Skip to main contentQuentin Tarantino's latest film, Kill Bill--Vol. 1, is a pastiche of cinematic genres blended into one homage of the films he loves most. Tarantino borrows heavily from Hong Kong action, blaxploitation and rape-revenge thrillers, but one of the genres he mines most deeply is the one least known to Western audiences--the Japanese yakuza film.
Japan's cinematic equivalent to American gangster pictures, yakuza films are the most pervasive genre in Japanese films. The Yakuza Movie Book: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films presupposes what will hopefully become a growing tide of popularity in the United States and offers an informative introduction to the world of yakuza films, complete with filmmaker and actor profiles, interviews, and 123 film reviews.
Though his guide is far from comprehensive, author Mark Schilling still manages to offer ample information to get you started in yakuza flicks (especially considering how hard many of these films are to find). Schilling has lived in Japan for the better part of three decades, and his immersion in the nation's film culture bleeds through. As a film historian, Schilling knows that directors like Seijun Suzuki and Kinji Fukasaku should be mentioned along with such legends as John Ford and Howard Hawks--despite the fact that their work remains largely unseen in the States.
There are better books out there about other aspects of Japanese cinema, most notably Patrick Macias' Tokyoscope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion, but none has focused exclusively on the gangster films that have been such a integral part of the culture. And as yakuza films become more commonplace in arthouses and video stores, The Yakuza Movie Book will become all the more indispensable.
the yakuza movie book: a guide to japanese gangster films
by Mark Schilling
(Stone Bridge Press, 336 pages, $19.95)
WWeek 2015