Volume 3 of The Yakuza Papers is labelled Proxy War, in reference to the Yakuza wars that led to quiet alliances with Soviets and Americans, with the Japanese playing piggy in the middle and pawns on a chessboard of global trade and territory. Fukusaku is unrelenting in his commentary on the American forces that desimated Japan.

Having given Yamamori 18 years of his life and then dragged back into work for him, a series of events brings in Takeda of the Muroakwa group, where Murokawa has retired. Yamamori is grudginly given the support to take over the family and to grow his empire, much to the irritation of a rival in the form of Uchimoto, an equally cunning and slimey brown-noser who enlists the support of the Akashi family of Hiroshima. In retaliation, Yamamori forms an alliance with the Shinta group and fires Shozo out of spite, and so the battle lines have been set for a war between two groups, all instigated by Yamamori’s betrayal of Shozo and Shozo’s determination to kill Yamamori.

What I loved about Proxy Wars was that no one could be trusted. You already know and it has been established that Shozo is the anti-hero in all of this, and the good guy compared to everyone else he meets. With everyone else, it’s unpredictable; you know they’re deceitful letches, but you don’t know how far they’ll go, and how low they will reach to get to the top. There is no sense of honour, or pride amongst the rabble of wannabe-Yakuza leaders, and it seems that whenever the brown stuff hits the fan, it always lands on Shozo’s doorstep. Still, Shozo takes it like a leader, even when members of his own family try to kill him.

There’s an enormous amount of death and violence, and even rape, within the film – much more than Fuksaku’s earlier volumes.

Proxy Wars sets an interesting outline of what is to come in the following volumes. We can expect a large scale Yakuza war, and no doubt Shozo will be the centre of attention during this, and two very large, rival Yakuza families will be at each other throats. What is interesting is the involvement of the police, and as with volume 2, they too have become more involved in the wars themselves. The corruption and dishonesty reaches many, and even those meant to protect the innocent are vulnerable to failing those whom they serve.

Shozo has grown ever bigger in status, and the incidents of Hiroshima have landed him in good company within the Yakuza heirarchy. Proxy War is a very, very complicated film to follow as we see betrayal and reconcilliation take place more times than you’ve had hot dinners. It’s a struggle to keep up with who’s betraying who, and who to trust, but it’s just barely managable. It almost recreates the setting of the first film, with Yamamori reorgansing and having a new team of underbosses, and forcing Shozo to join if he wants to be sponsored for his parole. With little choice, Shozo returns, but with much hatred between the two men.

Having gone into bigger circles, and having the respect and ear of everyone within the Yakuza, Shozo demonstrates his own cunning, which is perhaps more devlish than those that continually betray him. Even when it seems the chips are down, and Shozo is going to lose out, he manages to outwit everyone and come out on top. Instigating perhaps the biggest family war, Shozo becomes involved in a Yakuza fight that involves the consolidation of several smaller groups into larger ones, with Shozo being offered deals left right and centre.

There’s an enormous amount of death and violence, and even rape, within the film – much more than Fuksaku’s earlier volumes. You get three times the action, violence, but also a bigger epic. Although I wouldn’t rate as highly as the first film, I feel it is a better, more focused film than the second volume. This may be because Shozo is once more the main focus, rather than a third party character who’s suddenly introduced and takes over. Incidents of the second film are barely touched upon in the third film, which leads me to believe that volume 2 was an experiment that didn’t quite work.

With everyone else, it’s unpredictable; you know they’re deceitful letches, but you don’t know how far they’ll go, and how low they will reach to get to the top

The various underhanded, shady dealings, the huge amount of lies and backbiting, backstabbing are thoroughly entertaining to watch. Shozo struggles to keep the peace with everyone, but at the same time he doesn’t seem as his behaviour makes you wonder if he doesn’t already think he leads the Yakuza. He’s rebellious and hardlined attitude towards deceny and the Yakuza way offers him little in the way of friends, and in the end, it’s those that he serves that end up betraying him.

This is the most action packed volume so far, and perhaps the most critical on what major changes will take place in the remaining saga of The Yakuza Papers. The performances are on par with the previous episodes, but taking a more gallant approach, with almost documetnary style filming at times; a technique he favours in his later work. Proxy War has me watering at the prospect of what will happen next, and for that, it accomplishes his job as a sequel.

Verdict: Polished, grander second sequel to the The Yakuza Papers. Sometimes confusing, but never dull.