Many a film has been made concerning the cultural variations between the East and the West. From motion epics like The Last Samurai to contemplative dramas like The Farewell and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, the cultural conflict of East versus West has confirmed to be a topic able to withstanding a number of approaches and takes. Few American movies have, nevertheless, tried to deal with it as unsentimentally or as thoughtfully as The Yakuza.
The underrated, Sydney Pollack-directed neo-noir gem may be very a lot the dirty potboiler crime thriller that its title suggests, however it’s also simply as thematically wealthy as its screenwriting duo of Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) and Robert Towne (Chinatown) would lead you to suspect it’s. It turned 50 years previous final month, and whereas it isn’t practically as well-known exterior cinephile circles because it deserves to be, it’s by no means too late to test it out. You gained’t remorse doing so, both. It’s a moody ’70s thriller that won’t solely get your pulse racing, but in addition depart you sitting in silent astonishment over its twisty, emotionally thorny story.
A narrative of two males, certain by battle and honor
The Yakuza follows Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum), a retired police detective, who’s employed to journey to Tokyo to avoid wasting an previous good friend’s daughter from her Japanese kidnappers. Harry, we study, frolicked in Japan as a marine following the top of World Battle II in the course of the Allies’ occupation of the nation. Whereas there, he helped and fell in love with a Japanese lady, Eiko (Keiko Kishi). Their romance was sophisticated by the return of Eiko’s brother, Ken (Ken Takakura), a devoted Imperial Japanese soldier who was left stranded for months on a distant island. Ken was predictably outraged by Harry and Eiko’s relationship, however his gratitude to Harry for saving Eiko and her daughter’s lives additionally left him with a lifelong “burden of gratitude,” or giri, to the American soldier. A conflicting storm of feelings ensued that compelled Ken to depart his household behind.
Ken’s return and fast departure precipitated a fracture inside Eiko and Harry’s relationship that’s nonetheless current when he returns, as lovelorn as ever, to Japan firstly of The Yakuza. Trying to save his good friend’s daughter, Harry seeks out not solely Eiko, but in addition Ken, and he calls upon the latter to reenter the world of the yakuza and honor his obligation to Harry. Ken reluctantly agrees to take action, and it isn’t lengthy earlier than he and Harry discover themselves caught up in a conspiracy much more harmful and twisted than they count on. Alongside the best way, new discoveries are made about Ken’s precise connection to Eiko and the complete, troublesome complexity of his and Harry’s bond is delivered to mild. Their shared previous is undeniably convoluted, however The Yakuza elegantly lays out Harry, Ken, and Eiko’s sophisticated historical past in its first act, and the movie properly depends on the totally different shades of heartbreak portrayed by Mitchum, Kishi, and Takakura to do a lot of its early emotional heavy-lifting.
Ken and Harry’s many money owed to one another permit their onscreen bond to realize an operatic sort of dramatic grandeur — one befitting of a connection between two males that steadily appears like a mirror for America and Japan’s postwar relationship. Whereas The Yakuza takes its time winding its approach by way of its story, Pollack punctuates its runtime with thrillingly staged, brutal bursts of violence, together with a midpoint residence invasion sequence that’s as technically spectacular as its final result is shockingly unsparing. Towne and Schrader’s screenplay, in the meantime, accommodates fantastically lyrical items of dialogue, resembling when one character notes, “Ken is a tormented man. It’s Eiko, in fact, however it’s also Japan.” In a special scene, Mitchum wryly responds to Eiko’s questioning about Ken by noting, “He’s been sad ever since he misplaced the battle. I preserve making an attempt to inform him it’s not his fault. He gained’t take my phrase for it.”
Our obligation to one another
As efficient as Pollack’s blunt, no-nonsense path and Towne and Schrader’s thought of, elliptical script are, The Yakuza is in the end elevated most notably by Robert Mitchum. The actor, one of many best of all Hollywood stars, holds your consideration each time he’s within the body, and he offers a efficiency that, very similar to his late-career flip in The Pals of Eddie Coyle, effortlessly evokes a way of quiet resignation and desperation that’s deceptively highly effective. He performs Kilmer not as an smug American, however as a great man who yearns to honor a tradition he doesn’t absolutely perceive.
It’s only when he discovers the complete scope of his affect on Ken and Eiko’s lives, how a lot he has inadvertently taken from them just by stepping unthinkingly into their circle, that Mitchum’s former marine is ready to perceive the Japanese beliefs and customs which have haunted and mystified him for 3 many years. There exists a transparent metaphor right here for American interventionism and the way even probably the most “simply” or well-intentioned interventionist acts could cause unexpected penalties and devastating social ripples. However The Yakuza doesn’t hit viewers over the top with its bigger thematic concepts.
As an alternative, the movie arrives at a conclusion that manages to powerfully acknowledge the duty that we, no matter — and generally as a result of of — our cultural variations, have to one another. The Japanese, in fact, would name that giri. Nonetheless, whereas our obligation to one another might generally really feel like a burden, it’s also an honor, one we will solely strive our greatest to bear properly.
The Yakuza is on the market to hire now on all main digital platforms like Amazon Prime Video.
