PopSyndicate.com

Interesting subject matter made dull by the kid gloves the film-maker is forced to handle things with while making his film.

In the interest of full disclosure, I went into Young Yakuza expecting an actual film, not the documentary that director Jean-Pierre Limosin made, so this film threw me for a loop for the first little bit. Once I realized what I was watching, I just had to resign myself to the fact that even the criminal underworld can be boring at times.
Naoki Watanabe is something of a problem for his mother, an aimless delinquent who a friend of the family offers to introduce to the local Yakuza boss, Mr. Kumagai, who runs things in the Shinagawa district.  The idea is that he will enter into a one year apprenticeship with Kumagai, which they hope will teach him discipline and perhaps shape his life towards something better.

Naoki gets the proper haircut for the job, and is issued his uniform (a tracksuit) and begins to learn the ropes of the day to day operations around the Yakuza offices.  This includes making and serving tea, preparing meals, helping bathe or towel off senior members (!) and working security when Kumagai goes out to a club.

The doc hits a major snag when Naoki is given a day off to visit an ailing Uncle, but never returns. Kumagai laments his failure as a ‘parent’ because his ‘child’ has run away, and the film shifts its focus to a new secretary for Kumagai, a young guy named Ikeda, and the plight of a member named Tomaru who attacked a civilian, and is now in prison.

The film-maker’s follow the Kumagai members as they check in on his wife and family, but none of this is very compelling to the viewer, as we don’t see anything about the trial due to the secretive nature of Mr. Kumagai and his strict rules about what can be shown in the film.

The film was ultimately somewhat boring, as the agreements that Kumagai makes about what can be filmed obviously prohibits anything shady that may be shown, leaving only the mundane and boring day to day operations of the Yakuza offices and Kumagai himself waxing nostalgic about the good old days in monologues to the camera.  The fact that Naoki isn’t at all vocal about his personal motivations is also a hindrance, as is his disappearance midway through the film.  He does turn up at the very end of things for a brief coda, but by that time you don’t particularly care anymore.

The Young Yakuza DVD features no extras to speak of save for a still gallery and slide show of other Cinema Epoch releases.

I don’t know that I’d recommend this film to anyone unless they are just a junkie for documentary films, and even if that’s the case, I’m sure they can find something more compelling story-wise, as this film just meanders along too much for its own good.

1