Bloody Territories (1969)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Kazuo Aoiki
Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe
Starring Akira Kobayashi, Tatsuya Fuji, Ryoji Hayama, Tadao Nakamaru, Yuriko Hime

Features:

• New subtitles
  
• Liner notes by American Cinematheque programmer, Chris D.
  
• Director filmography
  
• Original Japanese trailer
  

Released by: Home Vision Entertainment/Vitagraph Films
Region: 1
Rating: NR, suitable for audiences 17+
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: At least rent it. Fans of the gangster genre will want to own it.

When the Sakura Association, bowing to police pressure, dissolves its powerful yakuza syndicate, one of the member clans, the Onogi, refuse to sign off on the dissolution. Clinging to their traditional values and traditional territory, they are the sole hold-outs on the deal, but the dissolution of the Sakura Association leaves their clan highly vulnerable. When the Kansai Association decides to step up and fill the power vacuum, the Onogi Clan finds itself desperate to avoid a turf war with the more powerful Kansai.

While the cooler heads attempt to negotiate a settlement, second-in-command Yuji (Kobayashi) struggles to keep his temper and rein in the more strident calls for blood as the Kansai's takeover efforts escalate to a stabbing or two. When the peace accords are discovered to be little more than an elaborate scam by Kansai to steal the Onogi's territory out from under them, Yuji must fall back on the old ways in order to raise enough money to save the clan and put a stop to Kansai's takeover bid. Before he knows it, more players have entered the game, and the fight to save Onogi's territory gets increasingly brutal and treacherous.

With a labrynthine plot containing enough twists and turns to throw off all but the most careful viewer, Bloody Territories is a fantastic modern-day yakuza tale, documenting the struggles of one mob attempting to go legit, leaving its members at the mercy of other criminal organizations that aren't quite ready to throw in the towel. For those unfamiliar with the genre, yakuza flicks are really nothing more than the familiar mafia genre, cast with Japanese sensibilities and lots fewer guns (at least until recent entries into the genre).

This DVD release is part of American Cinematheque's series of interesting and obscure films being distributed by Home Vision Entertainment, and the quality is outstanding. The picture has been totally remastered both to clean up the original and take advantage of 16x9 TVs. The subtitles have been completely redone to provide the best possible translation of the story. The only complaint I have is that they made no effort to digitally remaster the audio, which features an excellent score by Hajime Kaburagi that I suspect would be great in stereo, if not in full digital sound.

Extras are fairly thin, consisting mainly of some nice liner notes from the programmer of American Cimeatheque at the Egyptian theater in L.A. and a filmography of Yasuhare Hasebe's. I'd love to have heard a commentary track by the American Cinematheque crew, or at least a discussion of why they chose this particular film. Perhaps a commentary track by a scholar of Japanese cinema, particularly the yakuza genre. Or maybe they could have provided some cultural notes for those less familiar with the ways of the yakuza, without which knowledge a few of the film's scenes might not make much sense (e.g., when Yuji performs yubitsume, or ritual finger-cutting).

Despite the lack of extras, this is an excellent film in a pristine transfer, and of a genre/era that we in Region 1 see all too little of on DVD. Grab this one, and maybe we can start seeing a broader selection of Japanese film in the future.