The story of men devoted to the yakuza lifestyle and their struggles during a time of fading yakuza power.
Official Shogunate executioner Ogami Itto has been framed for disloyalty to the Shogunate by the Yagyu clan, against whom he now is waging a one-man war, along with his infant son, Daigoro.
An elaborate criminal tango based around treasure hidden during WWII.
Ohyaku is a grifter who falls in love with a thief, who recruits her for his plan to rob a shipment of government gold. When this plan goes wrong and Ohyaku ends up in prison, she resolves to do anything to escape and claim revenge on the ones who betrayed her and her lover.
A modern gang version of Chushingura, chronicling almost scene for scene the Brave 47 Ronin story, transposed from the Genroku Period to the Showa Era.
Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. The title is a figure of speech — (essentially “last minute” or “eleventh hour”) — that refers to a situation of peril. The film boasts a script co-written by Uchida and Akira Kurosawa’s frequent screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto, and stars Kurosawa’s frequent star Takashi Shimura.
Tsunetaro Asakura AKA "Dynamite Tsune" is a talented gambler, but not infallable. After losing his Boss's money in a dice game he repays his debt by serving as a pit boss for a struggling coal mine in Kyuushu. Quickly there's trouble with the local mining competition, who doesn't always play a fair game. True to his hot-headed nickname, Tsune only gets into deeper trouble.
A suspense work based on the "Miyagi Incident," an attempted coup d'etat led by some officers working for the Ministry of the Defense and the General Staff of the Konoe Division on the eve of the end of the Pacific War.
An upscale Japanese hotel hires Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer adept at dealing with the Yakuza, to help them rid their hotel of the local gangsters so they can get a contract for a meeting of important foreign officials.
In a strange outfit and full of youthful energy, the explosive Boss Kumatora raises hell like there's no tomorrow. The first movie of a new series starring Wakayama Tomisaburo as everybody's favorite character Boss Kumatora from the Red Peony Gambler series. Having made a fortune in the Russo-Japanese War, the Kumatora Family migrates to Kyushu to take on a military-related job. There they encounter the evil and malicious interference of the Chindai family of Kumamoto, and Boss Kumatora boldly fights back with the help of O'Ryu the Red Peony. A super entertaining film with non-stop comedy and action directed by Suzuki Norifumi.
Coming out of jail and hoping for a quiet life, Yokohama yakuza has to take the lead of his gang after the death of his boss. His small group is is taken in a crossfire between a big yakuza group from Osaka at war with the Tokyo alliance for the control of the city. He tries to keep to the old yakuza code but he is no match for the new thugs who live and fight without honor.
Three robbers escape with loot from a heist before one of them kills the others. Their corpses wash up near the aftermath of a maritime calamity, provoking a policeman's interest.
Gokudo Shimamura comes to blows with the Delinquent Boss who rolls into town with his motorcycle gang.
A street vendor who eloped with his girlfriend and injured her brother loses her to illness, and now has to confront the brother and some dirty local yakuza.
Patrol car 108 is on the prowl in Tokyo when it comes across a suspicious small truck. When the policeman investigates he is shot and the truck makes its getaway.
A tragic drama - a dismembered torso of a woman rises up on the banks of the Arakawa River. The body is only the torso. Her legs were discovered on the opposite bank. The only clue, a man was trying to throw something in from a car with a license plate number three days ago at Shin-Arakawa Ohashi Bridge...
Gokudo goes politics. Gray-haired Bin Amatsu has Wakayama assist a politician, meaning trashing the opponent. But of course the opponent has a pretty daughter to have a crush on. Enter protective Bunta Sugawara and Gokudo’s gotta settle for a cheaper Toei nude actress.
A low ranking yakuza who spends more time enjoying life than doing the yakuza work falls in love with a pretty student girl, whose brother later gets drawn into the yakuza business against his own wishes.
Based on the novel of the same name by Seichō Matsumoto.
Shiratori Shinichi, is released from prison and now roams the streets in search of his sister. While at a red-light district in Chiba, Shiratori finds out that his sister is in Tokyo. However, things take turn for the worse as he gets into a fight with the local Handa gang...
Just released on parole, one young man hurtles towards a face-off with the gangsters controlling Shinjuku and its lucrative prostitutes.
This film tells about the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Aikawa, the head of the Bureau of Military Affairs, about the beginning of the incident 2.26 and the execution of young officers.
Forth film in the Gokudo series with Tomisaburô Wakayama
1962 Japanese movie
A fox in disguise, Okon, returns the favor to a man who rescued her from a fatal trap.
