This 25-million dollar epic collaboration accurately recreates the events that led to the Japanese attack on the American naval base during World War II. With Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, the wheels are set in motion by Japan to plan the attack. After internal differences in the government, the Japanese quickly mobilize plans ...
In this Japanese fantasy, the wrathful ghost of a shogunate warrior emerges from a thunderstorm to exact revenge on those behind the terrible 1638 Shimbara Revolt in which 18,000 rioters were slaughtered. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
As might be gathered from its title, The Legend of the Eight Samurai is set in feudal Japan. Princess Hiroku Yokoshimaru's family is wiped out, along with her bodyguards. All that stands between the princess and certain death is an inexperienced young samurai played by martial-arts expert Sonny Chiba. Armed with little more than determination, ...
Legendary director Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale, The Black Lizard) takes the helm for this stylish and violent take on the life of a lower echelon yakuza thug striving to survive in a Tokyo where the rules are constantly changing. Thuggish Isamu Okita (Bunta Sugawara) has a bad reputation for his short temper and bad habit of flying off the ...
The director of Battle Royale and The Yakuza Papers delivers yet another gritty yakuza masterpiece in this brutal tale of two warring underworld factions determined to gain ultimate power over Kurashima City. The year is 1963, and the delicate balance of power in Kurashima City is shakily maintained between two warring factions. The political ...
This shoestring-budget science fiction drama finds astronauts plagued by a mysterious green slime that clings to the men's backs, then turns into tentacled, red-eyed creatures that kill their victims. Jack Rankin (Robert Horton) is sent to a space station commanded by Vince Elliot (Richard Jaeckel). The two have a personality clash but soon must ...
The quest of a war-widow for the truth about her husband's death during World War II serves as the backbone for this film, which portrays the Japanese militarism of that time and the attitudes which gave rise to it. Though the government labelled her husband as a deserter, his widow does not believe it, and every day she makes a trip to the war ...
The Black Lizard (Kurotakage) takes place in the sub rosa world of organized crime in Japan. Famed female impersonator Akihiro Maruyama stars as a Dragon Lady type called the Lizard. In this guise, she (he?) masterminds all illegal activities in Tokyo. The Lizard jeopardizes her power when she falls in love with detective Isao Kimura. The ...
A has-been samurai movie star takes unfair advantage of the loyalty of one of his devoted fans in this Japanese comedy-drama. The star uses the fan's help to escape a number of sticky situations and eventually hatches a plan to use them as a double during a dangerous stunt. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
In this violent and morally ambiguous crime drama from master genre filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku, Takeda (Akira Kobayashi), a longtime leader of one of Hiroshima's Yakuza families (the Japanese Mafia), attempts to resolve the longtime war between various mob factions by reshaping his organization into a political organization that would be both ...
Kinji Fukasaku's violent chronicle of mob warfare in post-war Hiroshima continues with this, the third film in the Yakuza Papers series. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) struggles to remain independent and neutral in the midst of an ongoing battle between two mob families, but his drams of brokering a balance between them are dashed when a crime ...
In the 1960's, young men in rural Japan were frequently sent to the city when they became old enough to work. The consequences, however, of sending these teenagers into a struggle of class, generations, and values proved frequently volatile and even violent. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Bunta Sugawara returns as Shozo Hirono in this sequel to the acclaimed yakuza film Jingi Naki Tatakai (aka The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity). Hirono, now dug deep into a Japanese crime family based in Hiroshima, finds a new adversary in the person of Katsutoshi Otomo (Sonny Chiba), a ruthless killer who is willing to do ...
A long-standing gang war on the streets of Hiroshima escalates despite police pressure in this, the fourth film in Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza Papers series. It's 1964, and with the Tokyo Olympics turning the eyes of the world to Japan, lawmen have set out to keep the Yakuza -- Japan's organized crime system -- out of sight. While dozens of low-level ...
In a future where society is on the verge of collapse, the government takes drastic action against the problem of rebellious teenagers in this violent sci-fi opus from Japan. In the year 2002, Japan's economy has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, and massive unemployment and inflation have thrown most adults into a state of chaos; the nation's ...
A double disaster film with both an American and a Japanese cast, Virus presents some pretty wild probabilities to viewers. First of all, a virus has been developed that gets loose and starts to destroy humanity on a grand scale. The only people who are remotely safe are a group of eight hundred men and eight women on Antarctica. Since the ...
Kinji Fukasaku directed this powerful and uncompromising look at the deadly stakes of life among the Yakuza -- the Japanese Mafia. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) is a former Japanese soldier who, following his nation's defeat in World War II, finds himself in a prison cell in Hiroshima on a murder charge. While behind bars, Hirono gains a loyal ...
Vengeance Is Mine meets La Strada in Japanese gangland auteur Kinji Fukasaku's real-life yakuza drama about a sociopathic loser who always seems to make the wrong decision. Opening in the blackmarkets of Shinjuku just after the war, Ishikawa (played by matinee icon Tetsuya Watari) works as muscleman for the Kawada crime family. After a raid on a ...
A young swinger finds that his criminal habits have gotten him in over his head in this rare 1960s yakuza film from legendary Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku. Though he has come from a rough background on the streets, Muraki (Horoki Matsukata) quickly rises through the ranks by means of his well-honed blackmailing instincts. Desperate to keep ...
You've seen him as the bone-cracking anti-hero of the Street Fighter films, now watch Sonny Chiba team with Japanese screen legend Toshiro Mifune and some of the biggest names in Asian cinema in an all-out martial arts melee that's guaranteed to please. Yagyu Jubei (Chiba) is the son of a shogun's instructor and the most powerful swordsman in ...
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