david b
Screaming, scowling, slapping yakuza fall all over each other. Is Sonny Chiba in this mess? The credits say so...couldn't tell. Glad I saw this one (purportedly a 'classic' - sheesh, film critics are lame aren't they?) and won't waste more of my life on any others.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
dustin d
Deadly Fight in Hiroshima is the best film in the Battles without Honor & Humanity series thanks to a relatively coherent plot (for a Fukasaku film), a mostly self-contained story, and the star power of Sonny Chiba, Meiko Kaji, Bunta Sugawara and Kinya Kitaoji.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The second film in Kinji Fukasaku's yakuza series is just as good as the first (Battles without Honor and Humanity), although it takes place on a smaller scale and with fewer central characters. Bunta Sugawara is back from the first film but he stays on the sidelines here, present apparently only to lend some continuity to the proceedings. In prison, Shozo Hirono (Bunta) meets small time hood Shoji Yamanaka (Kin'ya Kitaoji) who then takes center stage when he becomes a gun man for the Muraoka family and falls in love with the boss's niece. All seems to be going well until a rival gang led by insane Katsutoshi Otomo (played intensely by Sonny Chiba in one of his last films before international stardom as The Streetfighter) declares war on Muraoka. Yamanaka is a pawn in the proceedings and willingly goes to jail for the family...but then the betrayals begin. Bloody, chaotic, and with a hyperventilating lead performance from Kitaoji, the film keeps the tension cranked (but it is consequently less Shakespearean than its predecessor). Not for the squeamish.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Gran adicion a la saga. Menos caotica y sangrienta y se concentra en menos personajes. A pesar de que Bunta Sugawara vuelve a interpretar a Shozo Hirono, su rol es mas pequeño que en la original. Sonny Chiba y Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) son una gran adicion al reparto.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/12/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The second film in the Yakuza Papers series is not as good as the first because the violence and general shoot-em-up plot got a little tiresome at times. However, the style of the film , the soundtrack, the excellent editing, and Bunta Sugawara's presence as Shozo Hirono kept me engaged. I simply love Fukasaku's exciting pacing and continued experimentation with the camera. What keeps me wanting to watch more is the connections that freeze frames containing dates and names make between fiction and reality. A memorable scene is the killing of Tokimori with the envelope slipped halfway between the door, when he reaches for it, Shozo's man is signalled by the envelopes movement and he shoots Tokimori. I was not drawn into or interested in following Kinya Kitaoji as Shoji Yamanaka or Sonny Chiba as Katsutoshi Otomo compared to the first film where I was really glued to the screen watching Hirono, Sakai, and the pathetic Yomomouri. The love story between Yamanaka and Yasuko added a different feel to the film rather than it just being about sheer violence and murder, but after a while it turned contrived and formulaic. The highlights of this film were: Matsunaga and the increased involvement of the police.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
My favorite gangster movies ever? Easy to feel that way after watching this second installment. Visual, bloody in the extreme, and refreshingly amoral, although the value of honor is explored throughout. Amoral in sense that narrative seems to map cause and effect without too much taking sides, or it feels that way. Nicely detached, let's say. The effect, a Genogram of post-war Yakuza retaliations; violent, reactive, vivid. Hugely entertaining if you like this sort of thing, not for the queasy, nice ratty early-70s look, way beyond Tarantino for blood and style, and even humor, who copped plenty from Fukasaku. This is a bit like Leone on speed. Has one of my favorite Sonny Chiba performances, way over-the-top and hilarious.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
Full Review
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