![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/31/d2/001dd231_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/31/d2/001dd231.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
6xDVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Booklet -> 12 Mb | ~500 mins | Total: 26,20 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | Japan
6xDVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Booklet -> 12 Mb | ~500 mins | Total: 26,20 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | Japan
In the ruins of Hiroshima an ex-soldier, Hirono Shozo, dealing on the black market just to survive, shoots and kills the drunken yakuza who attacked his colleagues. Sent to jail, Shozo shares a cell with another yakuza who has his boss, Yoshiwara, bail Hirono out and give him a place in their organisation.
Hirono soon proves his loyalty and rapidly rises through the ranks, culminating in his undertaking a dangerous hit on a rival gang boss that lands him back in jail.
Meanwhile, the gang wars continue unabated in his absence??
Inarguably the most important yakuza film, or giri-ninjo, of the 1970s, Kinji "Battle Royale" Fukasaku's The Yakuza Papers, inspired by the prison memoirs of a real-life mobster, Mino Kozo, presented the yakuza in an unfamiliar light. Through the 1960s countless programmers many from the same Toei Studios had flattered the gangsters somewhat, painting them as "men of honour", their traditions one of the few vestiges of the Samurai ethic left. Fukasaku chose, instead, to present the gangsters as men "without honour and humanity", as the film's alternative title puts it.
His protagonist, Hirono, vividly brought to life by genre star Bunta Sugawara, only becomes a yakuza because few other options present themselves and his personal qualities loyalty, bravery and other conventionally positive attributes suggest an elective affinity with their way of life. The other yakuza exploit Hirono's basic decency whilst themselves paying only lip service to their codes of honour. The finger amputation scene, a staple of the genre, encapsulates the film's position in a nutshell: Following an error of judgement Hirono offers to chop off his pinkie in penance, believing that that is what a good yakuza should do. The other yakuza are ignorant of the ritual he should follow, but nevertheless keen to see him follow through on his pledge.
Kinji Fukasaku's (BATTLE ROYALE) revered gangster series is a landmark of 1970's Japanese cinema. Set just after WWII and based on the memoirs of a real-life crime boss, these films serve to deglamorize the traditional cinematic portrayal of organized crime, instead painting its members as petty, backstabbing thugs who will turn on their closest allies for power or profit.
The story follows the violent exploits of Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), a former soldier, as he joins a yakuza gang in post-bomb Hiroshima. From there, he weathers a brutal series of events, including jail terms and pulling off hits of rival gang members, on his shaky journey through the ranks.
This 6-Disc box set includes all 5 films in the series, plus a bonus disc of supplemental material.
DVDBeaver
DVD Savant
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The first (and best) installment of Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza Papers quintet of scuzzy underworld warfare opens with a freeze-frame of the Hiroshima mushroom cloud, which in the director's vision razed the country's DNA down to its moral strands. The staccato opening 1946 scenes, with horny American soldiers soiling Japanese maidenhood and hoods dicing each other's limbs off, chart a chaos furiously scrambling to whip itself into some kind of stabilizing order amid the ashes of postwar Japan. Crime becomes order, and warring clans crowd the frame with double-crossings, vendettas and rubouts – the plot sprawls into the '50s and follows a tortuous grid of characters of varying shadiness, though its linchpin (and moral barometer) remains ex-soldier-turned-mob-torpedo Bunta Sagawara, who struggles to hang on to something like honor in the degraded bloodshed. If he sympathizes with Sagawara's personal ethics as opposed to the ruthless tactics of "brother" Hiroki Matsukata, Fukasaku nevertheless pulverizes the fantasy of the Yakuza's codes of macho honor, instead channeling their absurdity – the ceremonial slicing of a finger escalates into Hawksian comedy when the severed pinkie sails through the air and into a henhouse, and a disgusted Sagawara dismantles a pal's funeral proceedings when his death provides the Yakuza with a chance for a (spurious) display of tradition. Often palmed off as a Japanese Godfather saga, Fukasaku's film is angrier and less enthralled by its venal characters, closer to such Francesco Rosi Mafia studies as Lucky Luciano or Illustrious Corpses, where brutal violence and political inquiry fused across the genre canvas. Followed by Deadly Fight in Hiroshima, Proxy War, Police Tactics and Final Episode, exercises in mayhem laced with Fukasaku's fury. With Tatsuo Umemiya, Tsunehiko Watase, and Nobuo Kaneko.Fernando F. Croce, Cinepassion
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![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/32/d2/001dd232_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/32/d2/001dd232.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honour and Humanity (1973)
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:38:56 | 4,36 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | 3 wins | Japan
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:38:56 | 4,36 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | 3 wins | Japan
In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) and his buddies find themselves in a new war between fractious and ambitious yakuza. After joining boss Yamamori, Shozo is drawn into a feud with his sworn brother's family, the Dois. But that's where the chivalry of traditional yakuza film ends and the hypocrisy, betrayal, and assassinations begin. A rare and critical perspective on the history of Japan after World War II, BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY is a tour-de-force that revolutionized the yakuza genre and launched Kinji Fukasaku and Bunta Sugawara to international stardom.
