Around 1976, Toei Studios showed the money to two of its star directors, Kinji Fukasaku and Sadao Nakajima, to direct their own versions of vehicular mayhem action features, both starring one of their key leading men Tsunehiko Watase. Nakajima’s effort was released in May, 1976 in the form of the stylish “A Savage Beast Goes Mad”, but it was Fukasaku’s output that came earlier, with “Violent Panic: The Big Crash” hitting theatres in February, 1976.
“Violent Panic: The Big Crash” is released by Film Movement
Bank robbers Yamanaka Takashi and Seki Mitsuo have been plaguing Japan, doing smash-and-grab jobs in banks across the country. The young and rebellious Midorikawa Michi, who Takashi has a soft spot for, keeps throwing a spanner in his plans but Takashi is determined to pull one last big job and retire to Brazil with the loot. The two robbers finalise on Kobe as that job, but when Mitsuo is killed while fleeing from the scene after stealing a large stash of cash, Takashi is left with not just the police on his trail, including the flirty officer Hatano and his very capable superior Nitta, but also Mitsuo’s elder brother, who wants the money that was his deceased brother’s, while also having to get Michi out of the trouble she often finds herself in.
To get the negatives out of the way first, “Violent Panic: The Big Crash” is a bit of a mess tonally. In its first half, it takes on a bit too much, most of which doesn’t sit well with each other. It starts off as a story about two robbers that takes a few love detours here and there, to go on and introduce a sex comedy angle with Hatano. As it continues, it introduces a rather dark story arc involving a motor mechanic that almost borders on violent pink film, before bringing it back to Takashi, leading into an epic finale that demands to be seen.
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Certainly by themselves, these parts work just fine, with Takashi’s story flowing particularly smoothly throughout, and never make the feature a boring one. Fukasaku makes the most of the brisk 85 minutes runtime to not give a minute’s rest, but he does tend to forget some story threads as it goes along, like Hatano’s fellow officer girlfriend Kuriyama, which is a shame because this particular plot point is delight, thanks to Takuzo Kawatani‘s hammed up performance as Hatano and the perpetually naked Yayoi Watanabe as Kuriyama. Thankfully, Hatano does still turn up at opportune moments to spice up the proceedings with his comic manners, his jealously for Nitta fuelling his journey.
Fukasaku attempts to balance this out with the mechanic’s storyline, which makes the feature take an unexpectedly dark, but also a very welcome turn. Near its end, the narrative also brings forth some commentary, raging against the state of the politics and the police department, in fact quite literally throwing the police in muddy waters. It also does just about enough to outline the sorry state of the mount and society as a whole in then-modern Japan, which was a recurring theme in Fukasaku’s works.
All of this however is just an appetiser to the main course of the climax, a throw down of epic proportions, in which Mitsuo’s brother and the police chase Takashi, an angered horde of the public chase the police, a biker gang chases Mitsuo’s brother and a bewildered news team chases everyone to capture it all. If the robbery arc and the subsequent mechanic storyline justify the “Violent Panic” of the title, with the cars flying over cars, piles up after pile ups adding on, explosions upon explosions rocking the screen and people literally being set on fire, the narrative more than justifies the titular “The Big Crash”. Scored, like the rest of the feature, by Toshiaki Tsushima’s excellent soundtrack and edited to near perfection, this is what Fukasaku builds up to for sixty odd minutes of the runtime before it, culminating it all into this spectacular climax that simply needs to be seen.
Fukasaku is known for his trademark urgent, frantic camerawork, which makes him an ideal director to shoot not just a good robbery feature, but also a vehicular mayhem one, and “Violent Panic: The Big Crash” benefits vastly from this factor. The bank robbery scenes, for example, are enhanced by such camerawork, putting the audience square in the chaos of the heists. The same applies to the climax, with the stuntwork also proving highly impressive there. Even the less chaotic moments, like the one where Takashi, played by Tsunehiko Watase in uber-cool form, and the hunky brother of Mitsuo, with Hideo Murota bringing his delicious evilness for the character, fight in the former’s apartment, or the freeze-frame sex scenes, being impressively lensed. Cinematographer Toru Nakajima’s camera also loves Miki Sugimoto, who is frankly mesmerising as Midorikawa Michi, almost stealing the film from all her male counterparts with a nuanced performance that is easily amongst her best works.
Despite its tonal shortcomings, “Violent Panic: The Big Crash” is one hell of a ride, enjoyable from the first frame to the last. Strap in, hang on for dear life and crash right into it, you’re guaranteed a good time.
