Asao Koike

Companion to Hell

When a broadcasting company takes away its financial support from a symphony orchestra, some of the members refuse to admit defeat. The first violinist returns to his home and manages to get the orchestra back together for a grandiose performance, saved at the last minute by their original conductor -- and boding well for the future of the die-hard musicians.

Every day a car accident happens in the city. The involved parties are prey to the settlement agents (jidanya), mediators between the parts and the insurance companies to avoid time-consuming legal actions that could come when no settlement is reached (while cheating both parties out of some piece of the settlement pay). Genkichi is a well versed old-timer, that sees how his freshly out of collage son struggles to fit into the business, while at the same time facing one of his lowest rivals in a car crash incident.

Kanto Woman Fortitude

Having lost everything at a local yakuza gambling den, Genta comes to Osaka hoping to make a comeback. He falls in love with Chigusa, the woman who gives him the opportunity to hit the jackpot at the bicycle race track, but his hopes are dashed. Then, at a hormone restaurant in Kamagasaki, he has a wild time with a glamorous lustful wife while her husband is away. He quickly becomes one with the locals. He tries his hand at various sleazy and shady businesses with them, but his business doesn't go well, as he attracts the attention of the local yakuza. At this point, he coincidentally reunites with Chigusa in town. However, Chigusa is the mistress of the yakuza boss, and things take a turn for the worse...

Ogami Itto is hired to kill a tattooed female assassin and battles Retsudo, head of the Yagyu clan, and his son Gunbei.

Many persons visit the hot springs resort to try out Reiko's famous vagina with quivering walls, "the sensation of worms wiggling about"... that won her her nickname (Mimizu = earthworm).

An ambitious Kansai yakuza don moves in on Tokyo using financial and political tactics, sparking conflict with a local criminal association.

A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.

It's a rare occasion when a noted filmmaker like Yamauchi Tetsuya gets to re-visit a previous film, and in this re-make of NINJA GARI, he not only does that, but has created an even better piece. While the original from 1964 starred the great old-time actor Konoe Jushiro, this version is perfectly cast with his son Matsukata Hiroki in the lead as Wadakuro, one of four ronin hired to fight against the Shogunate's plot to abolish the Gamo Clan, who are struggling to reinstate their young heir Tanemaru as their Lord. Facing the threat of the Koga Ninja, Wadakuro shows his own cruelty while on a personal vendetta. This is a very brutal film, with lots of realistic ninja action, violent deaths, a dark story line and is completely without any light-hearted 'humor' elements that Toei used to incorperate back in the golden era. And with Matsukata Hiroki's outstanding martial skills, the swordplay is even better in this one. This is definitely one of the best ninja movies ever made!

With a Kansai syndicate setting their sights on Tokyo, a former yakuza boss gets dragged back into a world of violence.

Hanzo extracts a confession from a ghost using his assaulting methods, foils thieves, connects with Heisuke Takei a friend from his youth, offers protection to a forward-thinking physician Genan Sugino who has defamed his ruler, discovers a pleasure ring of young wives and a blind music teacher, and cuckolds a corrupt official under his very nose.

When a large crime syndicate seeks to invade Gifu's underworld, three brothers and their yakuza family are the only ones that stand in their way.

Gang's Upward Strategy

After accidentally causing the death of an old lady, Zatoichi tries to do right by buying the lady’s daughter’s freedom from a brothel - but this causes more problems than solves them.

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

A squadron of Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers find themselves transported through time to their country's warring states era, when rival samurai clans were battling to become the supreme Shogun.

The hero, Prince Siegfried, is out riding one day with his friends when he spies amidst swans on a lake a particularly eye-catching one with a crown on its head, the familiar Princess ...

The Final Gamble

Inside a Girl's Dormitory

His goal is to help the weak and defenseless, but his saving a mouse makes him the most wanted in all the land. On the run from incessant, dim-witted mice, Perro befriends a young miller's boy, Pierre; together, they decide to seek fame and fortune. When they cross paths with the lovely Princess Rosa, Perro determines to get Pierre hitched to Her Royal Highness.

The film tells about drug trafficking from Vietnam to Tokyo and Okinawa. Tetsuya Watari plays a photographer who uses his camera as a blackmail weapon. He is on the trail of a narcotics smuggler (Mikio Narita) and his beautiful contact (Haruko Wanibuchi). Watari meets a former gangster (Yujiro Ishihara) who is seeking revenge against Narita, his former partner. Watari and Ishihara become allies and hijack the dope shipment. But Narita threatens the life of Haruko, who turns out to be Ishihara's sister, and demands the dope in return for the girl.

