Tatsuo Honda

大阪で一家を張る堂本組の一人娘・きわは、生まれた時から極道の世界で揉まれ、並の極道より根性が据わっていると評判だった。堂本組の当代は病身のため引退、跡目をきわの夫で若頭補佐の久村修一郎が継ぎ、きわも組の姐となる。襲名披露の日、対立する三東会の組長・後藤修造の弟・信治がホテルの着付け室できわを襲い、この騒ぎで久村は信治の子分を射殺してしまった。組のため幹部の村上がこの罪を被り、きわもまた傷害罪で懲役に処せられる。

明治20年。九州に芸者として売られてきた5歳の志津は、見習い芸者の鶴のもと美しく成長する。20年後、鶴は熊本一の遊郭・東雲楼でおかみとなり、志津もそこで働く。鶴はパトロンの相場師・山岡の再起に望みを託し、東雲楼を担保に大金を用立てるが、山岡は失脚して自殺し、東雲楼は有働組の組長とその情婦・照香の手に渡る。志津は鉄道工事作業員・執行と結婚したかったが山岡失脚の責任を取らされ、東雲楼から追放される。

The culturally isolated, nomadic Seburi people of western Japan are the subject of this tragedy about a few of the community's members who especially experience difficulties as modern Japan encroaches on their world. The setting is World War II, and conflicts have already arisen when the military police come to take Seburi men away into the army. Still following their own customs that can be harsh at times, and are particularly cruel to women (women must give birth alone and unaided, a woman's adultery is punished by burying her up to her neck in the earth and then leaving her for days), the Seburi are mainly treated with fear and animosity by the non-Seburi townspeople of the region. Along with the hardships arising from cultural clashes, nature's own vagaries present other challenges to the Seburi -- who still lived in tents until the 1950s. Winter avalanches and snowstorms cause as much havoc as the tensions engendered by the slow encroachment of the modern world.

Jo has just come back to Japan for the funeral of his parents, who were killed in tribal warfare in Africa where the family had been living throughout most of Jo's life. Once the funeral was over, he missed the boat that was going to take him back home, and, because of an altered itinerary, he ends up stopping in a town for awhile -- striking up an acquaintance with a teenager and her grandfather when he captures their runaway horse. He would have been glad to leave after the proper amenities were completed, but the girl's journalist brother is murdered -- he was getting too close to wrapping a major news story. At that point, Jo and a friend cannot easily drop the matter as though nothing had occurred, and the two start to track down the source of the trouble -- a factory that makes poison gas for Third World buyers. Now their task is to dismantle the operation, prevent one train shipment from arriving at a transfer point, and find the journalist's killer.

After World War II, when Okinawa was under control of the United States, the local yakuza prospered. But when Okinawa is returned to Japan, the mainland yakuza tries to take over; the local yakuza tries to compete. Now sides are drawn among the local yakuza guys who used to be best friends since their childhood, and brother fights brother. It results in the biggest yakuza war in Okinawa.

Two short stories set in Edo during the Shogun era. 1 - During a time when Christians are persecuted vehemently, Iori falls in love with young Christian girl. When she and her family are captured during a raid, his sadistic master takes her as his personal slave to torment Iori, and tries breaking her spirit by means of rape, torture and pure sadism. After Iori refuses to participate any longer he is exiled, but vows to get her back no matter what it takes. 2 - When Sutezo is forced to serve the barbarous master of a brothel in order to repay his debts, he becomes friends with a young girl named Sato in process. Together, they both escape and try to get by on scams and petty theft.

Taking place in Shinshu in the 1920s, Tsumakoi Okoma, while traveling to hone her gambling skills, teams up with the vagabond Tsukuba Tsuneji and comes into conflict with gamblers plotting to take over a rustic hot-spring town. Handling a gun and sword as skillfully as a man, Fuji Junko portrays an appealing personality that differs from Oryu in the Red Peony Gambler series. Tsuruta Koji stars as the vagabond Tsukuba Tsuneji that tops the list of an impressive all-star cast that includes Endo Tatsuo, Kogure Michiyo, Ashiya Gannosuke, Kitamura Eizo, and many others. This film is an authentic yakuza movie that conveys the true "Matatabi" (wandering gambler) feeling.

The industrual revolution comes to Japan with the introduction of the railroad system. This led to clashes between boatmen, who livihoods are threatened, and the railroad construction workers. Oryu the Red Peony returns to her home in Kumamoto to accept her position as second generation leader of the Yano Family. But the ceremony is interrupted by fighting between local boatmen and railroad works. And it seems a rival family is pulling the strings behind the clashes.

In the fourth film in this exciting series, and the first since losing his left eye, Yagyu Jubei is charged again with the task of protecting the Yagyu Secret Scrolls. The two scrolls are held in separate locations to assure their safety. Within them there is information other than the techniques of the Yagyu Shin-kage style. They contain a secret that could throw the country into turmoil. Clan founder Yagyu Sekishusai had split the scroll into two parts to prevent its contents from being known to the public. This is Jubei's toughest assignment yet as he puts his life on the line to save the nation!