Review of Graveyard Of Honour

Introduction

Ishikawa is a yakuza on the bottom of the food chain and has grand ambition. After attacking his own Godfather he`s banished from Tokyo for 10 years but this isn`t enough to keep Ishikawa from coming back to challenge his former Godfather. He wants to start his own "family" and will do anything he can to rise to power.

Video

Presented with a 2.25:1 anamorphic transfer, the quality of Graveyard Of Honour is marginally better than previous Eureka/Fukasaku releases, though still retains grain, dirt and those 70s fashions with a muted palette. Don`t let this put you off though, since Fukasaku`s trademark camerawork is enough to hold your attention to forgive the quality of the source print.

Audio

Just a mono Japanese Dolby Digital soundtrack. It sounds clear for the most part, but sometimes the screaming and gun shots can sound a little harsh.

Features

Easy to navigate static menus with just a couple of extras:

• Director`s Profile (static pages)- This seems to be the stock bio that`s been added to other Eureka/Fukasaku DVDs. The filmography runs from Furaibo Tantei: Akai Tan No Sangeki (1961) through to Battle Royale (2000). If you`ve already read it once on other Fukusaku DVDs, you`re not going to gleen anything new from here.

• Photo Gallery - A mixture of 16 black & white and colour stills taken from the film. Since there`s no likelihood of any other Graveyard Of Honour extra anywhere, a photo gallery isn`t a bad idea. But why just take stills from the film itself? There`s nothing really dramatic or stylish about it. It`s plain average.

The English subtitles read well.

Conclusion

It`s an interesting character study of a gangster`s downward spiral and self-destruction. The character of Ishikawa (Junko Fuji) is relentless and incredibly violent with little conscience or guilt for the consequence of his actions. It`s this and the amount of unprovoked attack and rape that I find somewhat disturbing. Ishikawa doesn`t seem to talk much of his aspirations to run a "family" and instead just wants to take from others and he doesn`t care how he does it. Watching him destroy himself and others around him doesn`t make it easy on us and you wonder how he could possibly achieve and redeem himself. If you`ve seen Fukasaku`s other films, you`ll have an idea of the degree of pain delivered on screen here.

The story takes place over many years with the aid of onscreen captions but I have to admit that I didn`t like this element simply because I found it difficult to commit to memory. Rather than having an exact date to memorise in order to keep pace with the story, I would have preferred a, "2 years later", caption because believe me, unless you understand Japanese, there`s going to be a lot to read and remember what with all the Japanese names too! It`s one small element however and doesn`t serve to spoil the overall film.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Graveyard Of Honour, though be warned, those of you with a slight nervous disposition to violence, blood and drug use might steer clear. But those of you that like films with gangsters and a lot of bloodshed together with a different perspective on Japanese life, might well want to check this out. Worth seeing.