Japanese Mob Films
These visually stylish Yakuza classics by gangster film masters on the dealings of Japanese organized crime syndicates blend conventions of neo-noir thrillers with edge of your seat action hero films. The modern yakuza are depicted not as honorable heirs to the samurai code, but as ruthless (and sometimes double-crossing) street criminals living out their own desires, or striving to restore their integrity.
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Eighteen Years In Prison
Directed by Tai Kato • Drama • With Noboru Andô, Shinobu Chihara, Asao Koike • 1967 • 90 minutes
Trying to survive in the ruins of post-war Japan, Kawada (Noboru Ando, By a Man's Face Shall You Know Him) and Tsukada (Asao Koike, Sympathy the Underdog) run afoul of the military police after steal...
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Elegant Beast
Directed by Yuzo Kawashima • Drama • With Ayako Wakao, Eiji Funakoshi, Yûko Hamada • 1962 • 96 minutes
In their humble two-room apartment, the Maeda family seem ever so self-effacing - but their modest façade hides another truth. Daughter Tomoko is the mistress of a bestselling author with well-...
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Japan Organized Crime Boss
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku • Drama • With Kôji Tsuruta, Noboru Andô • 1969 • 97 minutes
Two major yakuza factions from Tokyo and Osaka battle over control of Yokohama, using local gangs as their proxies. Amid this violent struggle, Tsukamoto, the head of one of the local gangs, is released from ...
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Sympathy for the Underdog
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku • Drama • With Kôji Tsuruta, Tomisaburô Wakayama • 1971 • 93 minutes
Returning from a ten-year prison sentence, former gang leader Gunji (Koji Tsuruta, Big Time Gambling Boss) finds that his turf has been taken over by his former enemy, now a large crime syndicate with...
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Tattooed Life
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • Drama • With Hideki Takahashi, Masako Izumi • 1965 • 87 minutes
Tetsuo (Hideki Takahashi, Fighting Elegy), a low-level yakuza is double-crossed by his boss and attacked. His younger brother Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto, This Transient Life), an aspiring artist with no c...
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Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza
Directed by Tai Kato • Drama • With Junko Ikeuchi, Chiyonosuke Azuma, Kinnosuke Nakamura • 1966 • 90 minutes
Weary of the rigid codes of the underworld, gambler Tokijiro (Kinnosuke Nakamura, Goyokin) wanders Japan in search of freedom. But escape proves to be impossible when an obligation to a g...
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Underworld Beauty
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • Drama • With Michitaro Mizushima, Shinsuke Ashida, Mari Shiraki • 1958 • 87 minutes
Retrieving the diamonds he stashed before his arrest, thief Miyamoto hopes to help his old partner Mihara, crippled during the heist. Their former boss, crime lord Oyane, offers to med...
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Yokohama BJ Blues
Directed by Eiichi Kudo • Drama • With Yusaku Matsuda, Hyoe Enoki, Mari Hemmi • 1981 • 112 minutes
When his police detective best friend is killed, down-at-heel private eye and part-time blues singer BJ (Yusaku Matsuda, The Game Trilogy) gets the blame. He must start his own investigation to cle...
