Ankoku gai jingi

A big American boss landed in Japan in search of funding sources. A lone wolf trying to stop it ends up fighting against his big brother's organization and emerging powers. A huge gangster story depicting a three-way turf war on a large scale.

Gamblers: The Dragon Tattoo

The second part of the Gamblers series.

One Man's Chivalry

Tokizо, the boss of the Tenmaru-gumi group, assists Kikujiro, a traveler on the run. At this time, a tender is being held to conclude a contract for the construction of the railway. Tokizo, who made the highest bid, was bought by the head of the Wakatsuki section of the Kansai Railroad, who was thinking about the country, and won by suppressing Takebe-gumi, who used bribes. However, not everything went as smoothly as planned...

The Gambler's Counterattack

Aiba is a gang boss who has just got out of jail, and finds everything has changed. His old gang has broken up, and only a few people still respect him. So he becomes a consultant to another gang who are about to be clobbered by a much larger gang moving in from out of town. Aiba proves a crafty tactician, and does very well at playing gangs off against each other in order to save the smaller gang. His advice is not always taken by those he tries to help, but he is generally proved right.

Gambler Biography

Historical Yakuza gangster film set the early years of the Showa era.

Japan's Violent Gangs: The Boss and the Killers

An honorable yakuza syndicate deeply rooted in Kyoto fights for survival when a new breed of gangsters threaten their very existence.

Human Torpedoes

Story of loyal sailors giving their lives for their country as human torpedoes towards the end of the War.

The Bandits

Action drama about a Japanese gangster in Manchuria circa 1932, who finally joins some Chinese mountain bandits.

Two Lives, Two Yakuza

An early ninkyo film from before the genre had truly established its form. Koji Tsuruta plays an honourable outlaw who saves an older man from an ambush. It turns out the man is the head of a hard working clan appointed to a railway construction project. A ruthless yakuza gang is also trying to get their share of the project and attempts to sabotage the work. After the old man dies, his son (Sonny Chiba) and daughter (Junko Fuji) try to complete the project. Tsuruta joins them while also falling in love with a local woman working in a bar (a...

Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza

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 ...

The Tattooed Lord

The Challenge

Journalist Kuroki is investigating clandestine arms sales to Southeast Asia. He discovers that the point man in an arms trade was also involved in the cover-up of a murder on an American base during the Allied Occupation. The film rolls along as a suspenseful thriller while offering a critique of political corruption, hypocrisy, and journalistic cowardice in postwar Japan.