A former soldier, reduced to working at a restaurant post-war, becomes a contract killer for the yakuza gangs he's in contact with.

A celebrity, dissatisfied with his personal and professional lives, impulsively leaves fast-paced Tokyo to deliver a much-needed jeep to a remote village. When his controlling manager, the woman he loves, follows, the two must reconcile while dodging reporters.

A young magistrate recalls three tales of heinous crimes committed by women, and the brutal punishments that ensued.

A small time crook who sells rabbits for a living frequently gets himself into trouble with loan sharks and the yakuza. He dreams of becoming a successful big-shot and embarks on the life of a yakuza hitman.

A war veteran clashes with a mob boss in this crime saga. When Ryuji returns from the war, he finds himself torn by the death of an old friend - the son of crime kingpin Kiyomiya. A death Ryuji feels responsible for.

A ship is attacked at sea for its cargo by a group of thieves who murder a newlywed doctor and rape his wife. Three years later her twin sister is kidnapped by the same pirates, who begin to die strange deaths...

Samon, who had left his position as a police constable, embarks on a journey. During his travel, he is attacked by a group of masked bandits and sufferes a deep wound on his way back to Edo at the request of Magistrate Toyama. Saved by Dr. Kazumichi, Samon is asked by Toyama to identify an informant among the members of the lightning gang, a group of cruel thieves wreaking havoc throughout Edo. Samon then becomes an assistant to the firefighter squad led by Naito Hayato-masamune. One night, while rushing to the oil merchant Tambaya, who is attacked by the robbers, Samon and his group discovered a trembling young girl Oso who is the only survivor of the massacre and has lost her voice due to terror.

Account magistrate Wakisaka Bizen Mamoru asks Yoshibei, the chief priest of Iriya and Myohoji Temple to explore the Sado Gold Mine. They suspect that large amounts of money are being diverted to somewhere else. Yoshibei, a former official secret-head accepts the job and recruits three skilled Karadogumi… Nanikiri, Hayashi, and Kumonryo. In Sado, where the four infiltrate, the magistrate Okubo Hitachi Mamoru who plans to overthrow the shogunate is trying to buy a large number of firearms from Russia.

A Japanese woman is raped by her boyfriend day in day out.

During the reign of Shogun Iemitsu, a great martial arts tournament was held to determine whether or not Iemitsu was to remain in power or cede it to his uncle, Yornobu, the 10th son of Ieyasu. Among the contestants were many expert swordsmen who have become well-known to this day. Warriors such as Yagyu Jubei (Kaga Takeshi), and Miyamoto Musashi (Matsukata Hiroki) headed up the slate. This was to be the all-star samurai match of the century. An amazing TV movie with non-stop action as Yagyu Jubei must save an emissary of the Ming and reach Edo in time to fight the crucial match.

After the bankruptcy of her foster-father's condom factory, Tamae sets out to make a living on her own and ends up working as a geisha at a hot spring resort. After rising in popularity, a climactic sex battle is held to decide who gets to lay claim to her.

When two Girl Bosses fight each other over territory, their enmity is difficult to solve - they are equals in looks, strength, determination, and power of their respective girl gangs. So, the way is open to a mischievous Yakuza Boss who invites them for a peaceful way to decide their feud: a sexual challenge for him to decide who is the better Girl Boss. Trapped, both are subject to the man's lust and sadistic assaults. They escape by joining forces against the yakuza gang, though it costs one of the young women her life - when she was friends already with her former enemy.

The Beauty of Heaven and Hell

Coinciding with the LDP presidential election of the entire national public, a masterpiece depicting the reverse side of Showa political history released, superimposed cast, a group image of real politicians centered on Shigeru Yoshida and political history after the war.

After World War II life in Japan was hard. There was lawlessness, rapine, never enough food or money. One girl, raped by three men, called out the name of Kentaro before she died and this was something that people in this small section of downtown Tokyo remembered. Life went on, however, and local boss Hiramatsu Daizo decided to build a market, aided by his daughter Aya. They met opposition until one day a young man named Kentaro appears who it is rumored he was the vengeful lover of the murdered girl. He lives with Sabu and Yukari, the children the girl looked after before she died, and helps with the market, coming to the rescue with a bulldozer when Daizo is threatened by a rival group. When Daizo is finally killed, Kentaro carries on the work. Finally the market is completed, the rival group makes a last stand but is machine-gunned down by Kentaro who, after saying that he was not the one whose name the dying girl called out, leaves town for good.

