FANTASIA: GANGSTER VIP Review

Watari - a bona fide movie star who oozes charisma from the screen - stars as Goro, an orphan who grew up hard on the streets of Tokyo in the post-war years.  After a stint in reformatory Goro did what many young men with no legitimate prospects did in those days and joined a yakuza gang, not because he’s violent or cruel by nature - though he’s certainly adept at violence when the situation calls for it - but because it was the only way for him to eat.  Once in the gang Goro was bound by his own code of honor to remain in the gang and the action picks up one fateful day when he learns of a plot to kill his boss.  Goro rushes to the scene and finds his friend and ‘brother’ from reformatory days as the would be assassin.  Goro intervenes, the boss survives but both killer and protector are gravely wounded and both are packed off to prison.

Three years later Goro emerges from jail, believing his debt to the gang is now paid he simply wants to be reunited with the girl who promised to wait for him but life is rarely that easy.  Impatient, she has gone and married someone else while Goro was away.  Intervening to save a young country girl from an assault on the street puts Goro back in the path of his old gang enemies, while a visit to his old boss makes it clear that his old gang has fallen on hard times and is in need of his help. And just like that, mere hours after his release, Goro is back into the life.

In tone Gangster VIP is much closer to a traditional Japanese action / yakuza film than the vast majority of the Nikkatsu Action titles.  Unlike most films of the genre in which the gangsters are variations on European and American types these gangsters are true, dyed in the wool yakuza.  What makes the film distinct, however, is its approach to its characters and story.  There’s a romantic subplot running through the picture, one laced with a gentle comedy that you wouldn’t find in a typical yakuza film, while its heroes are layered with regret and conflicted loyalties.  It’s a film played close enough to genre convention to be familiar and comforting with just enough variation to remain fresh and vital and surprising.  Watari delivers a stunning performance, worlds apart from his equally impressive turn as the carefree, whistling hitman of Velvet Hustler and the film ends with a simply stunning finale that plays out against the sounds of the nightclub act where it is set.

While deals for a number of these Nikkatsu Action films have been signed recently or are in the works now Gangster VIP is, reportedly, not one of the titles that will be seeing release here so far, and that is truly a shame.  It’s a fantastic piece of work, every bit as vital now as when it was made, and it fully deserves the chance to find a larger audience.