The Yakuza (1974)

The Yakuza (1974)
112 min | XviD 720x304 | 1503 kb/s | 192 kb/s AC3 | 23.97 fps | 1.36 GB + 3% recovery record
English | Subtitles: English, Spanish, Czech and Portugese .srt | Genre: Action/Crime

The Yakuza stars Robert Mitchum as Harry Kilmer, a former soldier who returns to Japan to help rescue the daughter of his friend George Tanner (Brian Keith). Once he arrives in the country, Kilmer discovers that the daughter has been kidnapped by the Japanese mafia, called the Yakuza. In order to battle the ruthless organized crime outfit and save the girl, Kilmer finds himself left with few options and reluctantly enlists the help of his old nemesis, Tanaka (Ken Takakura).

A neglected classic of 70s film-making, this is perhaps the most "Japanese" movie ever made by a non-Japanese. The story is rich and multi-layered, featuring not one but two sets of star-crossed lovers in a brilliant and melancholy examination of contrasting themes of memory, secrets and betrayal, friendship, honor and obligation. The script is both literate and intricate; the characters' motives are almost always obscure until another layer of deception is stripped away.

Only Robert Mitchum could have done justice to the role of Harry Kilmer, a retired detective returning to Japan for the first time in many years to rescue his old Army friend Tanner's daughter, who has been kidnapped by the Yakuza in a dispute over a debt Tanner owes them. When Kilmer arrives in Japan, he seeks out Ken, the brother of his ex-lover Eiko (played by the astoundingly lovely and talented Kishi Keiko). Ken is a lone wolf, an ex-Yakuza who now runs a martial arts school, and though there is obviously no love lost between the two, Kilmer knows Ken carries an obligation to him for rescuing Eiko and her infant daughter in the early days of the Occupation.

Kilmer is still bitter about the past, deeply wounded by his love for Eiko, who would not marry him even though she loves him deeply. This was the reason why he left Japan and never meant to return.
Now, with Ken's reluctant help, he rescues Tanner's daughter, but this only leads to an intensifying spiral of tragic consequences, because nothing is quite what it seems. Only when Kilmer begins to understand the truth of the situation is he able to act constructively.

Everyone in this film, from Brian Keith to Herb Edelman to Richard Jordan (in one of his first starring roles) turns in a first-rate performance. James Shigeta and Christina Kobuko also deserve honorable mention. But it is Mitchum and Takakura Ken who make this movie.

This is not an action film in the sense of later -- and far inferior -- efforts like "The Challenge" and "Black Rain", though there are scenes of intense and graphic violence. Nor does it have a happy ending, although some of the characters do ultimately find redemption and a hope of reconciliation.

"The Yakuza" is a work that deserves a much larger audience, one which will totally engage a thoughtful viewer with its universal themes worked out against the background of a very different culture, with its own mindset and traditions. I give it my highest recommendation. (IMDB comment)

Yakuza
Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum) es requerido por su buen amigo George Tanner (Brian Keith) para que intente liberar a su hija de las manos de los Yakuza japoneses. Para ello viajará a Tokyo, en donde volverá a encontrarse tras muchos años de ausencia con un antiguo amor, la hermana de Tanaka Ken (Ken Takakura), un maestro zen, con el que pretende aliarse para recuperar a la muchacha.

Un thriller muy interesante y muy infravalorado, especialmente cuando se compara con otros títulos firmados por Sydney Pollack, bastante menos logrados que "Yakuza", un agudo film sobre la mafia japonesa y sus códigos de comportamiento, alimentado en su trama de acción por una historia de crepuscular romanticismo y una observación al sentimiento de culpa y de honor. (El Criticón)

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