Final Episode

With the authorities cracking down on organized crime, many yakuza families prolonged their existences by becoming political parties. The cops weren't fooled, but it did make it harder to prosecute them.

The talkiest of the entries and the entry burdened with the task of wrapping up dozens of loose threads, FINAL EPISODE depicts the legitimization of the crime and protection business and draws a curtain on the life of Bunta Sugawara's symbolic yakuza "torpedo".

It is as compelling for its performances as for its historical detail. Right up until the last body falls, director Fukasaku keeps the energy level high and kicks the narrative along at a heady pace.

It has been a monumental journey and a classic, unforgettable piece of cinema.

After engaging but quite confusing 3rd and 4th episodes, this 5th (and final) one I could actually follow! Not 100% of the time, but I had a much better grasp on the plot than I did in the last two- maybe to the same extent as the slightly simpler 1st and 2nd episodes.

As such, I did enjoy this one more than 3 and 4. It has a great pace throughout, maybe only faltering a little at the end, as the final few scenes don't feel as appropriate a series finale as the last few scenes in episode 4 felt.

Still, for providing more of the stuff I love about this series alone, I can't help but think this was really good. The trademark violence and chaos that defines this series has only gotten better by this point- there's an action sequence (of sorts) just over the halfway point in this instalment where the camera seems to jolt or move every time a gun is fired or a punch is landed...

...And it doesn't look cheesy; it just accentuates the brutality of what's happening in an unbelievably effective fashion. Also noticeable is how messy and clumsy so many murders and attempted murders are. I really appreciate it when a crime film emphasises how unnatural and hard it is to take a life in that kind of violent way.

This fabulous Yakuza saga scattered in five chapters since post war era until early seventies portrait an ultra-violence offering, despite the formulaic success it became a slight repetitive letting it somehow boring on successive and never-ending clashing over the opposite sides of the recently stablished Tensei organization as political party to cover up their criminal activities.

It starting in August 6th on annual march for atomic bomb event at Hiroshima, due the former Boss Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) was in jail, his successor Akira Kobayashi ought changing of the guard to younger Matsumura (Seizô Fukumoto) to dismay of the older members, it triggers a so awaited strife among Tensei to the extent of a near breakage.

Soon Hirono was release from prison moth-eaten by the pain by his brother death, thus it demanding a settlement aiming for maintain the peaceful on the business, however the former boss Akira Kobayashi tries an odd deal with Hirono to appease acrimony offering both for a retirement on behalf of a newest commanders, it wouldn't be so easy as he might think, the bloodshed will proceed.

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25.

I would have said "awful" but the other films were so great! It was such a disappointment after watching the others. At the end of the film there were too many loose ends, so much left behind unresolved with no closure for the main character or more importantly, the viewer. At this point in the series, I was having problems as well with everyone's inability to hold a gun straight. And why were they always falling down on the people they shot?

All I can say is that if this is based on the memoirs of a Yakuza boss, and these films held true to story... only then can I accept this "real" ending. Otherwise what a let down. Maybe I'm just sad it's over.

I finished the whole jingi series in 2 day and I'm rewatching the first movie and if I were to summarize this film it was basically an relativly peaceful ending to a man who lived in loyalty at the start and slowly started to get involved in a yakuza war with betral and a big physiological warfare.

Overall I absolutely loved this series and planning to watch more yakuza film and I would recommend it to anyone's who's interested.