Sympathy for the Underdog
directed by Kinji Fukasaku
starring Koji Tsuruta, Tomisaburô Wakayama
Radiance Films
While the film isn’t as stylized or cool as something like Tokyo Drifter or Youth of the Beast, there are few Yakuza films with a gang as cool as the Hamamura gang in Sympathy for the Underdog, the 9th of 10 very loosely connected “Gambler” films.
After a decade in prison, underboss Masuo Gunji is reunited with the remnants of his gang. Realizing that his time away has stripped him and his men of their power and position in Yokohama, they decide to head to the American controlled island of Okinawa with the intention of taking over some territory and rebuilding their reputations. The country bumpkins aren’t quite the pushovers Gunji assumed, and his gang has to fight hard for their piece of the action. They do manage to carve their niche on the island, but soon the mainland gangs have their sights set on Okinawa, and the Hamamura gang realize that their time has passed and they must choose their own destiny.
Director Kinji Fukasaku eschews much of the intricate lore that usually populates Yakuza films and instead opts for a more straightforward storytelling approach more common in American films. The goals of the gang are laid out simply, so everyone knows from the jump what they are trying to accomplish. One of the difficulties with the genre for western audiences is often how to follow the plot and relationships between the characters. When stoicism is such an important character trait, no one will break the code for some exposition. Sympathy for the Underdog changes that, and from the opening scenes, uses a bit of narration to let everyone know the players and the stakes. Just as the out of retirement gangsters in Sympathy for the Underdog are trying to make sense of the new world that awaits them in Okinawa, the film can also be seen as the genre trying to find its footing in a revolutionary time, both politically and artistically, across the globe.
Although continuing the tropes and style of the Yakuza film, Fukasaku is clearly inspired by the “New Hollywood’’ movement happening in the US, especially the work of Sam Peckinpah in his classic The Wild Bunch, which, like Sympathy…, is about a group of men who are watching time pass them by and deciding to go out the way they always lived, on their own terms. Ultimately, once all the plot is out of the way, it is time for the violence and action to shine. The violence is brutal and kinetic, but because of Fukasaku’s expert direction and editing, it devolves into visual chaos.
Sympathy for the Underdog makes its Blu-ray debut from Radiance Films. The disc features an audio commentary by Yakuza film expert Nathan Stuart and other supplements from Aaron Gerow and Olivier Hadouchi. Radiance founder Fran Simeoni continues to do amazing work in unearthing and releasing forgotten and neglected global film treasures.
