Definitely has similarities to Fukasaku's Yakuza Papers series (not that there's anything wrong with that!) in terms of pacing and visuals. It is, however, a little easier to follow, thanks to honing in on one main protagonist all the way through, and not having as many important supporting characters.
Most challenging here is that the protagonist does some really terrible things, even by the standards of crime film protagonists. He's not supposed to be likeable of course, but the film arguably does go a little further than it needs to when it comes to how he treats some female characters.
Other complaints might be some occasional weird, jarring edits, and the colour filters - while keeping things varied - didn't always seem to be purposeful? But that might just be me.
So there are problems, but the acting is good, as is everything that works in the Yakuza Papers series, so Graveyard of Honor is easy to recommend to any fans of that series, or Yakuza movies like them.
Am looking forward to watching Miike's remake, too. I hope there's a good reason for it being 40 minutes longer than this one, too.
Most challenging here is that the protagonist does some really terrible things, even by the standards of crime film protagonists. He's not supposed to be likeable of course, but the film arguably does go a little further than it needs to when it comes to how he treats some female characters.
Other complaints might be some occasional weird, jarring edits, and the colour filters - while keeping things varied - didn't always seem to be purposeful? But that might just be me.
So there are problems, but the acting is good, as is everything that works in the Yakuza Papers series, so Graveyard of Honor is easy to recommend to any fans of that series, or Yakuza movies like them.
Am looking forward to watching Miike's remake, too. I hope there's a good reason for it being 40 minutes longer than this one, too.