The Consumption of Violence in the Yakuza Film by Jay Gillespie
Before taking this class my prior knowledge of Japanese cinema pretty much consisted of kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and a number of other contemporary films. However after viewing Suzuki’s Branded to Kill and then learning about the Yakuza films of the early post-war period through Logan’s excellent presentation, I thought I might look the study of a contemporary Yakuza film. In this case I would like to discuss Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer, in regards to Branded to Kill to outline the representations of violence in contemporary Japanese media and also the growing consumption of violent imagery by the audience.
In Branded to Kill, Suzuki brilliantly takes the classical Japanese theme of the lone hero from the Samurai film and relates it to the hierarchal structure of the Yakuza. As Logan pointed out this can be seen as an allegory for the unfulfilled desires and efficiencies of the rising ‘salaryman’ demographic of the 1960’s. The aspect of being stuck in dead end job creates a sense of loss of freedom because of the societal need to conform to ‘your’ place within it, generating unrest. In this film, the protagonist Hanada, is the hero of the story standing up against the administration. He is the no. 3 hitman in the Yakuza who desperately wants to be no. 1. This is a reflection of the ‘salaryman’s desire to climb to the top of the ladder, however in is this case and many others he is unable to do so because of the bureaucracy of the system. But instead of being complacent in his position and accepting death, Hanada chooses to fight back and take down the Yakuza, here enters the lone hero, who engages in violent battles to enforce his independence against the establishment. For Hanada, being a hitman literally becomes a dead end job, not matter how hard he fights against it he is eventually killed at the end. This is an indication of the individual’s inability to take down the administration that is too big and faceless to be destroyed. A happy ending in this case would have defeated the purpose of the film.
The 30 year difference between Branded to Kill and Ichi the Killer is blatantly apparent in the changes to the genre and the stylistic approaches. What can be characterized as ultra violence in Ichi the Killer is Miike’s envelope pushing of violence and consumption, this is portrayed through his representation of the duality between Sadism and Masochism. Ichi is the story of Kakihara’s (the protagonist) desire for pain. He is the lieutenant to Anjo, the boss of a powerful crime syndicate in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, their sadomasochist relationship with each other ends when and Anjo goes missing, this leaves Kakihara with no one to fulfill his desire for pain. Anjo has really been assassinated by Ichi, a post-pubescent male who is being controlled through hypnosis by the boss of another crime family, Jijii. The rest of the film consists of Kakihara searching for Anjo and killing and torturing anyone he suspects may be involved. Once he discovers that Anjo is dead, his search morphs into finding someone to replace Anjo and his sadist role. In essence Kakihara is a rootless killer, he acts only on the instinct to fulfill his desires. He has little respect for the hierarchal system and loyalty of the Yakuza, making him an outcast like that of Hanada, this is seen when he tortures a member of an allied syndicate with pleasure by suspending him by hooks through his flesh then going to work on him with needles and boiling oil. (Mes, p. 231)
However Ichi is an even more rootless killer than Kakihara. Because he is being controlled through a post hypnotic suggestion by his boss, through this he has lost his identity completely. This hypnosis preys on Ichi’s immature sexual desires, where a false memory has been imprinted of a group of bullies raping a high school girl and while Ichi wants to intervene he is unable to but at the same time he is sexually excited at the violence and humiliation. The aspect that Jijii is able to identify Ichi’s victims as bullies and combine it with his sadist desires make him a powerful weapon. The way in which Jijii manipulates him is almost mechanical making it so that he hasn’t just lost his identity but his humanity as well. (p. 232) This is similar to Cure where the killer has no aspect of self and everything about him is outwardly portrayed, Ichi has no sense of self and is easily manipulated. One of the more interesting aspects of this character is the way that he is initially shown as a hero through his representation, he wears a padded leather suit with a logo and large ‘1’ on the back, (pronounced ‘ichi’ in Japanese). This is reminiscent of the superhero, and this how the audience identifies with him at first. However he does not follow the definition of a hero, he does no good deeds through his actions, his actions are not even his own, they are being controlled by Jijii and his intentions taking away any semblance of heroism. The viewer is then denied this identification with the character, when we think he is going to rescue the hooker from her pimp, at this point we come to the realization that he is merely a voyeur that gets off on seeing people in pain.
Because of this denial of character, the viewer is forced to identify with the other, Kakihara. However this is a suitable connection with the audience, as we know Kakihara is a masochist, he takes pleasure from pain and worships violence. The audience is doing something similar in our consumption of the violent image, we readily take it in not unlike he does. (p. 235) In many cases throughout the film the graphic, explicit exaggerated representation of violence is meant to show the ridiculousness of it in a playful and darkly humourous ways. Although right after Miike does this he punishes us for reveling in the ‘playful’ violence by immediately juxtaposing these images with depictions of ‘painful’ violence. Such as after seeing Jijii slip and fall on the floor covered in blood and entrails the viewer is forced to sit through the beating and rape of a prostitute, which is farthest thing from playful. In these scenes he does not explicitly show violence like he does in the comedic scenes, instead Miike uses montage to make the viewer infer what happens the moment the camera cuts away. Because of this the viewer is forced to internalize the violence and make it our own by filling in the blanks in our head of what Miike doesn’t show us. “…Violence that is more painful and disturbing than anything Miike explicitly shows in the film because each individual viewer decides the intensity of it for himself.” (p. 237) In the final confrontation of the film, the fight between Ichi and Kakihara on a Shinjuku rooftop, the audience is expecting to see an epic, violent fight sequence. Kakihara is expecting the violent death he desires, however Ichi is injured by Kakihara’s soul surviving group member Kaneko, rendering him impotent to Kakihara’s masochistic desires. This is a very self reflexive scene in the film, the viewers becomes aware of its appetite for violence and then Miike denies it, much like he does to Kakihara.
Both of these films represent the needs and desires of the outcast, one in the post war period, the other in contemporary Japan’s urban landscape. In Branded to Kill, Hanada represents his inability to move higher up in the social structure by indulging in his carnal desires, smelling boiling rice and lots of sex. However in Ichi the Killer these roles are reversed, Kakihara climbs the hierarchal structure, but only to satisfy his desires. Both films explicitly represent violence as a mode of survival in the Yakuza lifestyle, however is this violence justified? In Branded to Kill we never know the victims of Hanada, or why they are being killed, likewise in Ichi we never know why Jijii wants to destroy and humiliate Anjo’s clan. Even if the film is working to show us our own desire for violence can it ever really be justified if it reasonless and senseless?
Mes, Tom. Agitator. The Cinema of Takashi Miike. Fab Press; 2006.