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Three yakuza-themed but otherwise independent stories from three
differend eras of Japanese history:
- The Edo era (roughly 1600 until the mid 19th century): Tsune (Bunta
Sugawara) saves a young yakuza (Hiroshi Miyauchi) from the wrath of
their boss (Ichiro Sugai) - but as a consequence that might create
more problems for everybody than Tsune could have hoped to solve under
the best of circumstances.
- The Meiji era (mid 19th to early 20th century): Ogata (Minoru Oki)
kills the boss of a rival clan, but his own boss Iwakiri (Hisaya Ito)
doesn't show the least bit of gratitude and instead lures him into a
trap, has him exiled, sent to prison, tortured ... in other words,
does enough evil to him that would make the most mild-mannered man
lust for revenge - but being mild-mannered was never one of Ogata's
qualities ...
- Contemporary Japan: When a fortune in gold is stolen from the
Hashiba gang, their executioner Shimazu (Takashi Fujiki) is quick to
start a gang war to end all gangwars, unaware that Hirose (Teruo
Yoshida) an expert marksman and safecracker has actually stolen the
money. And inexplicably, it's Hirose who only fans the fire of the
gangwar, even if he gets caught in the middle of it.
Yakuza Law is pretty much typical for cult director Teruo Ishii's
output in the late 1960s/early 70s: There's tons of violence and torture,
often very graphic but also comicbook-style exaggerated in approach. There
are also some sexy bits in this one, but less than in other movies of his Joys
of Torture cycle. But what really makes this movie, it's stylish
and flashy in a way typical for the period that somehow still seems fresh
for today's audiences. And while the stories told in this film are all
hard to follow and over-convoluted, they're expertly paced so the pure joy
of storytelling outweighs the over-complexities of the stories at hand.
That all said, especially due to all the violence, it's definitely not
a film for everybody - but for those inclined, it's perfect trip
down memory lane!
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