Viewed on DVD. Director Kinji Fukasaku and his confederates have created a modern, mythical "Japanese Wild West." The film (with most exteriors shot along the South Western coast of Honshu) strings action scenes together like pearls on a strand. Unfortunately, most of these are made of paste and repetitious nonsense. This overly-long, action movie essentially goes pretty much nowhere (plot development is rather minimal) beyond purporting to be a slice of (multidimensional, criminal) life. Most character types wear two hats with one always being gang membership (thugs also wear two, since they may belong to multiple gangs and/or be of different generations): local cops; area Prefecture (State) cops; police detectives; councilmen; the mayor etc.; "good" criminals; "bad" criminals; hostesses; lawyers; etc. Cops and thugs share the same offices, restaurant gatherings, and prostitutes as well as drive the same (mostly police) cars. Intramural and in-group fighting is an ongoing process, of course, so there are many (often similar) scenes of shouting, fisticuffs, car ramming, and shootings (plus a few that are nude to break up the monotony). The Director also throws a land swindle or two into the mix (and tosses around some big-league corporate names that would seem to be grounds for libel suites!). Actors appear to strain to provide varied performances, but the repetitious nature of the script and direction yields a fair amount of ham. Line readings, though, are often delivered with great Kansai-Ben accents (performers can really "roll those R's"!). Cinematography (wide screen, color) is okay, but a bit hazy (over filtered?) which reduces image sharpness (however, this may be the result of using "good enough" original source material for disc release) . Subtitles are sometimes too long for such short flash rates. Translations also need to use different colors when the dialogue overlaps between characters. Music is good. Interior set decoration is rather spare. A light-weight time killer. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Review of Cops vs. Thugs
