Fumio Kōnami

The history of the Yakuza Eiga at the TOEI studio is roughly outlined. Real Yakuza and also their connections to the movie business are discussed, and many important actors and directors of the genres are interviewed. Former real yakuza boss turned actor Noboru Ando, Takashi Miike, Sonny Chiba and many more get a chance to speak.

1996 / Japan / Drama / 75 minutes

An investigation into the obsession of a former detective the loser of life!

Sumptuous filming of the journey of a shipwrecked Japanese expedition from the Pacific Ocean across Siberia to the court of Catherine the Great of Russia. A Russo-Japanese co-production of a unique event in history which was the hit of Cannes and other film festivals but did not receive wide distribution despite its huge scope, high production values, and very human story of culture clash.

Youngsters find work as part-time festival street vendors and flourish in work, friendship and love.

Set in the Taisho era, which might be regarded as Japan's Hippie Phase, Hana no ran is a story about fashionable people without impulse control. Much of the action centers on a popular woman writer, the real-life poet Akiko Yosano, and her experiences among the literati of early 20th century Japan. Because of her independent, anti-war and often erotic poetry, she was a lightning rod for revolutionaries and other extremists, many of whom were destined to glamorous, yet ultimately pointless, deaths. The closest parallels might be the Byron/Shelley group or the people drawn to the Beat Generation.

1987film

In the 50s, the complicated life of a popular writer who must share his life with his family, his numerous mistresses and his work

In Okinawa, a Japanese-Filipino gangster named Joe kills an Okinawan mobster. Joe temporarily escapes the pursuing mob by fleeing to the Philippines, hoping to find there safety and perhaps to link up with his father. He meets Yoko, a saloon girl, who looks after him, but soon Joe's enemies show up, determined to make Joe pay.

Detective Seiji Otaki is determined to find the psychopathic killer of a young woman who was ostensibly a student but in reality a high-priced prostitute. Even though he has been taken off the case for beating up a suspect, he refuses to let it go and recruits his mistress to act as a decoy for the killer. Her involvement turns out to be a fatal mistake, and when her husband gets out of prison, Detective Otaki is in worse trouble than ever.

Ten years before the outbreak of the Second World War in Asia, a Japanese Go master and his Chinese rival meet in China to play a game of Go (loosely described as an Asian version of chess). It soon becomes evident that the Chinese master's son is the most talented player that the Japanese master has ever encountered, and he convinces the boy's father to let him bring the child back to Japan to train him as a professional Go player. Years pass, and as the young Chinese master grows to maturity in Japan, the Japanese invasion of China forces him to choose between his triumphant career and his loyalty to his native country. His decision is complicated by his marriage to the daughter of the Japanese master, with whom he has produced a child. His choice will profoundly alter the lives of two families. Their saga serves as a reflection of the tragic relations between their two great countries, and the possibility of reconciliation and healing.

In the year 1882, Sanshirou comes to Tokyo seeking for a worthy martial arts teacher. There, he meets Yano - a judo master who single-handedly defeats 39 jujitsu practitioners. Extremely impressed by his skill, Sanshirou decides to become his disciple. Later, Sanshirou falls for Sayo Murai - a girl whose father is a martial arts instructor at the local police department; and he also has to face Higaki Gennosuke, a skilled jujitsu fighter and his greatest rival.

A working class young man, Tetsuo, who distrusts all rich people, falls in love with a girl, Chika, from an affluent family. He has a difficult time, but love survives despite the problems.

In the middle of the 16th century, Hideyoshi, a power hungry warlord sets out to destroy the Momochi clan. He sends his war commander in search of the clan's hidden gold only to find that two daggers are the key to the hiding place of the treasured gold. Spanning decades, the quest for the missing daggers takes Shiranui through war and ancient tradition.

A professor named Keisuke meets a suicidal girl and subjects her to shibari bondage and sexual abuse.Their relationship quickly become more and more intimate.The wife of professor tries to stop the sadomasochistic love affair of these two souls and as a reward is also subjected to harsh S&M training...

Miyashita plays an office clerk who is having an affair with her married boss. Since he refuses to leave his wife, Miyashita and another couple plan to kidnap his daughter to collect a ransom.

Elite college graduates commit perfect financial crimes though loopholes in the law during the 1950s.

