A.K.A. - Yakuza Burial: Jasmine Flower
1976 - Japan
1976 - Japan
Director - Kinji Fukasaku
Starring - Tetsuya Watari
Easily one of my favorite films of the last five years, I love this movie and love the poster just as much if not more. So much in fact that I made a t-shirt out of it. Director Fukasaku also directed another movie you might know better, Battle Royale. A far better film however is his series Yakuza Papers (link takes you to episode 1 of 5) which has the absolute best theme music I have ever heard for a television series.
You can hardly go wrong with Fukasaku in cop/yakuza mode. His COPS VS.THUGS is also very good and the Yakuza Papers may as well be Japan's answer to the Godfather films.
ReplyDeleteI agree, though because Yakuza Papers came out a mere year later (and hence would likely have been filming when The Godfather came out (and scripted even before that), I think it does a disservice to suggest that as some people have (on IMDB) "It owes a debt to The Godfather." In fact, Japan and Fukasaku had a tradition of crime and intrigue films in the yakuza vein well before Coppola, notably samurai films. Fukasaku certainly was influenced by U.S. as well as Japanese film, but Yakuza Papers, at least it's first episode Battles Without Honor and Humanity, deserves to be considered within it's own context.
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