Radiance Films
Blu-ray Release: June 25, 2024
Video: 2.35:1/1080p/Color
Audio: Japanese LPCM 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English
Run Time: 92:53
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Returning from a ten-year prison sentence, former gang leader Gunji (Koji Tsuruta) finds that his turf has been taken over by his former enemy, now a large crime syndicate with a legal corporate front. Looking for new opportunities, he gathers his old crew and heads for the island of Okinawa, a legal grey zone ripe for the taking. (From Radiance’s official synopsis)
In 1973 and 1974, already more than a decade into his directing career, Kinji Fukasaku made a groundbreaking, five-part gangster epic known as Battles without Honor and Humanity (1973-74). After the series was finished and the box office receipts were counted, Fukasaku was typecast at Toei Studios as the champion of yakuza (aka: jitsuroku) drama, action, and violence, ensuring that his next nine movies were yakuza or yakuza-adjacent crime tales, including a New Battles without Honor and Humanity trilogy (Japanese: Shin Jinginaki tatakai, 1974-76), Graveyard of Honor (Japanese: Jingi no hakaba, 1975), and Yakuza Graveyard (Japanese: Yakuza no Hakaba: Kuchinashi no Hana, 1976).
Before he was recognized as a genre-redefining maverick, Fukasaku was a salaryman type workhorse director who was still developing his dynamic, vérité-esque style. His studio-dictated schedule led him to direct the sixth film in the Bakuto or Gambler franchise, Gambler’s Farewell (Japanese: Bakuto kaisanshiki; aka: Gambler’s Ceremony of Disbanding, 1968). He then returned to make the ninth entry, Sympathy for the Underdog (Japanese: Bakuto Gaijin Butai; aka: Outlaw Gambler: Foreign Legion, 1971), which, by most accounts, is a fan favorite, as well as a staging ground for what would become Fukasaku’s trademarks.
Sympathy For The Underdog was originally developed as a sequel to a different Fukasaku gangster film, Japan Organized Crime Boss (Japanese: Nihon boryoku-dan: Kumicho, 1969), and was the first Gambler film to acknowledge a post-war world. The plot has a basis in the ongoing history of the prefecture of Okinawa (with a dash of prognostication) and was inspired by Gillo Pontecorvo’s influential classic Battle of Algiers (Italian: La battaglia di Algeri, 1966), all of which magnifies the authenticity of Fukasaku’s vision. Okinawa was a key staging point during the Vietnam War and a secret port for nuclear weapons, leading to controversy that bubbled over when, in 1969, there was a dangerous chemical leak at a US storage depot. The US agreed to hand the island back over to Japan on May 15, 1972, less than a year after Sympathy for the Underdog was released in theaters*. The film rarely deals with these political realities directly, but is clearly set in a multicultural city overwhelmed by the noise and imagery of American commerce.
I’m probably missing some context, having not seen any of the other films in the franchise, but, as I understand it, Sympathy for the Underdog exists outside the narrative circle of the previous entries. Regardless, the film works well as a standalone piece, sometimes literally pausing to give its audience pertinent information. Any additional context can usually be inferred via a basic knowledge of yakuza tropes. If anything, I found this to be one of Fukasaku’s most self-contained pictures. The story is somewhat boilerplate, but the presentation has a punchy, rock ‘n roll flash that’s not seen in the more nihilistic Battles without Honor and Humanity series and mournful later-stage yakuza films, like Graveyard of Honor and Yakuza Graveyard (don’t worry, it’s still quite violent). Most of the characters are also uniquely compelling and/or quirky, which is important, given the genre’s penchant for recycling protagonist and antagonist types.
Fukasaku originally directed Gambler star Koji Tsuruta on Gang vs. G-Men (Japanese: Gyangu tai G-men) back in 1962, when he only had six films and a year of experience under his belt. They also worked together on one other non-Gambler feature, Bloodstained Clan Honor (Japanese: Chi-zome no daimon, 1970), before Sympathy for the Underdog, which was their final collaboration. Tsuruta’s career slowed as Fukasaku’s was taking off, though he still had significant roles on Yukio Noda’s Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon (Japanese: Gorugo Sātīn Kûron no kubi, 1977), the second film in the manga-based series, and Shue Matsubayashi’s hit war epic Imperial Navy (Rengo kantai, 1981).
* This was not the end of the US military’s occupation in Okinawa, however, nor the atrocities and controversy that surround it to this day. There’s also a very long history of Japanese mistreatment of Okinawans before the war.
Bibliography
Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film by Chris D., including an interview with Fukasaku (IB Taurus, 2005)
Video
It doesn’t appear that Sympathy for the Underdog was ever officially released on VHS in the United States. The first R1 DVD came from Home Vision Entertainment in 2005, but the film was overlooked on HD media in favor of Fukasaku’s more popular post-Battles without Honor and Humanity work. This 1080p, 2.35:1 Blu-ray transfer was supplied directly to Radiance by Toei and is in keeping with similar Toei discs from both Arrow and Radiance. Cinematographer Hanjiro Nakazawa’s roughened, often handheld photography is appropriately grainy without appearing too snowy (aside from a handful of scenes that take place in low-lit, smoke-filled bars). The grain and other fine texture has a slight oversharpened quality, but this seems to have more to do with the harsh white level contrast. This is either an inherent issue or an attempt to brighten up the darkest night sequence, which also causes some blacks to appear more gray. These scenes likely turned to mud in standard definition. Overall, the slight haloing is worth it for the increased clarity. Colors are largely low-key and neutral, but they are consistent and important highlights – usually reds – pop nicely.
Audio
Sympathy for the Underdog is presented in uncompressed LPCM mono and its original Japanese. The mix is a bit crowded, there’s some aspirated hiss throughout the dialogue, and the basic effects are a bit crispy, but it’s no more distorted or fuzzy than one would expect from the era. Takeo Yamashita’s infectiously jazzy score is among the film’s greatest virtues and supports the freewheeling, anything-can-happen vibe beautifully. The track’s inherent tinniness causes some issues for the more incessant hi-hat sounds, but the bulk of the instrumentation is pretty rich for a mono mix.
Extras
Commentary with Nathan Stuart – The yakuza movie expert and self-described ‘Toei Masochist’ explores the larger Gambler series (verifying that they are not a narratively connected series, which was something I was only inferring while writing my review), the history of yakuza movies with emphasis on the Toei films, Fukasaku’s work, the larger careers of the cast & crew, and the politics behind the story.
Olivier Hadouchi on Sympathy for the Underdog (27:05, HD) – The Fukasaku biographer discusses the director’s career, his inspirations, his technique, critical reappraisal, the making of Sympathy for the Underdog, its place in the director’s filmography, and the impact that Japanese history and politics had on his yakuza movies.
That Distant Territory (25:51, HD) – Historian, Yale educator, and author of multiple books in the Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies Aaron Gerow takes a look at the history of Okinawa (going back much further than I have here) and its changing place in Japanese cinema.
Trailer
The images on this page are taken from the BDs and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.