A Japanese intelligence officer faces personal crises in the years preceding the Manchurian conflict.
Social & External
The people behind it
Hideki Takahashi
Ryuji Oshima
Masako Izumi
Haruko
Kenjirō Ishiyama
Shozaburo Oshima
Akira Nagoya
Saiga
Yukiko Todoroki
Kiyo Murata
Asao Koike
Tatsu
Hiroshi Kondō
Yuzo
Shirō Ōsaka
Kanzo
Ichiro Kijima
Matsukawa
Yuzo Kiura
Kudo
A sendup of the stereotypical Japanese family: dad is a salaryman jerk, unable to relate to anyone; mom is a hopeless housewife; the older son is a moderate academic success; but the younger son is a rebellious goof-off for whom a tutor must be hired. The tutor proceeds to blow the entire family apart.
A few days in the life of a quiet geisha, single mother of a smart young boy, in the lively Tokyo quarter of Ginza. A woman devoted to others' needs, she'll end by taking part herself in one of the many disguises of Ginza.
A member of the jieitai ("Self-Defense Force"; i.e. Japanese military) is on leave and finds a woman giving birth in a graveyard in the former Yoshiwara district. He takes her to an inn to gove birth, and stays on a few days as she recovers, but becomes fascinated with the strange people he meets there, particularly the owner, who visits a house in his courtyard every day to talk and give food to his mother. He says she is very sick and can't leave bed, but no one else has ever been inside or seen her.
War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly built supermarket and Reiko's in-laws plan to convert their small shop into a supermarket, to her detriment.
Yasuo (Hiroshi Abe) grew up as an orphan. He married a woman he loved and they had a son Akira (later played by Takumi Kitamura). Yasuo's life seemed great at the time, but his life totally changed after his wife died in accident. Since that time, Yasuo, who never experienced parents' love himself, has to raise his son Akira alone.
In April 1941, months before the Pacific War begins, Japan’s brightest young elites, bureaucrats, military officers, and civilians, are secretly assembled at the Total War Research Institute. Tasked with simulating a conflict against the United States, they confront harsh realities through intense analysis.
Bungo is released from prison to find his son Kenichi in the care of strangers. Teruko, the woman originally looking after the boy, was forced to leave town and sell herself into prostitution. Bungo and Kenichi, in their search for Teruko, arrive in a new place and find work running a peddling stall for the upright Tatsumaki family. However, the drifting father and son soon find themselves caught up in a struggle for territory. Boss Negishi, the head of the yakuza family responsible for the death of the former Tatsumaki leader, will stop at nothing to take over the marketplace. Sickened by the injustice, Bungo takes on the rival boss knowing it might cost him his newly acquired freedom..
The last in the series. Sugawara runs into two mahjong cheaters (Ichiro Araki and Mako Midori + sidekick Takuzo Kawatani) whom he takes for friends in need as his naivety prevents him from seeing their true nature.
A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.
Beleaguered police detective Nishi takes desperate measures to try and set things right in a world gone wrong. With his wife suffering from leukemia and his business partner paralyzed from a brutal gangster attack, Nishi borrows from a yakuza loan shark and then robs a bank to clear his debt.
A vengeful veterinarian and a grieving widow join forces to track down violent bikers after they commit heinous acts against their loved ones.
The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing.
Returning to the village where a year before he had killed Hirate, a much-admired opponent, Zatoichi encounters another swordsman and former rival in love.
President of the territorial yakuza organization is being manipulated by a crooked leader in the military and some capitalists Ishikiri. The plan is to get multiple family of the organized crime groups based in Osaka to war it out and order the Shima to the Onishi group of the branch to expand the territory. Now members of the same yakuza gang are forced to fight each other over territory and honor.
