The Yakuza Papers 3: Proxy War

The third installment refocuses on Bunta Sugawara's character and his ongoing feud with Yamamori, and how that conflict is heightened by the push of a rival group from Kobe into their territory. It's got a plot that moves at lightning pace, nonstop betrayals and assassination attempts, and delirious montages of brutal gang murders. There's also a small cameo from Reiko Ike, who basically only shows up to get slapped around a few times and then forced into prostitution.

Less bloody, more muddy. Proxy War does two things exceptionally well: blatantly (and bravely) saying that mainstream politics, business and yakuza collude to serve their own interests - while emphasizing that even in this mire, these Battles Without Honor and Humanity have a rather misleading title. Honor occasionally rises to the surface, and with it, the humanity.

I am seriously getting a headache from the amount of japanese gang and character name's this series rapidly throws at me. It does not stop. A toned-down death rate & increased runtime in this one amplifies the problem.

So far I've rated these pretty consistently, with the first being lower because it's ridiculously confusing for a while. I feel like I'm repeating but it is hard to follow this series because the lives of the Yakuza - with all their alliances, betrayals and people - is hard to follow. The movies move at a breakneck speed, are incredibly violent, but extremely fascinating. The quality doesn't really shift, and nothing (in terms of film making) changes from movie to movie, but Proxy War is great.

Part three of Kinji Fukasaku's five-part Yakuza Papers series is less sprawling and easier to follow than the first part. The point of these violent chronicles is an attempt to reconcile the rise of the Yakuza with Japan's struggle to rebuild itself after World War II. This entry in the series draws a parallel between the American and Russian proxy wars that scattered the globe and the rival families who use smaller satellite operations to obtain influence in outlying territories.

It has the same pro's as the first (and second) one: the documentary feel make these movie feel realistic, especially the way violence is portrayed very chaotic., the directing and acting is all done very well. But it also has the cons of the first one: it's way too complicated to keep track of all members and constant shifting alliances.Although one could argue this is done deliberately also to convey the realistic feeling of uncertainty of yakuza life; never knowing who to trust.

Blink and all of the alliances have completely changed.

These just keep getting better! There's a lot more complexity to the alliances the characters are involved in, so constant attention is required. Still, that's part of the fun of this series. Apart from that, there's a whole lot of betrayal, scheming, (botched) assassinations and finger cutting. Pretty badass, all in all.

Os Documentos da Yakuza 3 DVD Versátil Cinema Yakuza Volume 2

I felt I should have been making a diagram to follow all the shifting alliances after a while.