Akira Kobayashi

A story about the development of a bright and strong yakuza. Otaki is an old-fashioned respectful yakuza who tries to protect his small yakuza family. When his boss gets shot, he decides to go after the plotters.

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An anthology that embodies the essence of Nikkatsu action films with a stylish flair, this movie follows an aging hitman (Jō Shishido) on a quest to find a former rival he once shared the screen with. The story unfolds as he roams, creating a distinctive narrative.

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Worried about the state under heaven and lamenting the decadence of Bushido, the shogunate daimetsuke Inuijuzaemon (Shogo Shimada) decides that the only way to reform the shogunate is to cure it by force. Led by the leader Gennosuke Inui (Asahi Kobayashi), four men and women are summoned from the national government to organize a secret investigation agency. The four of them base themselves at Azamiya, a cooking tea house in Fukagawa, and take root in a corner of the city to expose the great evil that pervades the dark side of civil society. [TV series] (C) International Broadcasting

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The 224-minute compilation edition of Battles Without Honor and Humanity compiles these four movies: Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Deadly Fight in Hiroshima, Proxy War, Police Tactics.

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Tarao’s services are called upon to solve the mysterious death of bride-to-be, Mariko, who was found dead with an eerie mask of a devil.

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Baseball player Takatsuka is murdered mid-game in front of a large crowd. The autopsy reveals that he has been killed by a needle coated with a poison used by the Ainu tribe for hunting. The next morning, sports photographer Kawase is killed in the same manner. Kawase’s sister, Yuko, hires Taro Banai, the detective with seven faces, to uncover the truth.

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Mid 50s: the trials and tribulations of Shinsuke Ibuki, freshly arrived in Tokyo from Kyushu.

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After spending eight years in prison for murder, Hiroshi leaves his yakuza family to start a new life as a labor racketeer.

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Amidst Japan's postwar economic boom, yakuza factions in Osaka fight for survival when Japan's largest crime syndicate plans a hostile takeover.

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A violent upstart forms an alliance with the powerful Tensei-kai syndicate to fight on the front lines of an underworld war and take over all of Japan.

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Mainly the story of Shinsuke and his stepmother, ranging from Shinsuke's infanthood to his mid-teens. Coal workers and the mines dominate nearly every aspect of the life of the characters. Shinsuke's father dies while bravely using dynamite to rescue a group of trapped Korean miners. Several older men attempt to help he and his mother cope, including a kind Korean and a Harley-riding yakuza.

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In gangster-infested 1920s Yokohama, gambler Ishiguro gets in with the local gang -- but his view of life changes after the Great Kanto Earthquake.

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Vice Admiral Takajiro Ohnishi could see that Japan's defeat in WWII was inevitable. He came to realize that the only way to force a negotiated solution was to convince the Americans that invading Japan would cause massive casualties on both sides. The cold logic of suicide attacks, where one man and one plane could kill hundreds, seemed the only solution. In one of the cruel ironies of fate, Ohnishi actually succeeded; he convinced the Americans that invading Japan would be too costly in lives. But what he could not foresee was that America had another way of ending the war.

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While Hirono is in prison, his rival Takeda turns his own crime organization into a political party, whose two executives stir up new tensions in their thirst for power.

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With a Kansai syndicate vying for Tokyo, one man reunites with his roguish half-brother in the midst of negotiations, when all hell breaks loose.

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

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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.

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Shozo Hirono has managed to separate from the Yamamori family and create his own small family, and extend his circle of acquaintances. These new friendships include a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, Noboru Uchimoto.

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

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In Osaka, a family sets up shop in Tsuruhashi. Trouble brews for three brothers – Jinzuke, Tadayoshi, and Eizo – when they come together in their hometown, Nakano Village, after getting word of their father's critical condition. In a Nakano Village divided by a clash between local pig bristle brush manufacturers and the village chief's group over factory expansion, the latter resorts to harassing the brush manufacturers associated with the Wadakura family. Tadayoshi and the villagers attempt to take on the village office but encounter opposition from the Wadakura family's interference. Meanwhile, Jinzuke finds himself at odds with the Wadakura family over territorial disputes in Tsuruhashi. He faces off against them, striving to thwart their factory plans...

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A former gang leader and lone wolf who has left the organization works behind the scenes in a new city to take revenge on a giant alliance of organizations. This film is amongst the last "straight" yakuza films made at Nikkatsu before the studio's switch-over to pinku eiga.

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A 1970 crime film.

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Hanamura, widely known in gangland a professional trouble shooter has the sign of the Jack tattooed on his chest. His follower is his sworn partner Kurahara. They attempt to help the Towada-Gumi gang against its rival group the Kamioka-Gumi which is seeking the chance to conquer the Towada-Gumi in collusion with Noda, a big shot in the town operating a real estate firm.

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Aboard a night ferry in the Inland Sea, Masaaki Kagari (Akira Kobayashi), a young tough, who supplies hostesses to night spots, encounters Yuko, his ex-sweetheart. He considers himself a private underworld sort of policeman-in the com- munity of such women. Yuko, now a bar proprietress, is under the protection of Tahei Daigo, a sinister gang boss who in his quest for chances of good investments abroad plans to offer young girls to rich foreigners. Asked to gather attractive girls by Yuko, now Tahei's puppet, Masaaki collects many only to find them mysteriously missing...

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Post World War II, Minoru lives by selling supplies that had been stolen from the U.S. military. One day, he is arrested due to the plotting of Kurahata, a member of the Yakuza who doesn't like him.

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A man who became the third boss faces off against delinquent foreigners and villains vying to rule the underworld in order to develop the port city.

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Kagari (Akira Kobayashi), a scout and overseer of Ginza bar hostesses, receives an urgent phone call from Sawako, a hostess at the bar Rie, and rushes to Tokyo International Airport to meet her. When he arrives she is gone. At the bar he learns that Tabuchi, a steady customer, had been quite friendly with Sawako and may know something. Tabuchi claims he knows nothing and Kagari lets the matter drop. Over time Kagari learns from Takijima, a businessman, that Sawako is in a hospital in Yokohama. Takijima explains that he found her in Singapore working as a street girl and brought her back to Japan. Sawako had lost her memory after being subjected to narcotics. Kagari swears to find the person responsible.

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Yakuza Ryuichi, nicknamed the Dragon-killer, went on a journey with his son Tatsuo after he lost his wife. Due to Tatsuo's sudden illness, Ryuichi had money problems, and he became dependent on the head of the local tekiya and finds himself involved in the tekiya war with the Yakuza.

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Tsuchida Akira is a young man who recruits young hostesses around Ginza to work for other shady establishments.

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