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.

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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!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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