It takes place in the sunset days of the yakuza in the 1970s. The postwar turmoil that created the black market and lubricated illegal business opportunities was giving way to Japan Inc. A young Bunta Sugawara takes over as the oyabun of a crime syndicate in Yokohama, where he is struggling to keep operations at the port there alive. As his syndicate is eroding quickly, a major heavy industries company offers his gang the chance to chase some vagrants out of a shantytown where they are squatting on land where a factory is to be built. The job would secure steady profits for Bunta's crime ring for years to come. However, Bunta and other members of his outfit grew up in the shanty, and they would be muscling their friends and neighbors. This sets the stage for an internal struggle that complicates the violent struggle with a rival mafia organization in Tokyo.
A drama about relations between Japanese immigrants and the indigenous Ainu on Hokkaido, the most northerly island of Japan. From a novel by Taijun Takeda.
An undercover cop insinuates himself into a yakuza family. Managing to avert an assassination attack on the boss he is assigned to kill a rival boss.
Tsunokichi and Ken face off against a rival yakuza in Kyushu.
Hidejiro is a wandering yakuza with a ‘karashi botan’ (Chinese lion and peony) tattoo. Owing a favor to the Soda Family, he kills the boss of the rival Sakaki Family. When the Soda attacks the Sakaki and double-crosses him, with sword in hand, Hidejiro seeks brutal retribution.
With his penultimate film, Uchida revisited one of his popular prewar titles, 1936’s Theatre of Life, an adaptation of Shiro Ozaki’s eponymous novel. Three-time Seijun Suzuki collaborator Goro Tanada wrote a gangsterized adaptation of Ozaki’s story for Uchida at a time when the yakuza had eclipsed the samurai genre as Toei's main cash crop. Protagonist Hishakaku murders a man in a quarrel over a barmaid and goes to jail. In his temporary absence, his girlfriend Otoyo, a former geisha, falls for Hishakaku’s brother, inciting a dangerous love triangle that, in typical yakuza fashion, ends tragically.
Japanese crime film.
The great Sonny Chiba stars as Goro Saionji, a drifting thrill-seeker. Out to investigate a suspisious plane crash in the Red Valley, he uncovers a plot involving yakuza and a shady land developer to evict an old farmer off of his land to build a sky resort. Goro must now help the old farmer and his daughter and take those criminals on.
Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba returns as the reckless son of a private detective takes on the case of a minor league baseball pitcher who disappears right before signing a contract into the major leagues. Meanwhile, the body of an orthopedist is discovered in the river.
Third part of Nihon Kyokakuden series is set in Kanto in 1924. Ken Takakura playing a ship's mate befriending fish shop owners harassed by yakuza.
Upon returning to his hometown of Nagasaki, recently released prisoner Tachibana Shinichi must rejoin the Asahi gang family in order to pay back a past debt. Trouble brews when the rival gang that was responsible for sending him to prison learns of his return. Left with no alternative to their constant harassment and threats, Tachibana decides to take them on.
A touching story about a young boy, Genta, who bravely takes on life's challenges in hopes of finding a better life for himself and his sickly mother.
Private eye Bannai Tarao (Chiezo Kataoka) and his assistant Masako (Chizuru Kitagawa) investigate the mysterious murder of a baseball player who was killed in the middle of a game.
Detective Tarao goes undercover to battle an evil gun smuggling business.
Third part in Tadashi Sawashima's Theater of Life trilogy.
Two convicts just released from prison find a green bauble filled with diamonds — and try to prove they didn't steal it.
Former soldier, Suehiro Katsuji, fights violent gangs and powerful Chinese merchants during the post-war period in Japan.
Japanese “kayo” film based on the song by "Namida koi" by Aki Yashiro.
Abashiri Prison is located in the coldest place in Japan. Two men, handcuffed together have escaped from the prison, one a yakuza, the other a petty criminal, and although they hate each other they must work together if they are to evade capture in this harshest of climates.
Convict son revenges innocent father's death.
A self-destructive man becomes a powerful member of the yakuza but quickly loses his self-control. Based on the true story of Rikio Ishikawa.
With a Kansai syndicate setting their sights on Tokyo, a former yakuza boss gets dragged back into a world of violence.
Ichibei is assigned by Shogun Tokugawa to prevent the sale of a Dutch ships-load of rifles to the hostile Shogun Satsuma. On his mission he meets a cowardly Ronin who becomes his assistant, as well as a female spy and a female warrior...