IMDB
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/08/d2/001dd208_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/08/d2/001dd208.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/03/d2/001dd203_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/03/d2/001dd203.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/04/d2/001dd204_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/04/d2/001dd204.jpeg)
Edition Details:
• Original theatrical trailer (and for 6 more Fukasku films on HVE DVD)
• Director filmography
• The Yakuza Wars of Hiroshima - A pull-out Viewer's Guide highlighting all the major players, wars, killings, arrests, and consolidations that occur throughout all five volumes in The Yakuza Papers series
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/33/d2/001dd233_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/33/d2/001dd233.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:39:45 | 4,41 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | Japan
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:39:45 | 4,41 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | Japan
Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka (Kinya Kitaoji, who went on to star as Rhett Butler in the Tokyo stage version of GONE WITH THE WIND), finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hit man and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo (Sonny Chiba, KILL BILL) draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), into a new round of bloodshed, culminating with the tragic demise of the young Yamanka.
IMDB
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/0c/d2/001dd20c_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/0c/d2/001dd20c.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/0d/d2/001dd20d_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/0d/d2/001dd20d.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/0e/d2/001dd20e_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/0e/d2/001dd20e.jpeg)
Edition Details:
• Original theatrical trailer (and for 6 more Fukasku films on HVE DVD)
• Director filmography
• The Yakuza Wars of Hiroshima - A pull-out Viewer's Guide highlighting all the major players, wars, killings, arrests, and consolidations that occur throughout all five volumes in The Yakuza Papers series
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/34/d2/001dd234_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/34/d2/001dd234.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers: Proxy War (1973)
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:42:25 | 4,48 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | Japan
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:42:25 | 4,48 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | Japan
The successor to Hiroshima's most powerful yakuza family, the Muraokas, is whacked in broad daylight on a busy city street. What unfolds is a yakuza succession crisis, as the weaseley Uchimoto (Takeshi Kato) dithers and the slimy, backstabbing boss Yamamori steps in as the Muraoka's new boss. Bunta Sugawara's would-be independent yakuza, Shozo Hirono, is caught in the middle, having to play powerbroker. But the opposing factions seek support from powerful families in Kobe, making all out war inevitable.
IMDB
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/12/d2/001dd212_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/12/d2/001dd212.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/10/d2/001dd210_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/10/d2/001dd210.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/11/d2/001dd211_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/11/d2/001dd211.jpeg)
Edition Details:
• Original theatrical trailer (and for 6 more Fukasku films on HVE DVD)
• Director filmography
• The Yakuza Wars of Hiroshima - A pull-out Viewer's Guide highlighting all the major players, wars, killings, arrests, and consolidations that occur throughout all five volumes in The Yakuza Papers series
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/35/d2/001dd235_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/35/d2/001dd235.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers: Police Tactics (1974)
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:41:00 | 4,50 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | Japan
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:41:00 | 4,50 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | Japan
As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima. Akira Kobayashi's Takeda tries to keep a lid on things, but hotheaded underlings create chaos, with one boss whacked in neutral territory, and the craven boss, Uchimoto, informing on an assassination attempt by his own minions. While the police round up hundreds of yakuza foot soldiers, Bunta Sugawara's Shozo Hirono plots to finally take out longtime nemesis, boss Yamamori.
