retaliation

Director Yasuharu Hasebe’s Massacre Gun (1967) was a well-photographed but laconic rip-off of American film noir, set in smoky jazz clubs and dingy backrooms. His follow up for Nikkatsu, Retaliation (1968), gives those same ingredients an invigorating kick in the ass! Another in a long line of yakuza crime thrillers, the set-up might be familiar, but almost everything about the film’s visual style is unique.

With a street-level POV, peeking through traffic, pedestrians or blades of grass, Hasebe’s camera is nearly always watching the action through some sort of clever obstruction. It’s a directorial conceit that might have been annoying, but instead gives Retaliation an artful authenticity that makes even the most mundane conversation interesting; a style that crime films in the U.S (like Bullitt and The French Connection) would soon adopt for themselves.

The story is yet another twist on Yojimbo with Jiro (Akira Kobayashi) planning to move in on a new territory by pitting to rival gangs against one another. Setting himself up as real-estate investor, he cleverly manipulates the situation (often sacrificing his own men in the process) to ensure that valuable farmland falls under his thumb…opening the door for his employer to pick up the development contract.

But, thanks to the attention of an innocent farm girl (Meiko Kaji, playing way against type), Jiro is tempted to put his gangster ways behind him. And when the deal is finally done, with several promises being broken, revenge against those who broke their word now becomes his full-time job.

Retaliation actually turns out to be a superb entry-level yakuza film for those not familiar with the genre. Although cult figure Jo Shishido (Branded to Kill) is reduced to a supporting role, the film’s realistic approach and visual trick shots (one action scene is lit completely by a roving flashlight) make for a fantastic highlight reel.

Released for the first time on hi-def, the restored transfer is nothing short of amazing, sporting new English subtitles and the original uncompressed mono sound plus interviews with co-star Jo Shishido and film critic Tony Rayns, who continues his history of Nikkatsu studios from the Arrow Video’s Massacre Gun extras. A trailer, still gallery and liner notes cap off another enjoyably unconventional collector’s edition.