Sympathy for the Underdog


Special features might be an endangered species on home video as far as the major studios are concerned.  But boutique labels like Radiance understand that physical media collectors want the most complete history of a film’s production, cultural influences and legacy as possible.  Which is especially important when it comes to foreign titles released to a U.S. audience for the first time.  In the case of 1971’s Sympathy for the Underdog, a fairly standard yakuza story at first glance, the extras reveal another layer of social and racial complexity that would likely slip by completely unnoticed. 

Fresh out of a ten-year prison stint, Gunji (Koji Tsuruta) is reunited with the few remaining members of his old gang who remained loyal.  But the criminal landscape has changed in the last decade, so Gunji shifts his base of operation to Okinawa, where the competition is less fierce and the U.S. dollar reigns supreme.  Gunji and his boys stage a clever takeover by pitting the local Okinawa gangs against one another, but th\e whole plan falls apart when mainland gangster get wind of the offshore opportunity…and claim this new turf as their own.

 

Okinawa itself was claimed as a Japanese protectorate in the late 1800s, then surrendered to Allied forces during WW2 and finally returned to Japanese control in 1972.  Despite having their own language and cultural history, Okinawans were simply folded into the empire, looked upon as backwater second-class citizens.  So, director Kinji Fukasaku’s film has a different feel than his later yakuza classics like Battles Without Honor and Humanity.  There’s still a good bit of gunplay, stabbings and chaotic street-fighting, but Gunji comes to despise the mainland moral superiority just as much as the Okinawans he came to conquer.  Eventually his battle becomes more than just personal revenge, it’s a bloody nose to the system that screwed both of them over.

 

The Radiance Blu-ray has just the sort of grainy, grimy look you want in an early ‘70s yakuza film without sacrificing any visual quality.  Extras include an interview with Fukasaku biographer Oliver Hadouchi, audio commentary by yakuza film expert Nathan Stuart and the aforementioned visual essay by Aaron Gerow that succinctly provides a short history on the modern Okinawan experience.  A reversible sleeve and collector’s booklet are included as well.

 

 

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