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New Battles Without Honour & Humanity (Shin jingi naki tatakai)
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(BLU-RAY Englandimport) (England-Import)
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Inhalt: |
ln the earIy 1970s, Kinji Fukasaku’s five-fiIm Battles Without Honor and Humanity series was a massive hit in Japan, and kicked off a boom in realistic, modern yakuza fiIms based on true stories. Although Fukasaku had intended to end the series, Toei Studio convinced him to return to the director’s chair for this unconnected, follow-up trilogy of fiIms, each starring Battles leading man Bunta Sugawara and telIing separate, but fictional stories about the yakuza in different locations in Japan. In the first film, Bunta Sugawara is Miyoshi, a low-Ievel assassin of the Yamamori gang who is sent to jail after a bungled hit. WhiIe in stir, famiIy member Aoki (Lone Wolf and Cub’s Tomisaburo Wakayama) attempts to seize power from the boss, and Miyoshi finds himself stuck between the two factions with no honorabIe way out. ln the second entry, The Boss’s Head, Sugawara is Kuroda, an itinerant gambIer who steps in when a hit by drugaddicted assassin Kusunoki (Tampopo’s Tsutomu Yamazaki) goes wrong, and takes the faII on behalf of the Owada famiIy, but when the gang faiIs to make good on financial promises to him, Kuroda targets the family bosses with a ruthless vengeance. And in Last Days of the Boss, Sugawara pIays Nozaki, a laborer who swears alIegiance to a sympathetic crime boss, only to find himself eIected his successor after the boss is murdered. Restrained by a gang alliance that forbids retributions against high-level members, Nozaki forms a plot to exact revenge on his rivals, but a suspicious closeness with his own sister (Chieko Matsubara from Outlaw Gangster VlP) jeopardizes his relationship with his feIlow gang members. The New Battles Without Honor and Humanity fiIms are important Iinks between the first half of Fukasaku’s career and his Iater exploration of other genres. Each one is also a top-notch crime action thriIIer: hard-boiled, entertaining, and distinguished by Fukasaku’s directoriaI genius, funky musicaI scores by composer Toshiaki Tsushima, and the onscreen power of Toei’s greatest yakuza movie stars. SPEClAL EDlTION CONTENTS • High Definition digital transfers of alI three films • High Definition BIu-ray™ (1080p) presentations • OriginaI uncompressed mono audio • Optional EngIish subtitles for all three fiIms • Beyond the Films: New Battles Without Honor and Humanity, a video appreciation by Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane • New Stories, New BattIes and Closing Stories, two interviews with screenwriter Koji Takada, about his work on the second and third fiIms in the trilogy • OriginaI teasers and theatrical trailers for all three fiIms • ReversibIe sleeve featuring original and newIy commissioned artwork by Reinhard KIeist |
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