Two Kyushu based yakuza groups are desperate for domaination of the area. When more powerful yakuza groups get involved in their power struggle, a group of childhood friends, belonging to different yakuza families, are caught in the middle. Lies, deceit, and backstabbing are in play resulting in a bloodbath and a quest for revenge...

In pre-war Japan, two members of a large yakuza syndicate instigate a turf war that embroils the highest echelons of Tokyo's underworld.

A parable about the inefficiency and anachronism of the Japanese educational system, which places an unusually large amount of importance on cramming for university entrance examinations, Panic High School is about the suicide of a high school student and its ensuing fallout at his school. When one of his classmates becomes frustrated with the math teacher's lack of sensitivity to the suicide, the student steals a rifle, returns to school, aerates the teacher's chest and then holds members of his class captive. This leads to an aggressive standoff with the police and lots of shots of his parents crying and bowing in shame, totally mortified.

When a mob boss retires under political pressure, his successor and yakuza family are tested to their limits as new alliances and enemies are formed.

Chiba, looking gnarly, and acting as animalistic as ever, stars alongside Matsukata as violent gangsters battling their way through fight after bloody fight with rival yakuza on the streets of Okinawa.

Yusaku Matsuda plays an ex-boxer who killed an opponent during a fight. He is brought into a school to deal with a gang of disruptive students led by Hiroshi Tachi.

Two bank robbers specialize in "smash and grab" style heists. The thieves dream of escaping Japan and going to Brazil...

Hitomi Kozue returns as Mayumi in this final chapter of the TRUE STORY OF A WOMAN IN JAIL trilogy! Mayumi is sent to jail after brutally attacking her partner and his mistress. Sent to live in Cell 31, the women there couldn't be more different... they are very religious, sing hymns and discuss the Bible. A fight with a rival cell block starts a bloody and vicious war in the jail... one where the warden and guards seek vengeance on the women with brutal torture and sexual humiliation. When a new inmate arrives and Mayumi recognizes her, all hell breaks loose!

Akira Inugami is the only survivor of a clan of ancient werewolves who relies on his supernatural powers to solve mysterious crimes. After a series of bloody killings perpetrated by an unseen force, Inugami uncovers a conspiracy involving a murdered cabaret singer, corrupt politicians, and a plot by the J-CIA to harvest his blood in order to steal his lycanthropic powers! At the same time, Inugami also discovers the truth behind his family heritage, and that he may not be the last of his kind.

A look at the life of renegade yakuza, Rikio Ishikawa, particularly the years from 1946 to 1950 when his violent antics get him in trouble with his own clan, Kawada, and then with the clan of his protector, Kozaburo Imai. In these years, he can rely on Chieko, a young Tokyo courtesan who gives him shelter. He's banished to Osaka, where he picks up a drug habit. Through it all, he keeps his friends and enemies off balance with unpredictable behavior - and he seems indestructible.

The sixth chapter of Jingi Naki Tatakai series With the endless power struggle. The extraordinary combination of Kinji Fukasaku and Bunta Sugawara, along with new ideas and a strong touch of realism, created the sixth movie of the series that describes 'The War of Hiroshima Gangsters' which had lasted almost 30 years after World War II. It can be called the Japanese secret post WWII history. It focuses on the ugly, violent inside struggle of the Yamamori Group of 1959 in Kure City, Hiroshima. Director Kinji Fukasaku, the master of portraying violence and humanity, said "Having making the five previous movies, I found those characters very interesting. So I took a deeper look into them this time." He made this shocking movie with high enthusiasm and revealed the core of gangster's struggle which has never been touched before.

Gimme gimme gimme! Yusaku Matsuda and his gang are on the hunt for women, money and more money! The late legendary actor, Yusaku Matsuda, stars in this explosive motion picture about the hedonistic lifestyles of four roughnecks directed by Yukihiro Sawada. Takeo Natsuki (Yusaku Matsuda) was just released from prison. He was the leader of three rascals; all they did was cause trouble. When they meet a girl whose father is resisting a forced eviction to make way for a construction site, they come up with their own plans to solve the problem.

In the spring of 1945, Murakami, an apprentice officer, was ordered by the General Staff Headquarters to be assigned to the secret 33rd Eastern Unit, known only to the upper ranks of the General Staff. This is where secret warriors, spies and guerrillas, are trained. Eventually, a variety of training will be held, from pistols, karate, martial arts to pickpocketing wallets.

