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Ambition Without Honor
Directed by	Takashi Miike
Written by	Muneo Kishi
Produced by	Harumi Sone
Cinematography	Muneyuki Tsuda
Music by	Toshiaki Tsushima
Release date	April 12, 1996 (1996-04-12)
Running time	95 minutes
Language	Japanese

Ambition Without Honor (Japanese: 仁義なき野望, Hepburn: Jingi naki yabō) is a 1996 Japanese direct-to-video yakuza film directed by Takashi Miike. 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, IMDb, and Letterboxd 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 directed by Kinji Fukasaku 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 Yabō's 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

1. Chris, D. (May 27, 2005). Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781845110901 – via Google Books.
2. "[Avis] Ambition Without Honor, de Miike Takashi (1996)". February 3, 2014.
3. Richter, Marina D. (December 17, 2019). "Film Review: Ambition without Honor (1986) by Takashi Miike".
4. "Takashi Miike". www.onderhond.com.
5. "Ranking All Of Director Takashi Miike's Movies". June 14, 2018.
6. Mes, Tom (January 3, 2006). Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike. FAB Press. ISBN 9781903254417 – via Google Books.
7. Mes, Tom (January 3, 2006). Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike. FAB Press. ISBN 9781903254417 – via Google Books.
8. Mes, Tom (January 3, 2006). Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike. FAB Press. ISBN 9781903254417 – via Google Books.

External links

• Ambition Without Honor at IMDb

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• 1996 films
• 1990s Japanese-language films
• Yakuza films
• Films directed by Takashi Miike
• Japanese direct-to-video films
• 1990s Japanese films
• 1990s Japanese film stubs