After having been asked to execute his lover, yakuza hitman Kuroda (Jo
Shishido) wants out of his clan - but his boss Akazawa (Takashi Kanda)
isn't one who takes things like this very lightly, so before you know it,
Kuroda's brother Saburo's (Jiro Okazaki) hands are broken and thus his
career as a boxer is destroyed, and Kuroda's other brother Eiji's (Tatsuya
Fuji) club is laid to wasten by Akazawa's men. Saburo and Eiji want to
avenge themselves immediately, but Kuroda, the only one of the brothers
experienced in all things yakuza, holds them back (and probably saves
their lives), opting for a better planned revenge instead. It doesn't take
long, too, before the three brothers actually do get back at Akazawa,
taking over control of businesses in his territory one by one - and at
first, everything seems to be going better than good ... just Kuroda
begins to dislike this: the gangster lifestyle gets to Saburo's head and
he more and more starts to act like an asshole, while Eiji proves to be a
little too hot-headed for Kuroda's controlled strikes against Akazawa. And
sure enough, Akazawa strikes back before too long, killing a shopowner
under Kuroda's protection to state an example, then he tries to take back
businesses one by one, with varying degrees of success. A first
culmination of the conflict is the kidnapping of Saburo, only to lure
Kuroda into a trap ... but Kuroda is willing to give his life for his
brother - but the day is saved by Eiji, whose hot head proves useful this
time around ... or does it? Fact is, during their getaway, Eiji shoots
Akazawa dead, and now the new boss turns out to be Shirasaka (Hideaki
Nitani), erstwhile Kuroda's best friend, but just as methodological as he
is, and even though he wants nothing less than a showdown with Kuroda (and
neither does Kuroda), he will do everything to let it culminate in just
that ... Narratively, Massacre Gun might not exactly
tread new ground - but damn, it's a really cool genre movie all the same.
First of all, this is probably to blame on an incredibly stylish
directorial effort: Maybe not everything in this movie is owed 100% to
gritty realism, but pretty much every shot is wonderfully choreographed to
unfold to full effect, and the slightly jazzy musical score only helps to
create just the right atmosphere. And add to that a very well-written
script that might not be free from genre mainstays but knows how to make
them work, and a very competent cast, and you have got one really cool
yakuza movie.
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