The young yakuza who have arrived in the city are being taught the beauty of work and the pleasure of learning by hard-working young people of the same generation. Youth masterpiece created based on the hit Kazuo Funaki.

A Japanese woman writes down three stories she has witnessed or heard of in her diary, each about the difficult situation a young woman finds herself in.

As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down on the gangs, under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima.

After serving time, a defiant street thug is incensed to find his town overrun by two yakuza factions. He gathers his crew and takes them on.

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.

Place your bets! Koji Himuro (Akira Kobayashi) is a makeout artist with unparalleled gambling skills. Shortly after his return to Tokyo, he is invited to attend a reception being held at the Suvenian Embassy of Tokyo. This “reception” was an undercover gambling operation that was run by an international gambling syndicate. Up against a cardsharp by the name of Inumaru and his mistress Reiko, Koji plays a flawless game of Seven Bridge. Outraged by his loss, Inumaru orders Reiko to stalk Koji like a shadow.

A 1967 crime film

1962 Japanese movie

The wife of a samurai, who was leading a happy life, dies in a fit of wind. On the verge of death, she makes her husband promise that she will not take a second wife, and is buried in a corner of the garden, as he had wished, but of course the second wife comes. At the celebration, the husband is immediately smitten with his new wife, but the spirit begins to haunt him from the seventh day.

Japan nineteenth century. High demand for tattooed geisha generates an entire industry for their "production". Europeans pay more for tattooed beauties. Against this background, and considering the gorgeous tattooed women develop the history of confrontation between two highly skilled masters of tattoo.

Ninth film of "Mysterious Thirteen Nights" series.

A young dockworker who owes his life to his boss becomes embroiled in union activity on the Yokohama waterfront. The rebel Saburo works as an errand boy for a shipping company and vents his frustrations by plucking on the guitar.

Rennyo was the key figure responsible for the restoration of Shin Buddhism in Japan, in particular the Honganji lineage that had a slump in its fortunes during the Middle Ages. According to the legend, his motivation was a pivotal childhood incident at the age of six when his mother summoned him and told him about his destiny to revive the fortunes of the Honganji school to which he was the next in line. She then mysteriously disappeared from the temple. Taking her words to heart, from a background of great poverty and hardship, at the age of 16 he set out to spread the word across the land.

The "lowly ronin" meets a child who is being chased by men that killed his father before his eyes. Feeling indebted to the child for buying him dinner, the Ronin takes the child back to his village. There, the Ronin reluctantly gets involved in a pathetic revolt by the cowardly villagers against their tyrannical governor. Mifune at his best!

With World War II is coming to its end and Japan nearing defeat, Japanese military leaders step up suicide attacks on Allied ships. Toei legend Koji Tsuruta stars as a Kamikaze squad leader who has second thoughts about suicide runs. He becomes torn between his own morality and his duty to his country when he must deal with a pilot under his command who refuses to complete his mission.

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

A story of young students trained to become Kamikaze pilots in World War II.

A Datsun driving, face-punching moody super-cop Cobra Cumera battles homicidal mobsters intent on causing mayhem and trouble in beautifully shot Tokyo. Complete with strippers, muggins, drugs, car chases, bouncy pop tunes, freak-outs, and a saucy lady assassin.

When a young soldier is killed while trying to prevent his younger sister, Kaoru, from being sold into a life of prostitution, his commander, Col. Miyagi, tries to honor his dying wish to rescue his sister. Upon finding Kaoru at a party working as a geisha and later rescuing her from committing suicide, Col. Miyagi allows her to move in with him. Over time, the two grow close, but in spite of Kaoru's growing feelings for him, Col. Miyagi is unable to bring himself to return her love. On the night of his deployment to war, Col. Miyagi finally admits his feelings for Kaoru, but will they ever be able to enjoy a peaceful life together now that a very violent and bloody military revolt is under way...

