By: Joseph Perry (Twitter/X)

Writer: When It Was Cool

Also Featured At: Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, B&S About Movies, The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict, and Diabolique Magazine, and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum.

Film Reviews: Japanese Crime Classics Wolves, Pigs and Men (1964) and Violent Panic: The Big Crash (1976)

Renowned Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku is perhaps best known in North America for his controversial 2000 horror feature Battle Royale, but he is also highly regarded as a master of yakuza and similar crime films, and he received multiple awards during his 40-year career in filmmaking. Film Movement Classics presents the following pair of films in 2K restorations from the original film elements.

Wolves, Pigs and Men

The loyalty — or lack thereof — and betrayal between three brothers is the focus of Fukasaku’s black-and-white crime film Wolves, Pigs and Men. All three men come from a slum area, but oldest brother Kuroki (Rentaro Mikuni) left and has become a member of the Iwazaki yakuza clan. Middle brother Jiro (Ken Takakura) also escaped his poverty-ridden home area, only to upset the clan and spend time in prison, from which he has recently been released. Youngest brother Sabu (Kinja Kitaoji) felt abandoned by his elder siblings and was left to be the sole caretaker for their mother, who has just died. 

Sabu has joined a gang of young adults in similar poor conditions — a disturbing dog-chasing scene emphasizes their desperation — who live in a shack. When Jiro hatches a plan to steal money and drugs from the Iwazaki clan using Sabu and his friends to do the dirty work, it sets in motion events that find the three siblings and their associates at dangerous odds.

Fukasaku combines film noir elements and taut familial drama with a yakuza film approach, and the result is a gripping tale filled with uneasy alliances and bitter betrayals. The three leads are excellent and the supporting players all give strong performances, too. The 2K restoration adds extra punch to Ichirô Hoshijima’s crisp black-and-white photography, which captures the unwavering tension and the appropriately grotty-looking main setting marvelously.

Violent Panic: The Big Crash

In Violent Panic: The Big Crash, when his partner dies after an unsuccessful heist, serial bank robber Takashi (Tsunehiko Watase) plans to escape Japan and relocate to Brazil. Michi (Miki Sugimoto), a bar girl with a penchant for stealing fur coats who he saved from an obsessed client and who has become his lover, wants to join him, but Takashi is against that. Michi is determined not to be left behind, though. With the police having identified him and with the deceased partner’s brother (Hideo Murota) calling on him in a violent manner for the bank robbery money, Takashi finds his plans for an easygoing lifestyle turned upside down.

Whereas Wolves, Pigs and Men takes an unwaveringly serious tone, Fukasaku infuses Violent Panic: The Big Crash with some humor — and no shortage of action. Elements of 1970s American drive-in B-movie exploitation films and drive-in theater features are on full display, including an inept comic foil police officer named Sakuji Hatano (Takuzo Kawatani), a good deal of female nudity on the part of both Murota and Yayoi Watanabe as Hatano’s fellow officer and unfaithful part-time lover Aiko Kuriyama — both Murota and Watanabe were previously actresses in some of Toei Studio’s “pinky violence” sex-and-violence exploitation fare — and an absolutely mind-boggling vehicle chase scene that should be considered must-see viewing for chase scene aficionados. 

That long chase scene alone will be worth the price of admission for some viewers, but the entirety of Violent Panic: The Big Crash is a blast, and fans of old-school crime films should get a huge kick out of this well-acted and wonderfully directed feature.

For those unfamiliar with Fukasaku’s crime movies, Wolves, Pigs and Men and Violent Panic: The Big Crash are terrific places to start, with contrasts such as tense drama and a lighter approach and stark black-and-white to rich color — both respectively — on display. For fans of the director familiar with these works, the 2K restorations are an excellent reason to revisit this pair of films.

Wolves, Pigs and Men and Violent Panic: The Big Crash  premiered on VOD and Digital platforms on September 27, 2024.

Joseph Perry also writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com), and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom). 

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