As a reward the younger ruffians offer one of their best hookers, a girl from one of the nastier incidents in Okita's past. At first Okita seems to be reintegrating well (in criminal terms at least), while he treats his female prize about as well as one could expect from a former mad dog rapist. However, Okita's men soon lock horns with a more venerable group of gangsters, the Takigawas, led by the powerful Boss Owada, and when negotiating tactics break down, double crosses and massive casualties erupt into a gang war as Japan is divided into criminal territories.
Essentially a dry run for Fukasaku's later nihilistic yakuza film, Graveyard of Honor, Street Mobster (Gendai yakuza: hito-kiri yota, also screened as Outlaw Killer) finds director Kenji Fukasaku wildly experimenting with every cinematic technique in the book. Fast-moving opening montage covering the narrator's life? Check. Shock cuts and freeze frames? Dutch angles? Handheld camera acrobatics? Psychedelic color tinting? Frantic zooms? Check, check, check. He even gets away with some surprising full frontal nudity, a big no-no in Japanese cinema that must have somehow slipped past the censor's gaze. The random, irrational gangster violence that propelled Graveyard is also here in abundance, though at least in this case we don't see actors wallowing and splashing in big pools of red tempera paint. The characters are all essentially irredeemable since they're stuck in a world where anyone can be taken down at any time; even stepping out for a quick bowl of rice on a sunny afternoon yields gory consequences in this dog-eat-dog world. No stranger to this material, Fukasaku offers no moral judgments or even real social context for his narrative; instead he uses the reprehensible figures as catalysts for an avalanche of cinematic style in which editing and camera placement are the primary concerns.
Considering its chronological placement before Fukasaku's sprawling Yakuza Papers series, this film established the yakuza style that would prove to be highly influential over the next two decades. Previously known for lush, campy films like Black Lizard and more traditional crime and angry youth films, he was evidently inspired here to let it all hang out with a breakneck film that rarely pauses to catch its breath. At a tight and trim 87 minutes, the film never wears out its welcome¿at least for a receptive audience¿and offers a suitably bleak portrait of a country and culture coming apart at the seams.
Handily outdoing a lackluster British DVD release from Eureka, Home Vision's disc continues the high standard of their other Japanese crime releases. The anamorphic transfer looks clean and displays grain only when it should; the optional English subtitles are well-rendered and include some amusing bits of slang, such as gangsters referring to each other as "Bro!"
The primary extra feature, "Street Mobsters," offers an 11-minute interview with two former Yakuza (with their faces demurely blurred out), "Mr. M" and "Mr. Y," who discuss their criminal lives and attempts at rehabilitation. Also included are a Fukasaku filmography and trailers for this film, Graveyard of Honor, The Yakuza Papers, and the Zatoichi series. The packaging includes some informative liner notes by Patrick Macias.
For more information about Street Mobster, visit Home Vision Entertainment. To order Street Mobster, go to TCM Shopping.
by Nathaniel Thompson
