“Osaka Badass: Snake of Violence” Japanese DVD Cover

Director: Takahiro Ishihara
Writer: Takahiro Ishihara
Cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Maya Fukuzawa, Rikiya Kaido, Takashi Nishina, Tomoko Tabata, Taichi Suzuki
Running Time: 110 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

The yakuza movie is my favorite of all the Japanese genres, and while its heyday of the 1970’s has long since passed, they are still being made, albeit in more of a trickle than the constant stream of a bygone era. With this in mind, Osaka Badass: Snake of Violence is a unique entry in the genre, as it combines the yakuza genre with one of the last Japanese tough guys – Tak Sakaguchi. Wedged in the middle of the Sushi Typhoon silliness that saw him starring in Yakuza Weapon and Deadball during 2011, and what he declared to be his final action movie Re:Born in 2016, OB:SOV (as I’ll refer to it from now on) is perhaps Sakaguchi’s most poker faced role.

OB:SOV is the third production from writer and director Takahiro Ishihara. Following on from his 2011 debut Violence PM and 2012 sophomore feature Osaka Violence (you may notice a theme developing), OB:SOV can easily be considered his most ambitious tale, compared to the small-scale settings of his first 2 features. With a name like Sakaguchi on-board to utilize as a selling point, surprisingly the first 20 minutes of OB:SOV don’t contain a single glimpse of him. This isn’t a bad thing though, and instead we spend this time with the 3 main characters when they were still kids.

As ill-advised as it may sound to spend the first 20 minutes of a yakuza movie with a trio of elementary school age kids, surprisingly it works. The child version of Sakaguchi is a heavily scarred mute, who after losing his family in a fire is taken in by a sadistic child trafficker, one who delivers frequent beatings. He finds solace though through 2 friends, a scruffy boy and girl, who would rather spend their days hurling abuse at an elderly baker (while also asking for leftover crusts) and pretending to drink in a bar, than go to school. Despite being mute, the boy and girl treat their introverted friend as an equal, as they play together in overgrown fields and muse on what the future will bring. Their time together comes to an end though, when mini-Sakaguchi is sold to a yakuza gang.

One title card later, and we skip forward 25 years to the now grown up Sakaguchi, who has become a branch of the Osaka yakuza’s trusted enforcer. He’s never seen his 2 friends since, but we also follow their lives as well. The boy, now played by Takashi Nishina (Dead Sushi) has grown up to become an incompetent low level yakuza, responsible for such menial tasks as cleaning the toilets, while his illiteracy also makes him the joke of the gang. Despite his failings, we learn he married his childhood friend, now played by Tomoko Tabata (Blood and Bones), and they have 3 daughters together. When Sakaguchi unknowingly assassinates the son of a Tokyo yakuza head, the stage is set for a confrontation between the regional gangs, which will bring the departed friends together again after so many years.

While the plot description may sound like a thrilling tale of yakuza honour and emotional reunions, onscreen it plays out much more low-key. There’s an almost ‘slice of life’ feel to the way OB:SOV plays out, with the plot feeling as if it progresses in spite of our observations into the trio’s daily lives, rather than because of them. Despite director Ishihara’s seeming preoccupation with violence, he frequently subverts expectations. Being the type of gritty low budget production that it is, I felt sure watching Tabata’s frequent slaps over the head to her lowly yakuza husband was going to result in a violent retaliation, but instead he accepts them as a form of affection. Indeed, the more we see them together, the more we learn that despite the hardships and moral ambiguities of the world they’ve grown into, their relationship is still very much as it was when they were kids.

Ishihara’s treatment of Sakaguchi’s enforcer often recalls Miike Takashi’s early DTV days, back when the likes of Bodyguard Kiba and Fudoh: The New Generation threw left of field elements at the audience. and expected them to be accepted as the norm. Mute (he doesn’t have a single line) and frequently behind sunglasses, Sakaguchi is presumably the Osaka Badass the slightly ridiculous English re-title refers to, and spends the duration strutting around in a sharp black suit. His partner in crime, played by frequent collaborator Arata Yamanaka, shares what appears to be a psychic connection with the mute enforcer, able to explain to waitresses exactly what he wants off the menu and engage in humorous banter, despite it seeming one-way. Sakaguchi and Yamanaka are usually onscreen together, and make for a likeable pair of rogues in the Osaka underworld.

Of course the violence in question is for the most part given to Sakaguchi to dish out. From bathroom strangulations, to putting the beatdown on a group of cowardly white collar yakuza with a selection of wooden planks and a baseball bat. For those hoping to see the type of action found in the likes of Versus and Death Trance though, this is definitely not the right place to be. The action is intended to be realistic and brutal, however it’s also were the budgetary constraints show through. When Sakaguchi is breaking yakuza’s heads by assaulting them with the planks of wood, it’s fairly clear that the wood is so flimsy that even a slight impact would break it in two. That being said, the actors sell the hits well, and OB:SOV is the type of movie where it’s the emotion which is more important, rather than the physical delivery of the action itself.

Proceedings get interesting when the Tokyo yakuza branch send an equally silent psychotic killer to Osaka, with the sole purpose of wiping out as many local yakuza as possible. Played by Lee Sung-lee, again the Miike Takashi influence is prominent, with a character that likes to roam around naked and clothes himself with the threads of those he kills (even if that happens to be a pink apron). It’s quickly established that Sung-lee is near indestructible, kind of like a yakuza terminator (I should really copyright that), and it’s Nishina’s lowly toilet cleaning yakuza that finally gets a chance to leave the office, when he’s tasked with killing him. His sudden responsibility for offing the psychotic yakuza are what sets him up for a chance meeting with his old childhood friend, and like everything else in OB:SOV, the eventual meeting is a low-key affair, but one which still manages to resonate.

The introduction of Sung-lee does allow for Sakaguchi to let loose in a one-on-one fight, which is always a pleasure to watch. A mute yakuza enforcer against an indestructible yakuza killer is a match up any movie could be sold on, and both lay down some pretty heavy punishment on each other in a brief but satisfyingly brutal bout, that ultimately ends up incorporating a forklift truck. Despite the welcome inclusion of some Sakaguchi infused violence, the lasting impression that OB:SOV leaves is that of the friendship between the trio of main characters. The decision to spend the initial 20 minutes of the movie with them as kids was a wise one, as opposed to using flashbacks throughout, as it firmly establishes their relationship, and allows us as the audience to relate to them in later life. The fact that the 3 child actors really nail their performances is a bonus.

As Sakaguchi’s most straight laced (and silent) role, his performance here is enough to make you wish he’d played more serious roles during his active years, however the success of OB:SOV doesn’t rest only on his shoulders. As a relatively new director on the block, Ishihara marks himself as an auteur with a gritty eye for realism, and has already made another feature with 2015’s Control of Violence. While the yakuza genre may not be what it once was, gritty low-key productions such as this are enough to give me hope for what it could be.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7/10