IMDB
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/16/d2/001dd216_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/16/d2/001dd216.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/18/d2/001dd218_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/18/d2/001dd218.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/19/d2/001dd219_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/19/d2/001dd219.jpeg)
Edition Details:
• Original theatrical trailer (and for 6 more Fukasku films on HVE DVD)
• Director filmography
• The Yakuza Wars of Hiroshima - A pull-out Viewer's Guide highlighting all the major players, wars, killings, arrests, and consolidations that occur throughout all five volumes in The Yakuza Papers series
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/37/d2/001dd237_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/37/d2/001dd237.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers: Final Episode (1974)
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:37:31 | 4,28 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama | Japan
In the wake of a big police crackdown, Akira Kobayashi's icily sun- glassed Takeda attempts to transform the Hiroshima yakuza families into a legitimate political organization: The Tensei Coalition. When the young Matsumura ascends to the chairmanship of the coalition, the older, hardened yakuza led by Jo Shishido (BRANDED TO KILL) seize one last opportunity to stir up chaos and bloodshed. Culminating with the arrests, deaths, or retirement of the first postwar yakuza generation, this milestone series draws to an ambivalent close.
IMDB
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/24/d2/001dd224_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/24/d2/001dd224.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/20/d2/001dd220_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/20/d2/001dd220.jpeg)
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/22/d2/001dd222_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/22/d2/001dd222.jpeg)
Edition Details:
• Original theatrical trailer (and for 6 more Fukasku films on HVE DVD)
• Director filmography
• The Yakuza Wars of Hiroshima - A pull-out Viewer's Guide highlighting all the major players, wars, killings, arrests, and consolidations that occur throughout all five volumes in The Yakuza Papers series
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Special Features Disc - Disc 6 - DVD5 (ISO+MDS) | 4,17 Gb :
- Friedkin on Fukasaku - Director William Friedkin (French Connection) discusses the influence of Fukasaku on Hollywood action films of the 1970's (9:24)
Translating Fukasaku - An interview with subtitler Linda Hoaglund (10:38)
- Kantoku: Remembering Fukasaku - The director's son, Kenta Fukasaku (Battle Royale II), Masao Sata (producer of Battle Royale I & II) and Sadao Yamane (Fukasaku biographer) share their memories of working with the legendary director (20:39)
- Jitsuroku: Reinventing the Yakuza Genre - A 20-minute video essay on how The Yakuza Papers forever changed Japanese cinema (19:29)
- Boryoku: Fukasaku and the Art of Violence - Featuring a rare interview and behind-the-scenes footage with Kinji Fukasaku (12:06)
- Kaplan on The Yakuza- David Kaplan, chief investigative reporter for U.S. News and World Report, gives a primer on Japan's criminal underworld (12:140
- 16-page booklet featuring essays and articles
- The Yakuza Wars of Hiroshima - A pull-out Viewer's Guide highlighting all the major players, wars, killings, arrests, and consolidations that occur throughout all five volumes in The Yakuza Papers series
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Prior to Kinji Fukasaku's bloody crime thrillers, Japanese films about the yakuza tended to be modern-day extensions of the movie industry's historical samurai epics, with mob hit men acting out of deep principles of loyalty. Fukasaku countered with "jitsuroko": historically based gangster stories inspired equally by the grand sweep of The Godfather and the street violence of The French Connection. In 1973 and '74, Fukasaku made a five-film series known alternately as The Yakuza Papers and Battles Without Honor & Humanity (after the title of the first installment), tracing the complicated infighting of Hiroshima gangs from 1946 to 1970. In Fukasaku's world, yakuza adhere to codes of honor when it's in their best interest, but otherwise bully and kill indiscriminately.
The series still resonates in Japan, where "Battles Without Honor & Humanity" has become a common T-shirt slogan (as well the title of a Tomoyasu Hotei instrumental used in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, and now the cue music for seemingly every sports-related talk-radio show in America). The Yakuza Papers' endurance has primarily to do with the filmmaker's critical analysis of Japan's national character. Fukasaku openly questions whether the legendary Japanese sense of duty was wiped out by the atomic bomb, or whether it was always just an ideal for tourists and old movies, never meant to be taken seriously.
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/e4/b1/0017b1e4_medium.jpeg)
The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]
![The Yakuza Papers Collection (1973-1974) [Limited Edition 6-Disc Boxset]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/e4/b1/0017b1e4.jpeg)
No More Mirrors.