Twilight of the Yakuza

Film director and screenwriter Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017),who in the sixties was the great innovator of Japanese cinema; and his collaborator, art dir...

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...

Former yakuza gang boss Noboru Ando reminisces about old partner in crime Kei Hanagata.

Meet the Japanese Mafia's latest son: a 20 year old named Naoki, part of a surging, decade-long wave of juvenile delinquency in Japan. As Naoki reject...

A behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind Juzo Itami's "Minbo no Onna" a.k.a. "Minbo: the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion".

Since the enactment of the Anti-Boryokudan Act and Yakuza exclusion ordinances, the number of Yakuza members reduced to less than 60,000. In the past...

An exploration of underground Japanese counter-culture including the Yakuza, the nationalists, the gay and lesbian community, the bikers and the homel...

Young Lord Taihei goes to Edo to find the lost family treasure, a plover incense burner, under the disguise of a ronin.

A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his broth...

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...

An assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance.

Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is...

A trio of teenage tarts try to earn money through shoplifting and prostitution scams and get into deep trouble.

In the middle of the era, Taisho, a big boss in Asakusa Iizuka, was severely questioned by the police about the source of funds for the Daido Federati...

When young protege Akira Kageyama is bitten by his dying vampire boss, Genyo Kamiura, he must get used to his new powers before seeking revenge.