The Film:
Mobsters Confessions or Gokudo Zangeroku to give it it's original title, is the fifth film to be released by Artsmagic in their "The Rokuro Mochizuki DVD Collection" range. As we all know, the gangster film is one of the most popular genre's of film around the world. In America, they concentrate on gangs such as the Mafia with films like Goodfellas and The Godfather. In the United Kingdom, they stick with the east end gangs from London, as seen in the hit films The Krays, Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. In Japan however, they have their own unique style of gangster film, usually based upon one of the world most feared criminal outfits, The Yakuza. Well, Mobsters' Confessions is Rokuro Mochizuki's third such film and is heavily based upon the manga Gokudo Zangeroku, written and created by Jiro Asada and Takeshi Kouno. It follows small time conman Jiro (Shunsuke Matsuoka - Gonin 2, Freeze Me, Stereo Future), who preys on failing local businesses, pretending to be from larger companies (who usually have a contract with the smaller ones), and saying that they are thinking about not renewing their contract. Well, as can be expected, the owners of the smaller companies plead with Jiro not to say anything, and with that in effect Jiro is free to bribe them of money. However, one day, he goes into a small construction company to try this con, is successful, but is noticed by a member of the Yakuza, Kamewada (Shohei Hino - Vengeance Is Mine, Owls' Castle), who is owed money by the company Jiro has just conned. Well, with Kamewada being a Yakuza boss, he wants a slice of the action and tells Jiro he would like to take a cut. He gives Jiro some insider information and even his own bodyguard and tells him to open his own office, which he does. By this point we have also been introduced to another interesting part of the story: Jiro's girlfriend Kumiko, who was the sexually abused stepdaughter of the owner of the small comstruction company Jiro has just conned. Well, as can be guessed, Jiro decides to double cross Kamewada and so the action begins. A typical gangster film where the main character has a quick rise within their gang, and a fall just as quick. Not the most original film around, or the best Yakuza film, but certainly worth a watch.
The DVD:
Video:
Mobsters Confessions has been given a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer which is a decent transfer at that. A very dark film like this always need to show great use of the colours of everything involved, from the surroundings to the characters themselves. The layer change was unfortunately very noticeable (on both my players and laptop) but was at least placed in a half decent spot where it wasn't going to interrupt the enjoyment of the movie too much. It isn't just the layer changes that suffer from this, but also changing to any page on the disc's main menu. The English subtitles are good and never too fast, in the way of the picture, or hard to read.
Audio:
We have the choice of two different soundtracks: Japanese dolby digital 5.1 and Japanese dolby digital 2.0 stereo. I listened to the 5.1 track and although the track is good, it could have used the LFE a little more in some of the more chaotic scenes of murder and gang warfare. Dialogue was clear at all time, which although it was in Japanese and I was reading the subtitles, is still very important, because it can put you off the film. Overall, a solid job.
Extras:
We have been treated to several extra features here and in this section, I’ll go into a little more detail.
Audio Commentary - First up we have an audio commentary from Asian cinema expert Tom Mes. He provides us with a very interesting and intellectual commentary covering all aspects of the film, from the direction, to the charcter development. He gives us some good information regarding some of the cast members and director Rokuro Mochizuki also, but he has got one major problem. He is boring. His tone of voice is monotonous and it sounds as though he only wants to be there so he can pick up a pay cheque.
Interview - Next, we have an exclusive twenty four minute interview with director Rokuro Mochizuki. The man is interesting and he talks about the different aspects of his career, from how he started to what he is working on now, as well as how he teamed up with the assistant directors he currently has. Presented in Japanese with English subtitles.
Cast and Crew - Finally, we finish off with various in-depth biographies for Rokuro Mochizuki and the main cast members. Interesting to read and some good information presented nicely and clearly.
OVERALL:
A solid film given a solid disc.
