Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7406 in VHS
• Released on: 1994-07-04
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Synopsis
Robert Mitchum appears as private eye Harry Kilmer in this tough action film set in the Japanese underworld.

Customer Reviews

Violence, obligation and a bittersweet ending...a fine movie with Robert Mitchum and Takakura Ken
Despite (or maybe because of) the gusts of mayhem which blow regularly through this film, the underlying tone of The Yakuza is of a kind of thoughtful sadness. The movie isn't about simple revenge or betrayal, but about obligations and responsibilities that just about everyone in the movie has to deal with. The swords and shotguns are almost incidental to the inevitable assumption of those obligations by people we learn to understand and respect. Even Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum), who honors his obligations in an American way, finally understands how to honor them in a Japanese way. The Yakuza, even with the violence and the personal, intertwined stories of the main characters, is a surprisingly calm movie without an ounce of melodrama.

Harry is a retired detective in Los Angeles who is called on by an old friend, George Tanner (Brian Keith), to rescue his daughter. Tanner did Harry a big favor when they both served in occupied Japan. George is an opportunist with business dealings in Japan and the States. He took money from Tono, a yakuza clan leader, to buy arms, then failed to deliver. In retaliation, Tono simply kidnapped Tanner's daughter in Tokyo and told Tanner to deliver the weapons or his daughter will wind up in four pieces. Harry agrees to fly to Japan and see what can be done. He calls for assistance on Tanaka Ken (Takakura Ken), a man Harry knows owes him a debt. It was Harry who rescued Tanaka's sister, Eiko Tanaka (Keiko Kishi), while Tanaka was hidden in the Philippines, refusing after the war to surrender. He is a former yakuza, unsmiling and severe, who resents Harry and the obligation he is under to help him. It's apparent, too, that Harry still loves Eiko. It is equally apparent she reciprocates, but she will not marry him, either now or when they were living together during the occupation. Sydney Pollack, the director, sets all this up carefully at the beginning of the film. The set-up is important to understand because it is these obligations that drive the movie, lead to the violence and provide a resolution which is distinctly bittersweet, especially for Harry.

The course of the movie, after Harry and Tanaka rescue Tanner's daughter, kill two of Tono's men doing so and cause Tono to lose face, alternates between violence directed at Tanaka by Tono and then with our growing knowledge of the stories of Harry, Tanaka and Eiko. But suddenly violence is directed at Harry, himself, from a surprising source. Tanaka and Harry take steps to resolve the situation with equally violent means, and then must come to grips with a much deeper understanding of each other than simple obligation can provide.

One of the things that makes this movie so effective is that the violence is graphic but not over the top. Yes, an arm goes flying, a knife goes into a belly underwater, fingers get lopped off and there are a lot of sword thrusts and shotgun blasts. All this is startlingly effective, but, with two brief exceptions, there is little of the lingering love for blood. And those two exceptions, both involving little fingers, are wince-inducing because of what we don't see. Another of the film's quality points, mentioned earlier, is that this is a movie that exists to examine obligations, the "burden hardest to bear" as a Japanese word has it. Pollack gives us a well-constructed story in which to help us make our own examination. For those who enjoy things Japanese, another plus is the care Pollack took to capture the look of Japan. The Yakuza never becomes a travelogue, but there is much of Japan to see in the movie, from a game of hanafuda to all those pachinko players, from a quiet temple to a narrow Tokyo downtown street, from a hostess nightclub to a bathhouse. It all looks right. And finally, the movie works so well because Mitchum gives an excellent performance. At 57 when he made this movie, he brings the authority of experience to the part. He is matched by Takakura Ken. The two actors both are heavy-weights. Mitchum doesn't dominate the movie so much as he shares it equally with Takakura. The secondary characters all do fine jobs, too.

The Yakuza is a fine and unusual action movie. The DVD transfer looks very good. There are two extras, a short feature about Japan called Promises to Keep and a commentary by Pollack.

ONE OF THE BEST FILMS MADE
You must see this film before you die, without doubt one of the finest films i've seen, slow to start with but this sets the mood of the film. Modesty, loyalty, respect, honour and restraint is what this film is about. Brilliantly acted and great fight scenes make it an all time classic for me, can't believe it's been deleted. It's as rare as rocking horse s**t so please release it again.

disappointing edit of a classic film
Beautifully acted and directed as this film was, I was gutted to find how badly the action scenes had been edited, thus making them almost irrelevant. I'm fairly certain that this editing was merely for the US market and I'm afraid the film is badly devalued because of it.