Black Society Trilogy [Blu-ray]

Black Society Trilogy is a collection of movies directed by the now legendary Takashi Miike. The director is well known for movies like Thirteen Assassins, Audition, Ichi The Killer and One Missed Call. But when you look at his full filmography, you can see that he's got a lot of films that aren't well known and aren't regularly available. This group of movies are not as well known with the general public but are quite popular with Miike's more diehard fans and for good reason.The first film in the Black Society Trilogy is Shinjuku Triad Society. A cop thriller about a corrupt police officer trying to bring down a Taiwanese mob boss. He discovers his brother is working with the bad guys and his attempt at correcting the situation ends up in all out war between the police and the criminals. The film was originally released in 1995 and was written by Ichiró Fujita.The second is Rainy Dog, the first fan favourite in Miike's filmography. A simple story about an Yuuji (Show Aikawa), a recently fired yakuza member. He finds himself as an assassin for hire and a sudden father after an old flame dumps a young boy at his door step. We follow Yuuji going through the motions as he tries to go through his work and tries to help his son and a befriended lady friend escape the criminal lifestyle. The film was originally released in 1997, runs at an easy ninety five minutes and was based on a script by Seigo Inoue.The third and final film, Ley Lines is the trilogy is by far my favourite of the bunch. The film is based on a screen play by Ichiro Ryu, was produced by Toshiki Kimura and was originally released in 1999. The film follows two brothers Ryuichi and Shunrei as they try to escape life in a quiet village. They head into town and get themselves caught up in some criminal activity. As a bunch of immature youngsters, they don't quite realise what they have got themselves into and we find ourselves following them through the dramatic consequences of their actions.As a collection of movies, this was a tenner very well spent. I can happily say that Ley Lines is my favourite of the bunch. I enjoyed the characters, the pacing was spot on and it was just a fun movie to watch thanks to the well placed humour. Even if it gets a bit dark in places. Rainy Dog was also extremely well paced and went by real quick. In fact, I was very impressed how the film spend an hour focusing mostly on character development and didn't once get boring. The last half hour picks up the pace and has a fantastic end to the movie (no spoilers). It's also a very good film but doesn't quite hit me like Ley Lines did. Shinjuku Triad Society had some pacing issues and felt like a slog at times. It's not a bad movie but it felt like they could have edited it a bit more to make it flow better. It's also the most shocking of the three films. It's a very sexual film and is borderline softcore porn at points. It's a pretty dark movie and quite the contrast to the other two. It's the weakest of the three but still worth seeing.The Arrow Video release doesn't have much in the way of extras. The films are obviously high definition and have the original uncompressed audio. There's also new audio commentaries from Miike's biographer Tom Mes, the original trailers for the films and a couple of interviews. It's a bit lacking in this department which is a shame. The transfers themselves look alright. They're clearly low budget movies and because of that, the image quality is fairly soft looking and not very pretty to look at. The overall quality does improve as you progress through the trilogy however, Ley Lines being the best looking.I paid £9.99 for this movie collection and I'm very happy with it. I don't know how often I could watch Shinjuku Triad Society but Rainy Dog and Ley Lines are going to be great movies to return to. I highly recommend picking up this collection for those movies alone.

Three early gritty films about alienated characters and the seedy criminal worlds they inhabit. Triad Society is full throttle nasty but I also found it engaging and bold. Rainy Dog has better cinematography and a strong sense of mood it is also more emotionally engaging. Ley Lines is more drama than crime film and I found it less enjoyable although there are some fine scenes and performances. I recommend these films and feel they are better than many of the very silly films the director has made in recent years while not three of his best works. Nice package and presentation from Arrow.Shinjuku Triad Society 7/10Rainy Dog 8/10Ley Lines 6/10

I find it surprising that no one thought to mention that 'Ley lines' (black society trilogy) is a censored version with rude words beeped out and naughty bits concealed. 'Shinjuku triad society' is easily the best film, 5stars, a riot of sex & violence, brilliant.

Great presentation of Miike classics

yuh!

Rainy Dog is the only movie of this trilogy worth your time. The first movie has it's moments but overall I feel is a mess, full of homosexual sex scenes.Ley Lines I turned off after 45 minutes. Yet again, lots of sex scenes around a plot that isn't interesting at all. I can't believe the great Takeshii Miike made these movies to be honest.However, the Arrow presentation as per usual is top notch. No complaints there.

If you like Japanese gangster movie please get this. Takashi Miike never disappoints anyone.

Blu ray quality very worse. My german Dvds are better quality than this.