NEW BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR & HUMANITY REVIEWED
“New Battles without Honor & Humanity” doesn’t quite have the following of the original Fukasaku movies. But, Kinji Fukasaku didn’t return to the well without good reason. When I was covering “Rogue One” last year, I mentally kept coming back to this film series. While the original Battles were 5 films that told a complete story, the studio wanted side films that covered material about the world of Battles. Are you starting to see the “Rogue One” comparisons. Well, it’s pretty apt.
Yet what could’ve been film testaments to Toei’s greed turned into an opportunity for a director to find new ways to portray the Yakuza. More often than not, these three films exist to cover the underlings of this world. One thing that strikes me odd about these crime films vs. American crime films; a ton of people end going to prison. Most American movies of the period ended with the majority of offenders dead. Oh well, here’s to cultural differences.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Beyond the Films: New Battles Without Honor and Humanity, a new video appreciation by Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane
- New Stories, New Battles and Closing Stories, two new interviews with screenwriter Koji Takada, about his work on the second and third films in the trilogy
- Original theatrical trailers for all three films
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist
- Illustrated collector’s book featuring new writing on the films, the yakuza genre and Fukasaku’s career, by Stephen Sarrazin, Tom Mes, Hayley Scanlon, Chris D., Marc Walkow, and Toshiko Adilman
A/V STATS
- 2.40:1 1080p transfers
- LPCM MONO