Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Screenplay: Kinji Fukasaku, Ichirô Miyagawa
Starring: Rentarô Mikuni, Kô Nishimura, Masumi Harukawa, Hideo Murota, Ken Mitsuda, Pepe Hozumi
Country: Japan
Running Time: 84 min
Year: 1966
BBFC Certificate: 15
Arrow Video have slowly been chipping away at the filmography of the great Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku, releasing numerous titles over the past decade. In more recent years, Eureka and Radiance have joined in too. Fukasaku has 71 credits to his name though (on the IMDB at least), so there’s still plenty to unearth.
Arrow’s release of The Threat jumps back to an earlier point in Fukasaku’s career though. It’s not quite the earliest of his films to be released with English subtitles, as Tom Mes claims in his commentary here, as Eureka are beating it to the punch with their Wolves, Pigs and Men disc being released a month prior (Mes’ track must have been recorded before this was made public). However, The Threat sees the director working in a period before his popular run of jitsuroku eiga (‘actual record films’ focusing generally on yakuza).
Fukusaku was actually already making gang movies at this point, but of a different style to those he became famous for in later years. So The Threat is quite an unusual title for the director, even then, as it’s a home invasion/kidnapping story centring around an average family rather than yakuza clan members. Fukusaku co-wrote The Threat (which he only did for roughly a third of his films), so perhaps it was his own attempt to give something new a try.
The release certainly caught my attention and I haven’t been disappointed with a Fukasaku film yet (other than maybe The Green Slime, which likely had studio interference or at least language barrier issues). So I requested a copy and my thoughts follow.
In the film, two hardened criminals, Kawanishi (Kô Nishimura) and Sabu (Hideo Murota), manage to escape from death row. On the run, they kidnap a young child, the grandson of a prominent cancer specialist, Dr. Sakata (Ken Mitsuda).
However, instead of targeting the doctor himself, they break into the seemingly ordinary home of Mr. Misawa (Rentarô Mikuni), an advertising agency worker. The unsuspecting family is then taken hostage and the ruthless kidnappers force the mild-mannered Misawa to become their pawn.
They pressure him to be the middleman and collect a hefty ransom from Dr. Sakata in exchange for the child’s safe return, so that they don’t have to show their own faces, for fear of getting caught. Trapped in a desperate situation, Misawa must decide whether to ‘follow orders’ or stand up to his captors, in order to save the kidnapped child and his own family.
As mentioned, I’ve never been disappointed with a Fukasaku film and this is no exception. In fact, I think it might be up there with his best. The film noir meets High and Low vibe it was giving off helped, on top of the fact it’s markedly different from most of his usual films, but I found it an immensely satisfying thriller.
The story is suitably gripping but it’s the characters within it that made it notable. The film boasts a superb cast, with a nice mix of approaches to their characters. Kô Nishimura is cool and calm but menacing, whilst Hideo Murota is full of wild fury and Rentarô Mikuni, as our chief protagonist, provides a complex range of emotions. Masumi Harukawa, who plays Misawa’s wife, isn’t given as much to work with as the men but does a great job of expressing subtle disappointment at her husband’s actions.
The development of the lead character provides the meat of the film. He is a fairly important businessman but finds himself helpless at the hands of the violent criminals who invade his home. He continues to do their bidding, much to the disgust of his wife and son. He has to decide whether to ‘be a man’ or play it safe and be a coward. You can see the inner turmoil at the heart of the character and can sympathise with his plight as it truly is a difficult situation.
It’s a genuinely exciting film though, not just an acting showcase. There’s a strong sense of menace throughout the film, with some tensely loaded conversations between Misawa and Kawanishi. The money handover sequence and other ‘jobs’ Misawa is forced to do also have you at the edge of your seat.
There are some playful shot choices and editing techniques here and there too, particularly in a lengthy sequence where Misawa approaches the end of his tether and doesn’t know what to do. Some camera and editing effects reflect his fractured mental state.
Overall then, The Threat is a superb home invasion thriller that proves Fukasaku was a master craftsman of genre movies even before his famous run of ‘true crime’ yakuza tales.
The Threat is out on 23rd September on Blu-Ray, released by Arrow Video. The film looks great, with perfectly balanced contrast and a nice, clean, crisp image. I’ve used screengrabs throughout this review to give you an idea of how it looks, though these have been compressed. It sounds good too.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original uncompressed mono audio
• Optional newly translated English subtitles
• Brand new audio commentary by Japanese film expert Tom Mes
• Warning Warning Danger Danger, a brand new 20-minute video appreciation by critic and Japanese film specialist Mark Schilling
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by Hayley Scanlon
• Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
Tom Mes provides a commentary over the film. He talks in detail about the cast and some of the crew, and describes how many of them became part of Fukasaku’s stable of collaborators. He also discusses how the director’s career developed from here.
Mark Schilling talks about the film too in an 18-minute interview. He discusses what might have inspired it and how the film sits among Fukasaku’s oeuvre, as well as looking at what some similar Japanese directors were making at the time.
I didn’t get a copy of the booklet to comment on that, unfortunately.
Overall, Arrow have put together a strong pair of extras to supplement an excellent film. Keep the Fukasaku releases coming!
Disc/Package: 