Director: Kinji
Fukasaku
Notable Cast: Bunta
Sugawara, Ninji Kobayashi, Kan Mikami, Ko Nishimura, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Tsunehiko
Watase, Sanae Nakahara, Mikio Narita, Meiko Kaji, Junkichi Orimoto, Hideo
Murota
The biggest flaw in the rebooted New Battles Without Honor and Humanity film is the fact that the
first film of the trilogy is too much like its predecessors. It tried too hard
to be like the original five and it came off as redundant and rushed, even with
its strong direction and performances. The second of this trilogy, New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The
Boss’s Head, attempts to rectify that major issue by bringing in an
entirely new story with some of the stylistic choices of the series, but some
new additions and approaches. The results are definitely a step up above the
first as the new ground in the film makes for a much more interesting film that
pulls a bit more away from the documentary-esque structures and dense character
interactions for a more straight forward yakuza action affair. Fans may be a
bit more mixed on it for its deviations from the core style, but it’s a
refreshing spin that has its own effective merits.
Kuroda (Bunta Sugawara) needs money and vows to help a
friend in the local yakuza family with a very touchy situation knowing he’ll be
taken care of after the fact with a large sum of cash. He ends up in prison for
seven years for his work. After his release though, his friend is no longer a
respected member of the yakuza and Kuroda is left with only empty promises from
the yakuza who just want him to go away. He won’t be slighted that easily.
Like the previous New
Battles film, The Boss’s Head
features a brand new story in the ‘universe’ of the franchise where actors and
actresses from previous entries come back as new characters for this stand
alone entry. The film is anchored once again by the strong screen presence of
Bunta Sugawara, but this time instead of the calculating strategist that is
playing two yakuza sides against one another like the previous films, he plays
the role of an unaffiliated wanderer with no loyalty and no connection to the
yakuza world except to get what’s his. While this allows the film to retain its
core components around his performance and character, who must take meetings
with various yakuza members and participate in some of their activities to worm
his way into positions to take better advantage, his character is more of an
anti-hero than ever before as he freelances his way into making life a bit of a
hellish landscape for the family that burned him. A plethora of phenomenal
secondary casting supports this, including some fantastic subtle performances
from Yamazaki as his heroine addicted friend and Meiko Kaji as his friend’s
heartbroken wife, and the trimmed focus of characters benefits the more
straight forward manner of the film. It uses the character connections in some
surprisingly ways, although outside of the death of one of Kuroda’s followers
(a character who desperately wants to be like the actor Akira Kobayashi and
takes his namesake and plays guitar that adds a strange meta level to the
proceedings), it doesn’t have quite the emotional depth of its character
interactions to take it to a new echelon. Like most of the previous ones, The Boss’s Head benefits from the sheer
power of its cast and the characters work to support the film’s approach even
if it’s flawed.
The style of The Boss’s
Head reinforces the kind of chaos that surrounds Kuroda as Fukasaku once
again brings to the table the handheld shaky action sequences and fly on the
wall discussions about yakuza business, but the style is reinforced by the tone
and swirling hurricane of distrust and paranoia that his character creates
around him. The narrative follows suit. In a way, the film is much less complex
in its foundations, particularly by the third act as it boils itself down into
a much more simplistic ‘kill or be killed’ action thriller, but retains the
documentary style at points to give it a realistic and chaotic tone. At times
this does seem to play against the use of a narrator to spell out some of the
transitions of time to keep the pacing that gave the series its distinct feel,
but it works in the end as this blends the series’ structure with something
more akin to Kukasaku’s other yakuza flicks like Cops Vs Thugs or Graveyard of
Honor. This explains some of the new territory that the film covers for the
series, like the 70s setting, the use of car chases, and the use of female
characters that worked in the previous New
Battles film, which only shows that, as this new trilogy goes, it evolves
into something a bit more refreshing and unique.
Still, the lacking depth and emotional resonance of The Boss’s Head proves to be the chief
reason why it can’t quite stand with the original series, but it proves that
the evolutionary steps of some of its new elements and simplification of its
story do improve on its direct predecessor. Fans may find the changes to be
“un-Battles-like” in the end though
and it’s easy to see why The Boss’s Head
is a bit more controversial to enjoy. For me, the changes make for some
refreshing new ground to cover and the blend of its slightly off kilter
narrative with the visual style of the series makes this film one of the more
interesting ones to watch even with its minute flaws that prevent it from
soaring. It’s a film mostly for fans of Fukasaku’s other yakuza films more than
the Battles series.
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Written By Matt Reifschneider
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