A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors. Alexander Jacoby

Jingi naki tatakai: Chōjō sakusen / Battles without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics / Battles without Honor and Humanity: Summit Maneuvers

      Jingi naki tatakai: Kanketsu hen / Battles without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode

      Shin jingi naki tatakai / New Battles without Honor and Humanity

      1975 Jingi no hakaba / Graveyard of Honor

      Kenkei tai soshiki bōryoku / Cops vs. Thugs / Prefectural Police vs. Organized Crime (lit.)

      Shikingen gōdatsu / Theft of Capital

      Shin jingi naki tatakai: Kumichō no kubi / New Battles without Honor and Humanity: It’s Time to Kill the Boss

      1976 Bōsō panikku: Daigekitotsu / Violent Panic: The Big Crash

      Shin jingi naki tatakai: Kumichō saigo no hi / New Battles without Honor and Humanity: The Boss’s Final Day

      Yakuza no hakaba: Kuchinashi no hana / Yakuza Graveyard

      1977 Hokuriku dairi sensō / Hokuriku Proxy War

      Dōberuman deka / Detective Doberman

      1978 Yagyū ichizoku no inbō / Shogun’s Samurai / The Yagyu Conspiracy (lit.)

      Uchū kara no messēji / Message from Space

      Akō-jō danzetsu / The Fall of Ako Castle

      1980 Fukkatsu no hi / Virus / Day of Resurrection (lit.)

      1981 Seishun no mon / The Gate of Youth (co-director)

      Makai tenshō / Samurai Resurrection

      1982 Dōtonborigawa / Lovers Lost / The River Dotonbori (lit.)

      Kamata kōshinkyoku / Fall Guy (lit. Kamata March)

      1983 Jinsei gekijō / Theater of Life (co-director)

      Satomi hakkenden / Legend of Eight Samurai

      1984 Shanhai Bansu Kingu / Shanghai Rhapsody (lit. Shanghai Vance

       King)

      1986 Kataku no hito / House on Fire

      1987 Hissatsu IV: Urami harashimasu / Sure Death 4 / Sure Death: Revenge

      1988 Hana no ran / Rage of Love / A Chaos of Flowers (lit.)

      1992 Itsu ka giragira suru hi / The Triple Cross

      1994 Chūshingura gaiden: Yotsuya kaidan / Crest of Betrayal (lit. Supplement to Chushingura: Yotsuya Ghost Story)

      1999 Omocha / The Geisha House (lit. Plaything)

      2000 Batoru Rowaiaru / Battle Royale

      2003 Batoru Rowaiaru II: Chinkonka / Battle Royale II: Requiem (co-director)

      FURUHATA Yasuo

      (b. August 19, 1934)

      降旗康男

      A proficient commercial director, Furuhata made his debut with the youth film Bad Girl Yoko (Hikō shōjo Yōko, 1966), about a girl who, along with her boyfriend, escapes Japan by boarding a boat to San Tropez. He truly cut his teeth, however, on two popular series of Toei action pictures: Modern Yakuza (Gendai yakuza), of which he directed two episodes, and Abashiri Prison (Abashiri bangaichi), to which he contributed six. The latter series cemented a productive working relationship with tough-guy star Ken Takakura, and, with its Hokkaido settings, established the director’s penchant for snowbound locations.

