Society Without Honor And Humanity: Japan’s 1970s Yakuza Films

Opening with the iconic image of the atomic bomb exploding in a mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, Kinji Fukasaku’s epic 1970s yakuza series, Battles Without Honor and Humanity (仁義なき戦い; Jingi naki tatakai), set the tone for films in Japan in that decade. Not only in its frenzied pace and unique, action-oriented style, but in its criticism of post-war Japanese society. This trend, dubbed jitsuroku, or “true account,” continued in the director’s brutal Graveyard of Honor (仁義の墓場; Jingi no hakaba). These films made deft use of the yakuza, previously depicted as torchbearers of chivalry, as a metaphor to explore the breakdown of post-war Japanese society, its loss of tradition, and the fate of the individual who found himself at odds with what that society had become. <h2>Shattering the Chivalrous Past</h2> Before Fukasaku’s reimagining of the yakuza film, the genre was a perennial favorite, especially in the 1960s when the ninkyo eiga — or chivalrous movie — was popular. Ninkyo eiga were set in a romanticized pre-war period, usually in the Meiji, Taisho, or early Showa periods. They invariably followed the same formula. A chivalrous gangster takes on an unscrupulous rival gang and either dies in the process or is sent to jail, thus fulfilling his Confucian, filial duty to his crime family while still maintaining the societal status quo. <a href="https://unseenjapan.medium.com/society-without-honor-and-humanity-japans-1970s-yakuza-films-2cd930f826de">Website</a>