Street Mobster

Now free, Okita returns to his old stomping ground. After establishing a new gang and embarking on a tempestuous quasi sado-masochistic relationship with a woman he raped and forced into prostitution in the old days, Okita sets his sights on the Tokigawa once more.

An attack on them draws the attentions of their rivals the Yato gang, their intervention saves Okita when the Tokigawa inevitably retaliate.

Okita balks at being given orders and soon tells the Yato bosses to shove it. But a loose cannon is the last thing they want around, especially now that a third Yakuza gang has arrived on the scene from out of town, looking to exploit the confusion…

Director Kinji Fukasaku shoots film fast and loose, using real locations, frenetic hand-held camera work and first-person voice over to give a documentary type feel, reminiscent of Mean Streets, also throwing in nouvelle vague style freeze frames for good measure.

Nevertheless, if Okita were a Mean Streets character you sense he would be more like Johnny Boy than Charlie. There is little in the way of self-doubt and introspection to his commentary, more the attitude of someone who lives by the day and does what he wants without regard for the longer term consequences.

Fukasaku's position on the "street mobster" is unclear. That Okita is a product of his environment comes across, as do the director's feelings towards the Yakuza, where the most treacherous, devious and dishonorouable gangster invariably wins out. But by presenting Okita as an instinctive, genuine, human figure it's hard not to feel an element of sympathy creeping in, especially when the character is incarnated by the charismatic Bunta Sugawara.

His Okita has that ineffable combination of psychopathic charm and fuck-the-world attitude that, like Belmondo in A Bout de Souffle and Pierrot le Fou or McDowell in A Clockwork Orange can render an unpleasant character bearable, even grudgingly likeable. Or – to throw in some other influences, to judge by the idiosyncratic jazzy score with its use of ocarina (yes!) and the spectacularly violent set pieces – if the ordinary yakuza are the Bad, Okita is the Ugly, if they are Mapache he is the Wild Bunch…

The overall result is a film that is, if anything, edgier and more "dangerous" than Fukasaku's films of internecine yakuza conflict, making it easier to overlook what seem like – at least to the non-Japanese – some seriously dodgy sexual politics.

Eureka's Region 2 DVD of Street Mobster is sadly a case of a very good film being marred by a substandard DVD presentation.

The picture looks like a patterned gauze has been overlaid on the screen and suffers from appalling pixelation. There are better looking VCD and videos out there.

A shame, since the film is in the correct 2.35:1 aspect ratio, has clear audio (a seemingly endless procession of shouts, screams, crashes and smashes, all accompanied by jazzy noodling) and seemingly accurate subtitles, free from the Americanisms that marred the Battles Without Honour and Humanity DVD.

The only extras are a tiny photo gallery – why do they bother – and a useful director's profile that puts Fukasaku's career into some sort of context for the newbie.

If this DVD is only available as part of the Yakuza box set and was conceived of as a throw away/free gift type thing then it might be okay, but you'll likely feel seriously pissed off if you spend Ł20 or so on something that's barely VCD quality.