Himuro is arrested on suspicion of assault. To prove his innocence, members of the Yamazaki Ichimon scramble to locate Ito—the older man Himuro once helped (Hiroo Otaka), who could serve as a key witness. Meanwhile, Tamura visits a certain hospital, where he is suddenly attacked by a man. After a fierce struggle, Tamura is arrested by police who rush to the scene. With the Kyowakai cornered and both Himuro and Tamura in jeopardy, the Yamazaki Ichimon splits up to continue their desperate search. Their efforts eventually lead them to Naomi (Saki Kiyoi), the daughter of Ito. As the investigation progresses, it becomes clear that the incident is tied to a gold smuggling operation. Just as the truth begins to surface, Naomi is kidnapped by the smugglers. The shocking mastermind behind the smuggling ring turns out to be an international spy organization. Can the Yamazaki Ichimon rescue Naomi—and clear both Himuro and Tamura of all charges?!
Teru (Yutaka Kyan) is abruptly summoned to the Himuro-gumi office, where a tense Himuro (Yasukaze Motomiya) and Tamura (Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi) give him an unexpected task. A legendary Kyowakai yakuza known as “Hitokiri Jiro,” Fujita Jiro (Hajime Tsukumo), is being released on parole after 30 years, and Teru is to welcome him in their place. Expecting a fearsome figure, Teru instead meets a prison-worn old man who asks for work. Refusing Himuro’s offer to look after him within the organization, Jiro insists on living quietly as a civilian. He is sent to work at a kushiyaki restaurant, where his long absence from society quickly causes trouble. Meanwhile, Teru learns Jiro has family and sets out to find them, hoping to show them the man he has become.
Five years after the all-out war between the Sanno and Hanabishi crime families, former yakuza boss Otomo works in South Korea for Mr. Chang, a noted fixer. When tensions rise between Chang and the Hanabishi, and Chang's life is endangered, Otomo returns to Japan to settle things once and for all.
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.
After serving his sentence, Yakuza family member Toshin-gumi Umebayashi is released from prison. Toshin-gumi was already headed by the boss in the second generation of Shotaro, but Shotaro fell into a trap, he is manipulated by his sworn enemy Kanzaki-gumi. Kanzaki-gumi captures the Toshin-gumi oil fields mined by the first boss. Umebayashi explodes in anger and attacks Kanzaki-gumi, but...
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.
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.
In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.
A former American G.I. joins a yakuza family after his release from prison in post-World War II Osaka.
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Feeling unhappy with his gun, Jigen is looking for the world’s best gunsmith. He finally finds out that Chiharu, who runs a watch shop, is the person he’s been seeking. Then, Jigen meets Oto, who comes to Chiharu’s shop looking for a gun. Jigen finds out about Oto's secrets and the mysterious organization that’s after her. After Oto is kidnapped, Jigen gets into a desperate battle to save her.
A barkeeper saves a yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.
When a local gambling house kidnaps some peasants because they failed to pay their debts, a rival gambling house pays their debts and sets them free.
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
A strikingly beautiful young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.
With most of his family already dead at Ogami Itto's hands, Retsudo launches one final plot to destroy him, and when that fails, unleashes the fury of every remaining member of the Yagyu clan.
A gang lord hires Kamimura, a hit man, to take out a rival boss who's gotten greedy.
Zatoichi comes upon a dying man who asks him to give a bag of money to "Taichi". Zatoichi has no idea who this is but when he comes upon a small town harassed by gangsters, he finds that "Taichi" was the man's young son. Along his travels he also met a blind monk who makes Zatoichi question his murderous lifestyle. In trying to help the town, Zatoichi kills some gangsters and becomes a hero to the boy. He must make a choice of whether to use non-violence and set a good example, or violence and set the boy on the wrong path in life.
Zatoichi is a blind massage therapist and swordsman who finds out that something troubling is taking place on the outskirts of town. After discovering who the guilty parties are -- an accomplished Chinese martial artist named Wang Kang and his youthful attendant -- Zatoichi finds them and discovers that the pair's mixed up with a dangerous bunch of terrorist samurai who murdered the boy's parents. Now, Zatoichi must step in to save the day.
Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.
Taken in by the yakuza at a young age, Kenji swears allegiance to his old-school boss, pledging to adhere to the family code amid ever-changing times.
The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
