Burai: Barase

The sixth film in the "Outlaw" series is apparently the most obscure -- IMDb has no idea who made this movie, and if it were not for the new Arrow Video release, it would remain completely unheard of. Hopefully this release brings more people looking at the film, because it seems there should be classes studying this.

Arrow Video is arguably the greatest thing to happen to cult film since... ever. There are many boutique companies out there, but it seems that they either focus on horror (which is great) or foreign classics (which is great). This leaves a huge amount of material untouched -- what about all the genre films that are not classics or horror? What makes this film stand out from the other five in the series is the rock music scene -- who knew about Japanese music in the 1960s? Apparently it was every bit as trippy and psychedelic as in American and England. Maybe there could have been a Japanese Invasion... though I suppose most people like to at least pretend they understand the lyrics.

This film essentially begins with an assassination attempt on the leader of the yakuza organization known as the Iriezaki Clan by three members of the rival Toyu Clan. Although the attack fails, the leader "Matsunaga" (Michitaro Mizushima) is charged with murder and sent to prison for 7 years. Recognizing an opportunity when he sees one, "Kenwachi" (Fujio Suga) the head of the Toyu Clan, decides to send his goons into Iriezaki Clan territory and take over the entire area. It's during this time that an unaffiliated yakuza gangster by the name of "Goro Fujikawa" (Tetsuya Watari) just happens to walk into town and notices a young elevator woman named "Yumiko Asano" (Chieko Matsubara) being hassled by several members of the Toyo Clan. Fortunately for the young hoodlums involved, a veteran gangster recognizes Goro and warns them to back off. Yet, even though Goro has no intention of getting involved in a war between the two rival clans, events transpire that eventually draws him into the conflict--with devastating consequences for everyone involved. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, although it followed the same patterns as its predecessors, it still had a few twists and turns to keep things interesting. Likewise, Tetsuya Watari performed in his usual solid manner as did Chieko Matsubara as well. In short, although this last addition to the Outlaw-Gangster series isn't necessarily the best of the bunch, it was good enough for the time spent and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.