Yakuza Princess (2021)

Yakuza Princess (2021)
Original title: A Princesa da Yakuza

 

Starring: MASUMI, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Eijiro Ozaki, Toshiji Takeshima, Mariko Takai, André Ramiro, Toshi Tanaka, Yumiko Yuba
Director: Vincente Amorim
Action Directors: Agnaldo Bueno, Ricardo Rizzo

 

Yet another movie that pits a female action hero against the Yakuza, following in the footsteps of Kate and (to a lesser extent) Everly. Yakuza Princess stands out by being a Brazilian production, set in Brazil and based off of a Brazilian manga, that being Samurai Shiro. Despite the number of Brazilians behind the camera and being filmed in bairro of Liberdade, the Japantown of São Paulo, the fact that most of the dialog is done in English and Japanese means that the end result doesn’t feel particularly Brazilian. It is probably the weakest of the female-centric movies I’ve reviewed as part of this particular cycle.

Following the massacre of an important Yakuza family in 1999, one of dead boss’s chief enforcers rescues his infant daughter, Aki, and whisks her away to Brazil, raising her as his own grandchild. She grows up to be Akemi (Japanese-American singer MASUMI), who studies kendo and works in Liberdade in a small kiosk selling electronics and other knick-knacks. Her grandfather has since passed…or in fact, was murdered during a mugging gone wrong. On her 21^st birthday, she goes to a club to sing karaoke and meets a couple of would-be rapists…whom she puts down with her martial arts skills.

In a parallel storyline, a Caucasian man (The Children of Huang Shi’s Jonathan Rhys Meyers) wakes up in a São Paulo hospital after having been in a coma for an undisclosed period of time. His face is covered with deep slash marks and, as we have learned, the police found him unconscious in the street holding a katana sword. The man—whom we’ll call Shiro—has amnesia and has no idea who he is or how he ended up in Brazil holding a samurai sword. Shiro eventually escapes from the hospital—which include a scene of him walking around with his bait-and-tackle in full view—and starts looking for answers. He visits an antique shop in Liberdade whose owner, under threat of decapitation, gives him Akemi’s address.

Meanwhile, back in Osaka, a Yakuza lieutenant named Takeshi (Tsuyoshi Ihara, of Ninja and 13 Assassins) is interrogating a fellow Yakuza for embezzlement when the guy whispers something particularly interesting in his ear. Takeshi kills the man and the two enforcers charged with torturing the guy. He then hot-foots it to Brazil, presumably because he now knows about Akemi’s existence.

The three plot threads eventually meet at Akemi’s apartment, when the would-be rapists show up looking for revenge. Before they can violate her, Shiro appears out of the shadows and starts hacking at them with the katana he stole from the hospital. Akemi touches the blade at one point and goes into automatic Ichi mode. And then, Takeshi shows up and starts putting bullets in everybody who isn’t dead. Akemi and Shiro barely make it out alive. A conversation with her kendo teacher—he grows pale when he sees the katana—ultimately puts her on a path to discover her heritage and the real identity of late “grandfather.” Meanwhile, the Yakuza who assassinated Akemi’s family are now in São Paulo, too…

First off, this movie looks good. The production values are fine and the bairro of Liberdade is filmed in a way that make it far more attractive by night than it does during the day. The photography is strong throughout and, like Kate, this is just a beautiful film all around.

Much like other recent movies about the Yakuza—Everly; DARC; and Kate—this film is very violent. There are several decapitations and limb severings, including loving close-up on a severed hand and its stump. The opening bloodbath is pretty hardcore, as the killers do not even have mercy on children. Beyond that, there are bounteous stabbings, slashings, shootings and hackings. The blood flows abundantly in Yakuza Princess. I’m actually surprised that this film didn’t merit an “18 anos” rating in Brazil, considering the level of the graphic violence on display plus the prolonged exposure to Jonathan Rhys Meyers’s cojones.

There are some editing issues: almost every scene in this 110­+ minute film probably runs about 20-30 seconds longer than need be. You get the feeling that director Vincente Amorim wanted to do something artistic: “Manga is art. So this needs to be equally artistic, too!” It does drag the film more than it should, however. And if the scenes last longer than they should, then the opposite is true during the fights. The editing there is chaotic during some of the fights.

The biggest liability is MASUMI, who plays the titular character. Sadly, she apparently graduated from the Devon Aoki School of One-Expression Acting, and her delivery is frequently in a flat monotone. She does manage a bit more emotion in a few scenes, but otherwise is more wooden than a bokken at an Aikido school—I’d say shinai, but those are bamboo.

The action scenes were directed by Brazilian stunt coordinator Agnaldo Bueno, who is basically the only real stunt coordinator here, as far as I can tell. He did some stuntwork in Hollywood films like The Expendables and Fast Five, plus some fight choreography in a Brazilian soap opera called Negócio da China. The fights, however, were staged by a local named Ricardo Rizzo, whose filmography I haven’t been able to identify. The fights are just okay. The best one occurs near the end, where MASUMI and Tsuyoshi Ihara face off with a trio of assassins in a storage room, two of whom are dressed like rejects from a Kill Bill audition. I say it’s the best mainly because it’s the most protracted. Most of the fights end in a few hits or sword strokes.

Yakuza Princess is mainly a curio for people who simply like movies involving the Yakuza and/or katana blades. Or those who need to see every single female-centric action thriller ever made. Guilty on two of three of those counts.