Toei Co., the production company behind the hit yakuza film series "Jingi Naki Tatakai" (Battles Without Honor and Humanity), has released a new movie that portrays clashes between police and gangs from Japan's infamous crime syndicate.
The characters in "Korou no Chi" (THE BLOOD OF WOLVES) have a distinct swagger, with Koji Yakusho playing an unconventional police detective who acts on his own sense of justice while investigating the underworld. The movie is based on a novel of the same title by Yuko Yuzuki, and is set in Hiroshima in 1988.
As the Kakomura-gumi and Odani-gumi yakuza gangs prepare for a showdown, an employee of a Kakomura-linked company goes missing.
Veteran detective Ogami, played by Yakusho, and his young partner Hioka, played by Tori Matsuzaka, investigate the incident. Hioka expresses displeasure with his senior partner, as Ogami resorts to questionable methods including theft, arson and torture.
Ogami wears tacky unbuttoned shirts, sports a beard and wears sunglasses. His appearance can be described as more gang-like than the yakuza themselves.
"All of the characters reflect the preferences of the director," Yakusho says. "I don't look at my appearance until the [makeup] has been applied. After I'm dressed and have my makeup done, I take on the personality of my character."
Ogami behaves brusquely like a yakuza gangster and boasts, "Because I'm a police detective, I can do anything." In spite of these traits, he can also be kind and big-hearted with a strong sense of justice. He works with the yakuza to prevent potential conflicts between the various gangs.
"Ogami's an angel who descended into this dumpster of a world," Yakusho says of his character. "In his early days as a detective, he might've had a naive sense of justice like Hioka. He probably realized that he could only protect people through this way of doing things."
Yakusho's genial way of talking is closer to that of the good-natured tabi sock store president he portrayed in the TV series "Rikuoh," than that of a morally ambiguous detective.
However, he says: "There is no character whose personality is the same as mine. When I act out a character, I trick myself into thinking I might have something in common with them. I don't like when my characters are thought of as similar to others I've portrayed in the past. I take care to avoid that."
Yakusho has worked with many different film directors, including Shohei Imamura, Masato Harada and Masayuki Suo. This is his first time working with director Kazuya Shiraishi.
Shiraishi has worked on "Kyoaku" (The Devil's Path) and "Kanojo ga Sono Na wo Shiranai Toritachi" (Birds Without Names), among other productions. Yakusho said Shiraishi is regarded as "a professional specializing in movies."
Shiraishi does not shoot scenes many times to be edited later, but rather spends ample time on getting the key scenes right.
"I think he's similar to directors from the Showa period [1926-89], when I began my career as a movie actor," Yakusho says.
The new movie contains extremely violent scenes from which viewers may want to avert their eyes. Yakusho believes this a "challenge" of sorts issued by the director.
"It stems from his enthusiasm for making movies that can't be aired on TV, and can only be seen in theaters," he says.
When Yakusho met with Shiraishi for the first time, the director told him, "I want to make a movie packed with energy."
"Movies like this make Japanese film more colorful and profound," the veteran actor says. "If young actors say they want to play characters like Ogami, I think Japanese movies can be revitalized."
The movie is showing at Marunouchi Toei and other cinemas. Visit www.korou.jp for more information.
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