Violent Streets

Directed by Hideo Gosha
Film Movement Classics
1974
96 Minutes
Japan
Japanese
Action, Crime, Classics, Drama, Asian
Not Rated
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Blu-ray
$29.95 Members
$39.95 Non-Members
DVD
$24.95 Members
$34.95 Non-Members

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.

Cast

  • Noboru Andô
  • Akira Kobayashi
  • Isao Natsuyagi
  • Bunta Sugawara
  • Tetsurô Tanba
DVD Features

BONUS FEATURES:

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

Discs: 1

Blu-ray Features

BONUS FEATURES:
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

Discs: 1

  • Highest Rating
    "Violent Streets is one of the wildest, bloodiest and most visually stunning Yakuza yarns ever made. Violent Streets is a masterpiece, plain and simple. One of Gosha's best (just maybe his very best) and one of the crowning achievements in Japan's Yakuza cycle of the 70s. A must see."
    Films from the Far Reaches
  • Highest Rating
    "VIOLENT STREETS is a lean and mean yakuza exploitation picture that plays with a lot of genre tropes – e.g., rival groups, old ways versus young guns, etc. – all capped off by a deeply fatalistic streak. "
    Matt Spry, Death Ray Dive
  • Highest Rating
    "Violent Streets boasts engrossing performances, taut direction, double-crosses galore, eye-popping visuals, and plenty of offbeat moments."
    Joseph Perry, When It Was Cool
  • Highest Rating
    "Violent Streets is one of the most refreshing yakuza films and one of the strongest films in Hideo Gosha’s oeuvre. Every single moment of the film just feels kinetic, from the moments in Ando’s nightclub to the Halloween costume money handoff, there’s just something about Violent Streets that feels electrifying. "
    Ruben Rosario, Film Monthly

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