“Quit working as a nurse!” “All right, I will!” thus began the married life of Yasuo and Keiko. But the reality is harsh. Keiko even had to work on the first night after her marriage. Ten years later, the married couple is still at it. Yauso tends to the house and their children, while Keiko sacrifices family life for life as an overworked nurse. One day, after Keiko comes home utterly exhausted and dejected from her work, Yasuo makes up his mind and writes a letter of resignation in her place. Upon learning of this, Keiko angrily declares that nursing is what she lives for and she will keep on working. Realising that that is one battle he will never win, Yasuo sends a letter to a newspaper -- “Nurses’ husbands, aren’t you having a hard time? Get together nurses’ husbands. Contact me.” There is a tremendous response. This leads to the formation of many unions of nurses’ husbands throughout the country.

Famous for his coin tossing when capturing criminals, an Edo detective, Heiji, launches an investigation into the mysterious murder of his friend Seigoro.

Japanese action film.

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

Kogarashi Monjiro is a lone samurai who agrees to take responsibility for a murder that his friend committed so that he can stay with his dying mother, with the expectation that his friend will confess and get him pardoned once she dies. Monjiro is sentenced to an island for prisoners. When he discovers that his friend's mother has died over a year ago, Monjiro seeks to escape with a group of prisoners in order to get his revenge.

A Japanese adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, featuring animals as the majority of the cast. By chance Jim comes upon a map of Treasure Island. He leaves the port accompanied by Glan, the rat and Bub, the baby on a strange looking boat of his own make to look for the island. Pirates soon find him and adventure ensues.

Suspense drama about a married salaryman whose affair with one of his co-workers is compromised when, returning from a clandestine meeting with his lover, he runs into a neighbor who is later accused of murder. Questioned by police about the neighbor, and blackmailed by his lover's neighbor, the salaryman's lies lead him on a path to destruction.

Live-action adaptation of Shinji Mizushima's manga.

One evening, at the Marine Tower observatory, cosmetics salesman Ichiro Iki is drawn into conversation with an unfamiliar young lady Akiko. She invites Ichiro back to a hotel where they make love but part without even exchanging names. A week later, they have a second chance encounter at the observatory. This time, Ichiro is the one who pursues her. Back at the hotel, Akiko begs Ichiro to give her sister – Kyoko, a bar hostess – absolute hell. Akiko resents her sister for lecturing on chastity, while wantonly indulging in promiscuous activity. Ichiro takes an interest in Kyoko and sets out towards her bar…

A tragic love story involving the 5th Shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty and a woman who became one of his concubines.

Ando on the run, stopping in to service all the women in his life, with a bit of the old ultra-violence.

Jiro, a young yakuza, and Mami, a diplomat’s daughter, are two young lovers from different worlds. Having met by accident, they soon discover a new life together. But their love is ill-fated. Mami's family will not accept her choice, while leading an honest life seems like an unattainable goal for Jiro. Can there be anything else but a tragic ending?

Three stories of moral sickness set during Japan’s prosperous Genroku era are told in this bloody follow-up to the sexploitation classic Shogun’s Joy of Torture, the politically incorrect moral lessons paint a trio of tales of tragic heroines caught up in violence, sadomasochism, incest and torture.

Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.

The long awaited second film in the Wicked Priest series is a masterpiece of sword swinging fury as Shinkai is asked by a man on the run to bring his young son to live with his grandfather, the master of a ju-jitsu dojo during the Taisho period of the early 20th century. Shinkai then runs afoul of a gangster group using strong-arm tactics to take over the profits from local gambling. When he proves to be more than they can handle, they hire the one man who has the ability to kill Shinkai and exact revenge, Ryotatsu, the karate priest whom Shinkai blinded in the first film. This ultra-violent entry has long been considered the best movie in the series and never made its way to home video before. See a spectacular display of Wakayama Tomisaburo’s martial art expertise in this action packed film. The Holy Grail of sword movies has arrived at last! /Winterheart of CG

Wakae is a 15 year old girl who lived under the same roof with her alcoholic father and stepmom. Her mother had died years ago. She spends her nights at a rundown bar, sharing drinks and cigarettes with the lowlife drunks. She has nowhere to turn and no one to talk to, until she is reunited with her childhood friend, Saburo, who brings warmth to her heart.

The second Bounty Hunter film, when master killer Shikoro Ichibei takes up the cause of a group of farmers being driven to despair by the vile Lord Ozeki. The villainous lord has driven them to mounting their last stand at a deserted fort against an army of attackers. Wakayama Tomisaburo is superb as an expert in killing and military tactics, who leaves his medical practice at a clinic for the poor in order to counter the vicious tactics of that vile lord.

