Jingi's hell
Seventh film of Ishii's ero guro series, Yakuza' s Law takes again the "formula" of Criminal Women, namely the series of sketches as a pretext for shock scenes. Here, there are three stories around punishments for having transgressed the law of the yakuzas, these stories being located at three different times: the Edo era, the Meiji era and the contemporary time. The first is a short period film, the second corresponds to a pitch seen thousand times in the ninkyo genre and the last one announces by its dry style and its realism the jitsuroku of the seventies. The first history confirms that Ishii Teruo is not made for the period cinema and even less for sword cinema. The use of the voiceover is often useless, pointing out heavily the laws of the yakuzas. The second looks like bloody ninkyo where the stylistic treatment spoils the spectacular potential of the sword scenes. Without being astounding, the third is the only one to have a light interest. Its dry and chopped style announces the more realistic seventies approach of the genre. Like the whole of a film not idealizing the yakuzas and in that at the opposite of a ninkyo living its last hours. But this last part suffers from the comparison with more inspired works having taken this road during the seventies. One thus sees the importance the work of Ishii had in the evolution of the yakuza eiga. For a mediocre but not unworthy of interest film...
PS: I prefer remembering Ishii for his good Abashiri Prison series rather than for his more famous in the West ero guro movies. RIP.
