Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Graveyard of Honor Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 23, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Graveyards of Honor.

There have been all sorts of remakes through the years, ranging from the slavishly duplicative (as — at least in theory — Psycho and Psycho) to the other side of the spectrum, where two properties may indeed share the same name and even the same source, but which may otherwise differ rather radically. That’s probably the case with regard to Kinji Fukasaku’s Graveyard of Honor from 1975 and Takashi Miike’s Graveyard of Honor from 2002. Both films are ostensibly culled from a novel by a real life yakuza named Gorô Fujita, though I haven’t been able to authoritatively determine whether he’s the same Gorô Fujita who was evidently a 19th century samurai also known as Saitō Hajime (all of the online biographical data I’ve been able to find about this particular person does not mention any writing having been done by him, and this individual seems to have been a policeman rather than a member of the yakuza). One way or the other, the Gorô Fujita who was a writer was also responsible for the source material that became Gangster VIP , and the fact that both that film and the Kinji Fukasaku version of Graveyard of Honor star Tetsuya Watari playing roles that are at least somewhat similar, may tend to link the two films together for some fans. The Miike film, like so many by this provocative Japanese auteur, is decidedly more sui generis despite having ostensible links to both the source material and the prior film.

Despite its kinetic stylistic flourishes, this version of Graveyard of Honor supposedly hews more closely to the story of ostensible real life gangster Rikio Ishikawa (Tetsuya Watari) than Miike's version does. That perceived verisimilitude is established from the get go with some black and white stills supposedly documenting the childhood and adolescence of Ishikawa in a quasi-documentary style, including what sounds like "field interviews" with people who supposedly knew him. Once the actual narrative of the film begins, however, Fukasaku's peripatetic, cartwheeling camera and even a somewhat disjunctive narrative make this pretty far removed from traditional ideas of a biographical movie drenched in verité.

If this version of events doesn't quite offer the somewhat preposterous "stumbling into a yakuza lifestyle" that the Miike film does, Ishikawa's attempts to become a criminal of note do have a somewhat chaotic, almost random, feel to them, one that is highlighted by Watari's devil may care take on the character as evidenced by the character's very introduction where he brings shame upon his Yakuza family by robbing another gang at gunpoint (evidently, there is honor among thieves, or at least there's supposed to be). Ishikawa is an anti-hero to the core, displaying not just horrifying violence toward men, but equally horrifying violence toward women, including rape.

Graveyard of Honor tells a perhaps timeworn story of the moral and eventual physical demise of a supposed "bad guy", but it kind of interestingly does so within the context of a post-World War II Japan that is under the thumb of the American occupiers. That gives the film a kind of interesting political slant that Miike's film, set decades later than this one, doesn't really offer, at least not in this same way.

Graveyard of Honor Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Graveyard of Honor is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains only the following pretty generic verbiage on the transfer:

Graveyard of Honor / Jingi no hakaba (1975) is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio with mono sound. The High Definition master was produced and supplied by TOEI, with additional grading by Arrow Films at R3Store Studios, London.

This is generally a nicely organic looking transfer which a naturally resolving grain field with a good accounting of the palette in both the color and kind of sepia toned sequences. There is a somewhat random inclusion of those sepia toned moments, but detail levels in them are typically quite high, offering nice views of things like the textures on fabrics (look at the coat and sweater in screenshot 15 for just one example). In that regard, detail levels are a bit more variable in some of the color scenes, as is overall clarity, and some darker scenes can occasionally look relatively rough (see screenshot 13). I'm rating this at 3.5 to indicate that it's not quite as consistent looking as the 2002 version, which I'm rating at 4.0, though I'd give this a 3.75 if I were able to.

Graveyard of Honor Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Graveyard of Honor features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that supports the film dialogue, effects and score without any problems. While inherently narrow, prioritization is very good throughout, and I noticed no problems whatsoever with regard to any damage, distortion or dropouts. Optional English subtitles are available.

Graveyard of Honor Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Mark Schilling


• Like a Balloon: The Life of a Yakuza (1080p; 13:11) is an interesting visual essay on the film by critic and Projection Booth podcast host Mike White. The balloon reference is an allusion to one of the visual tropes of the film that White feels is totemic.


• A Portrait of Rage (1080i; 19:46) is an archival piece billed as "an appreciation" of Fukasaku, including interviews with some who knew him. In Japanese with English subtitles.


• On the Set with Fukasaku (1080i; 5:34) is actually an archival interview with assistant director Kenichi Oguri. In Japanese with English subtitles.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:31)


• Image Gallery (1080p; 4:40)

Graveyard of Honor Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Because my frequently addled brain often makes unexpected (and kind of weird) connections, I thought of the title of the old Faye Dunaway film Puzzle of a Downfall Child (kind of hilariously due imminently on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber) as I watched this version of Graveyard of Honor, since the film details the story of a guy who was seemingly fated from birth for a troubled life. This is ostensibly the more "factual" of the two films Arrow has aggregated in this set, but that doesn't mean this film is a "by the numbers" biographical film, and indeed it's the stylistic flourishes that Fukasaku introduces that probably gives this film so much of its distinctive identity. Video encounters a few rough patches, but audio is fine and the supplementary package very enjoyable. Recommended.