Agitator

Movie gangsters come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and temperaments. There’s enough variety to apply a variation on the open-ended quote from Civil War, “But kind of gangster are you!” I mean, there’s Scorsese gangsters, Guy Ritchie gangsters, Suzuki gangsters even Tarantino gangsters. And while Takashi Miike gangsters probably don’t crack the top ten, they are most decidedly a breed of their own. 2001’s Agitator finds the director’s technique evolving alongside with his yakuza counterparts in a decidedly mature, and, compared to his V-Cinema creations, retrogressively conservative take on Japanese mafiosos.

Yoichi (Naoto Takenaka) and Kunihiko (Masaya Kato) are sworn brothers in the Higuchi Gang under the banner of the Yokomizo family. But their loyalties are tested when a pair of high-ranking assassinations sets rival gangs against one-another in a secret plot to wrest control from within and without. Appalled by their leaders’ lack of loyalty – not to mention backbone – Yoichi and Kunihiko launch a guerilla warfare campaign to put themselves at the top.

“All the yakuza wants to be now is a club where everyone plays nice,” says one of the low-level characters in Miike’s film, which nostalgically yearns for a criminal underworld like the good ‘ol days. In Agitator, the yakuza elite are cowardly salarymen eager to compromise their honor in exchange for profits. Meanwhile, Kunihiko and his gang of upstarts act without thinking, retaliate without permission and kill without regret.

Although Miike’s film idolizes their initiative, it doesn’t wallow in their excesses like his earlier work. Agitator plays very much like a ‘70s-era yakuza film, leaning on loyalty and brotherhood amidst the chaos, with flourishes of black humor and memorable quirks. Its characters exist in a vacuum (other than an almost hallucinogenic love interest) where only the thrill of the moment matters and their death is preordained. “Why be a yakuza if you can’t fight?” asks one of the yakuza chairman. It’s a question that fits Miike’s doomed battle cry of a movie perfectly.

The limited-edition Blu-ray from Radiance features a hi-def transfer of the theatrical version of the film. It’s a solid piece of work but with the familiar grain structure of this era of Japanese film – meaning no flaws but a subtle patina of cinematic residue. The 200-minute extended version is a full hour longer but presented only in standard def on the same disc. Extras include an audio commentary, new interview with Miike, trailer, reversible sleeve and liner notes.