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STUDIO: Animeigo
MSRP: $24.98
RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 131 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Theatrical Trailers
• Program Notes
• Image Gallery
• Interactive Map

The Pitch

"Those Yakuza guys are so testy."

The Humans

Kyoko Enami, Hisashi Igawa, Komaki Kurihara, Tatsuya Nakadai, Isao Natsuyagi

The Nutshell

"At the dawn of the Showa Era, the new Emperor has granted amnesty to almost 400 prisoners. One of those men, Seiji (Nakadai), formally a henchmen for one of Japan's toughest gangs, must now cope with the fact that his former boss is dead and the power shift has created new conspiracies."

The Lowdown

Adjustment after prison life is the biggest obstacle several of the released prisoners must face. With the old way of doing business has pretty much been wiped out due to many of the Yakuza bosses dead, several former members try to go back to a way of life that is quickly diminishing. Seji Iwahashi (Tatsuya Nakadai) is one of those men who is having problems adjusting to the changing times. Iwahashi only knows the ways of the past and for him to come to terms with what is facing him today can be too much to handle.

There are basically three points in the movie with the beginning filled with enough intensity that you are wondering if things will slow down enough for you to take a deep breath and relax. Thankfully, the middle part of the movie eases into a comfortable pace and when all seems to be winding down, director Hideo Gosha raises the intensity to a boiling point. What made The Wolves a fascinating film is how Gosha keeps the films central story in focus by allowing his main character to be fully realized. Instead of skimming over the journey of Iwahashi, Gosha takes his plight to the ends of the earth so to speak and along the way you are privy to the world of Iwahashi that lessor directors would have not bothered with.

Another aspect of the film that I found interesting was Gosha's reliance on body language, specifically facial expressions. In many scenes there are close-ups of Iwahashi reacting to varying degrees to scenes around him or when someone else is talking. Those moments are powerful and brings to life a character who by all accounts died in prison. His freedom did not bring a hope for a new life and Iwahashi just like the other prisoners have no means to live any other way than the life that got them into prison in the first place.

The action / fighting scenes are intense and bring to the forefront just how raw and brutal Iwahashi's and those like him lived. There is no room for compassion with these guys and when there is a battle between the gangs it is an all out war. Bodies are dismembered, blood flows like a faucet and in the end there is no one left to clean up the carnage. Great stuff.

I have read that The Wolves was one of the last Yakuza movies to be made and with DVD's to market these films here's hoping more of these movies gets some attention.

The Package

Nice set of features that compliment the main feature. The Program Notes offers some nice reading material including more information on the cast and crew plus The Yakuza. Might be helpful for some unfamiliar with Yakuza films to read the program notes before watching the film. The trailers and photo gallery are your standard DVD material.

7.5 out of 10