The Archivist — Welcome to the Archive. As home video formats have evolved over the years, a multitude of films have found themselves in danger of being forgotten forever due to their niche appeal. Thankfully, Warner Bros. established the Archive Collection, a Manufacture-On-Demand DVD operation devoted to thousands of idiosyncratic and ephemeral works of cinema. The Archive has expanded to include a streaming service, revivals of out-of-print DVDs, and Blu-ray discs (which, unlike the DVDs, are factory pressed rather than burned). Join us as we explore this treasure trove of cinematic discovery!
The Yakuza (1974)
Sydney Pollack (Jeremiah Johnson, Three Days Of The Condor) wanted to make a movie about a culture clash. Indulging his fascination with Japanese culture, the movie he crafted along with Hollywood writer/legends Paul Schrader (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver) and Robert Towne (Chinatown), is The Yakuza. Matching an aged and rugged Robert Mitchum with ultimate Japanese gangster actor Ken Takakura, The Yakuza is, frankly, a piece of masculine cinematic heaven.
Hard boiled, quiet, observant of code and tradition, The Yakuza treats the Japanese underworld with reverence and respect, while also sensationalizing it as exotic and romantic. One would have to be crazy to call the film perfect, what with its indulgent exposition laying out the complicated backstory for our tale that borders on melodrama, and the heavy male focus that does not allow for any real agency on the part of the female characters our men fight and die over. But while those flaws stand out as noteworthy, this is a film that plays so wonderfully to this writer’s proclivities as to consider it a perfect film for me. The era, the setting, the talent behind and before the lens, the action set pieces, the camera work… it’s all there to create something truly special.
Mitchum plays Harry Kilmer, a former soldier and policeman who spent a fair amount of time in Japan during the war. He rescued and eventually fell in love with a beautiful Japanese woman and her daughter, shielding them from the ravages of war. But against all odds, when her brother returns from certain death after being lost at war, their living arrangement becomes scandalous and shameful. Brother Ken is yakuza, and he, Kilmer, Eiko and Hanako find themselves at a tragic standstill with Ken being eternally grateful for Harry’s protection of his family, but stern in his resolve that they can never marry. With no option for a future together, Kilmer returns to the United States a lost man. And that’s just where our story picks up; with an aged Kilmer returning to Japan after decades, thrown into some nasty business by his friend Tanner that reconnects him with both his old flame Eiko (Kishi Keiko) and his old nemesis (Ken Takakura).
It’s perhaps a complicated setup, but it allows for a largely quiet movie after the laborious backstory. Harry and Eiko’s opportunity to reconnect is filled with longing and regret, his reunion with Ken, who has escaped the Yakuza and become a Kendo teacher, stilted and awkward. It’s instantly recognizable as a family dynamic. And Kilmer’s rescue mission for Tanner’s daughter quickly becomes more complicated, and reignites the conflicts of the past. Also within this relational dynamic is the key to Pollack’s interest in the film: the Japanese code of conduct known as “giri”, or “burden”. All of our characters’ plights serve as exploration of the code of honor they are all bound to. Kilmer, who has adopted or at least revered the Japanese way of life, must live with the consequences of his actions. And Ken, no matter his dislike for Kilmer, will honor his code and fight alongside Kilmer to the death if necessary. As some characters act dishonorably, Ken and Kilmer are drawn deeper into a fight they will have to share together, and their own complicated relationship is a wonderful portrayal of friendship forged in battle.
And aside from all that ripe character conflict and achingly romantic drama, there’s a whole bunch of sword and gun battles that perfectly meld samurai cinema with two-fisted guns blazing. It’s thrilling stuff, all captured with equal parts grace and creative energy by Pollack in collaboration with Japanese cinematographer Kozo Okazaki (Goyokin). In the action packed conclusion, Ken lays waste to his enemies with the grace and power of the sword as depicted in the slow style of classical samurai films. In the very same sequence, Kilmer bashes and shoots and tumbles his way through the scene, dual-wielding a handgun and shotgun (which is occasionally used as a club) with brute force shot in a harried and frenetic style. It’s a thrilling action set piece elevated by great camerawork and fully realized characters.
After the climax, there’s a ceremonial ending to the film which cements these men of different cultures as eternally bonded, having lived out their codes of honor in spite of circumstance causing them to have conflict between one another. It’s a combination of thematic exploration and explosive action that hits my cinematic sweet spot square enough in the bullseye to consider The Yakuza among my very favorite movies.
The Package
Available for the first time on Blu-ray, The Warner Archive Collection is doing the Lord’s work bringing this fantastic movie to high definition. The widescreen presentation looks absolutely vibrant, with Okazaki lensing Japan through Pollack’s obsessive and curious eye. Mitchum and Takakura’s faces are magnificently filmic, and wonderfully featured here. And with a Sydney Pollack commentary and a vintage featurette, this package has just the right amount of bonus content to make it an instant recommendation. With two legendary screenwriters providing a story to a top-of-his-game director who casts two towering lead actors to share the screen in a thrilling action romance, it just doesn’t get much better than The Yakuza.
And I’m Out.