The wolves (O.V. Shussho Iwai)
Japan, 1971
Director: Hideo Gosha
Screenplay: Hideo Gosha, Kei Tasaka
Cast: Rumi Aiki, Hideyo Amamoto, Noboru Andô
Plot
Japan, December 1926. After the death of Emperor Taisho and the entry into the Showa period with his successor Hirohito, the government granted a prison amnesty from which several convicts benefited.
Among them are some prominent members of two powerful Yakuza families: the Kannon-gumi and the Enoki-ya. These two clans are ready to make peace, and to ratify the new times of mutual cooperation and finally settle their centuries-old disputes, they have decided to celebrate the upcoming marriage between Aya, the daughter of the late Enoki-ya leader, and the new head of the Kannon-gumi. From now on, it is assumed that the members of both families will become “aniki”, siblings. This reconciliation takes place under the arbitration of a big Yakuza boss, who seeks to participate in the construction of a railroad network from Japan to Manchuria in the near future.
The Enoki-ya members released after the amnesty were serving time for the murder of the former Kannon-gumi boss, while the old Enoki-ya leader (father of Aya, the young woman to be given into a marriage of convenience) reportedly died after a stroke. But Aya is in love with another yakuza, Tsutomu, who has also been released, and has no intention of marrying the Kannon-gumi’s new oyabun.
Numerous intrigues, murders and betrayals ensue, until the explosive final denouement, including a nightly duel on the beach with a shintoist party in the background.
Comments
Very good yakuza film directed by Hideo Gosha, one of the greatest exponents of the gendai-geki and ninkyo-eiga genres. Jidai-geki films are those whose stories are set in the Edo period, towards the end of the Tokugawa shogunate; that is, “samurai films”, while gendai-geki are set in the contemporary period, after the Meiji restoration, and are usually related to the yakuza films of the sixties and seventies. Ninkyo-eiga, literally “chivalry films,” also refers to gangster films and alludes to the yakuza as the new samurai, i.e. the ‘knights’ of the present era, with them taking on the role that the ronin played in the preceding century, the role of characters who are guided by a rigid, ancestral code of honor that for most Japanese in modern “legal society” is considered outdated: “In our world, breaking a promise means bloodshed” says one of the gangsters in this film. The main theme of ninkyo-eiga is the conflict between giri and ninjo, i.e. between the obligation to the clan (to the community) and the personal feelings of the yakuza.
In “Shussho Iwai” (international title “The Wolves”) we have a gangster melodrama about the rivalry never overcome and the problematic reconciliation between two clans; including the old wounds that never heal, the betrayals and conspiratorial intrigues always on the agenda; and reminiscent of the archetypal and tragic love story of “Romeo and Juliet”. This film by Gosha is stylistically very powerful, and although at times the plot can be confusing, it is undeniable the visual power and poetic tones that the film radiates. Its almost epic character makes it a Japanese precedent for such cinematic gems as “Goodfellas” (1990) or “Casino” (1995), and Hideo Gosha can be considered a kind of Japanese Scorsese.
Hideo Gosha (1929-1992) directed Hitokiri in 1969, a samurai film in which his friend the famous nationalist writer Yukio Mishima participates as an actor (playing the ronin Tanaka Shinbei), alongside two greats of the stature of Shintaro Katsu (Zatoichi series, Goyokiba trilogy…) and Tatsuya Nakadai (Seppuku, 1962…). Mishima, a great fan of yakuza films and admirer of Hideo Gosha, would not get to see Shussho Iwai, as he had immolated himself in 1970, a year before its release.