Notable Cast: Bunta Sugawara, Akira Kobayashi, Kinya Kitaoji Jo Shishido, Junkichi Orimoto, Kunie Tanaka, Shingo Yamashiro, Hiroki Matsukata
As far as original writer Kazuo Kasahara was concerned, the Battles Without Honor and Humanity
series was finished after the fourth film Police
Tactics. Truthfully, that film did feel like a solid ending to the story
that was being told. Many characters reached their logical conclusion and the
arrival of an agreement between smaller warring yakuza factions to create a
political coalition that essentially ended their yakuza focus worked. End of story, right? Wrong.
Popularity with the series led to there being at least one last film in the original
run (there is a spin off series that would come soon after too), but original
writer Kasahara did not come back. However, almost everyone else did including
director Kinji Fukasaku. The results are the aptly titled Final Episode, a solid and entertaining installment into the Battles series that too often gets
written off as an inferior and ‘tacked on’ ending to the series. Final Episode however fits the style and
tone even if it occasionally lacks the depth and subtlety of its predecessors
to make it a worthy sequel.
