I was lucky enough to catch this film at the new York Asian film festival yesterday. I am a fan of Japanese yakuza films, especially Kinji Fukasaku's "Battles without honor and humanity" series. Shiraishi continues to wade into this world of gritty hiroshima yakuza thugs, this time focusing on the other side: the grittier, nastier Hiroshima police.
The film is set in 1988, at the tail end of the showa era. It starts with the brutal torture of a young yakuza accountant that starts the ball rolling on a potential gang war. a young detective, fresh out of university, is assigned to partner up with a veteran detective in the anti gang division. The veteran is obviously dirty, and it offends the young cop to the point where he begins investigating his partner as well. as we follow the investigation of the disappearance of that young accountant, we see the line blur between police and criminal.
There is no one to really root for in this film. No true good guy, only characters that I liked more than others. I found it difficult to side with anyone. Koji Yakusho's stellar performance as the dirty cop walking the tightrope between cop and criminal becomes the most likeable character in comparison. Tori Matsuzaka plays the young cop who does a great job as the only "clean" cop in the division. His character is so clean that it was almost cringe worthy for me to watch him constantly yell out "This is wrong!" throughout 3/4 of the movie.
Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The story made sense. The violence was bloody. The ending was cathartic. This film is much more satisfying than most of the other yakuza films I've seen in the past decade. The problems I had with the film had to do with the politics among these gangs. Why are some of these characters so important? Why is that woman crying over some young guy she screwed a couple of times? My problems with this film are kinda petty, and didn't affect my overall enjoyment. Think of it as "Training Day" meets "Battles without Honor and Humanity."
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
A well executed fusion of genres. The bad cop is partnered with a good cop within a yakusa setting. What's not to like.
