Disc Reviews

Cops vs Thugs (1975) DVD Review

• 21st May 2017

Released soon by Arrow Video is the box-set Battles Without Honor and Humanity trilogy. Cops vs Thugs (1975) was made by the same director, Kinji Fukusaku and exploits similar genre themes. This is an in your face violent crime film that has a similar feel to it as the seediest of US or Hollywood police corruption films as the lines between corrupt cops, and in the case of this film yakuza become very blurred indeed. The plot is a familiar and simple one. The films opens with a cop, we are not clearly aware of this at the beginning, who stops a car near the docks. He brutalises the occupants and steals one of their lighter’s before sending them on their way. The cop is Kuno (Bunta Sugawara), a tough guy who while working for yakuza mobsters at the very least understands their necessity as he sees it. One gang, the Kawade work with Kuno and have political connections. A friendship and mutual respect develops between the cop and a gangster. When a raid by a rival gang, the Oharu’s takes place a gang war breaks out with Kuno in the middle. Matters become dangerous when a new tough career cop arrives at the department and puts his foot down and attempts to defeat corruption aware that Kuno is a problem.

This is a simple violent cop that is intelligently directed by Kinji Fukasaku, a genre director (who is perhaps best known directed the Japanese scenes in Tora! Tora! Tora!, 1970) who was arguably the best known of Japan’s genre yazuza filmmakers. He gets up close and personal with the violent action that, though set in 1963 looks disctinctly 70s even after the film tells us at the beginning that it is based on a true story. The action is so realistic that in one scene in which the police are beating up one of the cocky punk gangsters, played by Takuzo Kawatani that the actor wanted the violence look real and requested that he actually be beat up for real. It does indeed look realistic. Fukasaku was a master of these types of films and would also go on to direct Yakuza Graveyard (1976), Doberman Detective (1977) (also soon set to be released by Arrow) and has last two films, the Battle Royale films starring an actor who would be the young pretender to these types of films, Takeshi Kitano.

The title is not so much aout the cops versus the thugs but instead asks who is worse: the cops or the thugs? It is a genre film for genre fans and for fans of these kind of films Arrow Video have to be praised for putting the film in the spotlight and to make cult as they roll out other films by Fukasaku. There are some good extras on the disc including an interview with the director’s biographer, Sadao Yamane and a visual essay by Tom Mes.

Chris Hick