Violent Streets

Founded in 2002 as one of the first-ever subscriptionfilmservices with its DVD-of-the-MonthFilmClub,FilmMovementis now a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreignfilmsbased in New York City. In 2015,FilmMovementlaunched the reissue labelFilmMovementClassics featuring new restorations released theatrically as well as on home video, with an emphasis onfilmsby auteur directors such as Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway and Takeshi Kitano.

After making his name in the samurai genre, master filmmaker Hideo Gosha (THREE OUTLAW SAMURAI, SAMURAI WOLF) turned his camera to the world of the yakuza, and the violent streets they control. Legendary gangster-turned-actor Noboru Ando plays Egawa, a retired yakuza underboss, now nightclub owner, who gets pulled back into the life when his old comrades demand control of his club. Meanwhile, a gang war quietly roiling behind the scenes erupts into open violence in response to a high-profile kidnapping, lending unimaginably high stakes to Egawa’s reemergence onto the yakuza scene. The result is a kinetic and stylish explosion of deception, mayhem, and death that leaves no one safe – and a masterpiece of 1970’s yakuza cinema.

directed by:Hideo Gosha
starring:Noboru And, Akira Kobayashi, Isao Natsuyagi, Bunta Sugawara, Tetsur Tanba
1974 / 96 min / 2.35:1 / Japanese Mono

Additional info:

• Region A Blu-ray
• Tattooed Director: Hideo Gosha featurette with Tomoe Gosha
• A Street That Cant Be Beat video essay by TokyoScope author Patrick Macias
• 16-page booklet with a new essay by Japanese film expert Mark Schilling
• English subtitles