Notable Cast: Bunta Sugawara, Akira Kobayashi, Kinya Kitaoji Jo Shishido, Junkichi Orimoto, Kunie Tanaka, Shingo Yamashiro, Hiroki Matsukata
As far as original writer Kazuo Kasahara was concerned, the Battles Without Honor and Humanity
series was finished after the fourth film Police
Tactics. Truthfully, that film did feel like a solid ending to the story
that was being told. Many characters reached their logical conclusion and the
arrival of an agreement between smaller warring yakuza factions to create a
political coalition that essentially ended their yakuza focus worked. End of story, right? Wrong.
Popularity with the series led to there being at least one last film in the original
run (there is a spin off series that would come soon after too), but original
writer Kasahara did not come back. However, almost everyone else did including
director Kinji Fukasaku. The results are the aptly titled Final Episode, a solid and entertaining installment into the Battles series that too often gets
written off as an inferior and ‘tacked on’ ending to the series. Final Episode however fits the style and
tone even if it occasionally lacks the depth and subtlety of its predecessors
to make it a worthy sequel.
Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) has been sentenced to prison time.
His rival Takeda (Akira Kobayashi) has taken the Tensei Coalition into a clean
territory as a political party and shed much of their yakuza roots. However,
not everyone in the coalition is as keen on their new image as the management.
The low level members of the gangs are tense in the streets and heads that form
the coalition are bickering for their own power. This leads a standoff between
chairman-to-be Matsumura (Kinya Kitaoji) and rival Otomo (Jo Shishido) that
only adds to the tension and fear the group has for Hirono, who is soon to be
released.
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| "I got a toothpick, ya see? You don't. You gots sunglasses." |
In a way,
Final
Episode feels like a transition film. As it was mentioned in the
introduction paragraph, but by the end of
Police
Tactics the stories and characters of
Battles
Without Honor and Humanity had essentially come full circle and the timely
era that the films covered was in transition itself. So it makes sense that
Final Episode would also seem more like
a transitional film, moving the series slightly away from its very gritty roots
and into something less dense and a bit more ironic. It carries all of the same
style and tone, even perhaps maximizing the sinister skepticism for its “political
coalition” that was always present and running with it in a broad stroke
manner, but there is something different in the writing that seemingly intends
to breathe new life into the series. Most fans seem to despise these subtle
changes in the writing, but I found it gripping and fresh feeling.
Final Episode is different, sure, but it’s
also got a little kick in it that the last couple of previous entries
sacrificed for the density of its subject matter. This difference in writing usually
manifests itself in more action and more over the top elements, but it doesn’t
negate the foundations that the series was built on so it’s hard for me to say it’s
worse more than it’s simply different.
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| Original poster artwork. |
Akin to other films in the series,
Final Episode has some solid execution going for it outside of its
writing. Kinji Fukasaku once again returns to continue with his almost
documentary like style for the film, focusing on lots of handheld and gritty
action, fly-on-the-wall meetings, and a structure that brings back the narrator
to bridge time gaps and exposition to keep the pace and inform the audience on
detailing relevant to the plot. As I mentioned, there’s even more action and it
seems that with the over the top elements of the writing that Fukasaku embraces
it a bit more and gives some artful design to the action. Kills seem to take
longer than ever before in the series and more bullets have to be fired to do
so. It’s a recipe for instant action. This is, of course, all punctuated with
another round of phenomenal performances. Bunta Sugawara and Akira Kobayashi both
return as their characters from previous films (there are a few smaller roles
given to some familiar faces that fans will instantly recognize), but this time their
roles are diminished.
Final Episode feels like a transitional film and in a way
this is exemplified in how both of their characters are utilized. Kobayashi’s
character attempts to mentor a young new leader for the coalition, played with an
intense screen demeanor by Kinya Kitaoji, and Sugawara’s Hirono is almost a threatening presence
throughout most of the film until the final act. This allows time for some new
characters to develop and run in the series. Kitaoji nails it as the young and
ambitious Matsumura and his rival is series newcomer Jo Shishido who goes full
out Al Pacino in his role as an old school elder who hates the new coalition
approach. The series introduces and re-introduces a slew of other characters
into the mix, but like the rest of the
Battles
series, it moves at such a pace that they aren’t given nearly as much screen
time as the complex plot unravels. They make impressions when they have the
screen, but the writing doesn’t necessarily promote in depth work for many of
the secondary roles.
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| "Dammit, man. Didn't I say let's use yarn to see this easier?" |
Despite many of the negative reviews of
Final Episode, I felt that this fifth and final film in the series
fits very nicely into the format and even expands it a bit more than previous
entries. At times, it would seem to be an indicator for a transitional phase
for the franchise with its newer more over the top characters and more action
oriented plotting – I have not seen the
New
Battles series that followed this so perhaps it is, but it still retains a
lot of the same style and effective execution that made the series so good to
begin with. Fans will certainly enjoy many of the aspects that it has to offer,
even if it isn’t the best of the series. I know I was certainly pleased with
Final Episode.
ARROW VIDEO FEATURES:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
- Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English subtitles
- Last Days of the Boss – a new interview with Final Episode screenwriter Koji Takada
- Original poster gallery for the series
- Original trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist
Written By Matt Reifschneider
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