The second Bounty Hunter film, when master killer Shikoro Ichibei takes up the cause of a group of farmers being driven to despair by the vile Lord Ozeki. The villainous lord has driven them to mounting their last stand at a deserted fort against an army of attackers. Wakayama Tomisaburo is superb as an expert in killing and military tactics, who leaves his medical practice at a clinic for the poor in order to counter the vicious tactics of that vile lord.
The third chapter of the ‘Red Peony Gambler’ saga depicts the happiness and sadness of Red Peony Oryu’s life as she seals her femininity with a red peony tattoo and lives in world of chivalry and honor of the yakuza. This story takes place in the middle of the Meiji era in Nagoya. Oryu is wandering the country, training herself to reinstate her family name. With a written recommendation from Kumatora, she appears at the door of the Nishinomaru family. At the same time, the family is preparing for the gambling competition at the Netsuda Shrine Festival, which they have been hosting for generations. Meanwhile, the crooked Kinbara family is plotting to take over the competition. And now Oryu is forced to get involved in the struggle…
The third movie following the exploits of bounty hunter Shikoro Ichibei. The theft of almost a half ton of gold from the shogunate's official mine threatens to bankrupt the government of Japan. Despite a desperate search the gold has not been found, causing officials of the Tokugawa bakufu to call on their most skillful secret agent, Shikoro Ichibei.
In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments. As his great love Otsu has succumbed to madness. Musashi then sets off to beat the functionaries of a treacherous clan in an arranged duel. 73 against one. Boastful Kojiro watches, secure in the knowledge that only he is a worthy opponent.
Pinku from 1971.
After their father quarrels with local military men, Anju and Zushio are forced to flee, but they are captured and sold into slavery. When their mother dies, they are sold to Sansho the Bailiff, a cruel man who subjects them to hideous torments. While Anju falls into a lake and is transformed into a swan, Zushio escapes and after being adopted to a nobleman grows to a young man. He will then fight to defeat the evil Dayu and free all the slaves.
Young coal miner Takeda leaves Kyushu in search of a better job in Tokyo, only to fall into the lucrative yet dangerous life of a yakuza.
An Osaka gangster Shimamura just got married. His new bride, Mineko is also involved in drug trafficking. When she goes to China to make a deal, things get botched pretty badly. Shimamura must travel to save her and recoup his employers’ losses.
A mountain man beheads his many wives to prove his love to an alluring woman he meets in an enchanted forest.
After World War II, their town was a pile of rubble. Gennosuke, the second generation boss of the Kamizu Group was upholding yakuza chivalry by keeping black-market and illegal items out of their open-air market. Taking advantage of the mess, Iwasa and his gang take hold of goods from the US military, black-market and controlled items in order to become the most powerful group in Enko area.
Thriller about a gangster and an outlaw who become friends despite their different outlooks.
A teenage boy discovers that the planet Icarus is on a collision course with Earth by gazing through his telescope. Scoffed at by the scientific establishment, the boy is kidnapped and brought to a secret UN base in the Japan alps. He is immediately inducted into the secret program whose mission is to finish the Super-Destruction Beam cannon and destroy Icarus. The cannon is missing a special mineral for the lens. The team heads for a mysterious island in the middle of the Pacific. There they find ancient ruins of Atlantis but they are suddenly attacked by a strange drill shaped metal squid spaceship. It's commanded by the evil being Nazu who has engineered the collision with Icarus! He doesn't want to share the universe with humans and he really doesn't want the cannon finished. The action is on and the team discovers the Golden Bat who has been asleep for over 10,000 years awaiting this very moment to save the earth!
A war breaks out on the streets between rivaling Yakuza clans.
Prisoners with special skills from all over Japan are sent to the battlefront on a mission.
Second part of the Zenka mono series.
Hanjiro, a one eyed vagrant arrives in Okinoshima to save the town from a violent Yakuza group with the help of six handicapped guys.
Film concerning warring yakuza families.
Many outlaws are gathered at the front line of the Japanese Army in a shock troop.
An undercover cop befriends a yakuza underling who through his contacts helps him infiltrate two rival Yakuza gangs. He pits the two rival gangs against each other in hopes that they will cross each other out.
Fresh out of jail, a smart-mouth wise guy Goro takes the name “Big Brother Katsumata.” Not fitting in well with established gangs, he forms a rag-tag gang called “the Shinjuku Brothers.” The members of their gang are thugs who only wish they were traditional yakuza. When they turn up at the funeral for a gangster, they are not welcomed, but a senior boss intervenes to keep things calm. The boss of bosses invites them to join a respected local council of warlords. Katsumata is suspicious of why such powerful men would extend an invitation to lowlife like himself.
