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Arrow Films
In the early 1970s, Kinji Fukasaku's five-film Battles Without Honor and Humanity series was a massive hit in Japan, and kicked off a boom in realistic, modern yakuza films based on true stories. Although Fukasaku had intended to end the series, Toei Studio convinced him to return to the director's chair for this unconnected, follow-up trilogy of films, each starring Battles leading man Bunta Sugawara and telling separate, but fictional stories about the yakuza in different locations in Japan.
In the first film, Bunta Sugawara is Miyoshi, a low-level assassin of the Yamamori gang who is sent to jail after a bungled hit. While in stir, family member Aoki (Lone Wolf and Cub's Tomisaburo Wakayama) attempts to seize power from the boss, and Miyoshi finds himself stuck between the two factions with no honorable way out. In the second entry, The Boss's Head, Sugawara is Kuroda, an itinerant gambler who steps in when a hit by drugaddicted assassin Kusunoki (Tampopo's Tsutomu Yamazaki) goes wrong, and takes the fall on behalf of the Owada family, but when the gang fails to make good on financial promises to him, Kuroda targets the family bosses with a ruthless vengeance. And in Last Days of the Boss, Sugawara plays Nozaki, a laborer who swears allegiance to a sympathetic crime boss, only to find himself elected his successor after the boss is murdered. Restrained by a gang alliance that forbids retributions against high-level members, Nozaki forms a plot to exact revenge on his rivals, but a suspicious closeness with his own sister (Chieko Matsubara from Outlaw Gangster VIP) jeopardizes his relationship with his fellow gang members.
The New Battles Without Honor and Humanity films are important links between the first half of Fukasaku's career and his later exploration of other genres. Each one is also a top-notch crime action thriller: hard-boiled, entertaining, and distinguished by Fukasaku's directorial genius, funky musical scores by composer Toshiaki Tsushima, and the onscreen power of Toei's greatest yakuza movie stars.
Special Features
- High Definition digital transfers of all three films
- High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentations
- Original uncompressed mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for all three films
- Beyond the Films: New Battles Without Honor and Humanity, a video appreciation by Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane
- New Stories, New Battles and Closing Stories, two interviews with screenwriter Koji Takada, about his work on the second and third films in the trilogy
- Original teasers and theatrical trailers for all three films
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist
- Arrow Video
- 283 mins approx
- Kinji Fukasaku
- 15
- Bunta Sugawara
- Hiroki Matsukata
- Tsunehiko Watase
- Yuriko Hishimi
- Isao Bito
- Takeo Chii
- 2.35:1
English
- Japanese
- 0
- B
- Arrow Video
New Battles Without Honour and Humanity | The Complete Trilogy | Blu-ray
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Arrow Films
In the early 1970s, Kinji Fukasaku's five-film Battles Without Honor and Humanity series was a massive hit in Japan, and kicked off a boom in realistic, modern yakuza films based on true stories. Although Fukasaku had intended to end the series, Toei Studio convinced him to return to the director's chair for this unconnected, follow-up trilogy of films, each starring Battles leading man Bunta Sugawara and telling separate, but fictional stories about the yakuza in different locations in Japan.
In the first film, Bunta Sugawara is Miyoshi, a low-level assassin of the Yamamori gang who is sent to jail after a bungled hit. While in stir, family member Aoki (Lone Wolf and Cub's Tomisaburo Wakayama) attempts to seize power from the boss, and Miyoshi finds himself stuck between the two factions with no honorable way out. In the second entry, The Boss's Head, Sugawara is Kuroda, an itinerant gambler who steps in when a hit by drugaddicted assassin Kusunoki (Tampopo's Tsutomu Yamazaki) goes wrong, and takes the fall on behalf of the Owada family, but when the gang fails to make good on financial promises to him, Kuroda targets the family bosses with a ruthless vengeance. And in Last Days of the Boss, Sugawara plays Nozaki, a laborer who swears allegiance to a sympathetic crime boss, only to find himself elected his successor after the boss is murdered. Restrained by a gang alliance that forbids retributions against high-level members, Nozaki forms a plot to exact revenge on his rivals, but a suspicious closeness with his own sister (Chieko Matsubara from Outlaw Gangster VIP) jeopardizes his relationship with his fellow gang members.
The New Battles Without Honor and Humanity films are important links between the first half of Fukasaku's career and his later exploration of other genres. Each one is also a top-notch crime action thriller: hard-boiled, entertaining, and distinguished by Fukasaku's directorial genius, funky musical scores by composer Toshiaki Tsushima, and the onscreen power of Toei's greatest yakuza movie stars.
Special Features
- High Definition digital transfers of all three films
- High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentations
- Original uncompressed mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for all three films
- Beyond the Films: New Battles Without Honor and Humanity, a video appreciation by Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane
- New Stories, New Battles and Closing Stories, two interviews with screenwriter Koji Takada, about his work on the second and third films in the trilogy
- Original teasers and theatrical trailers for all three films
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist
- Arrow Video
- 283 mins approx
- Kinji Fukasaku
- 15
- Bunta Sugawara
- Hiroki Matsukata
- Tsunehiko Watase
- Yuriko Hishimi
- Isao Bito
- Takeo Chii
- 2.35:1
English
- Japanese
- 0
- B
- Arrow Video
Customer Reviews
Top Customer Reviews
Where reviews refer to foods or cosmetic products, results may vary from person to person. Customer reviews are independent and do not represent the views of The Hut Group.
Good continuation in the same style
I am a huge sucker for this series, so I don't mind that it's in basically the same style as the first five movies, it has a great soundtrack and albeit not a very complex story, it has tons of characters just like the earlier films so just watch it carefully. The release itself looks and sounds great on my humble setup considering these are almost 50 year old movies. This series for me is the Japanese equivalent of The Godfather / Goodfellas, I highly recommend watching all eight movies.
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