BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY: PROXY WAR [BLU-RAY + DVD]

Details

• Release Year: 1973
• Genre: Action, Drama
• Plot: Moving beyond the true stories dramatized in the first two episodes of the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series, director Kinji Fukasaku and screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara embark on their most complex narrative yet in Proxy War, a multi-character web of alliances and betrayals set against the economic growth of Japan as it prepares to host the 1964 Olympic games.; ; 1960. A power vacuum is formed within the Muraoka family when underboss Uchimoto (Takeshi Katô) refuses to avenge the assassination of a superior. With the help of series hero Shôzô Hirono (Bunts Sugawara), Uchimoto pledges loyalty to the powerful Akashi gang, but is soon expelled from the Muraoka for the act. Meanwhile, Akashi rivals the Shinwa Group form their own pact with Muraoka, and the enmity between the two gangs threatens to erupt into bloody violence across all of western Japan.; ; The labyrinthine plotline of Proxy War—which continues in episode four, Police Tactics—approaches pure Jacobean drama as power players, kingmakers, and petty soldiers clash weapons and words in a stylized ritual of alliances and betrayals. Considered by many critics to be the best episode of the series, Proxy War is complex crime drama of the highest order.;
• Cast: Bunta Sugawara, Akira Kobayashi, Tsunehiko Watase, Shingo Yamashiro, Reiko Ike, Mitsue Horikoshi, Hideko Nakamura, Nobuo Kaneko, Toshie Kimura, Mikio Narita, Takeshi Katô, Rin'ichi Yamamoto, Takuzô Kawatani, Eizô Kitamura, Akira Shioji, Asao Uchida, Tatsuo Endô, Hideo Murota, Yoshihiro Igarashi, Gorô Ôki, Hitoshi Ômae, Takashi Noguchi, Harumi Sone, Sen Okaji, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Tadashi Naruse, Hiroshi Nawa, Kuniomi Kitani, Shinji Oda, Noriko Ôta, Hideo Shimada, Tetsu Sakai, Kunie Tanaka, Tetsurô Tanba, Tatsuo Umemiya, Kinji Fukasaku, Koichi Iiboshi, Kazuo Kasahara, Gorô Kusakabe, Sadaji Yoshida, Kôzô Horiike, Toshiaki Tsushima, Hiroo Nozu, Yoshimitsu Amamori
• Director: Kinji Fukasaku
• Runtime: 1:42
• Company: Toei Company, Ltd., Arrow Films
• Media Format: Movie