[yasr_overall_rating]
Acting boss Hirotani of the Ohara gang uses his friendship with corrupt cop Kuno to usurp a staged land deal that rival yakuza gang Kawade had arranged through local politicians. Open warfare erupts between the two gangs.
As soon as I learned that the late Kinji Fukasaku, of “Battle Royale” fame, directed “Cops vs Thugs,” I wanted to watch this film. Many people who have seen “Battle Royale” and like action movies, think that it’s one of the most original films ever made in the genre. So, I was very interested in watching “Cops vs Thugs” to find out what Fukasaku was doing earlier in his career. Fukasaku was a very prolific director and had directed a series of groundbreaking Yakuza films in the 1970s. I bought the 2005 release of Fukasaku’s “Yakuza Papers” when it was released on DVD. “Cops vs Thugs” came at the end of these films.
The story involves sparring of a Shakespearean nature. A detective Tokumatsu Kuno (Bunta Sugawara) has formed an alliance with Kenji Hirotani (Hiroki Matsukata), head of the Ohara gang. The rival Kawade gang, however, are upset about this connection. This type of premise is often only established so that later you can set up a three-way opposition between sides. As much as the first part of the film focuses on establishing this relationship, the second part of the film focuses on creating violence born out of these connections. The limitation of the film is ultimately that it exists as one long frantic note and there’s never a calm or subdued moment throughout. As a result, if you’re watching this film for meaning or to have emotions invoked, you’re going to be extremely disappointed. Ultimately, if the viewer is supposed to glean any type of lesson from “Cops vs Thugs,” it’s that the director wants to show us the cops and thugs are much more closely related than we might think.
Arrow Video has done a nice job in remastering “Cops vs Thugs.” Included in the Blu-ray is an interview with a biographer of Fukasaku and an audio essay by Tom Mes, told over clips from several of Fukasaku’s films. The soundtrack here is also pretty electric and jolting.
If you like action but haven’t tried Fukasaku, I’d try watching “Battles without Honor and Humanity.” If you are familiar with Fukasaku or tend to like most Japanese action movies, I’d really recommend watching this movie.
Now available in a 2-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray + DVD
