A YAKUZA IN LOVE

After a rocky start, a yakuza enforcer and a timid waitress develop a loving relationship thanks partly to a mixture of drugs and kidnapping. Kinichi vows to clean up his act but the drugs begin to take effect, sending Kinichi and Yoko on a downward spiral with only love left to hold them together.

Violence, drugs, sex…after all the film is called A YAKUZA IN LOVE. The film is entertaining despite the fact that it contains excess amount of shock value moments.

What makes the film entertain (other than sex and violence) is that main character is overly whacked beyond our imagination. But Eiji Okuda is such a good actor that he sells every single wackiness of his character. He goes from one emotional state to a completely opposite emotional state in the next scene. He continuously beats the living hell out of his young love and—bizarrely enough—she gets horny afterward. Sometimes I wasn’t sure whether I was watching a Yakuza film or some redneck film. And that continues throughout the film. Really he is the reason to watch this film. Because other than his performance (and sex and violence), the film doesn’t have much to offer. Production value isn’t anything to cream about. They are appropriate for the film and physical and mental states of characters (which is nasty) but it wasn’t anything special. The stylistic approaches of the film was a little too standard for the film with this nutty caliber. But then again sex and violence will take care of what the budget couldn’t have.

In the end, A YAKUZA IN LOVE is still entertaining and bizarre enough to find audiences who enjoy the craziness of low budget Japanese yakuza films. The film is seriously loaded with wacky moments with dysfunctional lovers.

Snowblood Apple Rating for this film:

Entertainment Value: 7/10
Violence: 6/10
Laughs: 5/10
Sex: 7/10, Rokuro Mochizuki sure knew his business when he worked in the pink industry
Cute Kids: 1 - and 0 scary ones, for a refreshing change
Scary Men In Bad Drag: 1, and that's really 1 too many
Cold Baths in Kiddies' Paddling Pools: good for the complexion, I hear
Incompetent Gangsters: more than you can shake a baseball bat at
Litres of Tomato Ketchup: a couple of full buckets' worth
Films in a Similar Style: Another Lonely Hitman is the good twin of A Yakuza In Love