New Battles Without Honor & Humanity (6-Disc Limited Edition) [Blu-ray + DVD]

Kinju Fukasaku was the greatest Yakuza (gangster) film director in Japan. In 1973 he dropped his five part Battles Without Honor and Humanity which was a game changer in the genre for its realistic style and portrayal of how blood thirsty the gangs were constantly feuding, fighting, and leaving a slew of dead bodies behind them. The series was so popular that Toei convinced him to make a spinoff The New Battles For Honor and Humanity. This box set includes all three films from that franchise in both blu-ray and DVD format plus a slick book going over the movies.The movies themselves are a bit up and down. The First New Battles Without Honor And Humanity is a spinoff of the original series. It focuses upon the Yamamori gang in Hiroshima again as its boss Yoshio Yamamori (Nobu Kaneko) is in a power struggle with his lieutenant Naotake Aoki (Tomisaburo Wakayama). Bunta Sugarawa returned as the star from the previous series playing Makio Miyoshi who is stuck in the middle between these two powerful figures. The Yamamori were one of the main gangs throughout the original Battles Without Honor and Humanity.The second film The Boss’s Head was an original plot focusing upon Bunta Sugawara as Shuji Kuroada. He was a freelancer, or a stray dog as they refer to him in the film, who carried out an assassination for the Odwara family and went to prison for seven years for it. When he got out he expected to be compensated, which leads to splits and betrayal within the family.The last release The Last Days of the Boss was the weakest of the three. A couple ends up dead which leads to a larger and larger gang war in Osaka. It’s never explained why these murders would lead to such a conflagration, and it appears this was simply a way to justify all the violence that would follow. Bunta Sugawara was again the star as a ship worker and gambling house owner who gets dragged into the fight.All three movies are enjoyable, although not as good as the original Battles Without Honor and Humanity releases. They all featured Fukasaku’s theme that the Yakuza were not an honorable group as they were often portrayed in other films. Instead they were greedy, petty, and would turn on each other for a minute for status and money. That led to constant fights and violence which was portrayed in a bloody fashion by Fukasaku.

I really enjoyed the series on prime. Now I wanted to buy the whole set for myself on BD, so I bought all 5. Great quality & sound! Cool thing that I overlooked was that each BD also has a SD DVD. Nice! It's Well worth it! With each disc there are different interviews. Arrow did a great job!

what I liked most about Battles without honor and humanity was seeing Bunta Sugawara back as lead role in all three films I liked the Yakuza papers better but I still think it deserves a five star rating.

Good!

A cult item at best in the U.S., the five films that make up director Kinji Fukasaku's Battles Without Honor and Humanity series were a big success in their native Japan, using a ripped from the headlines approach to the yakuza genre and establishing star Bunta Sugawara as a template for the ice-cold gangster emerging unscathed (mostly) from the constant internal power struggles. In fact, the series was so successful that Toei studios kicked off another round of films just a few months later. Fukasaku's New Battles Without Honor and Humanity aren't direct sequels, but star many of the same actors - including Sugawara - in roles similar enough that they're sequels in spirit...if not quite as spirited as the originals.The first film, given the masthead title New Battles Without Honor and Humanity, is the most complex in scope, following Miyoshi (Sugawara) upon his release from prison after a failed hit on a rival boss. Aoki, an ambitious gang member pushing his cowardly boss towards retirement, uses Miyoshi as leverage to take control of the family. Caught in the middle of conflicting loyalties and old grudges, Miyoshi steers his way through the dangerous waters, masking his true intentions until the time is right to make his move.The Boss's Head is a replay of the same formula: Kuroda (Sugawara) takes the fall for a hit that was supposed to be carried out by Kusunoki, the drug-addicted son-in-law of the big boss. After his release from prison, Kuroda expects a big payday for his trouble, but is instead stuck in yet another power struggle as rival gang members jostle for control of the family. The logical choice, Aihara, is passed over in favor of the less charismatic Izeki, but his caves under the pressure and agrees to have Kuroda exiled in shame. Hungry for revenge, Kuroda wages war behind the scenes to ensure Aihara will never make it to the top of the food chain.The Boss's Last Days is the most accessible of the new trilogy, sticking to a straight-up revenge story from the get-go as Nozaki (Sugawara, again) attempts to honor the murder of his paternal boss by taking out the man who ordered the hit. Unfortunately, both organizations have made amends - banning any hit on bosses - and any action by Nozaki would threaten the fragile truce. Choosing honor above business, Nozaki severs ties with the family and plots to throw the entire crime organization of Japan into disarray.Shot with Fukasaku's signature chaotic style, the action scenes in New Battles Without Honor and Humanity are, for the most part, retreads of what he's done before. That doesn't make them any less enjoyable, particularly in the final film of the new trilogy, which never takes its foot off the gas from frame one. Stabbings, shootings, eye gouges, bombings, car crashes, and riotous hand-to-hand combat compete for your attention. And Sugawara presides over it all with an imperturbable expression of immaculate cool.Unfortunately, the internal gangland bickering makes for a repetitive narrative structure. It's hard to keep pace with the constant barrage of names and places, not to mention an endless string of subtitles (the first film is by far the most talky). But the series improves with each entry, adding a few interesting female characters (including Mexico Kaji in The Boss's Head) that provide a pleasant distraction from the monotonously male yakuza perspective. By the time Fukasaku gets around to the final film, The Boss's Last Days, the balance has shifted from a historical profile of the Japanese Mafia to a straight-up action film with some incest thrown in for good measure...and the series is all the better for it.Arrow Video's six-disc set follows up their now sold out collection of the original series. But don't worry about going in cold; the films each stand on their own and come with a nice slate of supporting extras including interviews with Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane, screenwriter Koji Takada, original trailers and an illustrated collector's book with new writing on the films. As for the hi-def transfers themselves (matching DVDs are also included), the image on all three films is rock-solid with just a bit of color fading that only adds to the atmosphere. By Japanese film standards (and collector's know the challenge presented there) these all look terrific!

2 years ago Arrow video released the original Battles Without Honour and Humanity (huge) boxset. Which in my opinion one of the best released from Arrow.Now, this year Arrow video just released another three addition of Kinji Fukasaku's Battles Saga.This New Battles Without Honour and Humanity: The complete boxset include the 3 movies from 1974-1976 (6 discs BD+DVD ofcause the BD actually Region Free!). And 58 page booklet which not thick like the hard cover booklet of the first boxset. But the essay writing still good informative.The package still the same quality like the original Battles boxset.Overall if you a fan of Kinji Fukasaku's Battles Without Honour and Humanity it's have no reason you don't buy this New Battles boxset.This is another great released of this year from Arrow video.Highly recommended👍

Awesome 10/10

piaciuto tantissimo, ha soddisfatto a pieno le aspettative

Great movie