Japan Organized Crime Boss Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Japan Organized Crime Boss Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 15, 2024

Almost two years ago Radiance released Big Time Gambling Boss, which starred Kôji Tsuruta as a perhaps unwilling crime overlord. With an at least somewhat similar title, cover art, and leading man, some may mistake this for a re-release, and while there are certainly undeniable tethers between the two features, there are several distinctive elements Japan Organized Crime Boss offers, including the first collaboration between director Kinji Fukasaku and co-star Bunta Sugawara. Fukasaku has been having something of a banner year (or two or three) on Blu-ray, with (to cite just a few out of many examples) Radiance already having relatively recently released Yakuza Graveyard and Sympathy for the Underdog, and Film Movement also recently having released Ferocious Fukasaku: Two Films by Kinji Fukasaku, along with a glut of offerings from Arrow, including Graveyard of Honor. As such, fans of Fukasaku may understandably be sated with the director's trademark combo platter of violence, almost feral energy and at times none too subtle socioeconomic subtexts. Even so, Japan Organized Crime Boss should easily engage longtime Fukasaku aficionados as well as newcomers to this icon's oeuvre.

While Japan Organized Crime Boss undeniably traffics in several plot points that Fukasaku among others would continue to mine in deconstructions of yakuza life (and/or death, as the case may be), the film, as is discussed in Nathan Stuart's interesting visual essay, may serve as something of a transition piece between so-called ninkyo eiga films, i.e., "chivalry" outings, and the later jitsuroku eiga developments that sought to introduce an almost quasi-documentarian side to both storylines and presentational aspects. Once again Tsuruta plays an ex-con, this time named Tetsuo Tskuamoto, who gets out of stir only to find his personal life in tatters and his "professional" life threatened by a nascent gang war. In that regard and vis a vis Big Time Gambling Boss his character here might be somewhat similarly described as an unwilling mediator.

Once again Fukasaku "litters" the proceedings with on screen identifiers, as well as offering several calamitous smackdowns where framings are askew and there's a handheld look to things that definitely presages some of the common presentational techniques often offered in jitsuroku eiga in particular. Tsuruta's kind of tamped down approach to his performance actually anchors the more florid aspects of some of the sidebar characters, and if things are arguably a bit overstuffed and therefore not as completely developed in some of Fukasaku's later yakuza offerings, the tragic trajectory of Tsuruta's attempts to manage what is in essence an inherently out of control situation give this film some unexpected emotional heft.

Japan Organized Crime Boss Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Japan Organized Crime Boss is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Radiance Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Radiance's insert booklet offers only the following generic information on the transfer:

Japan Organized Crime Boss was transferred in high definition by Toei Company, Ltd. and supplied to Radiance Films as a high definition digital file.

That (minimal amount) said, both the cover of this release and Radiance's website mention a 4K restoration by Toei Company. I found the color timing here to be just very slightly on the brown side on occasion, sometimes also with a slightly oily green undertone, but otherwise this is a nicely organic looking presentation that has some really nice suffusion and which also features some nice detail levels, at least when Fukasaku plants his camera firmly for a moment or two. Understandably some of the on the fly handheld material can not offer the same consistently observable detail levels, levels that can be further masked if only for a moment or two by the glut of on screen titles. Occasional anamorphic oddities show up, as can perhaps be gleaned in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review. Those anomalies may contribute to occasional slight deficits in clarity.

Japan Organized Crime Boss Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Japan Organized Crime Boss features LPCM Mono audio in the original Japanese. This is a typically cacophonous Fukasaku film, at least interstitially, and while the track is obviously narrow, it can be surprisingly well layered in some of the more chaotic vignettes. The interstitial dialogue scenes are all presented without any issues. Occasional sound effects like gunshots can be a bit on the boxy side. Optional English subtitles are available.

Japan Organized Crime Boss Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Kinji Fukasaku (HD; 34:01) is presented in this really interesting archival piece from 1999, with Fukasaku offering prepared remarks to a Japanese business group. This offers what amounts to a mini-autobiography by Fukasaku and should be of some considerable interest to fans of the director's work. Subtitled in English.


• Akihiko Ito (HD; 15:06) features the Yakuza film historian in this analysis of the film. Subtitled in English.


• Ceremonies of Male Bonding (HD; 23:32) is a visual essay by Nathan Stuart which concentrates on the pairings of Kinji Fukasaku and Kôji Tsuruta.


• Trailer (HD; 2:18)

Radiance provides a typically well appointed insert booklet with essays and cast, crew and transfer information, along with stills. Packaging features a reversible sleeve and Radiance's standard Obi strip.

Japan Organized Crime Boss Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As Akihiko Ito mentions in his supplemental discussion, this was just the first of a series of Japanese Organized Crime Boss films, even if the follow ups may not have explored some of the same concerns as this film, as Ito also gets into. While this may not quite be "fully baked" Fukasaku, all of the ingredients are certainly there, and as mentioned above, the film serves as a really interesting bridge between ninkyo eiga and jitsuroku eiga. Technical merits are solid and the supplements very interesting (perhaps especially the wonderful speech by Fukasaku). Recommended.