Agent Zero is a cop that uses her own methods for dealing with criminals. After she unlawfully kills a rapist in a violent fashion, she is sent to prison and stripped of her badge. But very soon after, a rich politician's daughter is kidnapped by a ruthless gang. Agent Zero is let out of prison with the mission of going undercover to find the politician's daughter and return her safely. Using her deadly red handcuffs, she disposes of the criminals one by one.
Ogami Itto is hired to kill a tattooed female assassin and battles Retsudo, head of the Yagyu clan, and his son Gunbei.
Following her successful prison break, Scorpion begins this third episode in the series hiding out in a brothel. Her prostitute friend tries to keep her identity secret, but the brothel's madam discovers that Scorpion is the ex-girlfriend of the vice officer who killed her lover.
The services of a wandering gambler, Seiji, are called upon to protect the turf of his loyal friend Risaburo.
The story is a dramatization of the Japanese folklore legend of Momotaro, the Peach Boy, who with his trusted companions of dog, monkey and pheasant fought against evil in olden times.
Movie based on a book by Kakou Senda about the use of women as sexual slaves by the Japanese Army during WW2.
When the boss of the Nakano Family decides to retire and makes a loyal follower the new boss instead of his own son, it causes strife in the family. Sides are taken and lines are drawn. Meanwhile, a rival family with a land dispute with the Nakano starts pulling strings behind the scenes...
When a rebellious roughneck enlists in the Navy and goes on a rampage against his superiors, he is sent to the Yokosuka Naval Prison.
A young leader of the Yamazaki family of Nagasaki, Takida (Ken Takakura) is an A-bomb survivor. He fiercely battles violent elements in southern Japan like there is no tomorrow.
When the plague threatens a small town in Manchuria, a young doctor finds himself struggling to save the lives of his townspeople.
Ryōko Itakura returns as the tough-as-nails government taxing agent. This time she must figure out a way to expose a fanatical religious cult lead by a corrupt sociopath.
A friendly rivalry turns into romance for Yukiko, an elite female detective, and a handsome private eye named Mitamura while both are investigating the missing person's case from a wealthy family.
A touching drama about a love triangle between a young architect, Koroku, and two women, Ranko and Teruko. Ranko comes from a wealthy family and is offering to repay Koroku’s family debts in exchange for marriage, but Koroku is in love with his landlord’s daughter, Teruko. Things are further complicated when the wicked Tsugawa takes interest in both women, for his own marriage.
A geisha helps a runaway who looks just like her.
1961 Toei adaptation of Yokomizo's novel.
An action-packed, dramatic gangster film.
Astronomer Shinichi Tachibana has a secret identity as the superhero "Iron Sharp" and is well beloved by children. When they are attacked by a group of metallic aliens, Iron Sharp drives the aliens away. The resourceful Tachibana helps develop an electric barrier to block the aliens from coming to the Earth. After several losses by the aliens, they announce that they will invade the Earth, throwing the world into a state of panic.
Ninkyo with Kôji Tsuruta. An elderly yakuza brother tries to clear an underling’s name.
Second film of Makino's Nihon Kyokakuden series set in Osaka's harbor. The series also known as "The Domain" Each a stand alone film in it's own, none are connected other than starring the famous Ken Takakura as the main Character. This story begins with Ken Takakura's character coming to Osaka after his brother's death. Another exciting yakuza story with superb yakuza action!!
One of the earliest Japanese cop films following a mysterious killing on the last train to Mitaka, Tokyo.
A robbery and murder occurred at a gas station facing the national highway at 1:00am. Detectives Nagata, head of the First Investigation Division, begins investigating. Two bullets were removed from the corpse of a staff member on duty at the station, and the last car to be refilled with gasoline, Sakura Taxi No. 5-E1044, appears on the line of investigation. The same night, a robbery murder case was discovered using the same US military gun that was used on the gas station victim.
A story about the lives of four sisters and their manipulative mother who must come to terms with each of their decisions in life.
A taxi robbery and murder occurred in Fukagawa late at night. Detectives Nagata and Miyagawa of the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division, who suspect the perpetrator as a habitual offender, flew to Yanagibashi using the remains as clues, and suspect a forester, but before this case was closed, a new incident using the same method occurred in Shinbashi, and this time the driver's corpse was not found.
Drifting detective Goro Saionji is asked to investigate the sinking of a fishing boat in a port town on the Bōsō Peninsula and runs up against the smuggling gang behind the case.
