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Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Radiance Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (1st October 2024). |
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The Film
 Ronin yakuza gambler Tokijiro (Bushido's Kinnosuke Nakamura) is a wanderer, eking out a living by gambling. Although he does not want to fight anymore, he is nonetheless obligated by the hospitality of bosses who provide him shelter. Currently he is being dogged by former farmer/aspiring yakuza Asakichi (Kiyoshi Atsumi of the long-running Tora-San film series) who has the honor part down but not the skill with a sword. When the pair stop in a village, Asakichi's search for entertainment takes him to a brothel and right into the middle of a power struggle between madam Oyo (House of Terrors' Keiko Yumi), daughter of aging and infirm boss Sawara, and the Ushibori clan who want control of her business. Oyo contrives to seek Toijiro's and Asakichi's help under the guise of bribing them to leave so as not to get involved. Asakichi reads her intentions charitably but Tokijiro does not feel obligated to bosses who treat wanderers like bugs and calls her bluff. He advises Asakichi to go back to farming, hurting his pride so Asakichi volunteers his services alone. Tokijiro feels guilty about leaving his friend to face a gang alone but returns too late. While returning Asakichi's body to the village of his birth, he makes the acquaintance of beautiful Okinu (Chushingura's Junko Ikeuchi) and her young son Taro (Shinjiro Nakamura, the lead's nephew) and escorts them home before offering his services to local boss Konosu who immediately requests that he kill the last remaining member of the Nakanagawa clan Matsuda Sanzo (The Conspirator's Chiyonosuke Azuma). After Sanzo injures three of the gang members, Tokijiro introduces himself and explains his obligation. Sanzo accepts the offer of a fair fight and is easily cut down by Tokijiro. After Tokijiro chases off the gang members who want to finish Sanzo off, the dying man asks Tokijiro to escort his wife and child to an uncle in a distant town. Tokijiro is shocked to discover that the dead man's wife and child are the two he met earlier. Okinu understands what has happened and is cold to him but her son is thrilled to have a traveling companion. When the trio arrive in town, they discover that Okinu's uncle and aunt hung themselves a month before after their farm lands were confiscated for taxes. Tokijiro decides to take them to his village of Kutsukake to stay with his own relatives but Okinu falls contracts consumption and the doctor in a post town where they stop advises them that she cannot travel until the spring. At first, Tokijiro takes on odd jobs to pay for Okinu's medicine but eventually falls back on gambling; however, he may have to take up the sword again when Konosu's gang tracks them down under orders to completely wipe out Sanzo's line as well as avenge themselves on Tokijiro for their injuries (including loss of limbs). Based on the serialized novel by Shin Hasegawa which had been adapted eight times including one by rival studio Daiei just five years before, Tai Katô's Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza for Toei takes the free-flowing bloodshed of Yojimbo and Sanjuro – the former film having made an impression on actor Nakamura – into garish color. The matatabi or "wandering gambler" films formed sort of a link between ronin samurai films and the later more serious and fatalistic yakuza films (in contrast to the pre-war depiction of yakuza as folk heroes). Throughout the extras supplementing this release of the film, commentators emphasize that there is nothing particularly novel about Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza's plot but in the execution of the familiar tropes – particularly the sequence in which Tokijiro drunkenly relates the story while distancing himself from it as the experience of that of a "friend" to a sympathetic ear – the performances, and director Katô's visual style. The color scheme is largely neutral using contrasting reds and blues to striking effect from the aforementioned bloodshed to the nocturnal hues (incidentally, the most remarkable contrast between the two does not occur during the fight between Tokijiro and Sanzo but as tubercular Okinu coughs up blood onto the icy ground). Tokijiro's confessional indeed would seem obligatory given the restraint with which he stoically betrays his emotions if not for the sense that Okinu just happens to be nearby but that he conjures her up and she materializes first through song. The story comes full circle as Tokijiro must definitively put down the ambitions of Okinu's naive cousin Shotaro (Yakuza Justice: Erotic Code of Honor's Jirô Okazaki) yakuza ambitions before walking off into the horizon with Taro "Lone Wolf and Cub"-style (quite appropriately as Nakamura later take lead in the Kozure okami television series). 
Video
Largely unseen outside of Japan – and even in Japan only available on DVD as part of one of Toei's "Period Masterpiece" box sets – Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza makes its western and Blu-ray debut in the U.S. and U.K. from Radiance Films. We have no transfer specs apart from it being an HD digital file provided by Toei but the 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Tohoscope presentation is frequently quite beautiful with the rough edges organic to the original photography including a few locked-down camera setups where focus is either off or anomalies of the anamorphic lens were not evident until development and the usual twenty-day Toei schedule did not allow reshoots. The reds pop and the resolution reveals texture both in the spurting fluid as well as the like-colored wrinkled kimono of Asakichi's comic relief prostitute Omatsu (Sex & Fury's Yôko Mihara) while the blues of the night scenes – particularly the sequence of Tokijiro and Konosu's men advancing on the Sanzo farm – are wonderfully rich without throwing off the costume whites or the skin tones of the performers (which are a bit bronzed by the darkened grading). 
Audio
The sole audio option is an uncompressed 24-bit Japanese LPCM 2.0 mono track. Post-dubbed dialogue is always clear and precise while both the sound design and the scoring seem deliberately dialed back – in deployment rather than volume – and low hiss inherent in the old Westrex "noiseless" recording goes largely unnoticed. Optional English subtitles are free of errors and helpful in identifying the characters and different clans since the film sometimes prominently introduces characters and then drops them. 
Extras
Extras start of with an interview with film critic Koushi Ueno (16:36) who discusses the film in the context of the source novel as well as the surviving adaptations, noting that director Katô felt that the earlier Daiei one diluted the drama by having Tokijiro agree to kill Sanzo and then fake the death only for the man to then be murdered by a boss in love with Okinu. The critic also notes the familiar plot elements from the film and source that carry over into other examples of the genre as well as the related "chivalry" films. "Young Master" (17:35) is a visual essay by Japanese cinema expert Robin Gatto on star Kinnosuke Nakamura who was the fourth son of a kabuki actor – his siblings included Katsuo Nakamura, perhaps best known to western viewers as "Hoichi the Earless" in Kwaidan – who decided to move into film against his father's wishes because he could not get good roles in kabuki (leads traditionally being reserved for first-born sons). Gatto discusses Nakamura's popularity with youth in historical drama, his decision to do Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza and how his opposition to Toei dropping historical dramas lead to him becoming a freelance actor who remained popular with many prominent credits up until his death in 1997. The disc also includes the theatrical trailer (1:18). 
Packaging
This limited edition of 3,000 copies – standard editions usually follow in standard keep cases – is presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings, with a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow and as well as a limited booklet featuring new writing by scholar Ivo Smits provides context to the film within the three yakuza cinematic genres, the wandering gambler movies, and the conventions that the film follows. The booklet also includes a reprinted review of the film from 1966 by Tetsuya Fukasawa (newly-translated by Tom Mes who has provided commentary and interviews on other Radiance Japanese releases). 
Overall
Its literary source a link between ronin samurai and later more somber (and sometimes fatalistic) yakuza films, Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza offers little novel in terms of story but does it with visual style and a charismatic lead performance by Kinnosuke Nakamura.
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