Ryu, a low life thug, along with his mother, steals a shipment of drugs. Now with his machine gun and a gang of hoodlums, he must face the yakuza and the mafia.

A former soldier is caught working the black market and sent to prison while his partner escapes and goes on to become a gangster, but their paths cross again as they both fall in love with the same woman.

Japanese film.

Comedy about a car salesman who invents a condom against premature ejaculation.

Well before “Shogun” as warring clans were fighting for power throughout Japan, a Portuguese vessel ran aground off Tanegashima. Lord Tokitaka helped Captain Pinto repair his ship. The grateful captain offered the lord a gift--a matchlock musket—the first firearm ever seen in Japan. But like a great stone hurled into placid waters, this simple gift will start a revolution. Tokitaka tasks Kinbei, his greatest swordsmith, to copy this musket and build guns for Japan. While Kinbei struggles to forge Japan’s first musket, a great love blooms between Captain Pinto and Kinbei’s daughter Wakasa. But for Kinbei, to let Wakasa marry Pinto and go to Portugal is unthinkable. And as Kinbei creates Japan’s first matchlock factory, Lord Oda Nobunaga will seize upon firearms as the key to sweep all other clans before him, tearing a blood-soaked path of destruction through Japan.

Two semi-slackers with an ultra-intimate friendship work, slack and drink in a freezing Hokkaido town.

The Gambler's Law

Third film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin.

A seemingly run-of-the-mill corporate salaryman leads a double life as a vicious criminal by night. In a delicious scheme of payback, he seeks to dominate the corporation that employs him by day.

Akiyama is an intern, disgusted with the noise pollution caused by the bullet trains and the heart attacks that noise has been causing in older hospital patients, plots to disrupt and, in ten days, destroy a unit of the operation. He warns the Japan National Railway, that, if nothing is done to reduce the noise, he will derail a bullet train. Takigawa is the police detective sent to stop him.

The hero tries to unite various gangs.

An assassin is mistaken for a doctor and threatened by a band of masterless warriors, but they realize their mistake and retreat into the darkness. Days later, he is asked to kill the doctor's brother. What secrets are these men hiding?

Set in the icy wilderness of Hokkaido during the early days of the Meiji era, where the brutal warden of Kabato Prison terrorizes convicts sentenced to forced labor to build the roads needed to open up the territory.

In the roaring 1970s, a man who has left the world of the yakuza to become the owner of a sushi restaurant decides to rise up again when he sees his former family being overrun by a modern yakuza group from the Kansai region.

This anthology film consists of nine incidents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when assassins changed the course of Japanese history.

In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.

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

The third chapter of the ‘Red Peony Gambler’ saga depicts the happiness and sadness of Red Peony Oryu’s life as she seals her femininity with a red peony tattoo and lives in world of chivalry and honor of the yakuza. This story takes place in the middle of the Meiji era in Nagoya. Oryu is wandering the country, training herself to reinstate her family name. With a written recommendation from Kumatora, she appears at the door of the Nishinomaru family. At the same time, the family is preparing for the gambling competition at the Netsuda Shrine Festival, which they have been hosting for generations. Meanwhile, the crooked Kinbara family is plotting to take over the competition. And now Oryu is forced to get involved in the struggle…

A yakuza member embarks on a trail of revenge for his murdered boss. Senzo, the successor of the Mita Family, searches for the man bearing a tattoo of a dragon who is said to be responsible for the death of their former leader.

In Osaka's slum, capricious folks without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the trading of ID cards and blood.

Just when you think Kyoshiro's life can't get any stranger, someone starts running around raping and murdering, and leaving notes proudly proclaiming that he did it. Tracking down the real culprit will take him along a twisted trail that involves the Shogun's harem, hidden Christians, and positively pregnant politics!

Yokiro was the most successful Geisha house in Western Japan during the first half of the 20th century and remains open to this day. At its peak, it was home to over 200 geisha, however behind the fabulous facade, there were many battles - between family members, men and women, and with the Yakuza. Momokawa was sold to Yokiro at age 12, and despite being the top geisha, her many complicated relationships provide unending challenges throughout her glamorous but turbulent life.

