#in a very :| way bc it's kiryu but still a notable way for like.. y1 era

[skrunksthatwunk]

ok so idk if this is a hot take or whatever but i rewatched the rgg movie from 2007 and that shit ROCKS i like it so much more now bc like,, the first time i watched it i was expecting a straightforward adaptation of the first game's plot and that's just fully not what it is at all nor what it was trying to be

like yeah most of the nishiki final boss stuff at the end is pretty underwhelming but it's not about him. it's about kamurocho!! it's about the reasons people turn to crime and the humanity of everyone involved except for jingu lmao and how fucking bonkers mad you feel when it's a little too hot outside and?? sadomasochism??? between the masochist info guy and majima using the same door slamming technique on kiryu that he used for said info guy and then the very very sexual connotations to the majima chestsitting knife dick shot in the bedroom at the soapland I'm just saying there are. implications. like additional ones to the inherent ones of the kazumaji dynamic like yeah!! that's all good. and once you stop waiting on game events to happen you can just like,, enjoy the stuff happening in it. it's a very character-centric movie and that scratches an itch for me.

it's also like wayy funnier than i remembered lol. some of it's not really on purpose like the cg helicopter just skating all over town shattering windows for idk reasons I guess. probably because jingu's an asshole? idk you could probably read meaning into jingu's symbol of power carelessly wrecking kamurocho but i think it's probably just for shits. but like,, the baseball stuff (the scene where majima calls their match a doubleheader and then the subtitles explain what that is for like three lines over like 30 seconds of gunshot footage is fucking top notch) and kiryu's flip phone troubles and the hostage takers requesting nice expensive food and the hostages thanking them and then the cop being like "if they'd asked for anything more expensive we would have taken them out" and all that idk I'm so endeared to it rn

i also find it kinda fascinating that majima is so present in this because like,, to my understanding, before the release of 0 (and therefore before kiwami's majima everywhere system and whatnot), majima was considered this kinda random side character, like he'd just show up whenever and fuck off again like that. he played a much smaller role. he's not even especially important in the og yakuza, and this came out around 9 months before y2 so it's just based on y1 majima's vibe. yet they gave him significantly more attention than nishiki or kazama or even yumi (though all three were sorta background figures it's like they were already ghosts. man kazama doesn't even DIE in this, he just leaves. they make up for him living by making nishiki's hair a casualty bc oh my LORD what was that jdhshsh). truly goes to show what a silly guy does to a mf

(also they actually give majima and haruka an interaction here??? and he's kind to her and kiryu trusts him to not hurt her and she's like "idc I'll beat you up don't fucking TOUCH ojisan" and he's like "well damn. go on then" gah augh love. closest thing we have in rgg to my knowledge is majima kidnapping her offscreen and him [vague rgg5 spoilers] risking his and saejima's lives to save her bc she means so much to kiryu. here he just doesn't wanna hurt a kid)

obviously it's kinda weird to ditch most of the plot/key characters of the game and i don't think it's great that they tried to tie it in at the end how they did but like. eh idk I'm happy with it. it's a good time. i won't argue it's a masterpiece (mostly bc i don't like arguing over whether media is "objectively good" or whatever) but it DOES make me happy :D. so. thanks like a dragon (2007) mwah mwah xoxo

anyway point is it's about the vibes of playing yakuza, which is (for me) about getting immersed in the city and the little side plots of the people in it and whatever and then cramming the plot in last minute :)