After having a fantastic time watching the Arrow Blu's of Doberman Cop and Street Mobster (both also reviewed), I decided to search round for a title to make this viewing marathon a Kinji Fukasaku triple feature. Happy to discover English Subtitles online for the first title Fukasaku directed, I got ready to drift towards the detective.
Note: Some plot details in the review.
View on the film:
Landing the opening credits with newspaper clippings scattered across the screen reporting the plane crash, ( this would become a major motif in his future works) directing auteur Kinji Fukasaku & Return of the Sister Street Fighter (1975-also reviewed) cinematographer Masahiko Iimura scan the mountainside and Wild West rugged terrain with Fukasaku distinctive, ultra-stylized rapid-fire whip-pans and hand-held tracking shots, (with one sequence appearing to have been shot, via tying a camera to the front of a horse) running towards a blazing Thriller atmosphere, as Saionji, (played by a wonderfully fresh face, live wire Shin'ichi Chiba, who would later become a regular collaborator with Fukasaku) takes on the Yakuza on a cold mountain.
Standing out from the brutal, full-on violence he would later do, Fukasaku splashes the mountain with Pop-Art acid Western flourishes, ignited in refine, deep-focus close-ups on Saionji having a shoot-out with a psychedelic cowboy, who Fukasaku has bounce along sparkling wide-shots covering the skyline of the stunning location.
Later becoming an occasional collaborator, Fumio Konami is here joined by Yoshinari Matsubara, (who only wrote this and the sequel) to team-up and impressively establish the foundation of major themes that Fukasaku would explore in his work across the decades, from the moment that the Yakuza get themselves involved in the plane crash.
Set against a peaceful mountain back-drop, the writers climb a harsh outlook of post-war Japan, where the farm that has been run by the same family for generations, is put under threat by the Yakuza, who treat any sense of ethics or loyalty with a brittle disregard, and attempt to make money and control the only things which matter in this post-war Wild West, until Saionji drifts into their valley.
