Hokuriku Proxy War (1977)

Anecdotes

Hokuriku Proxy War is a 1977 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku and starring Hiroki Matsukata, Sonny Chiba and Yumiko Nogawa. A jitsuroku eiga based on real events, it depicts a conflict between a wild yakuza (Matsukata) and his bosses that spreads across the Hokuriku region of Japan.

Production

Hokuriku Proxy War began as an installment in Fukasaku's New Battles Without Honor and Humanity series, before lead actor Bunta Sugawara withdrew from the project. Looking back decades later, screenwriter Koji Takada said he believed Fukasaku wanted to pack in everything he had left undone in the Battles series and to have a hero stand in the harsh climate of the Hokuriku region, and called it his favorite film by the director.

Yoko Takahashi received the offer for Hokuriku Proxy War while filming Kon Ichikawa's Rhyme of Vengeance, and her agency arranged her schedule so she could appear in both, as they really wanted her to be in what turned out to be her first Toei film. Her role was originally written as a male, but this was changed so that Yumiko Nogawa was not the only female character.

The act of burying people alive in the snow is an act of lynching taken directly from stories Kawauchi told Takada, and which the screenwriter later confirmed to have actually been used by yakuza. Takahashi explained that the film crew recreated these by digging holes, placing barrels and a small heater in them, and then placing a board on top of the actor in the barrel which was then covered with snow.

Reportedly, the Fukui Prefectural Police persistently requested that the film be canceled while supervising the shooting. Due to delays, Sadao Nakajima was called in to help as director of Unit B. Filming wrapped four days before the release date, and the entire film was finished the day before it.

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