5 film Meiko Kaji mini-retrospective begins this Friday, February 10th

Japan Society NY

presents

New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss's Head © 1975 Toei Co., Ltd.

New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss's Head

(Shin Jingi Naki Tatakai Kumicho no Kubi)

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
With Bunta Sugawara, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Meiko Kaji
Japan, 1975, 94 minutes

Blu-ray, color, in Japanese with English subtitles

When: Friday, February 10th at 7:00 PM

Where: Japan Society NY
3333 East 47th Street, NYC
Map

International Premiere

Japan Society NY's five film Meiko Kaji mini-retrospective begins this Friday evening with Kinji Fukasaku's New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss's Head.

Never before released outside Japan, Kinji Fukasaku's follow-up trilogy to his successful Battles Without Honor and Humanity series tells three unrelated stories about yakuza intrigue and betrayal, and this middle film co-stars Meiko Kaji as the dutiful wife of a heroin-addicted hitman (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who befriends, then betrays, series star Bunta Sugawara. An essential link within Fukasaku's cinematic world, The Boss’s Head found him expanding his action vocabulary to include car stunts, as well as creating not one, but two meaty female roles (the other played by Yuriko Hishimi). Composer Toshiaki Tsushima contributes another memorable score, and the ensemble casting is among the best of the entire series. A yet-to-be-discovered classic.

18+ This film is unrated, but may only be viewed by persons 18 years of age or older.

Part of Cruel Beauty: A Romantic Weekend with Meiko Kaji

Tickets: $13/$10 seniors & students/$9 Japan Society members

Special Offers:
All Access Pass: (1 ticket for each film in the series, 5 tickets total) Save $3 per ticket. $50/$35 seniors & students/$30 Japan Society members

Double Feature Pass: (2 different films in the same transaction) Save $2 per ticket. $22/$16 seniors & students/$14 Japan Society members

Kinji Fukasaku's VIRUS next film in Japan Society's Kadokawa film series

Japan Society NY

Presents

Virus © 1980 Kadokawa Corp.

Virus / Fukkatsu no Hi

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

With Masao Kusakari, Isao Natsuyagi, Sonny Chiba

Japan, 1980, 156 min.

DCP color

In  English, French, German and Japanese with English subtitles

When: Tuesday, November 22, 7 PM

Where: Japan Society

333 East 47th Street, NYC

Map

By far the most expensive film ever made in Japan at the time, the apocalyptic blockbuster Virus was Kadokawa's most widely distributed film outside of Japan. Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale, Battles Without Honor and Humanity) directs this spectacular story of the struggle for survival of a team of international scientists in the Antarctic after a virus has wiped out the rest of humanity and set off a nuclear countdown. The apex of the Kadokawa blockbuster strategy, Virus was rolled out with a massive advertising campaign. Both gripping and campy, the film signaled the end of Haruki Kadokawa's quest for ever bigger films and his re-orientation towards pop experimentalism and idol stars.

New 4k restoration!

Part of Pop! Goes Cinema: Kadokawa Film & 1980s Japan.

Remembering Kinji Fukasaku; three of his films playing at NYAFF

Battles Without Honor and Humanity

Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku was born in Mito, Japan on July 3, 1930, making today the 85th anniversary of his birth. He died on January 12, 2003 while making Battle Royale II, the sequel to the terrific 2000 original. Battle Royale II was completed by his son Kenta Fukasaku.

Fukasaku directed over sixty films, including Black Lizard (1968) and Black Rose (1969), both of which starred transvestite singer and actress Akihiro Miwa (a.k.a. Akihiro Matuyama). He, along with Toshio Masuda, took over directing the Japanese sequences of Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) after Akira Kurosawa left, or was fired from, the production.

But Fukasaku is most certainly best known and remembered for his numerous and innovative yakuza films which did away with any romantic notions of such gangsters having a lofty code of honor. The five film series Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973-1974, also known as The Yakuza Papers) ranks at the top of a list that includes Street Mobster (1972) and Graveyard of Honor (1975).

