Bloody Territories

A miserable bore. Missing some vital elements like "a coherent plot" and "characters you give a shit about." If you squint a little, you could see this as an elementary lesson on geopolitics and the transition from a multipolar "balance of power" to a bipolar "cold war," but I might have just dreamed that up to occupy myself.

Falls between two eras - it's continuing the themes of earlier "Chivalry films" with focus on Yakuza code of honour & traditions. It has surprisingly much nudity, but otherwise only implies on things that would be shown a couple of years later. It's not as energetic and raw as later Fukasaku's films - and visually it's no match for Suzuki's 60's films. Not a classic, but Akira Kobayashi is charismatic as the lead and the film packs enough characters & scheming in 90mins to keep you entertained.

It may have its problems, like the general lack of violence one expects from this genre and cast/director, dumb rape scenes, and overly melodramatic music, but I cannot help but feel this is truer to life than its contemporaries. Hasebe restrains himself here to great effect, establishing perfect tone; although it's distant as hell.