Song of Yakuza

Paper Lantern

May 1987 •Japanese

A new wave Yakuza film in which Takanori Jinnai plays a young Yakuza suffering from stomach cancer who has very little left to live. This film is based on the posthumous manuscript of Shoji Kaneko, the legendary director who died of cancer after completing work on the hit "Ryuji".

Dolls

October 2002 •Japanese

Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.

The Way of the Househusband: The Cinema

June 2022 •Japanese

The most notorious househusband in history appears!! The sinister yakuza who left behind many legends in the underworld, "The Immortal Dragon". He washed his hands of the yakuza lifestyle, and the new path he chose… was "househusband"! In the never-before-seen narrative, "Tacchan" charmed living rooms everywhere. And now the "ultimate spokesman for housewives (and househusbands) everywhere,"the Yakuza Househusband, returns!

Wasabi

October 2001 •French

Hubert is a French policeman with very sharp methods. After being forced to take 2 months off by his boss, who doesn't share his view on working methods, he goes back to Japan, where he used to work 19 years ago, to settle the probate of his girlfriend who left him shortly after marriage without a trace.

Taxi 2

March 2000 •French

A cabdriver and a cop race to Paris to rescue a love interest and the Japanese minister of defense from kidnappers.

我王伝 第一章

January 2018 •Japanese

The World of Kanako

July 2014 •Japanese

When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the girl hides a dark life that her father can not even imagine.

The Last True Yakuza

November 1985 •Japanese

A made man during the height of Hiroshima's yakuza turf war must maneuver through the violence and betrayal inside the criminal underworld.

Dogfight: Stray Dogs' Elegy

November 2000 •Japanese

A cocaine deal is about to go down between yakuza and Hong Kong triad gangsters and a small time porn peddler is used as a mole by a dirty cop.

The Kamagasaki Cauldron War

November 2018 •Japanese

Kamagasaki is an "invisible" slum of Osaka that attracts day laborers and prostitutes since WW2. When the local gang has its treasured cauldron stolen, a war to find it begins involving the thugs, a 12 years old kid, a prostitute and a pickpocket, including the giant cauldron used to feed the destitute: The symbol of Kamagasaki.

Brother

December 2000 •Japanese

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 brother's gang.

Black Rain

September 1989 •English

Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.

Whipmaster: Ballad of Murder

November 1970 •Japanese

Ryotatsu, the wayward Priest blinded by Shinkai, the Wicked Priest, has his own story in this ultra-violent tale from the era of the Meiji Reconstruction. When a woman leaves her blind son at the Monastery, Ryotatsu is forced to teach the boy how to cope as a blind person in old Japan. When he takes the child with him on the road to find the boy's mother, they run afoul of not only yakuza gangsters, but some corrupt army officers have been trying to sway public opinion against the Satsuma rebels by posing as members of Saigo Takamori's group. It's a bloody mistake for them to underestimate the strength of the Blind Priest, and he'll make them pay with their lives!

Overkill

December 1987 •English

A Tokyo cop is sent to Los Angeles to help an LAPD detective break up a yakuza ring operating in the city.

First Love

May 2019 •Japanese

One night in Tokyo, Leo, a young boxer, meets his first love, Monica, an imprisoned sex worker. Caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme, they find themselves pursued by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis, and a female assassin.

Housenka

Invalid date •Japanese

Autumn 2023. Akutsu, an elderly inmate serving life in prison, is on the verge of a lonely death in his single cell. A flower, touch-me-not, that can talk like humans says to him, "What a rotten life you had." Through their "conversation," Akutsu starts reflecting on his past. Summer 1986. Akutsu is living with Nana, a woman six years his junior, and her son Kensuke in a shabby apartment with a garden full of touch-me-nots. A one-night victorious comeback by a dying yakuza, and the story of his family recounted by a flower that blooms in prison.

Dead or Alive

November 1999 •Japanese

Ryūichi and his small gang of Triad vie for control of the Japanese underworld in a crime-ridden Shinjuku quarter while Detective Jojima tries to bring it down.

Tattoo

April 2002 •German

Marc Schrader, a rookie cop caught red-handed with drugs in a police raid of an illegal rave, joins a homicide investigation conducted by Chief Inspector Minks. The victim is a naked young woman with the skin stripped off her back, killed as she staggered into traffic. As Schrader and Minks investigate the murder, the case is complicated by a finger found in the stomach of the victim. Forensic examination proves the finger belongs to Nobert Günzel, who was previously convicted of rape and assault. The police raid Günzel’s residence, and discover a blood-stained table with restraints and bits of human flesh in his basement. They also find video equipment and preserved, tattooed skin from the victim’s back. Soon, they found dead bodies buried in the garden. Günzel then goes missing.

Ichi the Killer

December 2001 •Japanese

As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.

Gozu

July 2003 •Japanese

Minami mistakenly kills a gangster associate of his named Brother. Almost as soon as the murder takes place, the body of the deceased man is gone, prompting Minami to conduct a search. While looking, he finds a mysterious isolated hotel where he decides to take a rest. Not only are the front desk clerks a bit strange, but even the ambiance feels unusual. Minami soon realizes he may have gotten more than he bargained for.