Yakuza (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Yakuza |
| Original title | The yakuza |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English , Japanese |
| Publishing year | 1974 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sydney Pollack |
| script |
Paul Schrader Leonard Schrader Robert Towne |
| production | Sydney Pollack Michael Hamilburg Koji Shundo Tim Bevan |
| music | Dave Grusin |
| camera | Kōzō Okazaki (as Okazaki Kozo ) |
| cut |
Don Guidice Thomas Stanford Fredric Steinkamp |
| occupation | |
| |
Yakuza is a thriller by Sydney Pollack from the year 1974 . Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura can be seen in the leading roles .
action
Private detective and former MP Harry Kilmer is asked for help by his old friend and comrade in the Navy, George Tanner. Tanner is involved in illegal dealings with a yakuza gangster, Tono, who is holding his daughter and boyfriend hostage after a gun deal has broken. Tanner hopes that Kilmer can mediate due to his old contacts as a military policeman in occupied Tokyo . He initially conceals from Kilmer that the business is illegal. Kilmer was dating Eiko at the time. When her daughter fell ill, Kilmer helped Eiko get penicillin for the child, saving her life. After living together for a few years, Eiko's supposed brother Ken, whom she previously thought was dead, returns from the Philippine mountains, where he survived the end of the war as a Japanese soldier. Outraged that his sister was living with his former enemy, but also deeply indebted to Kilmer for saving his sister and niece, he disappeared into the criminal underground of the yakuza and refused to see or speak to them. Kilmer asked Eiko again and again if she would like to marry him, which she consistently refused. Kilmer later returned to the United States. As a parting gift, Kilmer Eiko bought a bar (for five thousand dollars, on loan from George Tanner) that she still runs to this day.
Kilmer is now flying to Tokyo with Tanner's bodyguard Dusty. They find shelter with another war comrade who stayed in Japan, Oliver Wheat. Kilmer visits Eiko in her bar, which she calls Kilmer House. Eiko reports to Kilmer that he will find her brother in his kendo school. Ken is still committed to Kilmer. The Japanese term for this is Giri, which describes a lifelong debt that traditionally can never be repaid.
Kilmer hopes to convince Ken to use his yakuza contacts to free the hostages. However, Ken is no longer a yakuza member. Ken's animosity towards Kilmer is clear, but together they find and free the girl and her boyfriend.
This is an unforgivable intrusion into yakuza affairs by Ken. Now Ken and Kilmer have to fear for their lives. Eiko advises Kilmer to speak to Ken's brother, Goro, a senior Yakuza legal advisor. Kilmer's only way out of the situation to help Ken is to kill Tono.
After a failed assassination attempt on Kilmer's life in a bathhouse, he learns that his client Tanner and Tono are actually close business partners. In another attack on Ken and Kilmer in Oliver Wheat's house, Dusty is killed and Eiko's daughter Hanako is accidentally fatally injured.
Kilmer again seeks advice from Ken's brother Goro. He explains that they have no choice but to kill Tanner and Tono. This is the only way Ken can regain the honor of being a Yakuza boss. Goro reveals that his "stubborn son" is a member of the Tono Clan and asks that Ken should spare him. Ken promises that he won't harm the son. Goro reveals another family secret to Kilmer: Eiko is not Ken's sister, she is his wife, and Hanako was their only child. Kilmer now realizes the true meaning of Eiko and Ken's relationship, as well as Ken's reaction to Hanako's death. All of this happened through his presence in the lives of others.
Kilmer finds and kills Tanner, then joins Ken in a near-suicidal attack on Tono's property. During a bitter fight in which Ken kills Tono in the traditional way with a katana , Goro's son attacks Ken, who is forced to kill him in self-defense. He later reports this to his brother and Ken wants to commit seppuku , but his brother forbids it. Instead, Ken performs Yubitsume (the solemn yakuza apology by cutting off a limb of the little finger).
Kilmer is now driving to the airport in a taxi to leave Japan. He is visibly worried and decides to turn around again to visit Ken one last time and asks him for an interview. While Ken is making tea, Kilmer now also celebrates Yubitsume. When Ken enters the room, Kilmer asks him to take a seat and slips his severed finger in a folded handkerchief with the words: "Please take this as a token of my apology," the same words that Ken had addressed to Goro because he killed his son. Kilmer also apologizes for bringing great suffering into Ken's life, both past and present. He humbly asks for forgiveness. Ken accepts the apology and confesses that no one has a greater friend than Kilmer-san.
backgrounds
Warner Bros. paid Paul Schrader and his brother Leonard the record sum of US $ 325,000.00 for their debut screenplay. It was later revised by Robert Towne at Pollack's request .
Even Martin Scorsese was interested in the material, the producer was not known enough. Robert Aldrich wanted to make the film with Lee Marvin in the lead role. When Marvin got out and was replaced by Robert Mitchum, he also made sure that Aldrich left. In his place came Sydney Pollack, who briefly wondered whether Robert Redford would be better suited than Robert Mitchum for the part of Harry Kilmer. Ultimately, Robert Mitchum stayed.
criticism
The lexicon of international film judged that the production was an "excellently cast, complex and suggestive film of extraordinary visual power".