Kanno is a Yakuza. He had to kill Matsuoka who betrayed their boss. Kanno knew Matsuoka had a 3-year-old daughter named Youko. Before he gave himself to the police, he asked his trusted man to take care of her. While in prison, Kanno kept sending letters to Youko, disguising as an uncle in Brazil. 15 years later, Kanno is released. He is determined to live legitimately, however the Yakuza has not forgotten his wicked deed!

A man aspires to be a big boss but falls in love with a beautiful woman boss.

Based on the novel of the same name by Kenzo Kitakata.

Violent Gang Re-Arms is a rousing tale of friction in yakuza and labor interactions with Koji Tsuruta as a yakuza supervising a dockworker's union. He finds himself between a rock and a hard place, at odds with both the dockworkers' leader (Tomisaburo Wakayama) and sadistic, unprincipled bosses (Fumio Watanabe and Tetsuro Tamba).

Isazo is a traveling gambler and living legend in the world of yakuza, known for his swordsmanship and bravery, his impeccable manners, and his brilliant talent in gambling. One late fall at an inn in Kiso Fukushima, Isazo befriends a young boy whose mother turns out to be his old love Yoshino, with whom he was not unable to consummate a marriage due to the class differences between them.

A young gambler returns from prison to find his gang scattered, and many gone over to his old rival. But their rivalry is not only a matter of gambling. For when he is about to marry the daughter of a police official, the rival again interferes and this time it is a fight to the finish -- the end of his enemy.

The local yakuza gangs dominating the port of Yokohama do not take well the invasion of their territory by a daring biker gang, led by a girl in black leather outfit and cowboy hat - reminiscent of the earlier war victors. Old and new grudges lead the two girl gangs to clash in several fights. However, when one of the leaders dies, the girls end up by uniting against the male gangsters that had been using them as puppets - and it all ends in a great finale mixed battle by the seashore.

A series of short stories about bizarre crimes committed by females in the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa Eras. Discover 4 famous Japanese murderers: Takahashi Oden, the last woman beheaded in Japan, Sada Abe, a crazy lover, Kunihiko Kodaira, a rapist-killer and finally, the Toyokaku case, a woman who did everything to own a hotel.

During the war a university professor meets a girl and marries her. Very soon however, it is apparent that their needs are not matched. He would much rather be translating Shakespeare than attending to her, and she has a secret in her past - one that results in her sleeping with a great number of men.

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 escaping from an insane asylum, a medical student assumes the identity of a mysterious dead man, who appears to be his doppelganger, and gets lured to a sinister island ruled by a mad scientist and his malformed men.

The three-film saga comes to a conclusion as three leaders of the underworld battle it out to determine who will become Don of Japan.

With her first love that unfolded in the battlefield in her heart, and with a short sword and a pillbox as her weapons, female gambler Okatsu the Tiger Lily travels from gambling site to gambling site. Surrounding her are Omon, an outlaw star blind lone gambler; Onaka, a thief who’s after Okatsu to avenge her father’s death; Ohide, a tattoo artist whose back is covered by a dragon tattoo; and Oryu, a young girl sold as a prostitute to a gambling family.

During the Showa era, a young yakuza survives war and injury and rises to become a clan boss with the help and respect of his sworn brothers.

A group of prisoners attempts to break the Abashiri prison. This film can be considered a sequel to the Abashiri Bangaichi series, written and directed by Ishii Teruo. The friendship between two men on death row, a fleeting love affair with a traveling dancer and a deadly battle with the real culprit who has hunted him down filmed over a long period of time on location in Hokkaido.

Mr. Soh, a righteous man with a cold stare and fists of steel, returns to a lawless post-war Japan in 1946. He protects the weak, defends the poor and knocks some good sense into friends and enemies alike. Rapists and gangsters get the worst of it, as Mr. Soh builds up his school on the island of Shikoku.

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.

It is the first Toei yakuza film directed by Akinori Matsuo, who was active in Nikkatsu action movies. It is a local yakuza movie made following Okinawa Yakuza War (1976) and Hokuriku Proxy War (1977). The film depicts the war between a storied yakuza killer (Hiroki Matsukata) and the largest organized crime group in the Kansai region, which plans to advance into the Kanto region.

Action-comedy film featuring the adventures of an itinerant merchant (Hiroki Matsukata) that becomes an unlikely hero.

A young yakuza soldier is torn between staying in his current life or leaving his family when his boss refuses to follow their ancient code of ethics.

A lone gambler tries to keep a yakuza family from taking over a festival in Kitakyushu. After away from his hometown for 13 years, Ryuji comes back and saves the town that is becoming run-down from yakuza’s ill deeds.