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.

Nami is once again on the run from the law but is saved by an old classmate who works at a strip club. Through a subsequent conversation they discover they both have a score to settle with a particular crooked cop. However, Nami has doubts about ever trusting a man.

Reiko Ike stars as the daughter of a man who has been pushed into drug dealing by the local Yakuza mob. Having outlived his usefulness to the gang he is murdered and Reiko is gang raped, leading her to attempt a knife attack on the Yakuza boss (Ryoji Hayama) at a swank nightclub. Failing to kill him she ends up in prison, where she befriends a crew of other malcontents (including Yumiko Katayama and Chiyoko Kazama) and meets the Yakuza boss's girlfriend (Miki Sugimoto). Upon release Reiko reassembles her mob and launches a Machiavellian scheme to engineer a gang war between Hayama's Oba Industries and the formerly dominant Hamayasu Clan. The rival gangs begin killing each other off and Reiko works her way closer to her ultimate vengeance.

After a desperate gang of ex-soldiers and gamblers meet in a fistfight in occupied Ginza they decide to make the neighborhood their own.

After being used and betrayed by the detective she had fallen in love with, young Matsu is sent to a female prison full of sadistic guards and disobedient prisoners.

The great Bunta stars as a gangster who is sent to jail for the sake of his gang, but when he’s released he finds everything completely changed and his gang has swept him aside for being too violent. He tries to start a new life with his two ”brothers” but can’t seem to escape old affiliations

After being cruelly set up and deceived by Sugimi, a detective in cohorts with the mob with whom she was whole-heartedly in love, Matsushima’s desire for revenge knows no bounds.

A fearless man confronts a yakuza organization pushing the envelope of extravagant & all sorts of violence.

Exciting fight of a secret police detective over secret of a diamond.

A yakuza gang gets driven out of Yokohama by a big gang from Tokyo. They relocate to Okinawa to violently start over.

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.

Terajima, an ex-yakuza and current nightclub owner, is brought back into the world of crime when his former brother attempts a hostile take over.

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.

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

This is the sixth film in the Brutal Tales of Chivalry series

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.

An old man dies of heartbreak when a cruel landlord is about to repossess his land. The old man haunts the landlord from the grave. Since the man died in debt, his wife and daughter are indentured servants and are forced to work in the landlord's factory.

Though he has come from a rough background on the streets, Muraki (Horoki Matsukata) quickly rises through the ranks by means of his well-honed blackmailing instincts. Desperate to keep rolling with his freewheeling lifestyle, Muraki sees his luck begin to crumble when he sets his sights on the business partners of a powerful gang boss.

The story of men devoted to the yakuza lifestyle and their struggles during a time of fading yakuza power.

The son of a prominent member of a fishing community returns home after a stint with the yakuza to find his father has died under orders of a local gang leader. He sets out to avenge his father, keeping his plans secret from his mother who is cold to him since his perceived abandonment of the family. This wonderful, if little-seen, Fulasaku gem deals with family, community and what it means to do right by both.

Easily bored, but still innocent and naive countryside girl (Mako Midori) discovers partying in Tokyo is a ton of fun. Yakuza-to-be (Ichiro Araki) is an acquaintance who tries to rape her, and the typically bland but very-good-here (Hayato Tani) the first boyfriend. Director Yasuo Furuhata (his first picture) lets his camera roll in trendy clubs amongst partying youngsters in a way that could've been out of 60s England or a Nikkatsu film if it wasn't shadowed by dated 60s Toei conservatism.The resulting film is a bit confused, either a rebellious youth tale chained by moral concerns, or something conceived as a morality tale trying to break free from its chains.

Japanese drama film.

Osaka in the early 1600s, aftermath of the historical Battle of Sekigahara; a group of orphan children are wandering through the battlefield scavenging for armour when they encounter a young boy named Sasuke with magical powers he says came from a meteor that crashed onto the Earth…

Fukasaku and Chiba are back in a sequel filmed with the same cast and released just two weeks after the first film. This time the storyline is set in a small seaside town and the film favours detective and watadori film influences over westerns. Like its predecessor, the film runs barely over one hour and never drags. It’s a little less goofy, but doesn’t have as beautiful landscapes the first movie had. Not an especially good film, but for fans of Fukasaku and Chiba it’s an entertaining if flawed 60 minutes.

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.