Battles Without Honor and Humanity

[The NZA]

hirono is that dude

 

to quote Complex:

 

Kinji Fukasaku’s five-film, postwar yakuza saga Battles Without Honor And Humanity has drawn comparisons to Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather series, and rightfully so. Battles is an artful interpretation of constantly shifting powers within the unapologetically violent landscapes occupied by the Hiroshima gangsters. Inspired by real-life events, the film's interpolate scenes with newspaper clippings and narration adding a sense of documentary-style storytelling.

 

In a way, Fukasaku's epic seriesm reflects Japan’s samurai-warring period with guns and “R”-rolling yakuza members instead of katana blades and bushido-obeying warriors; basically, same shit, different outfits. But, nevertheless, it's excellent.

 

I'd been on a kick lately, and between Beat Takeshi stuff finally got around to this series (it's also known as The Yakuza Papers), and it was fantastic. as that quote said, you're following post WW II Hiroshima chaos and the early families developing, right up to about 1970 or so by the finale...tons of drama, betrayal & the like, and if there's any fault if's the names/families can be tricky to keep up with over the series, as there's just so many.

 

but it's totally worth the effort - as a big fan of Mifune-era samurai flicks, complex is right to point out the common tropes you get in a lot of this stuff, especially earlier in the genre...what's different here is this is mostly told as a historical drama, with a narrator catching you up to speed between the acted-out bits. if you're ever in the mood for some foreign mafioso stuff, i highly recommend it.

[Mr. Hakujin]

Sounds interesting. You watched all five films then? Netflix or torrent?

[The NZA]

torrent - no idea if they're up for streaming anywhere, but that'd be awesome to see! took me about a week, but yeah, after the first one i just had to see where it was going next...seeing the original family's (Yamamori) humble beginnings in that one & where they were by the late 60's in the final chapters was really something.