HANZO THE RAZOR trilogy DVD Review

Eureka’s “Masters of Cinema” DVD-series has become famous for being the European equivalent of the Criterion Collection: all titles in it have been shown the utmost care. Transfers are generally excellent and surpass other versions (sometimes even Criterion’s!), and extras consist of meticulously researched archive materials, insightful commentaries and some of the best booklets that have ever been included with DVD’s.

Less well-known is that Eureka also distributes other films outside of their “MoC” imprint, and the treatment of those has unfortunately been hit-or-miss.
So when they released the three “Hanzo the Razor” films as one package for the UK R2 market last month, the fact that these movies didn’t carry the “Masters of Cinema” label was some cause for concern.

Well, worry no more, as the sleazy samurai cop trilogy has been treated fair and square in this new release.
And good for them too: Hanzo Itami may just be the toughest hero for justice ever imagined, period!
Checking a few others:

Dirty Harry isn't dirty enough.
Batman is a sissy because he hides behind a false identity.
And the Shadow knows, because when he doesn't, he asks Hanzo. If he dares.

For people who've never heard of Hanzo the Razor, here's a quick primer:

Edo-period policeman Hanzo Itami first saw life in the Japanese comic "Goyôkiba" created by Kazuo Koike, of "Lone Wolf and Cub" fame. Both mangas showed a huge disdain for the samurai code as glorified in other popular literature. They seemed hell-bent on describing Edo-Japan as an intensely corrupt society, rotten to the core, with the samurai only there to keep the status quo safely in place. In the world which is depicted here, honor is just a mask people wear to hide their sordid true selves. But where in "Lone Wolf and Cub" the hero was an outlaw fighting for his life, in "Goyôkiba" we follow Hanzo Itami (nicknamed: "the razor"), a law officer who seems to have a constant death-wish. He openly defies his superiors. He test all interrogation techniques (read: torture) on himself first to see what has the best effect. He breaks all laws whenever he deems it necessary. And he makes lethal enemies left and right by telling them what he thinks of them, straight to their faces, regardless of rank, class, royalty or position.

In fact, Hanzo's lifespan wouldn't amount to much if not for the following facts.

One: Hanzo is always right, he knows your dirty laundry and where you've hidden it.
Two: no-one beats Hanzo in a fight.
Three: the house where Hanzo lives is a burglary- protected deathtrap which basically eats people for breakfast.

But, most importantly,
Four: Hanzo's is a lot bigger than yours!

Now, fact four might not seem like such a life-safer in itself, but it's often the cause of fact one and a reason to witness fact two. You see, Hanzo is not above kidnapping and torturing his suspects, and if the suspects are of the female variety he uses the tool nature equipped him with. Yes, we're talking about his you-know-what, which in his case is hinted to up the average size of Japanese all by itself. Mainly his torture of women consists of taking them against their will, after which his remarkable skill (and huge equipment) will result in the woman begging for more, which they'll only get if they answer his questions first.
And the stories frequently have him use this method for eh... purely investigative purposes of course...

All of this made the "Goyôkiba" series very attractive for movie adaptation in the early seventies, as Japan started to discover that there was quite a market for exploitation cinema. With the boundaries of sex and violence being pushed further and further, Toho studios made three Hanzo movies. Shintaro Katsu, who was a household name for playing Zatoichi in twenty-odd films, surprisingly starred as the raunchy well-endowed copper and played him completely straight (no pun intended). All of them juggle sillyness, offensiveness and seriousness with remarkable success, being too entertaining and well-made to be written off as trash, yet way to exploitative and sleazy to be seen as so-called "art".

These movies enjoy notoriety for the mysoginy, but this charge doesn't quite stick. Edo-society is shown to be extremely unfriendly to women in general, and Hanzo's treatment of them is strangely enough less offensive than what everyone else does. At least Hanzo only screws them when he's sure they'll eventually like it and he's always right. These sessions invariably end with the two of them having a nice conversation in a bath, drinking wine together, with Hanzo reassuring his "guest" that she's allowed to stay as long as she wants. Which is for at least the length of the movie (where they've gone at the beginning of the next no-one knows...). He makes sure he treats and protects them right too, none of that "killed on my watch" crap.
And there's just something undeniably funny about seeing this fat little scarred goblin of a man being a trained super-lover. It's played for laughs and if you go with the joke you'll have a lot of fun with it.

The three films are as follows:


"Sword of Justice"
Hanzo gets into trouble when pointing out to his superiors why the policeman's oath is a load of rubbish. On the brink of being fired in the New Year, Hanzo and his two sidekicks Devil-fire and Viper (convicted criminals, free at the mercy of Hanzo) must turn up enough filth on his boss to ensure his job-continuation... only to stir up a hornet's nest of assassins trying to kill them all!

