Onibi-The Fire Within
(Artsmagic Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(1998)
review by Big McLargehuge

This is the best Yakuza film I have ever seen.

In essence, Onbi: The Fire Within is really a sequel to 1996’s Yakuza melodrama “Another Lonely Hitman”. The screenplay for Onibi, like that for Another Lonely Hitman, also comes from the fertile mind of Yukio Yamanouchi. Some Internet discussions of this film suggest that Yamanouchi may in fact be a yakuza soldier, a comment made by director Rokuro Mochizuki also alludes to this. That being the case it helps explain the richness of the characterizations. Rather than present us with simple, unidimensional, tough talking thugs, Yamanouchi offers us characters who are much closer to thinking, feeling, human beings, and it’s a really nice change from what we Yakuza film fans have come to expect from the genre.

Onbi again focuses on a former Yakuza muscle released from prison into the everyday world where the gang for whom he killed for no longer exists, and prospects for a “normal” life are distant if not impossible.

Kunihiro’s last stint in the slammer was for the stabbing death of two members of a rival gang. Released with only the clothes on his back he staggers into the Osaka cityscape like a shadow.

Kunihiro is approached by his old underling, Tanigawa. But, due to the continual evolution of Yakuza loyalties, serves in the very gang whose members Kunihiro killed. He offers to help get him a job and also offers the standard “welcome back to the world” payoff.

Kunihiro rejects the money and takes up residence with a gay friend named Sakata. Sakata has peripheral connections to the vast Osaka underworld via his position as a bartender in an upscale restaurant. Kunihiro tries to get a chauffeur’s license but can’t memorize the test answers. This failure drives him back to the Myojin gang where he accepts a position as a driver for two bagmen.

Now back in the gang, although on a low level, Kunihiro begins to see the path where this position will take him. It is not long, in fact not long at all, before his special skills are called upon to collect a debt owed to the Myojin gang.

As reward for his service the gang leader takes him and Tanagawa to a “date club” where Kunihiro falls immediately for the part-time piano player named Asako. She agrees to spend the night with him on Tanagawa’s tab, but finds herself in love with the gangster.

Asako spins a tale of her sister, who, while a girlfriend of a Fujita, a car importer, was driven insane by his abuse. Now Asako wants to kill him in revenge.

This all sounds very typical of a yakuza film, yes? What separates Onbi from countless others in this genre, even the predecessor, is that the actual yakuza crime stuff takes up only about 5% of the entire film. Onibi is much less a story about a Yakuza hitman than it is a love story between Kunihiro and Asako.

Adding a nice twist to the story is that Onibi focuses almost exclusively on Kunihiro’s slow awakening to almost “normal” feelings for another person. There is a great little scene about two thirds of the way in where Kunihiro and Asako have just rented a small villa and while standing in the window Asaka asks who is more important, her or Tanigawa.

Kunihiro answers “Tanigawa” but when asked who he likes more answers “Asako”. This exchange illustrates the slow emergence of an almost normal person from the depths of violence and conflict that so defined his life. It’s a masterful scene and helps give the characters that needed third dimension so critical to good drama.

The blowback from their interaction with the car importer (they don’t kill him, but do burn up his car filled with pictures of Asako in bondage porn) forces Kunihiro out of the gang and into a blue-collar job as a printer’s assistant. With Asako waiting at home, and with a secure job, Kunihiro has essentially beaten the odds for someone so recently released from prison. But, as with any film about people who killed for a living, there are parts of Kunihiro’s personality that cannot be denied and it is only a matter of time before they manifest.

That understanding of Kunihiro’s character is sort of tantamount to enjoying the film. The audience has to know that something is going to set Kunihiro off, and if it isn’t something happening to Tanagawa, then it will be something that happens to Asako.

It is impossible to talk about this film without mentioning the soundtrack.

The soundtrack contains exclusively western classical music, and it wasn’t until the interview with the director (a great special feature) that this choice made sense. Japanese prisoners are only allowed to listen to classical music as it is soothing. The selection of Beethoven’s Pathetic’ Sonata, with its languid and melancholy melody, provides a perfect atmosphere for Onibi.

The acting is universally excellent. Yoshio Harada as Kunihiro presents his socially outcast hitman with a deliberate measure of innocence and calm. His virtually emotionless façade only opens up when he is alone with

Reiko Kataoka provides a beautifully realized character in Asako, also outcast among society from her relationship with Fujita, and now living as both a prostitute and piano player she takes to Kunihiro as a lover, and at times almost, like a daughter. Her quiet moments are mesmerizing.

The rest of the cast, when they are in the film (albeit not all that often) are excellent as well.

Rokuro Mochizuki is a master director. He made his start in Japanese porn and his understanding of the sensual nature of film shows here so well that some scenes were almost embarrassingly personal to watch. He allows the camera to have a certain breezy and intimate relationship with both Kunihiro and Asako when together, but maintains a definite distance at all other times. Mochizuki frames several conversations against the enormous industrial background of Osaka further illustrating the almost phantom-like insignificance of his characters to the world around them.

Artsmagic releases Onibi: The Fire Within in a nice crisp 1:78-1 anamorphic widescreen print in original Japanese with English subs. The DVD also contains a great interview with Mochizuki who discusses how an actual murder with whom he dined inspired the Kunihiro character, how an epidemic of food poisoning made production difficult, and how his previous film experiences led him here. It’s a great and informative, if low-key, interview. The DVD also contains a commentary track with Tom Mes, and expert on Japanese cinema.

Onibi: The Fire Within is a quiet Yakuza film. You won’t find frenetic action, shootouts, or long debates about honor here. Fans of Takeshi Miike or Takeshi Kitano films take note because this isn’t your movie. But that said, the quiet desperation and low-key, almost meandering storytelling will make Onibi accessible to almost everyone who bothers to put the disc into the DVD player.

Check out this and other great Artsmagic releases here!