      Furuhata worked again with Taka­kura on Winter Flower (Fuyu no hana, 1978), about a former yakuza looking after the teenage daughter of a fellow gangster for whose death he was responsible. The film’s mood earned comparisons with French crime pictures. Takakura also starred in Station (Eki, 1981), following twelve years in the life and career of a policeman who also competes as an Olympic sharpshooter, and Demon (Yasha, 1985), about an ex-criminal who has left the gangster life to marry and work as a fisherman in a coastal village. Both films centered more on personal drama than on action: Demon was a mature character study, rich in local color and commenting intelligently on the reaction of small communities to such ostensibly urban phenomena as alcohol abuse, gambling, and crime. Though this film included action scenes more typical of a crime thriller, Furuhata also made more straightforwardly dramatic films, often with romantic themes. Love (Izakaya Chōji, 1983) charted the enduring passion between former lovers. Buddies (A un, 1989) was an account of a friendship destroyed by the unspoken love of one friend for the wife of the other; it was set against the backdrop of prewar society and politics, as was Winter Camellia (Kantsubaki, 1992), a story about rival politicians and the yakuza who work for them competing for the favor of a geisha in the provincial city of Kōchi. Time of Wickedness (Ma no toki, 1985), considered by Japanese critics to be Furuhata’s masterpiece, was a study of an incestuous relationship between mother and son.

      Furuhata’s biggest hit, however, was The Railroad Man (Poppoya, 1999), a sentimental melodrama again starring Takakura as the ageing stationmaster of a declining former mining town in Hokkaido. While expertly made, the film was, in Raymond Durgnat’s phrase, a “male weepie,” idolizing a hero who puts work before family even when his wife and child are dying. Another hit was The Firefly (Hotaru, 2001), a film about the survivors of the kamikaze corps, which examined the role of servicemen from colonized Korea in the war effort. The melodramatic Red Moon (Akai tsuki, 2004) also evoked the war, dramatizing the loves and sufferings of colonists in Manchuria at the time of the Soviet invasion. It was criticized in some quarters for ignoring the cruelties the Japanese inflicted on the local population; Mark Schilling hinted that Furuhata’s implicitly nationalist attitudes have denied him an international reputation. Nevertheless, his consistent commercial and intermittent critical success within Japan suggest that his oeuvre might merit further exploration.

      1966 Hikō shōjo Yōko / Bad Girl Yoko

      Jigoku no okite ni asu wa nai / The Law of Hell Has No Tomorrow

      1967 Gyangu no teiō / The Sovereign of All Gangsters / Gang 11

      Chōeki jūhachinen: Karishutsugoku / Parole (lit. 18 Years’ Penal Servitude: Parole)

      1968 Gokuchū no kaoyaku / The Boss in Jail

      Uragiri no ankokugai / Treacherous Underworld

      1969 Gendai yakuza: Yotamono no okite / Modern Yakuza: Gangster Code

      Gendai yakuza: Yotamono jingi / Modern Yakuza: Honor among Gangsters

      Shin Abashiri bangaichi: Runin misaki no kettō / New Abashiri Prison: Bloody Battle of Exile Cape

      1970 Nihon jokyōden: Makkana dokyōbana / Chronicle of Strong Women of Japan: Bright Red Flower of Courage

      Ninkyō kōbō shi: Kumichō to daigashi / History of the Rise and Fall of Chivalry: The Boss and the Moneylender’s Agent

      Sutemi no narazumono / Desperate Outlaw

      Shin Abashiri bangaichi: Daishinrin no kettō / New Abashiri Prison: Bloody Battle of the Great Forest

      Shin Abashiri bangaichi: Fubuki no hagure ōkami / New Abashiri Prison: Stray Wolf in a Snowstorm

      1971 Gorotsuki mushuku / Wandering Rogue

      Shin Abashiri bangaichi: Arashi o yobu Shiretoko misaki / New Abashiri Prison: Stormy Cape Shiretoko

      Shin Abashiri bangaichi: Fubuki no daidassō / New Abashiri Prison: Great Escape in a Snowstorm

      1972 Nihon bōryokudan: Koroshi no sakazuki / Japan’s Violent Gangs: Killers’ Cup

      Shin Abashiri bangaichi: Arashi yobu danpu jingi / New Abashiri Prison: Stormy Dump Truck

       Honor

      1973 Shikima ōkami / Sex-Crazed Wolf

      1974 Yoru no enka: Shinobigoi / Night Ballad: Hidden Love

      1978 Fuyu no hana / Winter Flower

      1979