[Movie Review] The Blood of Wolves 孤狼の血

A nitty gritty homage to yakuza films. While this genre is no longer as prevalent as it was in the old age of Japanese cinema, The Blood of Wolves captures the essence of the yakuza and police in Showa era Japan. This is my first yakuza film to date. Other content I've watched are usually focused on something else while the yakuza are side characters or pushing conflict in the story. I don't think I've mentioned on this blog (or maybe I did) that I am a big fan of the Yakuza game franchise. This series of games and spinoffs really furthered my interest in yakuza/gangster media and related entertainment. Naturally when I discovered a title like The Blood of Wolves, I knew I had to give it a try. I only heard about this film because there's a sequel planned for it and Saitoh Takumi was announced as one of the cast members. As a result, I decided to do some additional research which led me to this amazing movie. Japan sometimes creates some questionable movies, but then they come out with gems like these.

Drama Review: Take Five

Not every thief is a bad guy. Certainly not Take Five, a team dedicated to stealing from the bad to help people. Twenty years ago, the original Take Five disbanded due to the death of a policeman. Twenty years later, the new Team Five assembles and team leader, Homura Masayoshi (Karasawa Toshiaki), is looking for the truth behind the stolen painting that resulted in the death of a policeman. I watched the drama as a Cantonese dub and it was a very good one. The voices synced very well to the video and matched their characters really well.