Trivia / Nihon No Don

• Adaptation Expansion: The first film is a straightforward adaptation of the original source novel; the other two were new storylines written by Koji Takada which were later novelized by Koichi Iboshi.
• All-Star Cast: The series was billed as "30 Years of Toei Men" for good reason. Appropriately enough, the original film features no less than thirty Toei veterans.
• Approval of God: Reportedly, the film's script had to meet with the approval of Misturu Taoka, producer at Toei and son of Yamaguchi-gumi boss Kazuo Taoka. He had credit as a producer for the films.
• California Doubling: For Kanketsuhen's Saipan scenes, a few shots were filmed on location. Quite a few of them were used as rear projection shots; a major car chase that takes place there was half-filmed on Lake Biwa and on the island itself. Finally, the climax, which involved a helicopter, ended up becoming a not-quite-convincing miniature sequence.
• Cast the Expert: Who else but Sonny Chiba could play a yakuza underboss whose Real Life counterpart had a reputation as a gangster with karate experience?
• Creator Cameo: Koji Takada, the trilogy's scriptwriter, has a bit part in Kanketsuhen as a sokaiya, or corporate blackmailer.
• Dueling Works: With Battles Without Honor and Humanity. Both are epic yakuza sagas portraying the rise and fall of various gangs across Japan, but Don concentrates more on the bosses and higher-echelon members rather than Battles' focus on the front lines of yakuza warfare.
• Life Imitates Art: As seen in Kanketsuhen, the yakuza would indeed start to go international and invest their fortunes across the world, but only this really got off the ground in mid-1980s when the Japanese economic bubble was at its largest, a good eight years after the films ended. Ironically, as with the film, Saipan would be a favorite investment spot for these business ventures.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • In the trailer for the first film, there's a short clip of police assaulting an office building where Saokda and several Nakajima goons are held up in. We do see the standoff that takes place before it in the movie, and Sakoda even tells Tatsumi that they're planning to break out in the morning. It is possible it could have been lifted from another Toei yakuza flick, but there's a brief shot of the exterior of the building that suggests it's the same one.
  • There's also a lobby card where◊ prison guards find Sakoda's body after he commits suicide.
  • The preview for Kanketsuhen has a short scene where Oishi meets with Senator Gerrald instead of Karita. It is possible that it was simply filmed for the preview however.
• No Export for You:
  • The first film has been fansubbed by The Ropponica Project, a group for obscure Asian films.
  • Averted with the final film. It's currently available for purchase via several third-party companies.
• The Other Darrin: Chiezo Kataoka took over from Asao Uchida as Kikuo Oyama for the third movie.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Shin Saburi was going through some health issues during the production of the third movie, so Toshiro Mifune was given top billing and his character becomes the main focus for Kanketsuhen.
• Shout-Out:
  • The first film was intended as one to The Godfather. The most notable example is when the latter's infamous horse head scene gets referenced when a rival boss' mistress has her severed head left in a hotel room.
  • When Sakura's Real Life counterpart, Kazuo Taoka died in 1981, music from the trilogy's soundtrack was played during the TV coverage of the funeral. The reports even dubbed the late kingpin as "Nippon no don".
• Special Effects Failure:
  • There's quite a few obvious rear projection scenes in the second and third movies.
  • The climax of a car chase in the third film ends with an attempted helicopter getaway, with unconvincing miniature effects involved. Even worse is the fact that the scenes where Lake Biwa stands in for Saipan really stand out.
• Spin-Off:
  • Sort of. While the following films don't share much in terms of continuity, they were all bankrolled by Toei in the wake of Don to capitalize on its success, down to resuing cast members and having Nakajima sit in the director's chair.
    • Nihon no Jingi ("Japan's Honor") had Nakajima return to direct with Koji Tsuruta, Bunta Sugawara, Sonny Chiba returning. Toho veterans Frankie Sakai and Susumu Fujita (the latter playing The Don in this one) also round out the cast. It follows a similar plotline of a powerful yakuza gang trying to dominate Japan, and was much closer to what Toei originally had in mind with Don. A third film was planned to create an anthology trilogy, but Jingi underperforming at the box office put paid to that, however. Toei commissioned the two Don sequels instead.
    • 1979's The Fixer (Nihon no Fixer) cast Shin Saburi as an Expy of yakuza powerbroker (or kuromaku) Yoshio Kodama, had been Expied by the character of Kikuo Oyama in the trilogy. It is possible that the film was made to at least adhere to the original concept of forming a trilogy with Don and Jingi, but Nakajima did not direct this one.
    • 1982's Conquest (Seiha, sometimes called Domineering) features Toshiro Mifune as another Kazuo Taoka stand-in during his last days as boss.
    • Finally, 1990's 1750 Days of Turbulence, which serves as a semi-sequel to Conquest. It goes deeper into the aftermath of a powerful yakuza boss' passing (both being inspired by the infamous Yama-Ichi gang war that took place after Taoka's death). Both films were directed by Nakajima.
• Stock Footage: The previews lifted stock footage from older Toei movies, namely Battles Without Honor and Humanity and The Tattooed Hitman.
• Transatlantic Equivalent: The Japanese answer to The Godfather, perhaps even moreso than Battles Without Honor and Humanity.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The characters are mostly Expies of major figures across yakuza history, and for good reason since many of them were still alive when the films were released. Likewise, their plots as portrayed in the films was inspired by actual events.
• Wag the Director: The film was supposed to be 100 minutes long (to be paired with another film for a twin release) and to be made at a budget of 200 million yen. Koji Takada managed to convince Toei president Koiji Shundo to up the budget to 400 million yen and an extended running time.
• Woolseyism: Apparently the producers were concerned that the general Japanese-speaking audience wouldn't understand what a "don" was, so the "Yakuza War" subtitle was added to the first film.
• What Might Have Been
  • As said above, the film was meant to kick off a Thematic Series of yakuza films, but plans fell through after Nihon no Jingi underperformed.
  • Tatsumi was not supposed to be played by Koji Tsuruta, as Toei wanted him to play Sakura. Ken Takakura was tapped to play Tatsumi, but Takakura left Toei before shooting began, so they had Tsuruta replace him. They then looked to Rentaro Mikumi as Sakura, but he turned the offer down. The producers then chose Shin Saburi given that he was a veteran actor (albeit one who'd never been in a yakuza movie before) and was a freelancer, not on contract to any studio.
  • At one point, the original film's title was reported to be Nihon no Shuryo ("Leader of Japan") and Nihon no Kubi ("Head of Japan").
  • Likewise its subtitle was originally suggested as "Violent Family" instead of "Yakuza War".
  • In a preview for the first film had a different look for Sakoda, with him being clean-shaven.
  • A preview of the second film had a different hairstyle for Toshiro Mifune, complete with greying temples.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Bunta Sugawara's character in the second movie, Shunsuke Tenbo, is crippled during a failed assassination attempt, but he reappears in the next movie as a Handicapped Badass yakuza named Akira Kawanishi.
  • Ko Nishimura, who played Corrupt Corporate Executive Shimabara in the first film, plays Corrupt Politician Chairman Karita in the third.
  • Asao Koike plays a rival gang boss in the first film, Oishi's Number Two in Yabohen and is responsible for crippling Sugawara's character, but is injured in the attempt. The wound doesn't appear to be fatal, but Koike is recast again as a detective in Kanketsuhen.
  • Corrupt Politician Taguchi, Nobuo Kaneko's character in the first movie, is replaced by Corrupt Politician Hirayama in the next two.