Radiance Films: The Japanese Godfather Trilogy (1977 - 1978) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Radiance Films

The interesting thing about The Rapacious Jailbreaker director Sadao Nakajima’s sprawling three-film epic The Japanese Godfather Trilogy being released for the first time on Blu-ray disc in a limited-edition boxed set by Radiance Films is that it feels like one giant movie rather than a disparate series of yakuza films.  Loosely based on the true story of Kazuo Taoka and the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza empire with the names changed to Issei Sakura and the Nakajima-gumi, it told a saga of the illicit interplay between politics and organized crime involving a doctor who marries the daughter of a yakuza godfather.  

A star-studded series featuring the screen talents of Shin Saburi, Bunta Sugawara, Koji Tsuruta, Sonny Chiba and later even Toshiro Mifune, The Japanese Godfather Trilogy is at once an answer to Francis Ford Coppola’s first two The Godfather films as well as a yakuza odyssey keenly interested in the mechanics of the uneasy relationship between political and criminal powers with a classiness, grandeur and stark cruel viciousness.

Borne out of a police intervention and cancellation of a third installment in a series of films chronicling the life and exploits of Kazuo Taoka fearing money was being funneled from Toei to the yakuza, The Japanese Godfather Trilogy saw two pictures made at the beginning and end of 1977.  Starting off with Yakuza War: Japanese Godfather followed by Japanese Godfather: Ambition we’re introduced to the Sakura family which is in a transitional phase of trying to comply with political factions while omniscient voiceover narration cooly notifies the audience of the proceedings and the interpersonal machinations governing the marriage between business, politics and the yakuza.  

Boiling down to two principal characters over the course of two films Sakura (Shin Saburi) and Oishi (Toshiro Mifune introduced in the second film), our saga begins with Shuhei Tatsumi (Koji Tsuruta of Blood of Revenge) trying to disband his yakuza faction against the wishes of Sakura.  Following the wedding of Dr. Ichinomiya (Etsushi Takahashi) to the boss’ daughter and several violent outbursts from reckless yakuza Sakota (Sonny Chiba), the time comes for the outsider married into the family to prove his allegiance and worth to Sakura’s clan.
 
In the second film Japanese Godfather: Ambition, we’re introduced to Nakajima-gumi’s rival the Kanto Alliance led by Oishi (Toshiro Mifune) in the midst of trying to seize control of a shipping company’s stocks while navigating the interpersonal dealings with Sakura.  Sakura, played with a kind of Marlon Brando grandiosity by Shin Saburi often cloaked in his kimono hiding behind large sunglasses, is staunchly committed to the older traditional ways of yakuza interaction, emphasized particularly over opening credits of a red sunset overlooked by a Japanese warrior’s armor.  

Following the suicide of the Nakajima-gumi’s top economist Shiro Matsueda (Hiroki Matsukata), we move into the third 1978 film Japanese Godfather: Conclusion which begins to see the carefully managed walls of the Nakajima-gumi and its Godfather Sakura slowly imploding.  As the Nakajima-gumi finds itself at odds with the Kanto Alliance over a tourism project in Saipan, another mercurial figure in the form of political-economic fixer Kikuo Oyama (Chiezo Kataoka) emerges to further complicate the Nakajima/Kanto entanglements.  By this time, Dr. Ichinomiya is teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown threatening to spiral out of control into violent confrontation, risking undoing everything Sakura worked for in maintaining his empire.

 
More subtle and mannered than the usual Kinji Fukusaku with the elegance of Tai Katô, The Japanese Godfather Trilogy based on the book by Koichi Iiboshi and adapted for the screen by Koji Takada sharing the same cinematographer Toshio Masuda (Outlaw: Gangster VIP) and composers Toshiro Mayuzumi and Harumi Ibe across the trilogy is something of an unofficial continuation or reimagining of what would’ve been the third Yamaguchi-gumi Third Boss film.  Presented in 2.35:1 Toeiscope widescreen, made quickly capitalizing on the popularity of the first two Yamaguchi-gumi films, the first film in the trilogy perhaps reminds the most overtly of Francis Ford Coppola’s first The Godfather film replete with a severed head in a bed scene. 

 
One of the virtues of Yakuza War: Japanese Godfather as it sets up the stage and characters is we’re not really sure who our lead hero is just yet.  Sort of watching an ensemble at play before boiling down to Sakura and Dr. Ichinomiya and then segueing into the conflict with Toshiro Mifune’s character in the second and third features, it takes time to figure out just whose side we’re on.  Essentially pared down to Shin Saburi, Etsushi Takahashi and the legendary Toshiro Mifune, the films are also unique for recasting actors from previous films in the series like Bunta Sugawara or Ko Nishimura as entirely different characters.  Koji Tsuruta, a powerful leading man in yakuza films, for awhile we’re led to believe he’s our hero upon which the whole saga hinges until somewhere along the way it changes hands.  Also Sonny Chiba fans will enjoy seeing him as a sociopathic sadistic yakuza running amok.

 
Released on Blu-ray via Radiance Films in a new series of high-definition digital transfers supplied by Toei, The Japanese Godfather Trilogy comes with all three discs housed in two amaray cases which themselves are in a hardbound slip box replete with the time-honored OBI-spine affixed to the box.  Included in the collectible booklet are original essays by Akihiko Ito and Tom Mes as well as archival writings by the film’s cinematographer Toshio Masuda.  Among the disc extras are newly filmed as well as archival interviews with the director and a video essay created by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri.  

As Radiance Films continues to unearth and publish rare never-before-seen Japanese titles in the West in collectible, lovingly restored boxed sets to US customers, The Japanese Godfather Trilogy represents a somewhat sobering antidote to the usual hyperkinetic antics of a Kinji Fukusaku yakuza yarn with understated yet subtly powerful images and sweeping music.  More than anything it tells a complete continuing saga across three movies rather than just cranking out another standard yakuza entry to keep the cash flow going.  Once again, Radiance Films have produced an indelible home-video collection newcomers as well as longtime-fans will be overjoyed to have.

--Andrew Kotwicki