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is a 1996
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese direct-to-video
yakuza film is a popular film genre in Japanese cinema which focuses on the lives and dealings of ''yakuza'', Japanese organized crime syndicates. In the silent film era, depictions of '' bakuto'' (precursors to modern yakuza) as sympathetic Robin Hood- ...
directed by
Takashi Miike is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over 100 feature film, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films span a variety of different genres, ranging from violent and surrealism, b ...
. The film's title has also been translated as ''Ruthless Ambition'' and ''Heartless Ambition''. It was followed by '' Ambition Without Honor 2'' in 1997.


Plot

The film follows Tetsuya, an aspiring young yakuza. At age 17 he kills the head of a rival family in order to become a made yakuza in his own family. He spends seven years in jail but when he is released, he finds that the two formerly rival families have now reconciled. In order to make peace, Tetsuya's family is forced to banish him. They break their promise to make him a full yakuza and his back tattoo is left unfinished. Left without a family, Tetsuya sets out on a one-man path of destruction.


Cast


Reception

The French website darksidereviews.com called the film a "sympathetic homage to Fukasaku" and gave it 5.5 stars out of 10. Reviewer Marina D. Richter of asianmoviepulse.com wrote that it "feels like a rehearsal for the later yakuza-themed Takashi's films like 'Deadly Outlaw: Rekka' or 'Graveyard of Honor' (both from 2002)". The website onderhond.com called it "dubious filler" and rated it 2 out of 5. The website Cinema Dailies analyzed the scores of the film on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
,
IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...
, and
Letterboxd Letterboxd ( ) is an online social cataloging service for film founded (partially with investment company Tiny since 2023) and owned by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow in 2011, and headquartered in New Zealand. Members can rate and review ...
and found that ''Ambition Without Honor'' is ranked Takashi Miike's 64th best film.


Critical analysis

In his book ''Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike'', author Tom Mes writes that the film's "title was an explicit reference to the successful yakuza series ''
Battles Without Honor and Humanity , also known in the West as ''The Yakuza Papers'', is a Japanese yakuza film series produced by Toei Company. Inspired by a series of magazine articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi that are based on memoirs originally written by real-life ya ...
'' directed by
Kinji Fukasaku was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking", Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty Yakuza film, yakuza films, typified by the Battles With ...
in the first half of the 1970s and also produced by Toei. The film itself however bore little relation to Fukasaku's films, the only connections being composer Toshiaki Tsushima (whose score does resemble his famous soundtrack for the ''Battles'' series) and actors Shinichiro Mikami, Nobuo Yana and Harumi Sone. Sane, who had played the role of Soma in Miike's ''Daisan No Gokudō'' films, served as producer on ''Jingi Naki Yabō''. The film was an attempt to launch his son Hideki as a leading man in V-cinema, an intention reflected in the story, which deals with a father-son relation ship and the gap between generations." Ultimately, Mes finds that "at the heart of ''Jingi Naki Yabōs narrative lies the generation gap. The story is Tetsuya's search for a father figure." Mes continues, writing, "Although its main character is another typical Miike outcast, this weakness and the film’s unremarkable handling on a stylistic level make ''Jingi Naki Yabō'' at best an average entry in the director's filmography. Something emphasised by the success of Miike's next exploration of the clash between young and old."


Sequel

A sequel, '' Ambition Without Honor 2'', also directed by Takashi Miike, was released in 1997.


References


External links

* 1996 films 1990s Japanese-language films Yakuza films Films directed by Takashi Miike Japanese direct-to-video films 1990s Japanese films {{1990s-Japan-film-stub