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.

Leaving his wife in Osaka, Honda leads a double life in Tokyo – after spending the day as an elite businessman, he flirts around in the evenings. He even rents a secret apartment where he keeps record of his girl hunts in his diary, the ‘Hunter’s Diary’. One day, he finds an article in the newspaper – a murder of a young woman in his diary. A few days later, another woman from his diary is murdered. He soon finds himself in a labyrinth of fear, as women named in his diary are killed one after another...

A death occurs during a mountain-climbing expedition.

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...

As a child, Okin the one-armed one-eyed swordswoman was disfigured by Lord Daizen-dayu, who was after her family's most treasured possession, the famed Drenched Swallow sword. As an adult, she has become a skilled swordswoman and lives a carefree life with her adopted family. One day, Okin saves a girl from a group of yakuza, and in doing so, gets involved in a grand conspiracy involving religious leaders, government officials, the yakuza and Lord Daizen-dayu, the man who killed her father and mutilated her body...

Everybody's chasing a diamond in Sadao Nakajima's crime/action/drama. It was a based on a novel by Tsusai Sugawara, who was a Japanese writer and political figure campaigning against drugs, prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases.

Ichi is staying at an inn when a woman dies. Her dying wish is that Ichi take her son to his father, an artist living in a nearby town. After arriving in the town, Ichi finds out that the father has been forced by a local boss to create illegal pornography to pay off his gambling debts. Ichi makes it his mission to save the man and reunite the family, even though it brings him into conflict with a samurai he sort of befriended on his way to the town.

A junior high school teacher is raped by several students inside the school.

A violent story of loyalty and revenge among the many "yakuza" or gambling groups in Japan.

A Japanese intelligence officer faces personal crises in the years preceding the Manchurian conflict.

A dangerous mobster threatens the life of a businessman's mother in this thriller. As Ryuji oversees the building of a bridge in Japan, a powerful gangster plans to stop the project. By any means necessary.

Ryuji Oshima, a gambler, kills Saiga in self-defense, and considering himself unfit to lead men, secludes himself in a temple to atone for his misdeeds. At home, when his mother, the boss of a construction gang, bids for and gets the job of building the Town Hall, other gangs set out to disrupt her business and try to kill her.

Based on the comic by Kazuo Koike

A rookie golfer must cope with the stress of fame after a marketing executive transforms her into a sports celebrity.

Aldin, a vagabond water vendor, embarks of a series of fantastical and tragic misadventures through the Middle East in search of love, fortune, and power.

New Abashiri Prison Story: Honor and Humanity, Ammunition That Attracts the Storm

The Kanto Gypsies, a tough girl gang, hide out from the law in the middle of a disputed gang territory, where they end up getting kidnapped by sinister underworld thugs. After breaking free, the girls set their sights on one thing: revenge. Miki Sugimoto stars as girl boss Komasa, the ruthless and sadistic leader of the Kanto Gypsies who possesses more than enough brains to match her killer looks.

The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and mute. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and tribulations ... and joys.

Just after WW2, a romance between an innkeeper and a man with tuberculosis unravels near a thermal spring.

On a cold winter day, Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) and Masahiko murder the mob boss of Meishin-Kai. The deed costs them time in prison, but Goro had no shred of regret. When Goro is released 2 years later, Masahiko is dying in prison hospital and entrusts his last wish; "find my sister and take care of her." Goro leaves as a free man with a mission, but soon finds that he might have been better off in jail.

This Madding Crowd

A yakuza leader must balance his violent tactics necessary for the rough streets of 1960s Tokyo with the domestic needs of his daughters.

Sixth part in the Enblem of Man series.

Tsuruta is a respected tattoo artist working with comrades Machida and Yamashiro. His former boss, who also just happens to be the master who had tattooed the magnificent dragon on Tsuruta’s back, is now a dissolute, bitter drunk living with his son in law and sickly grandson. His daughter, the boy’s mom, is indentured at the brothel run by boss Nakamura and daughter Matsuo. Nakamura’s two faced second in command Amatsu will not let the mother see her son…

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

The Man's Crest: I Shall Kill

Part 3 in a long running (8+1 films) action/comedy/melodrama series about a pair of short tempered, amoral, but not evil chinpira (Bunta Sugawara and Tamio Kawachi) thinking too big of themselves.

