A bi-weekly deep dive into the world of Japanese V-Cinema curtesy of Arrow Film’s comprehensive set
Before I dig into the set a bit of background on the genre of V-Cinema:
Back in 1969 Toho was the first studio in Japan to create a home video division to capitalize on the up and coming technology, and would be followed a year later by Toei and Nikkatsu. The three would later collaborate on one of Japan’s first video stores in 1977 in the Ginza shopping district, while the country was still figuring out the strategy for home video as a platform. A big influence on Toei’s approach would be Kinji Fukasaku’s yakuza masterpiece the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (Also released by Arrow), which consists of five films with an eight and a half hour runtime that chronicled the rise of the Yakuza in Japan post World War 2. While these films were a staple of all night repertoire screenings with the advent of video, it was now possible to do this in the comfort of your own home.
The story goes, when Toei producer Tatsu Yoshida famously asked a video store patron how they managed to rent and watch all five films in a single night and return them the next morning – they admitted to fast forwarding past the slower bits of the films to get right to the action. This conversation cemented Toei’s approach that would be copied by every studio in Japan, movies that dropped the exposition and wouldn’t be fast forwarded. While the advent of direct to video anime or OVA was already an established cash cow at this point with the ability to release more adult themed titles, the concept of direct to video films had yet to be the movement it would be after the release of Crime Hunter, the first film on Arrow’s set that would begin the V-Cinema craze.
While some studios toyed with a day and date release with theatrical, Toei had the idea of producing direct films optimized for this format with more skin and more action delivering more bang for your buck. Exposition scenes would be kept to a minimum, as these films were the junk food of cinema created to deliver nothing more than pure entertainment value and the first two films on V-Cinema Essentials do just that – with two very different flavors of these films. Tom Mes lays this all out in his excellent visual essay on the set Crime Hunter and the Dawn of V-Cinema, that’s as dense as it is thorough in its telling of the sub-genres origin story. I first became aware of Tom’s writing about his appearance on Samm Deighan’s podcast Eros + Massacre, which led me to his writing on Midnight Eye, which I highly recommend.
The first film 1989’s Crime Hunter: Bullets Of Rage was the first V-Cinema film and sets the bar going forward. Highly influenced by western action movies, it’s the kind of insane and over the top film I couldn’t believe I was watching for the first time. Fueled by American action tropes Crime Hunter takes place in Little Tokyo in America and begins with the Murder of Joe’s (Masanori Sera) partner Ahiru, played by a fresh faced Riki Takeuchi. They are about to arrest Bruce Yamamoto (Matano), who just stole five million dollars from a church, when a third party dressed up as droogs from A Clockwork Orange shows up and opens fire. This sends both Joe and Bruce off to try and figure out who this third party is before they track down the missing money. Joe is aided by a shotgun toting nun who out to get the money back for the church and its just as great as you’d expect.
The film is American action through the Japanese lens and its pure insanity as you’d expect. I think the main reason for the film location being the US is so they can just have guns spawn everywhere, chrome plated shotguns, machine guns and pistols. By the end of the film Joe is sporting a headband and doing his best Rambo impersonation, as he makes his way through this group of baddies, eventually joining forces with Bruce to get the money back, definitely a nod to Hong Kong’s heroic bloodshed trend. The most surprising part is how derivative the film is while still feeling like its own thing, AND STILL somehow pushing the envelope of action with plenty of shootouts and set pieces that had me in constant disbelief at just how hard it went.
Next up was 1990’s Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes The Bullet, which was the exact opposite side of the V-Cinema coin with a very Japanese entry into the Sub-genre. This film focuses on a low level Yakuza, Junko (Shô Aikawa) who definitely got into the life because of his love of gangster films. One day he finally gets his first big assignment from the boss – he’s to be the look for an assassination of a rival boss. The problem is his two older brothers get cold feet due to the possibility of a 9 year jail stint and injure themselves leaving the task to young Junko. Its just as this opportunity is set before him that Junko forms a relationship with the troubled Yomeko (Chikako Aoyama), a beautiful young runaway, who ends up living with him as he quickly ascends the Yakuza ladder thanks to this assignment.
Given Crime Hunter felt very American, with heavy emphasis on the action, with little to no exposition, Neo Chimpira feels very Japanese in its narrative language. While we don’t get blocks of actually verbal exposition, we spend a lot of quality time with Junko and Yomeko as the two begin to see something equally broken in one another. Junko is obsessed with this life of crime he’s seen in the movies and wishes to be this embodiment of the tough guy, while he is still only a child. Yomeko on the other hand has been forced to grow up too fast and she helps to give Junko that confidence to do the job put before him. I mean it’s either that or possibly get killed by his own boss. The film is just as fascinating as an exploration of Yakuza culture as it is a character study of these two individuals.
That first disc is not only a stunning introduction to V-Cinema, but a great look at the origins of the two icons of the sub-genre Shô Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi. Ironically while Takeuchi plays a cop in Crime Hunter he is probably best known as for his iconic Yakuza roles – to the point he had his own clothing brand that was geared towards real Yakuza in Japan. You will probably recognize the pair of stars from Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive series (Also released by Arrow), where I first encountered the pair at the peak of their popularity. Also of note, when Miike came up as a director in the Japanese studio system, V-Cinema was then used as a training ground for young directors where his over the top transgressive style and work ethic allowed him to prove himself a force to be reckoned with.
Probably the most surprising thing for me as a fan to realize watching these newly restored editions is they were indeed shot on film. Unlike American direct to video that seemingly cut every corner it could, V-Cinema shot and edited on film and looks amazing here on this new release. These are also probably the same restorations that recently hit Japanese theaters in a celebration of V-Cinema not too long ago. Thanks to this upgrade in quality it is apparent these films have actual real budgets with some impressive cinematography, even presented in 1:33 and some impressive production design that is on full display here. Like the spray painted Camaro car Joe drives in Crime Hunter that is effectively just waiting to be blown up and all the posters and gangster ephemera in Junko’s room in Zoom.
The first disc comes with the below extras included:
- Newly filmed introductions to both films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka
- Loose Cannon, a newly filmed interview with Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage director Shundo Okawa
- Zooming Out, a newly filmed interview with Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet writer-director Banmei Takahashi
- Crime Hunter and the Dawn of V-Cinema, a brand new video essay on Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage by Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes
- Original trailers for both films
The first two films offer a very strong start to this set and highlight two very different takes on the same sub-genre, that are both well worth your time for different reasons. Crime Hunter was pure American action insanity, while Zoom Goes the Bullet was more an understated Japanese character study that mixed the director’s pre-filmography in the pink film genre, with a coming of age Yakuza story that hits unexpectedly hard. It’s a double feature that alone is worth the price of the set and I don’t say that lightly and given what’s to come, I can’t wait.
