Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics [Blu-ray/DVD] [2 Discs]

Director: Kinji Fukasaku Kinji Fukasaku

Overview

A long-standing gang war on the streets of Hiroshima escalates despite police pressure in this, the fourth film in Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza Papers series. It's 1964, and with the Tokyo Olympics turning the eyes of the world to Japan, lawmen have set out to keep the Yakuza -- Japan's organized crime system -- out of sight. While dozens of low-level mobsters are thrown into jail, crime lord Takeda (Akira Kobayashi) attempts to keep the peace for the best of all parties on the wrong side of the law. But when a high-ranking Yakuza figure is killed by a low-level "mechanic" in a moment of anger, an explosion seems imminent. Meanwhile, gangster Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) sees an opportunity to use the chaos to settle a score against a mobster who had done him wrong years before. Jingi Naki Tatakai: Chojo Sakusen (aka Yakuza Papers, Vol. 4: Police Tactics would be followed in 1975 by Jingi Naki Tatakai: Kanketsu-Hen (aka Yakuza Papers, Vol. 5: Final Episode), the last film in the series.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/09/2016
UPC:	0760137806394
Original Release:	1974
Rating:	NR
Source:	Arrow Video
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[stereo, Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:41:00

Special Features

Remembering Kinji - a new featurette about Director Kinji Fukasaku and his work, featuring interviews with Kenta Fukasaku and film critic Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane; Fukasaku Family - a new interview with Proxy War and Police Tactics Assistant Director Toru Dobashi; Original Trailer; Reversible Sleeve featuring original and new commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Bunta Sugawara	Shozo Hirono
Akira Kobayashi	Takeda
Jo Shishido	Yakuza
Nobuo Yana	Isamu Kasai
Seizo Fukumoto	Yamazaki
Tatsuo Umemiya	Actor
Toshio Kurosawa	Actor
Hiroki Matsukata	Actor
Kunie Tanaka	Actor
Nobuo Kaneko	Actor
Takeshi Katô	Actor
Asao Koike	Actor
Shingo Yamashiro	Actor
Toshiaki Tsushima	Composer

Technical Credits

Kazuo Kasahara

Kinji Fukasaku	Director
Kazuo Kasahara	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Despite the title, The Yakuza Papers 4: Police Tactics doesn't really focus on the side of the law. Lawmen are present in some scenes, but they play a background role to the yakuza they are trailing. Instead, the film is a continuation of the war that was built up in The Yakuza Papers 3: Proxy War. The result isn't as suspenseful as its predecessor since its focus is really on how the yakuza falls apart, but it's no less compelling. The script offers the usual tense combination of double-dealing and sudden, shocking murders but it also finds the time for some poignant moments that illustrate the human cost of the yakuza lifestyle, the best being the tale of a young foot soldier whose friendship with an underboss in a rival family is doomed to end badly. Bunta Sugawara toplines once again as Hirono, but the story sidelines him much of the time; instead, much of the film's dramatic weight is carried by series regulars like Nobuo Kaneko, Takeshi Kato, and Tatsuo Umemiya. That said, Sugawara makes the most of his time here, creating the portrait of a man succumbing to bitterness after spending too long suffering the treachery of others. Kinji Fukasaku handles the cast well, making the human drama deeply felt between all the double-crosses and gangland slayings, and gives the film the kind of trademark fast and furious visual style that defines this series. The finished film never hits the intense peaks of the first or third entries in the series, but The Yakuza Papers 4: Police Tactics remains a strong entry in a very impressive film series.