Independent distributors Arrow Video USA confirmed today that they will release on Blu-ray two classic Japanese gangster films directed by Yasuharu Hasebe:
Massacre Gun (1967), starring Jô Shishido, Tatsuya Fuji, and Jirô Okazaki, and
Retaliation (1968), starring Jô Shishido, Akira Kobayashi, and Hideaki Nitani.
The two films have been recently remastered by Nikkatsu Studios and will feature new English subtitle translations. Supplemental features to be included on the upcoming releases are yet to be revealed.
The releases are expected to arrive on the U.S.market in early 2015.
Massacre Gun
Genre icon Jô Shishido stars in this tense and violent yakuza yarn from genre stalwart, and Seijun Suzuki's former assistant, Yasuharu Hasebe (Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion: Grudge Song). Kuroda (Shishido), a mob hitman who turns on his employers after being forced to execute his lover. Joining forces with his similarly wronged brothers, hot-headed Eiji (Tatsuya Fuji, In the Realm of the Senses) and aspiring boxer Saburo (Jirô Okazaki, Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) the trio escalate their mob retaliation to all-out turf war where no one will stop until one faction emerges victorious. Strikingly violent for the period and gorgeously photographed in monochrome like it's genre siblings Branded to Kill and A Colt is My Passport (Shishido's other films from 1967), Massacre Gun is a bold iteration on the genre featuring some stunning compositions and the assured direction of Hasebe in only his second feature, now available on home video for the first time in the English speaking world.
Retaliation
In 1969 future sexploitation specialist Yasuharu Hasebe (Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) teamed up with the inimitable Jô Shishido (Tokyo Drifter, Branded to Kill) for a follow up to their yakuza hit Massacre Gun. A tale of gang warfare that features a raft of the period's most iconic stars, Akira Kobayashi (Battles Without Honor and Humanity, The Flowers and the Angry Waves) is a yakuza lieutenant who emerges from jail to find his gang has dispersed and his aging boss in his sickbed. Shishido plays a rival boss who grants him a second chance, whilst a young Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) is the girl caught in the crossfire. Gritty and cynical, Retaliation is hardboiled precursor to Kinji Fukasaku's revisionist yakuza pictures of the 1970s, now available on home video for the first time in the English speaking world.