Available now from 88 Films
The wife of an imprisoned Yakuza is helping guide his gang and their wives while her little sister gets raped and eventually married her rapist to then become a Yakuza wife attached to a different gang.
Written by Kôji Takada, based on the nonfiction book by Shôko Ieda, and directed by Hideo Gosha, Yakuza Wives makes great use of its based-on-true-events element that comes for the book by Shôko Ieda. The film here is both beautiful and gritty, showing the viewers the lives of Yakuza Wives, the predecessors of Mob Wives really (a subject explored in reality television). There is a lot here, some of it violent, some of it emotional, giving the ladies, the sisters in particular, hard lives and believable reactions to some of what they are exposed to. Of course, some of this feels odd to viewers and that is a wanted effect most likely as the film does not hold back and allows the viewers into hard lives and hard choices made my women in a world of violent men, thus leading them to be violent themselves or give into the violence of men. There are hard scenes here because it’s a hard subject and the film makes the most if it all while keeping a certain level of respect for the protagonist and the other characters.
Playing this protagonist is Shima Iwashita as Migiwa Awazu, giving a solid performance, one that is cold at times but with something vulnerable under the surface. Her performance guides the film and its emotions; she shows how hard this life is and how it affects lives. She’s showing vulnerability and strength, making the balance work for her character. Playing her sister Makoto is Rino Katase who gives a solid, more emotional performance. She is a heart and soul of the story, the lost woman who is seeking attention in the wrong places because she was never thought anything different. She wants to be loved and wants to be accepted, so the performance had to match this and does so very well. The rest of the cast is mostly cold or playing bad people, something that is clearly by design here and it works quite well here.
The film here has cinematography that reads very mid-1980s and works quite well for the story here. The work here is simple and brings the story to the screen in a clear manner, giving the space to the characters, letting the story speak for itself. The work by Fujio Morita looks great and functions great here.
Yakuza Wives is one of those films that is meant to be seen while in the right mood. It’s not an easy watch but it is a worthwhile one. The film makes the most of its source material and really tried to give a short-term window into the lives of Yakuza wives with the good and the bad, the joyful moments and the terrifying ones.
This new re-release of Yakuza Wives is one that looks fantastic and sounds as good as the source material will allow. The extras are a bit thin, but what is there is solid. The newly translated subtitles work great, the new artwork looks fantastic and appropriate, the stills gallery and the trailer put that nostalgia factor for the early days of DVD to the forefront, and the booklet is one that is lovely to have. There is no archival content here or any commentary sadly. The packing must be noted as being lovely as well.
