Since nowhere on its DVD box does it say, I spent the first half-hour or so of Jean-Pierre Limosin´s "Young Yakuza" silently debating whether it was a piece of fiction or a documentary.
If a fictional narrative, I wrote in my notebook, I really enjoyed the observatory approach and realistic nature of the film. It did an excellent job of introducing us into the world of the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia) through the eyes of its protagonist Naoki Watanabe, a layabout who gets involved with the organized crime outfit because his mother is worried about his development process. Apparently in Japan, having one´s son join a gang is a solution to that problem.
And what do you know, it is. Watanabe doesn´t get into any trouble with the law--there´s no time. He´s too busy cleaning the outfit´s office and preparing the boss´s meals to have time to do much else. Plus, it seems like the Yakuza don´t do much more than hold meetings, pontificate and go through their sock drawers. Seriously.
"Deep immersion into the narrative," I wrote in my notes, "I was worried I would have to memorize all of Watanabe´s responsibilities as well." As it turns out, the reason for the film´s smashing verisimilitude is that it is in fact a documentary. I was clued into when Watanabe´s boss, Kumagai, starting speaking to the camera directly.
It was about this time that the picture ceased to be as riveting as it once was, and not just because I realized it wasn´t fiction. After introducing Watanabe (and, by extension, the viewer) as a new member of the Yakuza community, nothing new or compelling happens. Watanabe jaw-jacks with his fellow errand boys and washes a few dishes and backs while Kumagai tells the camera about his personal philosophies and pines for the good old days, when being a Yakuza meant something.
Based on this documentary, it doesn´t mean much now. I have no idea what Kumagai does all day except drink tea, take meetings and air his thoughts. He may as well be in a retirement home. He seems wealthy, but the film never tells us how he makes his money. The police don´t like the Yakuza, but aren´t aggressively pursuing them. The reasons behind that are never explained. Eventually even Watanabe gets bored of the film and disappears for a half-an-hour of screentime. We´re never told where he went.
This leads me into the weakest element of the doc: a lack of context. As a stranger to this world, I was ready to drink up any information it divulged, but the bits and pieces provided by the film do not add up to a cohesive hole. When was the Yakuza´s heyday? What did they do? What contributed to its decline? Kumagai offers a facile explanation for this--hip-hop is to blame--but where is Limosin´s historical perspective? I can appreciate that he keeps his lens within the Yakuza community to an extent, but an outside view would have gone a long way to elucidate matters, particularly since the most exciting thing that happens within this particular crime circle is that we learn Kumagai likes his tea cup to face a certain direction. "Young Yakuza" is like the first episode in a special series on the Yakuza, only the remaining episodes never got made.
Since nowhere on its DVD box does it say, I spent the first half-hour or so of Jean-Pierre Limosin´s "Young Yakuza" silently debating whether it was a piece of fiction or a documentary.
If a fictional narrative, I wrote in my notebook, I really enjoyed the observatory approach and realistic nature of the film. It did an excellent job of introducing us into the world of the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia) through the eyes of its protagonist Naoki Watanabe, a layabout who gets involved with the organized crime outfit because his mother is worried about his development process. Apparently in Japan, having one´s son join a gang is a solution to that problem.
And what do you know, it is. Watanabe doesn´t get into any trouble with the law--there´s no time. He´s too busy cleaning the outfit´s office and preparing the boss´s meals to have time to do much else. Plus, it seems like the Yakuza don´t do much more than hold meetings, pontificate and go through their sock drawers. Seriously.
"Deep immersion into the narrative," I wrote in my notes, "I was worried I would have to memorize all of Watanabe´s responsibilities as well." As it turns out, the reason for the film´s smashing verisimilitude is that it is in fact a documentary. I was clued into when Watanabe´s boss, Kumagai, starting speaking to the camera directly.
It was about this time that the picture ceased to be as riveting as it once was, and not just because I realized it wasn´t fiction. After introducing Watanabe (and, by extension, the viewer) as a new member of the Yakuza community, nothing new or compelling happens. Watanabe jaw-jacks with his fellow errand boys and washes a few dishes and backs while Kumagai tells the camera about his personal philosophies and pines for the good old days, when being a Yakuza meant something.
Based on this documentary, it doesn´t mean much now. I have no idea what Kumagai does all day except drink tea, take meetings and air his thoughts. He may as well be in a retirement home. He seems wealthy, but the film never tells us how he makes his money. The police don´t like the Yakuza, but aren´t aggressively pursuing them. The reasons behind that are never explained. Eventually even Watanabe gets bored of the film and disappears for a half-an-hour of screentime. We´re never told where he went.
This leads me into the weakest element of the doc: a lack of context. As a stranger to this world, I was ready to drink up any information it divulged, but the bits and pieces provided by the film do not add up to a cohesive hole. When was the Yakuza´s heyday? What did they do? What contributed to its decline? Kumagai offers a facile explanation for this--hip-hop is to blame--but where is Limosin´s historical perspective? I can appreciate that he keeps his lens within the Yakuza community to an extent, but an outside view would have gone a long way to elucidate matters, particularly since the most exciting thing that happens within this particular crime circle is that we learn Kumagai likes his tea cup to face a certain direction. "Young Yakuza" is like the first episode in a special series on the Yakuza, only the remaining episodes never got made.
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