Yakuza – Like a Dragon was originally released in 2007, a full two years after the release of 2005’s Yakuza. At the time, Sega’s Yakuza franchise was a series that had seen only moderate success outside of Japan, with western releases of each game facing minor changes in regard to censorship or missing content. However, this would all change with the release of 2015’s Yakuza 0. Being a prequel set in the 1980s, it was the perfect storm: unbridled silliness clashed with a heart-wrenching crime story, exciting action, and memorable characters in a game that single-handedly gave Yakuza the western popularity it deserved. Nowadays, Yakuza is arguably as popular in the United States as it is in Japan, with an updated feature film currently in development.
As with all things, people view Yakuza differently now than they did at the time of Yakuza – Like a Dragon’s release. While the feature-film adaptation of the first Yakuza game remains a mixed favorite among die-hard fans, an entirely new generation of people is more in-tune with the slicker, modern style of the current games. We have to ask: could the new Yakuza movie improve upon the original in a meaningful way?
Yakuza – Like a Dragon Is Bloated
Yakuza – Like a Dragon was directed by Takashi Miike, and anyone familiar with the prolific director’s work should know what that entails. While the film doesn’t necessarily adapt the plot beats of Yakuza perfectly, it manages to capture just about everything that makes the games so engaging. The memorable characters, intense action, and unhinged hilarity are all accounted for. It’s just that there are two hours of stuff that’s largely unrelated.
Even the most dedicated Yakuza fans will have a hard time defending the bloated runtime of the original film. Originally, Yakuza followed the story of Kazuma Kiryu, a former Yakuza member who finds himself embroiled in the theft of 10 billion yen. Having found an orphaned girl targeted by the Tojo clan, he investigates her potential connection to the crime organization and where the money could’ve gone while navigating the streets of Kamurocho. By itself, there are more than enough plot beats and dramatic twists to fill a soap opera, let alone a feature film. Despite this, Yakuza – Like a Dragon is padded with unrelated subplots and a rushed resolution that’ll leave newcomers scratching their heads. While it works in the context of being a side story in relation to the games, it ultimately doesn’t come together in a way that makes sense.
A new Yakuza film, especially with the approval of series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi, would allow for a greater degree of control and direction from the figure that guided the games to begin with. He’s been nothing but vocal about his ability to rescind creative decisions made without his direct approval, and that the film is only happening if it’s “really good.” With Nagoshi’s involvement, we can hopefully expect the new Yakuza film to stick to what it knows best.
Would a General Audience “Get” Yakuza?
Yakuza is hard to put into words. Is it an action series? A comedy? A genuine crime thriller, or a melodramatic soap opera? The truth is, Yakuza is a little bit of everything. The games allow you to separate these different genres through different forms of gameplay, and it all connects together to form a meaningful experience that has resonated in thousands of gamers’ hearts. But if you’re not already sold on the strange mix of grittiness and goofiness, what does Yakuza have to offer?
It’s a difficult question to answer. Many were unquestionably sold on the Yakuza franchise due to its equal mix of nail-biting action, bizarre subplots, and elaborate mini-games. But translating that to a film directly may lead to an extreme case of tonal and emotional whiplash. It’s another significant difference between the two entertainment mediums, one that may have to be toned down significantly in order to draw in an audience that will assuredly be unfamiliar with the franchise.
Should Yakuza Remain Unchanged?
Yakuza – Like a Dragon incorporates just about everything from the original game into its story. By “everything,” we mean absolutely everything. Kiryu’s “energy drinks” play an essential role in the film’s climax, Kiryu can be seen beating mobsters with miscellaneous objects, and the persistent threat of the eye-patched Goro Majima is played up to a hilariously-illogical extreme. For a fan of the games, it’s an absolute treat to see a professional production take the goofier, “gamey” aspects of the series and utilize them without a hint of irony or self-awareness. If you don’t have any kind of context for these moments, however, they’re downright baffling.
A problem in adapting games to films comes in the form of just how much material there is to adapt. For reference, if you were to rush through the story of Yakuza 0 without pursuing anything else it had to offer, it would still take you approximately thirty hours to finish. Even if you remove the unnecessary additions that Miike’s film was littered with, there’s still a gargantuan story left to summarily condense into a minimum of 90 minutes. While audiences are more tolerant of movies that go on forever nowadays, convincing a major studio to fund such an endeavor is a different story.
In essence, while Takashi Miike’s original outing does appeal more to fans, the new Yakuza film will likely have to shave down and restructure several plot beats in order to shape its story into something more appropriate for theaters. After all, if you want the complete story of the games, you could always just opt to play them. While little has come out in terms of updates since the film’s initial announcement, we can reasonably assume that it’s still in active development.
