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| Images courtesy of 88 Films |
Kinji Fukusaku was only four years into his filmography as a
ferociously prolific director by the time he had already arrived on his ninth
film with 1964’s Jakoman & Tetsu now being released outside of Japan
for the first time via 88 Films in the United Kingdom and United States. Based on the novel Herring Fishery by
Senkichi Taniguchi who directed and adapted it for the screen with the
legendary Akira Kurosawa in 1949 by Toho, Fukusaku’s remake is a black-and-white
Toeiscope 2.35:1 widescreen period actioner in theory feels like a Kurosawa
project albeit with Fukusaku’s trademark Cinéma verité camerawork and bursts of
violence. Though the original film
starred the incomparable Toshiro Mifune in the role of Tetsu and Ryunosuke
Tsukigata as the one-eyed Jakoman, Fukusaku’s update still finds its own
footing as a picturesque, occasionally transcendent panorama.
Circa postwar 1947 Japan in a small coastal village of
Hokkaido adorned by snowy landscapes and fierce cold, Ken Takakura of the Abashiri
Prison film series plays Tetsu who has just returned home from the war to
assist his father Kyubei (Isao Yamagata) with the family own fishery. However trouble brews with the coincidental
arrival of Jakoman (Tetsuro Tanba from You Only Live Twice), a one-eyed
riff raff harboring a longstanding grudge against Tetsu’s father with the
intention of creating and sowing as much discord and upheaval within the fishery
as humanly possible. Tetsu proves to be
his only match in a fight after watching Jakoman bully and beat up fellow
family members. Things are even further
complicated when the nefarious Jakoman reveals in confidence to Tetsu the
reasons he has such an axe to grind with Kyubei. Soon Tetsu finds himself torn between both
parties unsure of which side to choose as the fishing season is on the cusp of
arrival and passing the village by completely.
A tense little chamber piece poised on the outskirts of vast
ocean coastlines and tight rural villages in a frozen landscape, intimate in
characterization yet sprawling in occasional spectacle, Jakoman & Tetsu for
being the ninth feature by the insanely prolific film worker is a taut masterpiece
with echoes of Moby Dick or The Old Man and the Sea. Primarily a character driven saga set within the
realm of historical fiction, touching on Japanese lives picking up the pieces
after the war and finding stability only for one miscreant to come in and try
to dismantle everything for his own amusement, the film is among the Earthiest
and curiously most life affirming films of Fukusaku’s. With breathtaking cinematography by Bushido
cameraman Makoto Tsudoi and an enthralling score by none other than Yojimbo
composer Masaru Satô, the look of the world of Jakoman & Tetsu feels
rural and lived in with the soft glow of snow on the ground. Of course the ensemble piece while featuring
numerous extras is largely trained on the three principal characters played
brilliantly by Ken Takakura who makes Tetsu into a clean cut hero while Tetsuro
Tanba elevates Jakoman into that of a vengeful mischief maker.
The first of two films made and released in 1964 by Kinji
Fukusaku (the other being Wolves, Pigs and Men), Jakoman & Tetsu otherwise
known as One-Eyed Captain and Tetsu helped further cement the director’s
reputation for being able to crank out fully realized films in a short span of
time. Released on blu-ray for the first
time by 88 Films who have since began following suit with Radiance Films with
their inclusion of golden or pink OBI spines, the disc itself includes a
running audio commentary mediated by Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp. In addition to original as well as newly
commissioned sleeve artwork, the disc includes a stills gallery and collectible
booklet inside. 88 Films second to
Radiance Films and Arrow Video are further proving their commitment to Japanese
cinema and particularly the filmography of Kinji Fukusaku who was arguably the ‘first
Takashi Miike’ with regard to being able to churn out major films usually in
scope widescreen at a rapid-fire pace.
--Andrew Kotwicki
