I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I was very impressed with Hideo Gosha's early Showa era yakuza film The Wolves (1971). I think this has more to do with the mise en scene than the story. Because in many ways it is a typical ninkyo eiga, or chivalry film, about restoring honor among criminals. However, what elevates the film is the locations, set designs, costumes, historical background that informs the story, as well as having Tatusya Nakadai in the lead role as Seiji Iwahashi. Iwahashi was released on a general pardon at the occasion of the Showa Emperor Hirohito's ascension to the throne in 1926. Gosha uses classical framing in many of the discussion scenes that drive the plot as well as having the main action take place during a festival in which Nebuta-like floats are being paraded on the grounds. Several of the interiors display traditional art on the walls and screens. There are several scenes shot near the sea that use the fierce forces of nature as a prop to the scenes.

Some critics recently have said that Hideo Gosha's samurai movies are to Kurosawa's samurai movies what Bud Boetticher's westerns are to John Ford's westerns. Maybe all that means is that Ford at the top of his game made some great movies that happened to be westerns while Boetticher at the top of his game made some first-class westerns. Shussho Iwai (The Wolves) is as well-crafted a sword-slasher as you'll hope to see, full of angst, conflict, sex and blood, with just enough artiness -- lovemaking reflected in rainwater, two silent, unexpected knife killers, a puppy on the beach, the plaintive plucking of a lonely samisen -- to keep the auteur-lovers happy. The film is an accomplished tale of tricky betrayal and fate that moves briskly along. For those who think they'll find a few flakes of gold among the pyrite, they won't be disappointed. The Kan'non-gumi and Enoki-ya are competing yakuza gangs in northern Honshu. Four years ago Seji Iwahashi (Tatsuya Nakadai) and several others were imprisoned when they took part in a bloody fight between the gangs over control of a railway being built. While he was in prison his old gang leader died. He would have been named boss, but in his absence another was chosen. They were pledged "brothers." In an amnesty at the beginning of the Showa era, he and the others have been pardoned. He rejoins his gang, makes no fuss about who is boss...and discovers that not only have the two gangs joined in an alliance, but that the young daughter of the old Enoki-ya gang leader who a good friend loves and who also was released but seems to have disappeared is just about to marry the co-gang leader from Kan'non-gumi and that, yes, his "brother," the new gang leader for Enoki-ya, is the other co- gang leader for the alliance. That's not all. There are major business interests, this being the late Twenties, that want Honshu's timber for building railways in Manchuria. Got all that? With complicated melodrama like this, it's vital how well the director keeps things moving so that we don't dwell too much on the details. So we have a tale of violent yakuza gangs in an unstable alliance, of a couple who love each other and add to the sparks of violence, and of betrayal, of power, of business interests, and of Seji Iwahashi...a brave man filled with sadness and resignation, who still is a creature of the yakuza code. "We swore to be brothers," he says. "If I can't believe in such a yakuza oath, what else is there to believe in?" In the first hour of Shussho Iwai you'll be thoroughly confused if you don't keep a chart of the various players, who is doing what and which gang they're in. The last hour, however, is quite a show of trickery, fatalism and betrayal. The climax of the movie, at what would have been the wedding ceremony, is memorable. The swordplay doesn't dominate, but there's enough to remind us how slippery all that slashing can make things. The predominate theme, however, is plain old betrayal. And those two delicate killers, by the way, add a lot of urp to the oden. If their killing of Matsu, a member of the Enoki-ya gang, doesn't do it for you, you just don't know how to enjoy a good, lengthy murder.

Like all of the other Gosha I've seen, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. This being the first yakuza film I've seen from Gosha I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Unlike many of the yakuza films made around this time, it is longer, slower and more meditative. You can tell Gosha is quite confident and he takes his time, developing the story at his own leisurely pace. Compared to his earlier films, Three Outlaw Samurai and Sword of the Beast, the pace is much more drawn out.The plot follows Nakadai as he is released early from prison, after being put away for homicide after killing a rival boss (this all occurs within the first 10 minutes of the film, in flashback form). When he is released he finds his old yakuza world to be much different from how it used to be. However, he is very careful not to step on anyone toes and goes to extreme measures to avoid offending anyone. Unlike his intense performance in Gosha's Goyokin, he does his best to avoid any fatal mistakes. The plot itself is quite convoluted, with several of the genre's typical plot elements expertly handled by Gosha. It is worth noting that most of the action is bundled up at the beginning and the end. Those expecting nonstop action will likely be sorely disappointed.The film is well worth it for any fans of Goshas and fans of the earlier chivalry yakuza films. Nakadai gives a very good performance as always and Noboru Ando is his equal as a prisoner (formerly rival gangster) that gets released at the same time as Nakadai. I've only seen Ando in Sympathy for the Underdog and this film, and he has held his own against two great performance by Nakadai and Koji Tsuruta.

This film is so marvellous to look at that you may wonder if Rembrandt has been re-born as a Japanese movie-director. Hideo Gosha has made an undisputable master-piece about rivalry, betrayal and the feud over a train-line. It is a classic gangster-film with a labyrinth-like plot. The Wolves is the real thing. This film is one of the best films ever made.