Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War
Directed by	Kinji Fukasaku
Written by	Kazuo Kasahara Kōichi Iiboshi (story)
Music by	Toshiaki Tsushima
Cinematography	Sadaji Yoshida
Distributed by	Toei Company
Release date(s)	September 25, 1973
Running time	102 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War (仁義なき戦い　代理戦争, Jingi naki tatakai: Dairi senso) is part three of a series of yakuza films directed by Kinji Fukasaku.

Plot

1960, 15 years after the end of the end of World War II Shozo Hirono, the protagonist of the first entry has managed to create a small family, separated from the Yamamori family, whom he belonged. In the meantime he has managed to extend his circle of acquaintances, and has recently befriend a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, (to which the plot of the second movie revolved around) Noboru Uchimoto. The movie begins with Shozo, Uchimoto and Fumio Sugihara, the sworn brother to the boss of the Muraoka family and temporal leader because of the former medical problems, discussing business in the street, when they are attacked by an assassin and Sugihara ends up dead, with the killer blending in the crowd before shozo could catch him. At the funeral one of the guests pukes on the remains on the remains, leaving in hurry the others know that men was beated by sugihara and probably did it on purpose, so they ask Uchimoto, sworn brother of the deceased to take care of the man, but he cowardly refuses saying that he is a guest of the boss, much to the rage of the elder members of the family. Later Shozo meets with his advisor Kanichi Okubo, a retired yakuza, who explains that his guarantor, Yasuda, has to take care of many other people, and much to his dismay his new guarantor is Yamamori, a good businessman but incompetent boss that caused the death of his friends 5 years before. So Shozo unwillingly joins the ranks of the Yamamori family as underboss. After learning from Makihara, Yamamori's second in command, that Muraoka resigned and is to chose a successor, he realises that the only reason Yamamori took him is because of Shozo's close connections with the Muraoka family, and that most likely he was behind the assassination of Sugihara. The next day he meets with Uchimoto and others, where he learns from him that he wants to be sworn brother with someone from the Akashi family, one of the biggest families in Kobe and in all Japan in order to strengthen his position, and asks Shozo for help, given that he's friend with Shinichi Iwai, an underboss of said family. Despite advising Uchimoto not to do so, he agrees. Shozo takes under his wing a young worker named Kuramoto, a hopeless thug who recently badly hurt a sumo fighter, as a favor for his old schoolteacher. That summer, Soichi Eda is parolled from prison. Eda is one of the most powerful underbosses of the Muraokas. Sometime later Hirono, Uchimoto, Akira Takeda (underboss of the Muraokas), Eda and Hiroshi Matsunaga (Muraoka's top captain and long time friend of Shozo) all become sworn brothers. Later, thanks to Hirono, Uchimoto's request is approved and he became a sworn brother with Shigeo Aihara, who is at the same time sworn brother with Tetsuo Akihara, Oyabun of the Akihara family. Then it's explained that there is only one real threat to the Akiharas: the Shinwa group of Kobe, and a big battle was being fought all across Japan with many casualties, and with Hiroshima becoming a flash point in the struggle for control. In a conversation between Shozo and Aihara, the latter is upset because he believes Uchimoto is double crossing the family, by being officially under boss Muraoka, but at the same time making oaths of loyalty to Akihara, Hirono apologizing in his behalf, claiming that while he's a yakuza, he's also a businessman, forgive his rudeness That evening he reunites with the Muraoka underbosses. They say they are going to name Yamamori the successor. Hirono, surprised, says that is a terrible choice that everyone will regret, but the bosses say there's no other option, as Muraoka is upset with Uchimoto for swearing loyalty to Akihara, thinking that he sold Iroshima to Kobe. Matsunaga, Takeda and Eda all have their reasons not to accept, and so they have to chose Yamamori. At the same time Uchimoto enters the room in rage, because Hirono told the truth about him to Aihara, and because of that the ceremony to become sworn berother with Akihara has been put off indefinitely. This end with Uchimoto leaving and the two angry at each other. Two Months later, the Yamamori and Muraoka family form one big family, under boss Yamamori, during the celebration, in witch Yamamori ignores Hirono, despite being him who put him where he is now, Uchimoto seems even more enraged with Hirono, blaming him for not being the successor to Muraoka. Uchimoto is publicly humiliated by Yamamori, prompting him to break in tears, so the others decide to go to a bar, leaving Hirono to comfort of Uchimoto, at which point Uchimoto begins to yell at Shozo, thinking he was the one that suggested Yamamori. Uchimoto decides not to listen, and threatens to smash Yamamori and kill Hirono. Uchimoto was at the moment the mediator in a conflict between Hamazake anf Komoro families from Iwakuni, and both being supported by Shinwa and Akihara. He decides to use this to begin a proxy war, and take control of the Yamamori family which he believes is rightfully his.

Cast

• Bunta Sugawara as Shozo Hirono
• Akira Kobayashi
• Tsunehiko Watase as Kuramoto Takeshi
• Shingo Yamashiro
• Reiko Ike
• Koshinitsue Hori
• Hideko Nakamura
• Nobuo Kaneko
• Toshie Kimura as Mrs. Yamamori
• Takeshi Katô
• Mikio Narita
• Kunie Tanaka
• Tatsuo Umemiya as Kishimoto (cameo)
• Takuzo Kawatani as Thug being beaten
• Tetsuro Tamba as Akashi Tatsuo
• Seizo Fukumoto
• Yasuo Matsumoto
• Sen Okaji as Hiromitsu Nagao

Other credits

• Writing
  • Kōichi Iiboshi: story
  • Kazuo Kasahara: screenplay

External links

• Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War at the Internet Movie Database
• Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War (Japanese) at the Japanese Movie Database