Cops Vs. Thugs

In what most surely is no coincidence, two Fukasaku films will be screened at the New York Asian Film Festival today, Friday, July 3rd, the anniversary of his birthday. Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973) will be shown at 7:00pm and Cops Vs. Thugs (1975) at 9:00pm.

Wolves, Pigs and Men

A third Fukasaku film, Wolves, Pigs and Men (1964), will be shown Wednesday, July 8 at 5:30pm.

These three films are part of the NYAFF special focus section The Last Men of Japanese Film, which features a total of six films starring Japanese film legends Ken Takakura and Bunta Sugawara. All films will be shown at the Walter Reade Theater.

ACF 1948: Remembering Japanese film director Kinji Fukusaku

Kinji Fukusaku was born on July 3, 1930. He died on January 12, 2003. Fukusaku's IMDb entry lists 66 credits as director, the vast bulk for feature films, a very few for TV shows or series, and one for a video game. He was also a writer (25 credits) and producer (2 credits).

He is perhaps best known in the west for his Battles Without Honor and Humanity series of films (which, including the New Battles Without Honor and Humanity films, came out from 1973 to 1976) and for Battle Royale (2000), although many other of his works are also available on Region 1 DVDs.

On this, the 83rd anniversary of his birth, AsianCineFest commemorates his numerous wonderful contributions to cinema.

ACF 1526: Kinji Fukasaku

Japanes Director Kinji Fukasaku was born in Mito, Japan on July 3, 1930, making today the 82nd anniversary of his birth. He died on January 12, 2003 while making Battle Royale II, the sequel to the terrific 2000 original. Battle Royale II was completed by his son Kenta Fukasaku.

Kinji directed over sixty films, including Black Lizard (1968) and Black Rose (1969), both of which starred transvestite singer and actress Akihiro Miwa (a.k.a. Akihiro Matuyama). He, along with Toshio Masuda, took over directing the Japanese sequences of Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) after Akira Kurosawa left, or was fired from, the production.

But Fukasaku is most certainly best known and remembered for his numerous and innovative yakuza films which did away with any romantic notions of such gangsters having a lofty code of honor. The five film series Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973-1974, also known as The Yakuza Papers) ranks at the top of a list that includes such Street Mobster (1972) and Graveyard of Honor (1975).

So it is with immense gratitude and much respect that AsianCineFest remembers and honors the birth of this great director who gave us so many wonderful and memorable films.

ACF 1492: STREET MOBSTER reviewed at VCinema Show Podcast

The VCinema Show Episode 43: Yakuzathon III is now available for listening or download. In it Coffin Jon, Josh and I review Kinji Fukusaku's Street Mobster (1972).

It's a terrific yakuza flick starring Bunta Sugawara.

Check it out at the VCinema blog, or download at iTunes.

ACF 101: Battles Without Honor

Cover art for Battles Without Honor and Humanity

as Volume 1 of The Yakuza Papers box set

available from Home Vision Entertainment

The Asia Society's film series Gamblers, Gangsters, and Other Anti-Heroes: The Japanese Yakuza Movie concludes with a screening of Battles Without Honor and Humanity on Thursday, April 17th at 7:00 pm. Directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku (Black Rose Mansion, Battle Royale, and many other great films), this seminal 1973 film was the first in a series concerned with the conflicts between and within rival crime families in the Hiroshima area in the years after the end of World War II.

The film starts with an emotionally powerful shot of the Gembaku Domo, the "A-Bomb Dome," Hiroshima's only structural ruin left erect as a reminder of the bomb's devastation. With the city essentially destroyed and the economy in ruins, there were construction contracts to be had and black markets to be run, both prime turf for gang activity.

