himself on the precipice of
moral crossroads. Take for instance a
key sequence when the hero is carrying a child on his shoulders with mother
present, doing a good charitable deed of milky cloudy skies at sunset. It represents the character at his most
honorable and decent, a far cry from later when he crosses paths with them
against at night realizing they’re the survivors of the man he killed.
The first of four films directed by Tai Kato that year and a
worthy companion piece to the aforementioned Karate Bullfighter and even
Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo/Sanjuro film series, Tokijiro Lone Yakuza is
a splendid jidaigeki entertainment and a unique regard for the decorum of the
yakuza at the time. Though the
appearances and operations may have changed some with time, the basic
principles of the yakuza code remain unchanged.
In a world devoid of morality where only avarice and gluttony rule with
an iron fist, a morally conflicted but honorable swordsman sick of the way of
the world around him decides once and for all to reset things as they should
be. Fans of Japanese cinema and the outpouring
of delicious releases from Radiance Films will be proud to have this on their
blu-ray shelves. I know I am!
--Andrew Kotwicki
