Blood of Revenge


Tackling the classic western theme of savagery versus civilization, Blood of Revenge (1965) transplants that frontier anxiety into a Japanese society straining under the weight of modernization. Where American Westerns pit lawmen against outlaws as railroads carve order into chaos, this early yakuza drama (or ninkyo) frames progress itself as the invading force, encroaching on a rigid underworld code that no longer fits the times. Civilization is coming and it’s arriving with bulldozers, business suits, and a thinly veiled contempt for tradition.

Set in a port town caught between old loyalties and new money, the film follows a stoic second-in-command, Asajiro (Koji Tsuruta), trying to navigate a collapsing moral order where honor is still spoken aloud but rarely practiced. Embarrassed of his yakuza past, Asajiro finds himself torn between a romantic entanglement that promises a measure of happiness versus his responsibility to help legitimize the clan. And while his strong belief in the importance ritual, hierarchy, and oaths of honor earns the respect of those around him, those same values are weaponized by rival clans only too happy to sell out to the highest bidder.

Director Tai Kato uses thoughtful camera compositions full of extreme close-ups with miles of empty space on one side of the scope frame. And, despite off-camera disagreements, he elicits a career-best performance from Tsuruta whose emotional turmoil is a mirror to Japan’s social anxieties.  The pacing is deliberate, almost mournful, in keeping with a system that’s eating itself alive. You can feel the internal conflict of a society that feels the need to compete on the world stage but fears losing its national identity at the same time. Yet Kaito refuses to romanticize either side of the conflict: Civilization wins, but not cleanly…savagery loses, but not honorably. What remains is a cynical reckoning with Japan’s postwar identity tattooed on the backs of men whose place in the world in slowly shrinking.

Another “why haven’t I seen this before!” release from Radiance, Blood of Revenge makes its world Blu-ray premiere in an outstanding 3000-copy limited edition that includes an early short film by Tai Kato, visual essay on the career of co-star Junko Fuji and a set of spot-on liner notes.

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