A trilogy of influential yakuza classics from master director Kinji Fukasaku, starring stalwart actor Bunta Sugawara, with three searing standalone stories of ruthless Japanese gangsters, bloody gang wars and lethal assassins, in a must-have box set making its English-language home video debut.

Director
Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale, Street Mobster)

Cast
Bunta Sugawara (Spirited Away, Proxy War)
Hiroki Matsukata (13 Assassins)

NEW BATTLES WITHOUT HONOUR AND HUMANITY (1974)

1950. In Kure City in Hiroshima, an ambitious yakuza soldier botches an attempt on the life of a rival boss, and is sent to prison for eight years. When he's released, he must choose between returning to the gangster fold, or life with a beautiful, half-Korean hostess who's fallen for him.

NEW BATTLES WITHOUT HONOUR AND HUMANITY: THE BOSS'S HEAD (1975)

1968. Gang boss Owada takes in wanderer and assassin Shuji Kuroda after he does time for the assassination of a rival boss. Kuroda turns on Owada after he doesn’t get the promised payback for his jail time, and lays waste to the local crime elements in order to achieve his financial rewards.

NEW BATTLES WITHOUT HONOUR AND HUMANITY: LAST DAYS OF THE BOSS (1976)

1976. When a top boss is killed during a full-blown gang war, his adopted son, an ordinary laborer, reluctantly joins the criminal world in quest for vengeance for his benefactor's death. Complicating matters are his younger sister and her gangster husband, who are affiliated with the gang responsible for the killing.

This terrific triple-bill from legendary director Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale) finally arrives on UK home video courtesy of Arrow, in a lavish limited edition box-set that will slake the thirst of the most ardent fan of Japanese action cinema.

In the early 1970s, Fukasaku's five-film Battles Without Honour And Humanity series was a massive hit in Japan, and kicked off a boom in realistic, modern yakuza films. Although Fukasaku had intended to end the series, Toei Studio convinced him to return to the director's chair for this unconnected, follow-up trilogy of films, each starring Battles leading man Bunta Sugawara and telling separate stories about the yakuza in different locations in Japan.

Each of the New Battles Without Honour And Humanity is a top-notch crime action thriller: hard-boiled, entertaining, and distinguished by Fukasaku's versatility and directorial genius, funky musical scores by composer Toshiaki Tsushima, and the onscreen power of Toei's greatest yakuza movie stars.

Along the way Fukasaku takes his series in new, original directions examining the way the poisonous underworld can infect ordinary lives, and how crises of honor and loyalty were rife in postwar Japan. He also includes female characters just as calculating and ruthless as their male counterparts. The trilogy is a thrilling, enthralling and action-packed, set across three decades and delivering hours of superb entertainment.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

· High Definition digital transfers of all three films

· High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations

· Original uncompressed mono audio

· New optional English subtitle translation for all three films

· Beyond the Films - New Battles without Honor and Humanity: a new video appreciation by Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane

· New Stories, New Battles and Closing Stories: two new video interviews with screenwriter Koji Takada, about his work on the second and third films in the trilogy

· Original theatrical teasers and trailers for all three films

· Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist

· Illustrated collector’s book featuring new writing on the films, the yakuza genre and Fukasaku's career, by Stephen Sarrazin, Tom Mes, Hayley Scanlon, Chris D., Marc Walkow, and Toshiko Adilman

DETAILS

RRP: £59.99
Region: A/B
Rating: TBC
Duration: 98/94/91 mins
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: TBC
Audio: Original Mono
Colour
Discs: 6

Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Stars: Bunta Sugawara, Ko Nishimura

Dual Format
UK Cat No: FCD1536
UK Barcode: 5027035017051