Battles Without Honor and Humanity

I’ve at last ventured into the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (Japanese: 仁義なき戦い; also known in English as The Yakuza Papers). Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973), the first in the eleven-film series, is a chaotic, ultra-violent tale of the yakuza syndicates that formed in Hiroshima Prefecture during the years immediately after World War II. The story unfolds in a documentary-like style, with a sporadic omniscient narrator and captions showing dates and names. It’s also packed with near-constant action, from brawls to limb-lopping katana strikes to countless bloody assassinations, each punctuated by a freeze frame and a blaring distressed horn.

In the film’s opening minutes, when American G.I.s attempt to rape a woman in a crowded marketplace, the camera is violently jostled, placing us right in the middle of the chaos. I thought I’d seen the part before, but no. Still, it’s hard not to recall echoes of Battles elsewhere, especially in Kill Bill, and in the opening battle of Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

Battles is an ensemble piece but Bunta Sugawara commands the spotlight. He has that tough-as-rusty-nails look, with steely, whiskey-soaked eyes and an adamantium jaw. The kind of face that tells you you’ll break your hand if you hit it. The film is reportedly based on the memoirs of real-life yakuza member Kozo Mino, and I’ve read that the actors and director Kinji Fukasaku received input from actual gangsters during production. On the flip side, it’s not hard to imagine real-life yakuza taking a page or two from this series. At the very least, I’m sure they enjoyed it.