The Series (3.5/5)

   There were yakuza films before Kinji Fukasaku, and yakuza films after him, and the ones that came after have been affected by his undeniable impact on the genre.  That influence especially began to take root in the genre after his 5 part Battles Without Honor And Humanity series in the early 1970's became a smash hit in Japan, and in turn for its studio Toei. When the series came to its narrative and thus logical conclusion the studio did not want it to end, and thus requested Fukasaku keep it going with an additional series of Battles Without Honor and Humanity films.

    The New Battles without Honor and Humanity series as it would be known as would be a trilogy instead of 5 films, and would not tie together narratively like the original series of films did. Rather, it would be 3 yakuza stories done in Fukasaku's realist style. They would all feature Battles... star Bunta Sugawara, but rather then him playing one character he would be 3 different yakuza or yakuza-esque characters in these films.

   The first film is simply called New Battles With Honors and Humanity and sees Bunta Sugawara play Miyoshi. An assassin for the Yamamori gang, who finds himself serving a 10 year sentence after an assassination gone wrong. When he gets out he finds himself involved in a conflict between rival factions in the gang that occurred while he was in prison.  The film has some cool action moments, and Sugawara throws himself into his role here, which is pretty much similar to what he was doing before.

   The Second film is called The Boss' Head and may be my favorite of the bunch. It was the least like what we had before.  In this one Bunta Sugawara plays  Shuji Koroda, not exactly a member of a yakuza family, but someone who is connected to the yakuza.  One day, a friend of his who is a member of the Owada family, Tetsuya, gets sent to do an assassination. Unfortunately for all involved Tetsuya is a hardcore heroin junkie, and bungles it. Instead of going to prison, however, Koroda takes the fall for the promise of a significant amount of money upon release.  This, however, does not happen, and he goes on a mission of revenge against the Owada's for taking his life away.  This one is pretty thrilling, as we watch Koroda go from hanger on, to prisoner, to revenge seeking gangster. It also features Lady Snowblood herself Meiki Kaji, which I will always count as a plus.

   The third film is Last Days of the Boss, and features Sagawara as Shiuchi Nozaki, a worker who gets pulled into the yakuza life, and then as soon as he's in the head of his gang is killed. This man was his mentor, and the gang choses Nozaki as the gang’s next leader.  Nozaki, is expected to seek out revenge, but is restricted as there has been a peace treaty between rival gangs, and so must act under the radar. The third film in this series is probably the most thematically structured of the 3 with common themes of revenge tied into dealing with death among other things. Sugawara brings another fantastic performance and helps brings the series to a fantastic conclusion.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

   All 3 films are presented in a series of 2:35:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer. The series looks quite solid with nice detail, and a film like grain structure, but not everything is perfect here, and we get occasional bits of softness and discoloration throughout the 3 films.

   Audio is handled by a series of LPCM mono tracks in Japanese with optional subtitles. The tracks are solid with dialogue and score though some distortion does creep in from time to time.

Extras (2.5/5)

   There is a 2 part interview with screen writer Koji Takada that is on the last 2 parts of the series. The first part has a 10 minute over view of the series by film historian Sadao Yamane.  There are also trailers, teasers, and a book of excellent liner notes.

Overall

   Not quite as fantastic as the original series, New Battles Without Honors or Humanity is still a series of exciting yakuza thrillers from the man who basically rewrote the genre. The Blu-rays look and sound solid, and come with some minor, but interesting extras. RECOMMENDED.