Goro the Assassin Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Goro the Assassin Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 24, 2016

Note: This film is currently available as part of the Outlaw: Gangster VIP Collection.

It’s certainly not a scientific survey by any stretch of the imagination, but when I quizzed a coterie of Japanese film fan friends of mine to name a Japanese film studio, absolutely no one came up with Nikkatsu. Toho was quite popular, as was Toie, but Japan’s oldest studio didn’t even rate one single, solitary mention. Nikkatsu’s rather redolent history goes all the way back to 1912, easily eclipsing Toho’s genesis circa 1932 or Toie’s origination a few years later in 1938. For whatever reason, though, Nikkatsu, despite its status as the “dean” of Japanese movie studios, doesn’t seem to have the same general notoriety that some of its competitors do. Nikkatsu may be best remembered by at least some fans for its so-called “pink film” era, a kind of quasi-soft porn (sometimes maybe a little “harder” than merely soft) approach that helped the studio weather the roiling 1970s era, when big studios, no matter where they might be located, were facing a rapidly changing set of demographics and an often frustrating and potentially life threatening new set of economic challenges. One of Nikkatsu’s pre-pink era calling cards was a short-lived but temporarily almost insanely popular franchise which began with 1968’s Gangster VIP, which is also known by the slightly different title Outlaw: Gangster VIP. As Jasper Sharp mentions on his commentary for the first film of this new six film set, the kind of ironic thing about this series coming out of Nikkatsu is that Toie had already staked a claim of sorts on the Japanese gangster film idiom, kind of like Warner Brothers did in the United States back in the 1930s. The Outlaw: Gangster VIP series wasn’t very long lived, lasting only around two years from 1968-1969, but it’s a really interesting aggregation of films that should appeal to lovers of yakuza fare or even those who simply like to ferret out largely unseen entries that have been hidden in the various nooks and crannies of Japanese cultdom for decades.

Part of the continuing saga of Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) throughout all six films in the Outlaw: Gangster VIP series surrounds his attempts to escape the yakuza lifestyle, if not completely, then at least enough to allow himself to sleep at night, due to both his conscience being clear and to the fact that he wouldn’t be encountering any “midnight ninja” types seeking his death. That recurring plot point doesn’t mean Goro isn’t a vicious killer, of course, and it also doesn’t mean that he can escape prison time, as Goro the Assassin makes clear in its opening scenes. A cohort of Goro’s is also in stir, but seems to be deathly ill (this particular film isn’t especially strong in providing details), and asks Goro, who is about to be paroled, to find his sister and tell her (perhaps a bit peculiarly) that he’s doing fine. Later, Goro sees this fellow being given a so-called “back gate parole” to the mortuary after he has expired.

Once again the role of women in Japanese society plays an important part in the film’s overall plot arc, as evidenced by an early scene which introduces a brothel and so-called “comfort women”. It’s kind of interesting to see the Outlaw: Gangster VIP franchise go this route after at least toying with ideas of female submission or at least compliance in the three previous outings. Here the disconnect between the genders and their relative power is probably even more overt than in the prior entries.

There’s no denying that by this point in the franchise’s pretty brief life the storylines had been established and that no significant departures from the formula were even attempted. But Goro the Assassin manages to attain a crispness that the second and third films probably don’t, at least not as consistently as this one does. One of the kind of grimly amusing things about this series is its emphasis on injuries to fingers, something that is once again made horrifyingly graphic in this film. To pun mercilessly, it’s actually in visceral moments like this that many viewers will want to give Goro the Assassin a hand.

Note: The disc containing this film and Heartless encountered some pretty severe loading issues on my PS3, including that ever ominous grinding noise, despite having no observable defects on the surface. The disc absolutely refused to load at all on my PC drive equipped with PowerDVD.

Goro the Assassin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Goro the Assassin is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.44:1. All six films in the Outlaw Gangster VIP franchise share some common characteristics, and so I will be offering some general assessments that pertain to the series as a whole before moving on to more specific comments about this particular film. Arrow's brief comments on the provenance of the elements utilized for these transfers mentions only that "The Outlaw Gangster VIP series was transferred from original preservation film elements by Nikkatsu Studios in Japan. All six films were delivered to Arrow Films as remastered files." This unfortunately doesn't really provide a lot of information, and it's my assumption that at least some of these may have been transferred from secondary sources like prints rather than IPs or negatives. Several of the films have recurrent brightness and contrast fluctuations which are quite noticeable and create a kind of slow motion quasi-flicker, with clear gradations in tones especially visible in darker moments. While elements show various signs of wear and tear, and feature slight fading which tends to skew flesh tones toward the brown side of things, palettes are overall quite convincing and robust, especially when it comes to aspects like the bright red blood that flows so ubiquitously in each of the entries.

Goro the Assassin has a slightly reddish skew to its palette at times, but otherwise offers a naturalistic looking color scheme. There are still some noticeable brightness and contrast fluctuations, but probably not to the degree seen in the previous film in the series. Interestingly, while there's anamorphic squeeze more than noticeable in this presentation, in this case it's vertical and limited to the very edges of the frame, in what I might term "CinemaScope" syndrome. (Technical information on this series is maddeningly hard to come by, but I have to assume at least this film was shot in some anamorphic technique that would create such an anomaly.) A brief black and white flashback offers decent contrast and well modulated gray scale. I'd probably up this rating to circa 3.25 if I were able to, as it doesn't display quite the level of brightness and contrast fluctuations seen in other entries in the series.

Goro the Assassin Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All six films in this set feature uncompressed LPCM Mono tracks in the original Japanese. None of the films is going to set audiophiles' hearts on fire, but with occasional exceptions (Black Dagger being the most noticeable one), there are few real problems with distortion or other age related issues. The films' dialogue and effects are typically rendered with decent force and fidelity, and the fun scores also sound decent, if narrow. Black Dagger receives the lowest audio score of any film in this set due to some distortion that's evident, most noticeably when music is playing.

Goro the Assassin Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 2:57)


• Gallery (1080p)

Goro the Assassin Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Goro the Assassin manages to reclaim at least a little of the mojo the first two films had, but it still feels a bit derivative, something that's probably unavoidable at this stage of the franchise's brief lifespan. Technical merits continue to encounter some obstacles, but the film comes Recommended.