Delinquent Street

Drive for the Future

A sequel to Detective Bureau 2-3: Go To Hell Bastards!

Yoake no hata matsumoto jiichirō Den

On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder.

Bad Reputation: The Notorious Man of Legend

Japanese crime film.

Japanese crime film

The Last Loyalty Offering

There are two bizarre rumors spreading about a girls' high school called “Seiwa Joshi Gakuen.” The first is a “Hanako-san in the Toilet”-like story about a painting that hangs in the principal's office = young twin sisters who escape from the painting at night and promenade around the school. The other is about Ryoko Mizumura, an art teacher who is too beautiful to be true and the object of the students' admiration, but who may actually be two people.

The biopic of Shigenobu Ōkuma, one of the main Japanese leaders at the turn of the 20th century, a supporter of rapprochement with the United Kingdom, and who brought his country into the Triple Entente against the German Empire.

Foggy Night Blues

The Big Chase

駿河遊侠伝　度胸がらす

An action comedy that depicts two men fascinated by a woman in red high heels who are convinced to confront a vicious yakuza gang. The 2nd of the 3 part Roku Denashi movie series.

Yuki Onozaki, who was studying at a Women's College in Tokyo, was originally a young and ignorant girl, but her life changed completely in the summer of a certain year. During the summer vacation, Yuki returned to her hometown of Kyoto, only to be raped by the lover of her mother. Yuki then abandoned her studies and chose a depraved life. She met the gang leader Kiyoshi Oba and factory industrialists. Although these men could give her more or less physical comfort, they could not open Yuki's locked heart. It was not until the appearance of the young architect Yoichiro Honma that Yuki's love flower gradually bloomed. Soon, Yoichiro's first love while studying in France, Sandra, finds her, which makes Yuki's heart surge. After several twists and turns, Yoichiro decided to marry Yuki, but the trials never stopped...

Netsuai sha

A Hiromichi Horikawa movie

Hamuretto wa yukue fumei

At the Side of the Bridge 3

The third film in the Kanto Street Peddlers series. Sugawara still plays the same Kanto street peddler, who this time ventures to Osaka where he defends a blind girl at a street market. The area is targeted by rotten yakuza (Asao Koike and Tatsuo Endo), who have lured local senior female boss (Nijiko Kiyokawa’s) rebellious but not entirely indecent son Goro Ibuki to their side.

Based on the comic by Housei Hasegawa

A man who is fed up with his office job finds himself targeted by a hitman after he unexpectedly agrees to act as stand-in CEO for a major corporation. However, for some reason, the hitmen start getting killed off one by one.

Banana

The actions and downfall of a man who lives a life of cold calculation, adapted from a Hideo Shirasaki novel.

Based on Haruko Ōta's memoir.

The story chronicles the life of Ii Naosuke.

The adventures of Leo, a young lion cub who becomes king of the jungle when his father, the previous king of the jungle is killed by a human hunter.

A shikakenin was an under-the-cover trade that undertook killing in Edo. Hanemon of Otowa, an agency that introduced laborers and maids, was also one of these. Katsugoro Iseya was a timber dealer who had come in as a client. His target was the constructions magistrate Hanno, and the Tatsumiya who sipped on the benefits. Hanemon who had a stong code towards killing, where he would only kill those who do no good to be in the world, accepts this request. Baian Fujieda, a needle doctor would carry out the killing. However, the professional killer Baian fails to bring down Tatsumiya. Hanemon then looks to another shikakenin, the ronin Sanai Nishimura for the role. Although Sanai's ability with the sword is good, he lives poorly in a tenement, and accepts this commission on the condition that it is kept a secret from his wife and child. Here, they close in on Hanno and Tatsumiya again...

Monjiro was born into a poor farm family in Mikazuki Village, Nitta County, Ueshu, and abandoned his hometown when he was 10 years old. He has been traveling aimlessly with a long toothpick in his mouth. Monjiro avoided getting involved in anything, but wherever he went, he ended up getting involved in incidents

" Keishi-K " is a detective drama directed and starring Shintaro Katsu. This drama tells the story of Inspector Katsutoshi Gatsu, a hammy detective, as he fights crime.

江戸川乱歩の美女シリーズ

Shimon Saeko lives a peaceful life with her physician husband and two sons. However, things begin to change once she starts receiving mysterious phone calls. Shortly after her husband leaves for a business trip overseas, one of her sons gets kidnapped.