detective bureau street mobster

Japan pumped out Yakuza films by the hundreds from the late '50s through the '70s, endlessly kick starting careers and franchises to fight off the lure of television until the studio system finally crumbled. Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! (1963), starring Jo Shishido as a tough-talking private eye who inserts himself into a gang rivalry, offers up something a bit different. More of an American film noir with musical intermissions, Seijun Suzuki's film is a kitchen sink of private dick clichés, including a misunderstood femme fatale, comic relief sidekicks and some great one liners that would've made Bogart jealous ("I didn't deserve that slap, so I gave it back to you.")

After a series of hijackings that pit one gang against the other, Tajima (Shishido) goes undercover to find out who's pulling off these risky Yakuza raids. His investigation requires a phony name and elaborate back-story, dodging old girlfriends, even performing a musical number onstage to distract his new bosses from his old career. Sporting guns instead of traditional blades, these Americanized yakuza are set to overwhelm a Japanese police force ill-prepared for this kind of firepower.

Although still a typical programmer film, Suzuki adds enough points of interest for genre fans to recognize his personal touches. The evocative colors used on the interior sets is dripping with neon noir style and attempts to elevate Shishido to crooner status is worth the price of admission all on its own. Much of the humor, however, falls flat which might explain why Detective Bureau 2-3 never too on another case on the big screen.

Arrow Video's Blu-ray looks astonishingly good, particularly when it comes to the aforementioned colorful scenes. Extras include a half-hour interview with film historian Tony Rayns (who gives the film more grief than it deserves), plus a still gallery, trailer and newly designed cover art.

Street Mobster (1972) is a yakuza story on much more familiar ground. Teaming director Kinji Fukasaku with star Bunta Sugawara (the duo would reunite for the celebrated Battles Without Honor and Humanity series a year later), the tragic tale follows Okita, victim of a rough childhood and even rougher adolescence, who has spent his entire life as member of the underworld, refusing to follow any code but his own. Upon release from prison, he falls in with a partner who suggests they lead a gang themselves. But their success soon attracts attention from rival organizations who demand Okita submit to their authority...or lose everything.

If Street Mobster had nothing more to offer than this regurgitated plot synopsis, one would be hard put to explain its heralded status among aficionados. But the relationships here, particularly between Okita and his sometime-girlfriend, Kinuyo (a girl he raped and sold to a brothel years earlier), are fascinatingly complex, even if Okita himself is not. Portrayed by Bunta as a raging thug with an addiction to self-destructive violence, Okita is anything but sympathetic. Instead, the film makes you pity the world that created him, full of greed, murder, abandonment and betrayal.

Arrow Video's Blu-ray is a great representation of the gritty '70s look the genre is known for. Extras include a (surprisingly lackluster) audio commentary from Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes and (first pressing only) an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jasper Sharp.