Battles without Honor and Humanity | The Complete Collection | Blu-ray

The signature series from Japan’s most prolific crime movie director. Battles Without Honor and Humanity holds all the fundamental elements of a Fukasaku production. These are fast-paced, frenetically edited films with a street-level style and eye for action.

Over his career, Fukasaku was clearly enamored not just by the stylistic trappings of the Yakuza, but by the real stories and lived experiences of Japan’s criminal class. Even when his narratives are fictionalized, they are based heavily on real events and real figures.

At times, the desire to relay true to life details and situations can make the director’s projects feel like a challenge to track. But they also create a vivacious energetic style that few other artists can replicate. Fukasaku’s work is an absolutely necessary cornerstone when it comes to depicting organized crime on film. Battles Without Honor and Humanity is the perfect place to start diving into the director’s oeuvre.

Special Features (via arrowvideo.com)

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of all five original films
• Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for all five films
• Reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist

DISC 1: BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY

• Audio commentary by critic and author Stuart Galbraith IV
• Yakuza Graveyard - an interview with Takashi Miike about Kinji Fukasaku and the yakuza film genre
• Original trailers for all five films

DISC 2: HIROSHIMA DEATH MATCH

• Man of Action - an interview with series fight choreographer Ryūzō Ueno
• Original trailer

DISC 3: PROXY WAR

• Secrets of the Piranha Army - a documentary about the troupe of supporting actors who appeared throughout the series, featuring interviews with original Piranha members Masaru Shiga and Takashi Noguchi, plus second-generation Piranha, Takashi Nishina and Akira Murota
• Tales of a Bit Player - an interview with supporting actor and stuntman Seizō Fukumoto
• Original trailer

DISC 4: POLICE TACTICS

• Remembering Kinji - a featurette about director Kinji Fukasaku and his work, featuring interviews with Kenta Fukasaku and film critic and Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane
• Fukasaku Family - an interview with Proxy War and Police Tactics assistant director Tōru Dobashi
• Original trailer

DISC 5: FINAL EPISODE

• Last Days of the Boss - an interview with Final Episode screenwriter Kōji Takada
• Original poster gallery for the series
• Original trailer