Educational Media Reviews Online

This is a finely remastered 1974 film in the yakuza genre directed by Hideo Gosha. Gosha is best known for his samurai films, with a few of these films also available as part of Film Movement’s Classic series.

As part of a film genre with a strong fan base, there are many existing reviews already. As such, this review will primarily focus on how Violent Streets could be used in the classroom.

For those unfamiliar with yakuza films, the simplest definition would be these are gangster films depicting individuals outside the regular structure of society. 1970s yakuza films are likely to have a grittiness to them as the genre moved into “real world” depictions of gang wars and criminal life, as opposed to a more romanticized view.

Violent Streets is very well made with many stylistic shots and a strong eye from the director for creating striking imagery. As an example of a yakuza film, this is a strong film that is visually interesting. For classes on crime films or 1970s cinema, this would be a good choice. There are also ways that the plot, full of twists and double crossings, could be nicely paired with kabuki scripts.

Although some yakuza films can also be used in discussions of giri (obligations) and ninjō (personal feelings), Violent Streets doesn’t easily lend itself to this type of analysis, and other yakuza films would better depict this type of personal conflict. Also, it is important to note the limited female roles are stock characters and only serve to forward the main character, Egawa’s story. Egawa rapes his girlfriend early on in the movie, only to have her later apologize for being drunk. Further, there is one LGBTQ+ character, a transgender woman, but it is a small role, and her depiction is limited to that of an assassin.

This film would certainly need discussion and context to be used in class. For an upper division film studies class this would be a good film, but I wouldn’t consider it for lower division classes.

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