A few months back I reviewed Massacre Gun and I liked it a lot. This movie knocked out a lot of firsts for me. It was my first time seeing a film directed by Yasuharu Hasebe, first time seeing a film starring Jô Shishido and first time seeing a production from Nikkatsu. Since that time I’ve watched a few other movies from Nikkatsu but it took me a while to get to Retaliation, Hasebe’s follow up to Massacre Gun.
Akira Kobayashi stars as Jiro, a gangster who has been serving the last number of years in prison for killing a rival gangster. Shortly after Jiro is released he is approached by Hino (Shishido), the brother of the man Jiro killed. As one would imagine Hino isn’t a fan of Jiro and the two begin to fight. The fight doesn’t get too serious, however, as Hino’s girlfriend comes and breaks it up. The two go their separate ways, but Hino vows revenge.
This first scene is an interesting one in a few different ways. From a story perspective it begins to lead you down a path that ultimately the story doesn’t take. The film is called Retaliation and after this scene I thought for sure the movie was going to be about Hino retaliating for the death of his brother. That’s not the case. The real take away for me however, is the style in which the scene is shot, which seems to have been a bit of a signature for Hasebe. Once the fight breaks out the characters move to the background of the frame as tall blades of grass take over the foreground. As the camera pans across the screen we just see glimpses of the fight as our view is mostly blocked by grass. It’s almost like the audience is sneaking up on the fight and watching from a safe distance. Hasebe uses this technique multiple times throughout the film and it’s something I really enjoy.
Back to our story and we have Jiro returning to his own gang. What Jiro finds is that the only people remaining are his old boss, who he refers to as the Godfather and one lone sidekick. The Godfather is a withered old man these days, struggling to get by. He tells Jiro that a rival gang, the Hazama family, has been taking care of him. Jiro goes to pay his respects to the Hazama family and they offer Jiro a job. If Jiro can take control of Takagawa City from two smaller gangs, he can run the city the way he likes and restore some pride to his gang. Jiro agrees once Hazama advises that he’ll allow Jiro to do things his way.
Jiro forms a team that includes Hino, and sets out to create a plan to take over Takagawa City. Unfortunately things don’t go as smoothly as Jiro was hoping.
Because Hasebe made this back-to-back with Massacre Gun I can’t help but compare the two. Much like that first film, Retaliation is quite violent. In fact I’d say this is even more violent and it hits a little harder because it was shot in color. This effort is also very stylistic, especially with the creative camera movements. Any time there is a big action sequence, and there is quite a few of them, the camera snakes around peering at everything from a distance. Even in the more simple scenes, like a group of guys talking around a table, the camera takes an interesting turn by being placed overhead and slowly moving around the table. Hasebe did a wonderful job keeping things interesting at all times.
The issue with Retaliation is there is a lot going on. There are so many different gangs and at times they are working together and then at other times they’re at odds. It’s never clear who is working with who. It all gets very convoluted and becomes difficult to understand. To say it’s a complex story would be a major understatement. Sometimes you need to cut back and this was definitely one of those times. Furthering the complication is why Hino agrees to work with Jiro. The movie starts off making you think Hino and Jiro are going to go at it all film long and then they end up working together? That’s a bit odd.
Retaliation is out now on Blu-ray from Arrow and per usual this is an excellent looking Blu-ray. The film has a ton of visual style and it all looks great here. A few special features are included. There is an interview with Shishido in which he talks a bit about both Retaliation and Massacre Gun. A second interview is included with film historian Tony Rayns and this is incredibly interesting. Rayns goes into pretty great detail on director Hasebe and the history of Nikkastu. I greatly recommend giving this interview a watch. Rounding things out on this release are a booklet from Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp and some wonderfully vivid new artwork from Ian MacEwan.
Retaliation isn’t as smooth and crisp as the earlier Massacre Gun. Things get real muddy from time to time because so much is happening at once. Even with the story overload, Retaliation is a sleek, violent yakuza film that offers up loads of fun. Don’t beat yourself up trying to understand the story. Just sit back and enjoy the action and you’ll have a good time.
Retaliation is available now on Blu-ray from Arrow.
