Review for Yakuza Hunters 1: The Ultimate Battle Royale

Introduction

Having just recently watched a documentary about the great and prolific filmmaker Roger Corman, and feeling a little pessimistic about the state of independent US cinema, I found myself in the mood for a little cheap, cheerful, schlocky b-movie-esque exploitation. Fortunately, where the US scene has somewhat dried up in recent years, it's still one area where Japanese filmmakers excel. They can take a minimal budget, a thin story, weak performances, and cheap effects and still make something enjoyable. It's because at the forefront is the intention that these films are supposed to be fun, they're supposed to be the films that you watch to throw popcorn at the screen. Their 'cheesiness' is their selling point. After all, with films like Robogeisha, Alien vs. Ninja, and Chanbara Beauty, you know exactly where you stand. Now, Cine du Monde have licensed the Yakuza Hunters movies for UK release, and this March they are releasing the first, Yakuza Hunters: The Ultimate Battle Royale. Featuring babes with guns and swords in a battle between girl gangs and gangsters, this promises to be just what I've been looking for.

A half naked girl claws her way out of her grave, grabs the wooden cross marking her supposed final resting place, and goes staggering off looking for the man who buried her. The first thing she does when she finds him is batter him to death with it. You can bet that Asami is looking for revenge, and the man on the phone was just the first target. Her real target is a sadist called Junko. Asami and Junko were in the same gang, but Junko's jealousy of Asami led her to hook up with the Shoryu Yakuza group, selling out her former gang-mates for money and power. When she gets back to her home town she learns that the Yakuza now hold sway over the area, and of her gang, only five girls are left, five girls that stayed discreetly undercover until she returned. Now with their help, and the help of a local clinic doctor and his innocent daughter Yayoi, Asami is ready to take the fight to Junko and her Yakuza lapdogs. But Junko is ready to finish off what she started with Asami, and she hasn't yet run out of ways to hurt her.

The Disc

Cine du Monde sent me Yakuza Hunters on a single layer DVD-R, but as it looks like a final release disc, complete with animated menus and extras, the final retail disc shouldn't be too different. The image is an NTSC 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation, while the DD 2.0 Stereo Japanese soundtrack is one that will rapidly have you nudging your volume down a tad. Optional English subtitles are available in a rather small font, while the only extras on this disc are the theatrical trailer, and trailers for five other Cine du Monde films, including the sequel, Yakuza Hunters: The Revenge Duel in Hell.

It is a low budget film, so the digital cinematography is rough and ready but quite effective, with the only nitpicks being the usual shakycam during action sequences, and the overabundance of CGI blood splatters. The music on the other hand is really quite special, capturing the seventies exploitation scene with funky guitars and a brassy soundtrack.

Conclusion

Come on! A half-naked, half-dead girl clawing her way out of her grave on a mission of vengeance! What's not to love? Yakuza Hunters: The Ultimate Battle Royale is proper b-movie exploitation schlock, just the way mother used to make. Bullets fly, and swords swing, blood spatters and bodies are dismembered, and the actors chew the scenery with relish. In true Yakuza style, Junko likes playing the finger-cutting game with her victims, the Yakuza boss is actually her masochistic sex toy, while at the same time Asami is going around collecting the pinky fingers of her targets of vengeance, storing them in a bandolier. In a pinch she can use them as projectile weapons as well. She's so bad ass that she can catch bullets out of the air.

What really appeals most to me about Yakuza Hunters is the style. It's got that seventies era exploitation feel down pat, in terms of the costume design for one. The gang's clothing and the Yakuza accoutrements have a colour clash sensibility to them that can only come from one decade. There's also the film's music soundtrack that also strongly evokes the period. Also certain moments and locations in the film, the nightclub shootout, the Yakuza boss's boat HQ very much hark back to those movies of yesteryear. You half expect Pam Grier to show up.

Of course production values are low, the acting can be cheesy at times, but that's par for the course. The only nitpicks I have are with the overabundance of CGI blood, and the sense that the film runs about 15 minutes too long. It's not the deepest of stories, and at times it does feel a little padded out with flashbacks and needless character introspection. A little tighter editing could have worked wonders. In the middle third I did feel my attention begin to drift, but the conclusion of the film was a resounding climax. If there's one thing I've noticed about these Japanese low budget features, it's that they get the action choreography up to a level that would put some Hollywood mainstream features to shame. When the swords start clashing in Yakuza Hunters, you'll be hard pressed not to have an appreciative grin on your face. It's not going to set the world alight, but it will provide some bloody entertainment.