Hokuriku Proxy War Blu-ray Review

Radiance Films

Blu-ray Release: February 25, 2025

Video: 2.35:1/1080p/Color

Audio: Japanese LPCM 2.0 Mono

Subtitles: English

Run Time: 98:03

Director: Kinji Fukasaku

Loose-cannon gangster Kawada (Hiroki Matsukata) rebels when his two-timing boss forms an alliance with a major crime syndicate. The syndicate's main rivals see Kawada as their perfect proxy, but his furious temper quickly rubs them the wrong way, leaving Kawada to face overwhelming forces. (From Radiance’s official synopsis)

In 1973 and 1974, already more than a decade into his directing career, Kinji Fukasaku made a groundbreaking, five-part gangster epic known as Battles without Honor and Humanity (1973-74). After the series was finished and the box office receipts were counted, Fukasaku was typecast at Toei Studios as the champion of yakuza (aka: jitsuroku) drama, action, and violence, ensuring that his next nine movies were yakuza or yakuza-adjacent crime tales, including a New Battles without Honor and Humanity trilogy (Japanese: Shin Jinginaki tatakai, 1974-76), Graveyard of Honor (Japanese: Jingi no hakaba, 1975), and Yakuza Graveyard (Japanese: Yakuza no Hakaba: Kuchinashi no Hana, 1976).

Hokuriku Proxy War (Japanese: Hokuriku dairi sensô, 1977) was the last film in the ‘true-account’ line. He made one more street-level crime thriller, Doberman Cop (Japanese: Doberuman deka, 1977), then switched gears for the next decade, making science fiction films, romantic dramas, contemporary comedies, and chanbara epics. It doesn’t feel like a grand finale that ties together his favorite themes with a bow, but it is brimming with actor cameos and takes some pains to set itself apart, first by transferring the action from decaying city streets to a snowy, rural Hokkaido setting. Snow was a popular backdrop for samurai movies and other jidaigeki, but yakuza movies were urban by design, so not many of them are beset by any element other than rain and fog.

Fukasaku was always competing with himself in terms of shock value and, while he couldn’t really push his frenetic, hand-held camera work any further beyond the pale, he did get creative with the violence this time around. He and screenwriter Kōji Takada drew inspiration in true yakuza archives, as they had in the past (despite the opening title card assuring us that this is a work of fiction), starting with the opening set-piece, in which a usurped mob boss is buried up to his neck in the snow and nearly beheaded by the wheels of a speeding jeep. Other highlights – some of which Takada also claims were based on true stories – include the inciting event, where Kawada escapes a shoot-out, only to be nearly killed in a frantic sword fight, a character attempting to bite off his own finger to avoid retribution (he still has his hand hacked off), Kawada crushing an enemy’s car with an excavator, and a splattery finale that delivers on the threat of the opening sequence.

The narrative is as relentless as ever, endlessly whisking us from one clan meeting to the next as dozens of characters shout exposition, revealing double crosses within double crosses and setting up the next hit. As per usual, I struggled to match pace, but enjoyed the ride and was able to follow all of the important plot points. Sonny Chiba steals a few scenes as a greasily charismatic antagonist, but lead Hiroki Matsukata holds center stage with a huge arch that drives him from adolescent thug to romantic lead, unstoppable force, humbled victim, and, eventually, strategic mastermind. Yumiko Nogawa and especially Yôko Takahashi (no relation to the pop star that sang the theme to Neon Genesis Evangelion) are also good as sisters and love interests with diametrically opposed personalities. 

Bibliography

• Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film by Chris D., including Fukasaku interview (IB Taurus, 2005)

Video

Hokuriku Proxy War has never been available officially on English-friendly home video. Fukasaku’s fans either had to know/learn Japanese or find a bootleg copy with fan subs. Radiance’s new 2.35:1, 1080p transfer is, in keeping with other Radiance and Arrow Toei discs, supplied directly by Toei themselves. The image can be rough in deference to Fukasaku’s rough, seat-of-the-pants filmmaking style, including lens effects, blur, and inconsistent focus, but the overall quality is consistent. Clean highlights and deep blacks help differentiate details in messy, dark wide shots. Grain appears mostly natural, other textures are clear, and the muted palette is nicely reproduced.

Audio

Hokuriku Proxy War is presented in its original Japanese mono and uncompressed LPCM sound. The track has minor issues attributed to its single channel origins being a bit cramped at times, but, besides a bit of muffling and tinniness, everything is about as clean and crisp as we can expect from a film of this vintage. Frequent Fukasaku collaborator Toshiaki Tsushima’s jazzy, rock-infused music (very reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s hardboiled crime scores) sounds great, assuming it’s not being overwhelmed by the mostly incidental sound effects.

Extras

• Interview with Yôko Takahashi (15:51, HD) – The actress discusses making the film, her character, some of the more intense scenes, and working with Fukasaku and co-star Matsukata.

• Interview with Kōji Takada (18:42, HD) – The screenwriter looks back on the social scene of the era, literary inspirations, his multiple collaborations with Fukasaku, the true story that inspired the film, and real gangsters’ reactions to his work.

• The Hokuriku Proxy War Case (14:36, HD) – Yakuza film historian and author Akihiko Ito rounds things out talking about the real-life events that inspired the film and the Hokuriku Proxy War murder case that followed, in which the boss that Kawada was based on was assassinated on one of the film’s locations.

• Theatrical trailer

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