Violent Streets - Blu-ray Review

Michael Scott

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Violent Streets


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Movie: :4.5stars:
Video: :4stars:
Audio: :3stars:
Extras: :2stars:
Final Score: :4stars:




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Movie

There’s a plethora of gangster movies out there, but the top 3 are usually regarded as Infernal Affairs, The Departed (which is a remake of Infernal Affairs) and Hideo Gosha’s Violent Streets. Gosha got his start with making Samurai flicks during the 90s, but branched out making his magnum Opus in 1974 with the hyper violent and gritty Violent Streets. Long seen as not only Gosha’s best work, but probably one of THE best gangster movies of all times, Violent Streets is a beautiful mess of gritty yakuza mobsters, honor, sleazy nudity, and brutal bloody violence that just makes this one of a kind for it’s time (and in this time period as well).

Bloody and sleazy in equal parts, Violent Streets revolves around a brewing gang war where an ex Yakuza member named Egawa (played by Noboru Ando, who was an actual Yakuza member before turning to film) is caught in the middle. It all starts with the kidnapping of Minami, a Yakuza backed night club singer with ties to the Togiku Group (a Yakuza group that has since gone “straight” in the business world), only for things to get nasty when the Togiku group falls back into their old ways and retaliates, filling the streets with blood as they hunt down whoever took their singer.

The awkward kidnappers accidentally end of killing Minami before the exchange of money can go down, which in turn enrages the Togiku mobsters even more, and turns what would have been a simple story of revenge into a blood bath, with all lines going back to Egawa. Simultaneously Egawa just wants to be left alone. He’s an ex Yakuza who was given a bar known as the “Madrid” as his severance package for years of faithful service, and now he’s caught in the middle of this mob war, as well as being forced out by the head of Togiku who wants to use his bar as a way to satiate some of the other Yakuza families. With leads in the Minami case strangely leading back to his own house, Egawa is forced to take up arms and go back into the lifestyle once more in order to save what’s left of his falling house of cards.

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Violent Streets is a freaking masterpiece of blood, gore, bitter back stabbing Yakuza members, and sleazy underground salaciousness. To date the only version out on Blu-ray is a foreign release, but sadly it was the cut version of the film. Film Movement has gone back to the original negatives and restored the film from the original printing, AND giving us the 96 minute uncut version, which is the distinctly superior cut as well.

Gosha likes to play with genre tropes, with a myriad spider web of back tracking, double crossing, and some rather cool twists that play things towards a brutal and shocking finale. It’s unflinchingly gritty and dirty, with very few characters in the entire thing who show even a hint of being a “good guy”. Simply put, Violent Streets (the uncut version), is a fantastic film that any lover of gangster flicks NEEDS in their collection.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video: :4.5stars:
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Looking 100% like a 1970s low budget film, Violent Streets breaks onto Blu-ray courtesy of Film Movement with a brand new 2K restoration of the film elements, and while the movie is not going to scream jaw dropping visuals, it certainly looks amazing compared to how I’ve seen it on 35mm and DVD. The film is rather soft, with slightly underwhelming detail levels and some odd yellow parchment colored timing. Still, the film shows no real major signs of damage or debris, and the film grain remains natural and organic looking. There’s no ringing, haloing, crush or other major artifacts to note, and the 1974 Yakuza film is light years better than my nearly 20 year old DVD by a good margin.









Audio: :3.5stars:
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The 2.0 Mono LPCM track is a bit rougher than expected, with distortion on some of the vocals, and the score sounding a bit thing and faded. Most things are handled admirably though, with the light jazz score coming through nicely. For the most part, things come through with plenty of fidelity and make the track more than reasonable to listen to. Solid, but not great, which is kind of to be expected considering these 70s Yakuza flicks weren’t recorded on the highest end of equipment.












Extras: :2stars:
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NEW 2K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
• Tattooed Director: Hideo Gosha featurette with Tomoe Gosha
• A Street That Can't Be Beat - video essay by TokyoScope author Patrick Macias
• 16-page booklet with a new essay by Japanese film expert Mark Schilling
















Final Score: :4stars:


Violent Streets is probably THE quintessential Yakuza flick out there, and probably Hideo Gosha’s coup de gras as well. The Blu-ray is easily the film has ever looked, and there’s some decent minor extras included as well. All in all, this is a great cult classic film and even better considering that this is the 96 minute uncut version (the Eureka version was cut sadly), making this a must own for classic gangster film lovers. Highly recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Noboru Ando, Isao Natsuyagi, Akira Kobayashi, Bunt Sugawara
Directed by: Hideo Gosha
Written by: Hideo Gosha, Masahiro Kakefuda, Nobuaki Nakajima
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Japanese: LPCM 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English
Studio: Film Movement
Rated: NR
Runtime: 96 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: May 23rd, 2023
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Recommendation: Highly Recommended

 
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