I really liked The Game Trilogy and I think you will too.

That being said, you do have to remember that it’s a product of its time. It’s from the 1970s. The way women are treated in particular might raise your eyebrows. But ultimately, the hero seems to try to do right by them, or else I wouldn’t recommend it, although you might have to wait until the end to see how.

It is also noir, so it’s not just a product of its time but also a product of its genre, and women in noir films live tough lives and are tough themselves. But it can be a little dark, so fair warning. There’s a lot of peeling paint, rusty pipes, and smoke-filled rooms. Not everyone makes it out of those rooms alive. It’s not for the faint of heart.

And that’s not to say that the films aren’t stylishly shot though. They are. There is a certain glamour to the costumes for example: every man is in a suit, the women in gowns, the cars are luxury automobiles with wood accents. Everyone has sweet shades and good skin. Japanese cities tend to be aesthetically pleasing-when you’re not shooting your way through their rotten underbelly.

It’s basically L.A. noir shot in Japan. It’s a contrast of light and dark, of extreme beauty and violent ugliness.

At the heart of it is Shohei Narumi, hitman, played by the iconic Yusaku Matsuda.

This is why I bought the collection in the first place, for him.

I’ve been a huge fan of Cowboy Bebop since it first aired during Adult Swim on Cartoon Network back in the early 2000s. It’s one of my all-time favorite stories in any medium. Spike Spiegel, the main character of the show, was based on Yusaku Matsuda.

For the longest time, the only film I knew how to get of Matsuda’s was Black Rain, by Ridley Scott. It’s an okay film. Matsuda was actually dying of cancer when he filmed the movie, unfortunately, so he wasn’t exactly at his best, and I never really got the Bebop connection.

When I saw this trilogy on Arrow’s website I decided to revisit my curiosity about this actor. So, I ordered it. It’s the only thing other than Black Rain that I’ve seen him in.

And now I get it.

He’s basically Spike. He’s built like Spike. He fights like Spike. He has that same mixture of cool and uncool, like he doesn’t care all that much about what people think of him because no one can kick his —. He has the same laconic manner of communicating, and the same aimless drifting. And he’s just as lethal.

But he isn’t wounded, though. And he isn’t as endearing as Spike. There’s something lovable about Spike, almost childlike and innocent about him that Matsuda’s Narumi does not have at all. They are both tough guys, and they both have hearts underneath their tough exteriors, but Narumi will do things that Spike never would.

And for the record, I’m not sure it’s this particular character of Matsuda’s that inspired Spike. I think it’s the actor’s oeuvre in general.

As for the films themselves, I can say that I’m a fan of them now in their own right. And I can see why Spike is based off of Yusaku Matsuda. He really sells the films. He was a good action star, and these are good action films.

A standout characteristic of them all, for example, is the long shot “assault on the castle”, to borrow a term from Save the Cat. You can really get an appreciation for how good Matsuda was at physical acting by watching just these shots.

In the last film, The Execution Game, for example, to begin the climactic battle, Narumi has to infiltrate a crime organization’s base. The camera starts rolling as he steps through the ground level threshold, after killing a few bad guys outside.

This same shot lasts for the next two minutes and fifty-three seconds (2:53). During this time, Narumi proceeds through a warren of hallways and rooms, killing everyone he meets, John Wick style.

I counted them all. In total, he shoots and/or martial arts to death seventeen assailants, who are popping out at him like he’s in a haunted house (the lighting is dim). He goes through four rooms, down five hallways, and up one flight of stairs, fighting the whole time. All in the same shot. Matsuda just remembering where everyone was is kind of a feat in itself.

The camera follows behind him, handheld, documentary style, like it’s in the position of the second Swat Team member or something.

The very next shot is three minutes and twenty seconds long (3:20) of him continuing the rampage.

The body count for this shot is even greater – eighteen deaths. Two by bludgeoning with a wooden stick. He goes through another room, up a flight of stairs, and down six hallways before the shot ends.

Combined, that’s thirty-five kills, five rooms, two flights of stairs (one two-stories), and eleven hallways for a combined six minutes and thirteen seconds (6:13) of screentime in two shots. For comparison, the average length shot in an action movie today is 4 seconds. How many shots are in the average movie?

This might sound like just a boring kill fest but it’s actually pretty compelling and intelligently done. You feel the jeopardy that Narumi is in and you understand the reason why he is doing it. It’s not really gratuitous violence, or it doesn’t come off that way. It’s actually extremely realistic (save for some of the deaths which are a little over acted at times). And I think that’s because there is no editing and therefore the suspense never breaks.

It’s good. I haven’t seen much better action scenes ever, really. Maybe not since Cowboy Bebop.

All three of the films have these long shots at the end.

And the films look great too. On my 4k screen they look like they could have been shot yesterday, they’re so clean. Arrow did a great job with the restoration.

I haven’t had a chance to watch the extras yet, or read the included essay. But they all look interesting and I plan to.

And before I forget, another highlight of these films are the training montages where Narumi prepares for these assaults on the castle. They’re pretty creative.

I’m going to give The Game Trilogy four Pellegrinos. It loses a Pellegrino because I don’t think a couple of the characters needed to die, and I do think that was gratuitous. Just gratuitous for whom, I haven’t figured out. And that’s the problem. But I still really liked them and am glad I picked them up.

You can purchase a copy of The Game Trilogy from Arrow Films here.