"Blood of the Lone Wolf 2" was released in Japan last weekend, and thanks to the simultaneous launch of the online platform, we can also see this movie for the first time.
"Blood of the Lone Wolf" is the best one in Japan's gangster movies in recent years, which Isaya Jun personally feels, and today I will talk about this movie.
Today's Japanese society has aroused a lot of attention, and japanese courts have sentenced gang bosses to death for the first time.
The underworld is a legal organization in Japan, and the "gangster" seems to be a major cultural symbol of Japan, and the Chinese movie "Detective Chinatown 3" released this year focuses on Japan's gangster culture.
▲ In "Detective Chinatown 3", Tomokazu Miura played a gang boss with tattoos
Many viewers may have the first impression of Japanese movies as gangster movies.
In the early years, a series of action films produced by Nichiho Co., Ltd. swept Asia, as well as the films of the world-renowned hall-of-the-art director Shinji Fukasaku, and later there were successors such as Takeshi Kitano and Takashi Miike.
In 1999, Japan enacted the Organized Crime Punishment Law, which turned the police upside down, and then cracked down on gangs after the law was amended in 2005.
Since then, the underworld has declined in Japan, and the protection fees collected have declined year after year, and even in the first two years, some gangsters have followed the trend of the times and sold milk tea.
The early gangster films were popular because they were really hardcore, but with the change of the times, the extreme hardcore films also declined in the context of the government's comprehensive anti-black crackdown.
In recent years, Japanese gangster films have been dominated by comedy and blood, such as "Renxia Academy", "Extreme Road Master", "Backstreet Girl" and so on.
These works look at the decline and transformation of the Japanese underworld with endless self-deprecation, and the moral sentiments they talk about are different from the underworld movies of the past, and they are no longer the underworld that fights against the times and praises the righteousness and human feelings.
This year, Ayano's film "The Underworld and the Family" shows a history of Japanese gangster development spanning 20 years.
When the protagonist returns to the jianghu after 14 years in prison, he sees that humanity is no longer justified, because at this time the gang has withered away and the violent groups everywhere have been dismantled.
After understanding the above background, you may have a better understanding of the "Blood of the Lone Wolf" that Buya Jun wants to talk about today.
Compared with the above comedy-based films involving gangsters, this "Blood of the Lone Wolf" is closer to the traditional Japanese gangster films, which can be called the "Reiwa version of "The Battle of No Mercy", which can somewhat find some of the taste of early Japanese gangster films.
(The original author of "Blood of a Lone Wolf," Yukizuki, has repeatedly said that she was able to write this novel because of the influence of the underworld film "The Battle of No Mercy" produced by Toei and directed by Shinji Fukasaku.) )
"Blood of the Lone Wolf" is adapted from the novel of Yuzuki Yuko, the first one was released in 2019, and the latest second is currently being released in Japan, but it is also online at the same time, so we can also see high-definition resources.
The first film of 2019 has a high reputation, receiving 12 nominations at the Japanese Oscars and winning awards such as Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor.
The story is set in 1988 in Kurohara City, Hiroshima Prefecture, where the underworld was rampant, and they were cruel and did all kinds of terrible things for the benefit of the people.
The film is fast-paced, and the beginning is a fierce mutilation scene, the manager of a financial company is mutilated by the gangsters, and the underworld feeds him pig, cuts his fingers, and finally kills him.
Hideichi Hioka, a rookie criminal police officer played by Hiroshi Hiroshi Matsusho, and Hideyoshi Hioka, a rookie criminal police officer played by Hiroshi Matsusaka, begin their investigation.
The protagonist is a rather immodest policeman, who behaves in a manner no different from a gangster, likes to use violence to solve problems, and he often goes in and out of the wind and moon place, and his interest is to sleep with women.
As a policeman, he also has a close relationship with the gang, calling him a brother and brother with the gang, and even asking the gang for protection fees, which can be called "the family of the police and bandits".
The two major gangs in his area are about to fight, and he wants to quell the ongoing war in his own way.
This movie is not just a simple violent police film, its characters and plot are very full, not abrupt. It talks about how to deal with the relationship between black and white; how cowardly college cops grow into hardliners; and how really good cops and justice are not as simple as we see.
The previous work has a high reputation and box office results, so after two years of launching "Lone Wolf's Blood 2", this time the protagonist became a young criminal police officer Played by Matsuzaka Momori Hioka Shuichi.
In addition to Matsusaka Momori, the cast also includes Ryohei Suzuki, Hiroro Murakami, Nanase Nishino, Taiichi Hayotome, Koshi Saito, Umeki Nakamura, Kenichi Takito, Jin Terajima, and Kotaro Yoshida.
Lone Wolf's Blood 2 is the story of the previous game, and Hideichi Hioka inherits the legacy of his predecessor Akigo Oami and continues to deal with the underworld.
Like his predecessors, Hioka uses his power to fight and ban violent organizations, but he encounters a demon (played by Ryohei Suzuki) who has been released from prison.
Ryohei Suzuki plays the emergency doctor who saves lives in this season's Japanese drama "Tokyo Mer", and in "Blood of the Lone Wolf 2", he plays the underworld boss who loves to slash people.
"Blood of the Lone Wolf 2" is more bloody and violent than the previous game, adding a lot of sensory stimulation to the audience, so it is listed as "R15" (15 forbidden) in Japan.
Director Kazuya Shiraishi inherited the "bloodline" of the early Japanese gangster films with this "Blood of the Lone Wolf".
It is reported that Japanese audiences over 50 years old have walked into the cinema to watch, and these people from the Showa era have searched for their youth memories through this movie.