Outlaw Gangster VIP: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Outlaw Gangster VIP: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 24, 2016

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.

Reviews for the six films in this set can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

Gangster VIP Blu-ray review

Gangster VIP 2 Blu-ray review

Heartless Blu-ray review

Goro the Assassin Blu-ray review

Black Dagger Blu-ray review

Kill! Blu-ray review

Outlaw Gangster VIP: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality of each release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

Outlaw Gangster VIP: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality of each release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

Outlaw Gangster VIP: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Supplementary material linked to individual films is detailed in the reviews for those films. Additionally, the set contains these more general supplements:

• An Outlaw's Odyssey (1080p; 37:57) is a really good overview of all six films (and so comes with a spoiler warning) done by Kevin Gilvear. This supplement is found on Disc One containing the first two Gangster VIP films.


• Booklet includes several excellent essays and interviews.

Outlaw Gangster VIP: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Arrow continues to mine some really interesting and lesser known titles for cineastes with tastes for the obscure. The Outlaw: Gangster VIP franchise may not be a set of unrecognized masterpieces, but they're all rather interesting films, albeit somewhat formulaic when watched in rapid succession. Technical merits are good to very good and as usual Arrow has provided a very handsome package with some appealing supplements. Recommended.