Deadly Outlaw Rekka (2002)

Directed by Takashi Miike, and stars Riki Takeuchi.

Your typical run of the mill Yakuza movie.

It's funny but, with my DVD copy, the film looked like it was made around 1995, cuz there was so much fuzz n grain on the camera etc. Not sure why that was, mine was an official copy, but, oh well...

Takashi Miike has made a ton of Yakuza movies, and Riki Takeuchi has started in a ton of em' also.

There's one funny scene where Riki Takeuchi and his aniki (lil' yakuza brother) get a rocket launcher, but the manual is in Chinese. His aniki throws the manual down frustrated, and says 'Aw shit man, I can't read godamn Chinese!' and Riki says 'pull the trigger and something will come out.' They fire the rocket launcher into the enemy's building, and the rocket launcher picks up this yakuza running towards em, and the rocket flies the yakuza into the building and blows up.

If you haven't seen many yakuza movies, you'll probably enjoy the movie to an extent, but if you've seen a ton of em already like me, then you probably will find the whole thing alot less enjoyable.

My rating: 5.6/10

Graveyard Of Honor (197?)

Yakuza film from the early 70s, released by Toei. Apparently directed by the same guy who did Battle Royale.

Lots of graphic sex, violence, hookers and what not.

Set in post-war Japan, Rikio is a member of he Kawada gang, but his rebelious insubordination leads him onto other things... such as hookers & drugs.

This film is basically a fictional documentation of the downfall of a Yakuza thug. Could I say it's about anything else? Not really.

Watchable...

My rating: 5.1/10