Blu-ray Film Review | Radiance

Japan Organized Crime Boss (1969) • Limited Edition Blu-ray [Radiance] — seminal yakuza crime drama could be better

A gangster, released from prison, seeks a quiet life… but after his boss dies, he’s forced to lead his gang.

Director Kinji Fukasaku is finally attracting the international interest he richly deserves as one of Japan’s most important auteurs. Until a recent rash of Blu-ray releases — like this 4K restoration from Radiance, overseen by Toei Studios — he’d been generally known only as the director of Battle Royale (2000), the movie that heralded the Asia Extreme genre. But that was his final feature in a long and hugely influential filmography that includes zany science fiction like Message from Space (1978), the gorgeous period piece The Fall of Akō Castle (1978), and some classic chanbara fantasy such as Samurai Reincarnation (1981).

Among his 70 or so film credits, one genre dominates: the jitsuroku eiga or “actual record films” based on real events from the gangland world of the yakuza. Fukasaku’s notorious…