The Yakuza and High Anxiety

Robert Mitchum is cool and Mel Brooks is nervous.



Mitchum is the star power but this is Ken Takakura's movie and he is the motherfucking man. Watch him stride through the room starting at :26 in the above video. It's frightening, even though you're rooting for him. This is arguably the climactic scene of the film and you're watching a man who's been holding back for over 25 years finally let go.

The Yakuza is an amazing film. It has an east meets west theme but never makes its Asian characters into magical Zen weirdos. The entire film is, I feel, a metaphor for the U.S. and Japan finally overcoming their differences after WWII. Mitchum goes to Japan to help an American friend whose daughter has been kidnapped and gets re-involved with the woman he left behind there twenty-five years before; his old conflict with her brother, Takakura, which is the reason he had to leave, is still fresh.



What can you say about Mel Brooks? He's not my go-to director; most of his comedy is just too broad for my liking, but High Anxiety charmed me against my will. Madeline Kahn is always fun to watch, and who knew Brooks was a crooner?