This is a yakuza with plenty of twists and turns and gorgeous cinematography that has little to offer that’s new or even the slightest bit transformative. For fans of the genre there will be a lot more here, especially with all the backroom dealings and betrayals. This honestly wouldn’t feel too out of place in, say, a programmed theme centered around crime film as a whole. It has all the hallmarks that one might find in American crime film, just centered around yakuza after contact with the outside world. Things ramp up a bit better towards the end, but part of the thing that people associate with the yakuza film, at least outside of Japan, is swordplay, which is at a minimum here.
This is a yakuza with plenty of twists and turns and gorgeous cinematography that has little to offer that’s new or even the slightest bit transformative. For fans of the genre there will be a lot more here, especially with all the backroom dealings and betrayals. This honestly wouldn’t feel too out of place in, say, a programmed theme centered around crime film as a whole. It has all the hallmarks that one might find in American crime film, just centered around yakuza after contact with the outside world. Things ramp up a bit better towards the end, but part of the thing that people associate with the yakuza film, at least outside of Japan, is swordplay, which is at a minimum here.