Defense (Spoilers)


Enjoyed this film, but one question keeps nagging me. Why is it that every Yakuza that died, just stood there?

Don't you think any of them would shoot first, or try to dodge an attack, or perhaps be at the ready. I'm thinking of when Otomo's office was shot up (no guards at the door). Or perhaps the guy who waltzed in and dropped a greanade on the luncheon.

It just struck me that none of the people that died took any measures to protect themselves, or have any level of security. If one were in a state of war, you would think they wouldn't be sitting around the office awaiting a machine-gun toting guest to invite themselves in.

Good film though - just saying.

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May be the style chosen for the movie to communicate a sense of inevitability. It could also be the way of the yakuza - not afraid of getting killed.

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That seems to be a running theme in Kitano's movies. I'm reminded of the scene in Sonatine (don't worry, it's not a big spoiler or anything) where there was a shootout in a bar. Nobody even made any effort to take cover, everyone involved just stood and shot as casually as if they were using the TV remote. These characters in Kitano's movies are kind of shells of humanity and I think on some level they accept the inevitable. One of the statements this movie seemed to be making was how pointless the yakuza life really is.

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
- Goethe

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You may be tough but the mind can freeze up when confronted with the unexpcted. Just long enough to get you killed.


I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else

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