Yakusho Koji: Perfect Roles | Out Of Competition
Japan, 2018, 126’, Japanese
Directed by: Shiraishi Kazuya
Screenplay: Ikegami Junya
Cinematography (color):Haibara Takahiro
Editing: Kato Hitomi
Music: Yasukawa Goro
Producer: Amano Kazuto
Cast: Yakusho Koji, Matsuzaka Tori, Maki Yoko
Date of First Release in Territory: May 12th, 2018
Director Shiraishi Kazuya delivers a knowing homage to the Japanese gang movies of the 1970s in
The Blood of Wolves, a cop thriller based on Yuzuki Yuko’s novel of the same Japanese title. But the film’s real inspiration, as Shiraishi himself has admitted, is
Battles Without Honor and Humanity, a seminal 1973-74 five-part series directed by Fukasaku Kinji.
Tracing a true-life 20-year gang war in Hiroshima and nearby Kure, Fukasaku’s masterpiece had a contemporary feel and a shot-on-the-fly propulsion. Shiraishi’s film is also set in Hiroshima but its story of a veteran cop (Yakusho Koji) suspected of being in cahoots with the yakuza unfolds in 1988 and has the air of a last hurrah, with its dirty hero being the last of his species. Which doesn’t mean the film’s many action scenes suffer from middle-aged blahs: The beatings and bloodlettings are staged with visceral realism and old-school flair.
The cop is Ogami Shogo, who’s known as “Gami.” Rumpled and profane, he bends police rules as casually as shaking out a cigarette from a crumpled pack, but he also gets results. Investigating the disappearance of a gang-connected accountant, he calmly asks new partner Hioka (Matsuzaka Tori), a straight arrow on the elite career track, to pick a fight with a burly gangster in a pachinko parlor. Hioka reluctantly complies and is getting bloodied and bruised when Gami finally comes to the rescue. He then smilingly totes up the various crimes he has just witnessed (and incited) that will send the hood, nicknamed Sumo, away for a long stretch. Would Sumo like to spill what he knows?
Witnessing this and other flagrant violations of proper police procedure, Hioka decides that Gami is both a bad role model and a corrupt cop. Gami, however, is more occupied with a brewing gang war.
Back in 1974 the Odani-gumi fought a bloody turf battle with the powerful Irako-kai. Now, 14 years later, the Irako-kai’s slithery boss (Ishibashi Renji) has joined forces with the Kakomura-gumi to finally take over Odani territory.
Suspecting that the Kakomuras are behind the accountant’s disappearance, Gami wants to learn the truth and prevent an Odani-Kakomura war. But he also seems to be supporting the Odanis, while undermining the Kakomuras at every opportunity. What, Hioka wonders, is really going on?
Ikegami Junya’s script deftly peels away the plot’s layers within layers. Also, despite the many characters, including a canny bar madam (Maki Yoko) and a clownish sound-truck rightwinger (Pierre Taki), the film never feels over-populated.
For one thing, violent death thins the herd with maximum impact. For another, both cops and gangsters are more picturesquely flawed individuals than types, while not always being what they seem, Gami first and foremost.
Veteran Yakusho has played similar characters, including the unhinged cop in Nakashima Tetsuya’s 2014
The World of Kanako, but he brings a fresh energy to the role of Gami, as though tangling with ruthless criminals were a fun game.
But Gami is also a serious professional, if one who hides his true motives behind an un-serious mask. The long wait for it to drop is worth it.
Shiraishi Kazuya
After directing shorts, music videos and TV shows, Shiraishi Kazuya (b. 1974) made his feature debut with Lost Paradise in Tokyo in 2009. His 2013 crime thriller The Devil’s Path became a critical and commercial success while the star of his 2917 relationship drama Birds Without Names, Aoi Yu, won a Japan Academy Best Actress prize, among other honors. His 2018 cop thriller The Blood of Wolves was screened at Udine FEFF, as was his group biopic Dare to Stop Us (2018), his dark family drama One Night (2020), his followup Last of the Wolves (2021) and his first period drama Bushido (2024).
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2009 – Lost Paradise in Tokyo
2013 – The Devil’s Path
2017 – Birds Without Names
2018 – The Blood of Wolves
2018 – Dare to Stop Us
2020 - One Night
2021 – Last of the Wolves
2024 – Bushido