Bloody Territories (1969) - McVey Review

Production: Nikkatsu
Color / Length: Color, 88 minutes
Director: Yasuharu Hasebe
Actors: Akira Kobayashi, Tatsuya Fuji, Ryoji Hayama, Yuriko Hime

This was a difficult movie for me to review. So far, most (not all) of my yakuza-eiga experience has been flooded with Kinji Fukasaku, Takeshi Kitano and Takashi Miike movies. So these are the viewing standards I had to compare this film to. Which is a very high standard and really isn’t fair.

The Story (in a nutshell): The movie stars Akira Kobayashi (Akira Tanake in Battles w/o H&H 3/4) as Yuji Otatke, a mid-level yakuza. There are other familiar faces, but I can’t put a name to them. Anyway, the Sakura Association is disbanding and all the clan bosses have agreed to it. All except Mr.Ogani (which is Yuji’s boss). When the others disband, the Kansai Association starts to muscle in on Ogani Clan territory and some fighting ignites. The remnants of the disbanded Sakura Association form a legit group called Kyowa. A mediator is called in to quell the forthcoming Ogani/Kansai war. After the ceremony, Mr. Ogani loses a ton of dough at a high stakes game that features other prominent heads. The deed to Ogani property & buildings were used as collateral, in order to save face in the high stakes game. Thus, Ogani’s property is taken from them and bought by the Kyowa Group. Yuji and Yato (second in command), come up with a scheme to net them big dollars to buy the property back, but Kyowa foils it. Jinno, brother of Kansai boss, wants the Ogani territory for himself. But the Kyowa, has promised the Kansai a large amount money (from Yuji’s deal) for it, which they accept. This all sets up a final confrontation with Kyowa, Yuji and Jinno.

My Opinion: This movie was sub-par. Judging from the title and DVD cover (everyone with a knife and blood covering a collage of characters) alone, I thought this was going to be a nonstop action packed kick ass film. Well, I was wrong. There wasn’t a single pistol used in this flick, everyone had knives (which isn’t bad), I’m expecting geysers of blood, slashing’s up the wahzoo, hacked limbs and a war torn Tokyo (Bloodless Territories?). No such luck. The only hacked limb was an off-screen pinky chop. And most of the blood that flowed was after the fact. Ok, I know you don’t need spurting blood for a good picture, but the story was bland and the action was out-right terrible. The action choreography was dreadfully slow and lacked any human response to the life or death struggles it tried to delivery. The style Hasebe uses (for this film) is very…boring (in my opinion of course – I haven’t seen his other films). Nothing fancy, no frantic camera movements (a la Fukasaku), no graphic fighting, and lackluster acting performances by all, just a “ho-hum” experience. The synopsis on the back of the DVD cover is quite exaggerated. I’d recommend watching it once, but not buying it. Don’t think this DVD will make it into my player to many times. I’ll stick with yakuza flicks from 1970 on.
Guest Reviewer: Steven McVey

2 Kitanos