Bunta Sugawara (above, center) stars as Shozo Hirono, a former soldier who comes to the aid of a Japanese citizen being assaulted by American G.I.s. In prison he is befriended by a member of gang. After their release, Hirono becomes a yakuza himself. He is the central character around whom this film, and the overall series, revolves

The film is of major significance for at least a couple of reasons. Previously films about yakuza were known as ninkyo eiga, or chivalry films. These tended to pivot on the protagonist's conflict between his duties to his crime family and his feelings for an outsider, often a member of another gang with whom he has a special relationship, such as a sworn brother. Here, as the title suggests, there's little chivalry, honor, or humanity. Betrayals run rampant not only between both also within families. Bosses will sell out their underlings and vice versa.

Director Kinji Fukasaku in his younger days

Battles Without Honor and Humanity also constitutes an alternative to the official version of Japanese history. This resulted from Fukasaku being roughly fifteen years old when the war ended. Suddenly, the emperor, who adults had insisted was a god, was declared to be as human as anyone else. This instantaneous change in belief left Fukasaku and others with a great distrust of the official count of things. The movies in the Battles Without ... series tell the story of those who were not talked about or acknowledged to have existed in official chronicles.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity will be shown at Asia Society's New York City Headquarters at 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street) in Manhattan. Film series curator Ian Buruma and Japanese film scholar Kyoko Hirano will lead a discussion after the screening. For more information or to order tickets, click here or call Asia Society at 212.517.ASIA.

For anyone interested in owning Battles Without Honor and Humanity, as I've indicated just below the top image, this film is available on DVD from Home Vision Entertainment. It can be purchased separately or as Volume 1 of a box set entitled The Yakuza Papers, which also includes the following four films in the series and a valuable bonus disc.

[The above review appeared in somewhat different form in ACF 084 (March, 10, 2008) in conjunction with a screening of Battles ... the following day at Columbia universtiy.]

ACF 084: Battles Without Honor and Humanity - Free Screening

Cover art for Battles Without Honor and Humanity

as Volume 1 of The Yakuza Papers box set

available from Home Vision Entertainment

The film series OUT OF THE ASHES: Early Postwar Japanese Movies continues at Columbia University tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 11, 2008, at 6:00 PM, with a free screening of Battles Without Honor and Humanity. Directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku (Black Rose Mansion, Battle Royale, and many other great films), this 1973 film was the first in a series concerned with the conflicts between and within rival crime families in the Hiroshima area in the years after the end of World War II. Thus it is not an early postwar movie itself, but rather a classic about that period in Japanese history.

The film starts with an emotionally powerful shot of the Gembaku Domo, the "A-Bomb Dome," Hiroshima's only structural ruin left erect as a reminder of the bomb's devastation. With the city essentially destroyed and the economy in ruins, there were construction contracts to be had and black markets to be run, both prime turf for gang activity.

Bunta Sugawara (above, center) stars as Shozo Hirono, a former soldier who comes to the aid of a Japanese citizen being assaulted by American G.I.s. In prison he is befriended by a member of gang. After their release, Hirono becomes a yakuza himself. He is the central character around whom this film, and the overall series, revolves

The film is of major significance for at least a couple of reasons. Previously films about yakuza were known as ninkyo eiga, or chivalry films. These tended to pivot on the protagonist's conflict between his duties to his crime family and his feelings for an outsider, often a member of another gang with whom he has a special relationship, such as a sworn brother. Here, as the title suggests, there's little chivalry, honor, or humanity. Betrayals run rampant not only between both also within families. Bosses will sell out their underlings and vice versa.

Director Kinji Fukasaku in his younger days

Battles Without Honor and Humanity also constitutes an alternative to the official version of Japanese history. This resulted from Fukasaku being roughly fifteen years old when the war ended. Suddenly, the emperor, who adults had insisted was a god, was declared to be as human as anyone else. This instantaneous change in belief left Fukasaku and others with a great distrust of the official count of things. The movies in this series tell the story of those who were not talked about or acknowledged to have existed in official chronicles.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity will be shown at the Davis Auditorium, Columbia University. It's a must see. For more information about this and the other films, as well as a link to a map of the Columbia campus, click here.