This is just a great film. After all the sordid stories I had heard about this series, I didn't expect to start rooting for Hanzo this quickly. As a character he's completely mental, a wild cannon shooting for the highest ranking criminal he can find, only to blackmail him into submission when the case is closed. Hanzo is also a total bastard, not only to others but especially to himself. Seeing him test new tortures on himself sheds any doubts about his dedication. Seeing him do karate skin-hardening practice, on parts of his body you'd normally be a bit more careful with, sheds any doubt about his sanity! These scenes might also make you wince a bit.
But still, he has a work ethos which transcends the bushido of the corrupt samurai surrounding him, and his ultimate goal is the protection of the little people instead of being part of a private army for the ruling class. This to the dismay of his superiors, who don't know what to do with this continuing source of embarrassment in their midst. Shintaro Katsu plays Hanzo like a force of nature and he is magnificent.

"Sword of Justice" was directed by acclaimed action director Kenji Misumi, and he put a lot of social commentary in his film even though he obviously knew he was making a funny exploitation movie. Together with Shintaro Katsu playing it for all it's worth, and a funky soundtrack (which seems nicked from a blacksploitation film) this makes this movie one of the strangest hybrids imaginable.


"The Snare"
Once again Hanzo gets into a furious row with a high-ranking official, a treasurer of the Mint no less, and this time it seems the system will successfully punish him. However, an investigation into the death of a girl soon leads Hanzo to a ring of temples where the priestesses are involved with illegal abortions, sex slavery and torture-for-money inflicted on visiting student girls. When Hanzo suddenly gets the (seemingly unrelated) task of guarding the Mint against robbers, he suspects a connection. A trap has been set for him...

Wow! Exploitation alert!

Kenji Mesumi was supposed to direct the second Hanzo-film as well, but was prevented because his schedule was already too busy. In stepped ScreenAnarchy-favorite Yasuso Masumura, master director extraordinaire, but if you think he was going to bring some class to this franchise you're in for a surprise! While the script for the first one had been penned by the original Hanzo creator Kazuo Koike, for the sequel Yasuso did it himself. And he made it the sleaziest of the Hanzo's by far! As you can see from the story, it gives ample opportunity to show some "naughty" stuff going on, but Masumura really ups the nudity here towards a ridiculous level. While I see the sense of having the patient partly nude during an abortion, the fact that the nurse must go topless seems a bit odd. Also, whenever Hanzo spies on shameful shenannigans he takes an awful lot of time before interfering...

But before you get to think this all turned into straight softcore, thankfully the story and violence have been given a thorough boost as well. The cat-and-mouse game between Hanzo and his mysterious opponent(s) is a lot of fun to follow. And Hanzo now possesses Godlike fighting powers, allowing him to trash a huge band of robbers almost single handedly while dressed only in a loincloth (which goes, him being Hanzo, almost all the way to his armpits). Unfortunately the wacka-wacka-soundtrack from part 1 has partly been replaced by more normal Japanese music. Shame!


"Who's Got the Gold?"
When Devil-fire and Viper go fishing near the Treasury and are chased away by a typically long-haired female ghost, Hanzo investigates this apparition. He soon discovers some shady goings-on with the state's money, and also needs to help an old friend of his who is being harassed by a very influential cult of blind priests.

Once again Yasuso Masumura wrote the script, but underling Yoshio Inoue got the directing duties, the only movie he ever made. This final installment unfortunately suffers from the fact that you hardly get to see anything new: all of Hanzo's tricks have been on display before, and the fact that all the tortures shown are the same as in the first film speaks for itself. Least impressive is the sleaze, which seems tacked-on and is just not much fun to watch. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable romp, with Hanzo for the first time showing a bit of humanity, and all the familiar characters like Devil-fire, Viper and Hanzo's boss Snake are allowed to have a bit of fun at Hanzo's expense.

On to the DVD's:

For three Japanese exploitation films that are over thirty years old, these look very good indeed. Judging by a jumpcut late in the film the same transfers (provided by Toho Studios) were used as for the region 1 boxset, and this is good news. Apart from a few seconds of missing sound, for which you are warned in the accompanying booklets, and the odd speck this looks solid. I don't think these films will ever be released better.

Like I said before, these aren't part of Eureka's "Masters of Cinema" series, so I didn't expect too much in the way of extra's. Indeed, just like the R1 on the disc there are only the trailers, but here each film also gets a very extensive booklet written by British expert of Japanese cinema Tom Mes (the R1 had booklets too but from different writers, and I can't comment on quality as I haven't seen those yet).

The boxset consists of three Amarays (one for each film, with booklet within) which are placed in a hardcover box. For what is being offered here the price is very attractive indeed.

Conclusion:
I really liked these odd movies, they are nothing if not entertaining. Shintaro Katsu is brilliant as Hanzo, and if all exploitation was this much fun I'd buy more of it. If you're not afraid of accidentally spotting some softcore in your action films (and don't mind them being a bit dated) these are definitely recommended.

If interested, you can buy it here!
Todd wrote a review for the R1,
which you can buy here (the R1 set, not Todd's review).