After discovering a slaughtered corpse, the investigating team of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department began canvassing the area around the crime scene. As a result, they found a wallet with bloodstains that seemed to belong to the victim, a woman's wallet that did not fit the field, earrings, and other valuable materials, which led them on a foot search. The woman's purse had been picked up by a male prostitute on the subway, and from the prostitute's testimony, they were able to identify the pickpocket's face, but the next day, the man was found dead in a road accident, apparently murdered.
After serving 10 years in prison for murdering a rival boss, Tetsu is appalled to see his yakuza family overgrown and dysfunctional upon his release.
Detective Tarao investigates the deaths of police officers who were involved in solving a kidnapping case.
The story of a certain engineer from his youth until he retired from the Japanese National Railways after the war .
The third film in the Taro series, following "The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Eternity" and "The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Rush." Taro, who had painstakingly graduated from the University of Merchant Marine after six years, was on his way to work for Saikai Kaiun on a tourist ship on the Beppu route. He was in a euphoric mood, teasing a young lady playing golf on the deck, and helping the geisha Umeka who was being harassed by a drunkard, with his natural sense of justice, as the ship arrived at Beppu Port.
Ninth installment in the "Gokudo" series. Depicts the activities of Shimamura Seikichi and his henchmen.
Sonny Chiba is a young gambler on the run. He pretends to be an innocent student, and is taken in by an honorable Yakuza in Tokyo's Asakusa district.
Account magistrate Wakisaka Bizen Mamoru asks Yoshibei, the chief priest of Iriya and Myohoji Temple to explore the Sado Gold Mine. They suspect that large amounts of money are being diverted to somewhere else. Yoshibei, a former official secret-head accepts the job and recruits three skilled Karadogumi… Nanikiri, Hayashi, and Kumonryo. In Sado, where the four infiltrate, the magistrate Okubo Hitachi Mamoru who plans to overthrow the shogunate is trying to buy a large number of firearms from Russia.
Follows the exploits of Phantom Agent Fantar and his ninja-skilled elite team. Based in Tokyo, the Phantom Agents were skilled in counter terrorism, espionage, all forms of weapons and worked for the Government against the forces of evil. Their traditional enemies included The Black Flag Group, Smig Z and the Moccula.
The first installment of Seven-Color Mask: Red Jaguar.
The third and final installment of Seven-Color Mask: Red Jaguar.
The second installment of Seven-Color Mask: Red Jaguar.
Chiezo's two-guns-at-all-costs film, directed by Ozawa Shigehiro (Kengo Tengu Matsuri) from a screenplay by Matsuura Kenro (The Dice Magistrate). Shot by Nishikawa Shoei (I Am the Magician of Hell).
A reporter is framed for murder while investigating organized crime. Upon being released from prison the plan for his revenge unravels.
V-cinema classic about a wanted Brazilian Japanese gangster who flees to Tokyo and fights yakuza.
1961 Japanese movie
One after another, expedition teams were being attacked in the Himalayas. With the unprecedented boom in snow men, the public began to make a fuss about the fact that the monster that attacked them must be the snow man. Even in Las Vegas, betting began on which country would catch the Snowman. Later, news broke that a Japanese Himalayan expedition had caught the Snowman. The expedition, led by its leader, Dr Kenkichi Domon, lands at the airport, where onlookers and, for some reason, a man named President Otake and his henchmen are waiting to take the Yukio's life, and who appears with the doctor is... a chimpanzee. But this was a trick that Domon used to avoid the panic caused by the boom.
An elderly woman, Ume Matsumoto, informed the First Investigation Department that her son Hirasaka, who runs a shoe store, had disappeared. The detectives had a bad feeling which hit the mark, an unidentified drowned body is identified as Hirasaka. Some prime real estate he owned was also mysteriously sold. Suspecting that this is a planned murder and fearing the escape of the criminal, the Department begins to investigate secretly, without creating an investigation headquarters.
Detectives of the First Investigation Division are investigating the murder of a 15-year-old girl, whose strangled corpse was found in the bay of the Tama River. The ugly behavior of adults hidden in the name of social welfare is exposed by the investigation. 16th work from the popular series "Keishicho Monogatari".
The murder took place at a hotel in Matsushima. The victim is a woman about 28 years old. The suspect is a young man who visited her the night before, and the evidence, in addition to shoe horns and handkerchiefs, is soap with the name of the tavern. When detectives at Shiogama Station followed the man's tracks, it turned out that he had come from Ueno.
Kokubu Masaru (Bunta Sugawara) is a hard-headed, hot-tempered member of a street vendor clan run by an elderly boss (Kanjuro Arashi). They come into conflict with an unholy alliance of evil Yakuza bosses (Watanabe, Amatsu and Kawazu).
