Nipponese filmmakers Tak Sakaguchi and Yudai Yamaguchi co-wrote and co-directed the outlandish, larger-than-life, Asian actioneer "Yakuza Weapon" about honor and vengeance in contemporary Japan. They used Ken Ishikawa's manga as the basis for their screenplay. This audacious crime thriller resembles "RoboCop" in part because the protagonist turns into half-man and half-weapon after a radical surgical procedure. Furthermore, this epic boasts a high body count with cartoonish action sequences. Indeed, blood, guts, and gore splatter this swiftly-paced but wholly improbable contemporary shoot'em up with a double-digit body count. Sakaguchi and Yamaguchi never miss a moment to poke fun at their characters and their predicament. The son of a yakuza boss, Shozo Iwaki, learns that his father has been murdered. When he returns home from the jungle, he resolves to exact vengeance. Before it is over, Japan's best doctors and engineers have installed a M61 Vulcan in his right arm so all he has to do is snap his wrist and this multi-barreled cannon sprouts from his limb. Meanwhile, as a presumable back-up, our pugnacious protagonist has an anti-tank missile launcher in his left knee-cap. The worst thing about "Yakuza Weapon" is the marginal special effects, but this 105 minute ruckus never wears out its welcome.
"Yakuza Weapon" opens with this prologue: "In the mid 1950s, in the midst of post-war chaos, organized crime units known as "kumi" sprung up throughout Japan. They became the yakuza. The yakuza underworld is ruled by chivalry and loyalty. This is known as "jingi." If a yakuza violated the "jingi," there is hell to pay for the yakuza live and die by this principle." The action unfolds deep in the South American jungle as soldiers in camouflage fatigues with submachine guns blaze away with fusillade after fusillade at our fearless hero Shozo Iwaki (Tak Sakaguchi) and his two companions. The defiant Iwaki wears a fedora and a huge red sash around his waist as smokes a cigarette in front of them while uttering comments like: "You only get hit when you're afraid of getting hit. I can scare landmines with a glare! It's time to settle the score." He charges headlong into a squad of machine gun wielding troops and dodges every round they fire at him. Moreover, he manages to survive exploding grenades as they go off near him. Once he makes it to the shooters, he uses martial arts to fight them, taking on as many as three at a time. Even after he has disarmed them, they brandish knives and fight. After he triumphs over these troops, he steps on a landmine and uses it to catapult him out of the jungle and into Colonel Joseph's headquarters where they battle to the death. When Colonel Joseph opens fire on Shozo at point blank range with a submachine gun, our hero thrusts his iron-soled shoe forward like a shield to deflect the lead and then shoves it into the officer's face, burying several bolt-like nails into his face so that he looks like a sieve.
Afterward, Shozo encounters two Japanese government agents who have news for him about his father. They inform him that his father (Maro Akaji) was shot 88 times six months ago when he left a Western Japan Yakuza council meeting. Nevertheless, Shozo's father remained alive long enough to kill his assailant. As it turns out, Shozo wasn't really on good terms with his dad. The last time that they spoke, his father threatened to kill him if he saw him again, all because Shozo wanted to take over the family business. For the record, our hero has been in exile for four years when he receives the new. Shozo and his cohorts parachute from a propeller-drive plane over Tokyo and head to a loan store that once headquartered their operation. Shozo encounters Yakuza business leader Kurawaki (Shingo Tsurumi), learns that the latter controls the family business, and betrayed his father. "Yakuza Weapon" is overboard in every aspect but delivers consistently entertaining material. Of course, there isn't a stitch of realism in this insane nonsense, but it is fun to watch what happens. My favorite scene occurs in the hospital room after the surgeons have grafted an electrically powered Gatling gun to his arm. Several machine gun toting dames masquerading as nurses enter our hero's room and he surprises them with his new arsenal. Literally, he shoots one treacherous nurse with a burst of gunfire that keeps her spinning in the air above him before she vanishes in a bloody explosion.
"Yakuza Weapon" opens with this prologue: "In the mid 1950s, in the midst of post-war chaos, organized crime units known as "kumi" sprung up throughout Japan. They became the yakuza. The yakuza underworld is ruled by chivalry and loyalty. This is known as "jingi." If a yakuza violated the "jingi," there is hell to pay for the yakuza live and die by this principle." The action unfolds deep in the South American jungle as soldiers in camouflage fatigues with submachine guns blaze away with fusillade after fusillade at our fearless hero Shozo Iwaki (Tak Sakaguchi) and his two companions. The defiant Iwaki wears a fedora and a huge red sash around his waist as smokes a cigarette in front of them while uttering comments like: "You only get hit when you're afraid of getting hit. I can scare landmines with a glare! It's time to settle the score." He charges headlong into a squad of machine gun wielding troops and dodges every round they fire at him. Moreover, he manages to survive exploding grenades as they go off near him. Once he makes it to the shooters, he uses martial arts to fight them, taking on as many as three at a time. Even after he has disarmed them, they brandish knives and fight. After he triumphs over these troops, he steps on a landmine and uses it to catapult him out of the jungle and into Colonel Joseph's headquarters where they battle to the death. When Colonel Joseph opens fire on Shozo at point blank range with a submachine gun, our hero thrusts his iron-soled shoe forward like a shield to deflect the lead and then shoves it into the officer's face, burying several bolt-like nails into his face so that he looks like a sieve.
Afterward, Shozo encounters two Japanese government agents who have news for him about his father. They inform him that his father (Maro Akaji) was shot 88 times six months ago when he left a Western Japan Yakuza council meeting. Nevertheless, Shozo's father remained alive long enough to kill his assailant. As it turns out, Shozo wasn't really on good terms with his dad. The last time that they spoke, his father threatened to kill him if he saw him again, all because Shozo wanted to take over the family business. For the record, our hero has been in exile for four years when he receives the new. Shozo and his cohorts parachute from a propeller-drive plane over Tokyo and head to a loan store that once headquartered their operation. Shozo encounters Yakuza business leader Kurawaki (Shingo Tsurumi), learns that the latter controls the family business, and betrayed his father. "Yakuza Weapon" is overboard in every aspect but delivers consistently entertaining material. Of course, there isn't a stitch of realism in this insane nonsense, but it is fun to watch what happens. My favorite scene occurs in the hospital room after the surgeons have grafted an electrically powered Gatling gun to his arm. Several machine gun toting dames masquerading as nurses enter our hero's room and he surprises them with his new arsenal. Literally, he shoots one treacherous nurse with a burst of gunfire that keeps her spinning in the air above him before she vanishes in a bloody explosion.