Yakuza Wives Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Yakuza Wives Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 25, 2025

It may not seem as bizarre as initially perceived to compare the long running Yakuza Wives (and/or Yakuza Ladies) film franchise to American television's The Real Housewives offerings, and in fact the film series could have quite easily been branded The Real Yakuza Housewives of Japan. Much as with the often comically roiling television productions, Yakuza Wives features elegant women who are either married to power or are actually powerful themselves, and while there may not be the kind of table flipping histrionics that often permeate Bravo's Housewives episodes (this is prim and proper Japan, after all), there's still some of the same "internecine" conflict between women (and, frankly, men) that fans of the many Housewives spinoffs have come to love (or at least expect). There's also the perhaps salient tether that the focal woman in this film, Tamaki Awazu (Shima Iwashita), has an incarcerated husband, which would certainly give her lots to share in common with any number of Real Housewives participants.

Tamaki's tale is an example of grace under pressure, especially when something akin to a gang war breaks out and Tamaki, who has taken control of her husband's yakuza clan during his imprisonment, has to navigate things without the typical "male" approach of strong arming people. Playing out simultaneously with this often fraught formulation is a potentially more troubling sidebar involving Tamaki's sister Makoto (Rino Katase), who is violently raped in an early scene but who then enters (both unwillingly and willingly, at various times) into a relationship with her attacker. Katase is quite moving in a difficult role, but this film belongs largely to the commanding Iwashita, who manages to be both incredibly steely and decidedly demure.

Yakuza Wives Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Yakuza Wives is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 88 Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. There's no real technical information of any import offered with this release, and I may be somewhat spoiled by the often resplendent restorations Celestial has been offering of Shaw Brothers productions, but this Toei release didn't strike me with the same power in terms of either palette suffusion or general detail levels. Things are more than watchable here, but there are some noticeably if admittedly slightly faded looking sections, as in the opening, which looked somewhat brown to my eyes. Things pop better after the credits sequence, but even some of the brightly lit outdoor material doesn't have overly vivid hues. While nothing very problematic, eagle eyed videophiles will be able to spot recurrent age related wear and tear in the form of nicks, scratches and white flakes. Grain is a bit mottled looking against brighter backgrounds, but resolves without any major issues.

Yakuza Wives Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Yakuza Wives features LPCM 2.0 Mono audio in the original Japanese. This really isn't a traditional yakuza film in terms of over the top action elements and opportunities for things like gunfire, so expectations should be set accordingly. A number of outdoor scenes offer realistic sounding ambient environmental effects, and all dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

Yakuza Wives Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Married to the Mob (HD; 15:41) is a new introduction to the film by Mark Schilling.


• Tattooed Underworld (HD; 24:57) is an interview with tattoo artist and actor Seiji Mouri. Subtitled in English.


• Stills Gallery (HD; 4:19)


• Trailers (HD; 3:45)

Additionally, the keepcase features a reversible sleeve and encloses a nicely appointed insert booklet with lots of stills and an interesting essay by Nathan Stuart.

Yakuza Wives Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's an undeniably melodramatic aspect to much of Yakuza Wives which may make it kin as much to Douglas Sirk as to The Real Housewives, but that may actually be part of the film's power. There's a slyly subversive quality to the film's examination of both real and perceived power on the part of women in a traditionally male dominated world. In that regard, the film might be passingly thought of as the yakuza film equivalent to "female centric" westerns like Hannie Caulder or The Quick and the Dead. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements enjoyable. Recommended.