At last on Blu-ray and DVD -- Masuda/Ozawa's OUTLAW GANGSTER VIP: Complete Collection

TrustMovies had never heard of OUTLAW GANGSTER VIP -- a very popular series of late-1960 era Japanese Yakuza movies directed by Toshio Masuda (who evidently did only the first in this series) and then by Keiichi Ozawa and starring Tetsuya Watari, all three of whom now hold a firm place in TM's personal film canon -- until he read one of those lengthy articles in one of our better film magazines about the directors and the actor they helped make famous. (I've just spent more than an hour online, trying to look up which magazine this was -- either Cineaste, Film Comment or CinemaScope -- with no luck. So I can't give proper credit here, but I'd like to thank the unfortunately anonymous author of the article, anyway.)

The complete collection of OutLaw Gangster movies -- there are six of these -- feature the leading character, Goro, a guy who would dearly like to leave the world of the criminal Yakuza gangs, but is consistently drawn back in order to either seek revenge or help a desperately needy woman, relative or friend. This is not, shall we say, all that original a situation, but in the more-than-capable hands of the directors (Mr. Masuda is shown at left) and actor Watari (shown below and further below), the result is something quite beautiful and often moving -- due to its understanding of place, time and the social/economic concerns of the day that bring this particular genre very close to its zenith.

One could compare Tetsuya Watari to a kind of Japanese version of Clint Eastwood -- ultra-low-key, handsome, strong, and bent on doing the right thing. But so much better, acting-wise, is Watari than Eastwood that comparisons soon wobble and topple. This guy is the real thing, and directors Masuda and Ozawa, via their (and their several screenwriters') understanding of both film technique and the most important social concerns of the day (they're still the most important) turn their star into the kind of icon whose light shines and lasts. Watari does not simply embody cliches, as Eastwood has long done, he brings them to alternately roaring and moving life.

The films are so filled with iconic situations and visual compositions that, were it not for the social context that's always front and center here, the films might border on camp. We're in the period during which Yakuza clans began their move toward becoming large corporations, so loyalty, trust and anything else resembling fair play more easily goes by the wayside. Along with the chase scenes and hand-to-hand battles (mostly fabulously handled), there are some charming and quite moving scenes, as well. When characters die, you feel it down to your bones, and the scene in the first of the films in which the gangsters clean up their apartment to welcome the hero's new girl is simply dear. (The scene below of Goro making a particular bodily sacrifice is a humdinger, surely the first of its kind to have been shown in movies.)

Post-war Japan is brought to quite believable life, and the film's sub-plots are often as special as the main Goro story. In the first film, centering finally around vengeance, there's a  moving subplot involving two brothers in warring gangs. The second film in the series begins almost exactly where the former film left off, but this time Goro joins his girl and a dear friend in the hinterlands (below), and of course gets immediately involved in gang life due to his insistence on serving justice at any cost

Time constraints have meant that I've been able to view only two of the six films in the series. But these have been enough to ensure my return to Outlaw Gangster VIP until I make my way through them all. Released here in the USA via the fast-becoming-indispensable British distributor Arrow Video, this six-disc set -- in Blu-ray (as usual with Arrow, this is a stunningly produced transfer) and DVD -- hits the street this coming Tuesday, April 19,  for purchase and (one hopes) rental, from both the MVD Entertainment Group and Amazon. Click any/all of the above links for further information.

THE ADVENTURES OF WERNER HOLT: Germany's first filmed look at its Nazi past

One of if not the first German film to tackle the dicey and (at the time -- 1965 -- relatively recent) subject of what-
did-you-do-in-World-War-II, daddy?, THE ADVENTURES OF WERNER HOLT, directed by Joachim Kunert and co-
written by Kunert & Claus Küchenmeister (from the novel by Dieter Noll), proves a lengthy but fascinating and relatively entertaining tromp through German history of the late 30s and early-to-mid 40s.

That the film was made in and by the German Democratic Republic (known to us Americans for 41 years as that naughty, scary Communist state, East Germany) makes Werner Holt even more of a curio. Once the Berlin wall came down in 1989 and the "East" ceased to officially exist by the end of the following year, the two Germanys became one again. Over the ensuing years, the East German culture of those closed decades has become more apparent, as all sorts of goodies have arrived -- from the boffo dramedy Good-Bye Lenin, the rich and exciting escape drama The Tunnel and the Academy Award-winning Best Foreign Film The Lives of Others to an entire stash of East German film productions that have now seen the light of day in the USA.

This is due in part to the combined efforts of First Run Features (FRF), partnering with ICESTORM International, which has released Werner Holt to DVD. Since June 2001, in fact, this partnership has led to FRF becoming the exclusive North American home video distributor of the films of DEFA (Deutsche Filmaktiengesellschaft), the state-run studios of the former German Democratic Republic.

Headquartered at the legendary UFA Studios in the "film city" of Babelsberg near Berlin (famous for the work of such artists as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and Marlene Dietrich), DEFA is where Oscar nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl began his career, along with many of Germany's leading contemporary actors, directors and technicians. (FRF tells us that fourteen DEFA films were recently named among the "100 Most Important German Films" of all time.) Spanning 1946 through the 1990s, these DEFA films represent Europe's largest cohesive national cinema collection.

So, what kind of film is The Adventures of Werner Holt? A Nazi Youth story filtered through the sieve of East Germany in the 1960s, it comes complete with men and women that appear both of the 1940s and the 60s, which makes for an interesting combination: armpit hair on the women, high-schoolers who looks like college grads and a very European attitude toward sex and sensuality.

The film begins at nearly the end of WWII -- as the Russians and Americans are drawing ever closer to the heart of Germany, with German soldiers deserting en masse-- and finds Werner looking back on his school days and military service and at the events that have brought him to the present moment. Throughout, the film concentrates on Werner and his closest male pals; women are given but brief encounters, the longest of which is devoted to the stepmother of one of those pals, with whom Werner begins an affair. Before joining the military he falls for a blond bombshell who does not want her young man to go off to war. He does, of course, promptly becoming involved with that stepmother. Later he'll bond with a transplanted young woman, shown below, but again, the relationship is barely developed.

Sex and sin are seen but briefly and haltingly -- this was East Germany, remember, and nowhere near as "free" as Europe and the West: note the arty-farty shadows on the wall, reflections in a photo frame, and plenty of expressionistic touches, among the typically skewed views. Yet it works rather well, for its time-frame.

The title of the film is ironic, of course. It must be. "Adventures" -- when we're dealing with Hilter Youth and the concentration camps? The latter are are touched on here, but of course, the general German populace, not to mention the soldiers themselves, can't believe that anything like this could be possible. Still, the word "adventures" primes us for something like a Nazi version of Tom Jones. But little in the film, until its finale (shown above), seems particularly ironic or humorous. At that point, however, the ironies pile up like a multi-car highway accident.

At nearly three hours, the movie is certainly long but seldom uninteresting. And the scene toward the end, when Werner and his small, bedraggled crew discover the results of an SS visit to a small local town, is riveting -- even without the usual visual gore that would accompany such a scene were the film to be made today. The cast is well chosen and delivers on its promise: Klaus-Peter Thiele, above, makes a fine, troubled Werner, and he is aided by Manfred Karge, Günter Junghans, Peter Reusse and the late Arno Wyzniewski.

The film is available for sale by FRF or Amazon (wow-- FRF's price is cheaper than that of Amazon!), and for rental at Netflix.