Akira Kobayashi

Seijun Suzuki became a cinema legend in the 1960s with a handful of pop-art films. So how can you make a portrait of this iconoclastic director without also adopting a 'style to kill' documentary convention, as well as testimonies from a variety of leading figures in contemporary Japanese and international filmmakers.

A young yakuza experiences various conflicts, tactics, betrayals, rules, etc. in the gangster world, stands out in the organization, and climbs to the top of the organization. The theatrical version of the popular video series adapted from the original work by Murakami Kazuhiko.

Ryuji Inahara, the heir to the Atami Yamazakiya family, subsequently placed the group under the control of the influential members of the Guretai, known as the "Yokohama Four Heavenly Kings," and the Inahara group quickly expanded its influence from Yokohama to the Tokaido region. The world of yakuza then enters the era of Ryuji Inahara and Masao Tashiro, the third generation member of the Yamaga-gumi.

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.

The anti-gangster law has been very bad for business, but one yakuza boss is running his syndicate like a ruthless conglomerate -- and thriving.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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

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.

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

Around Ginza there is a night-city of bars and cabarets, hostesses, customers. Assisting to keep order here is Kagari (Akira Kobayashi) who specializes in the women, their problems and troubles. He has saved many a girl from blandishments of pimps, makes customers pay up and women play straight. So he is called 'the woman's police-man' and he takes his job seriously. One day, Chiyoko (Yukiyo Toake), a former hostess, comes to him. Her husband has been murdered and she wants help. The man had been a college classmate and Kagari decides to do what he can. In his investigation he overturns a whole nest of intrigue. Men he had thought irreproachable turn out to be corrupt; solid citizens are seen as the worst kind of scoundrels. Until now, Kagari has specialized in women and their problems. But, realizing the real state of affairs, he rolls up his sleeves for a good cleaning- up-at the same time discovering the murderer of his friend.

Daisuke Honda, a war photographer in Vietnam, meets Yuriko Sawanouchi, a stewardess on his plane back to Japan. After drinking with her at a Tokyo bar, he becomes involved in saving Yuriko from assassination by stylish, female ninjas. When trying to rescue Yuriko from kidnappers, Daisuke discovers a group of foreigners are hunting for a WWII-era treasure hidden on an island by Yuriko's father.

Plans to build a touristic hot spring on the island of Izu Oshima run afoul of the Kobe yakuza group, which intends to use the island as a relay base for drug smuggling.

Emerging from a stint in prison, yakuza lieutenant Sumukawa discovers that his gang has disintegrated. An ambitious type, he quickly hooks up with another gang who promise him a prominent position if he helps them deal with a rival family. But bonds are made to be broken, and pledges of loyalty soon give way to competition, betrayal and — naturally — retaliation.

Fourth film in the Aitsu series. The outlaw-cum-travelling guitarist discovers that his friend has been killed by the gangsters who held up the bullion transport.

A noir action whodunit with Kobayashi his usual jaunty self as the smart aleck private eye whose missing person search soon becomes a murder case. Nightclub-managing, drug-dealing gangster Uchida is the prime suspect in the case until he commits suicide. Kobayashi then discovers evidence that points to the doctor sibling of an innocent girl. The climax in a rural snowy locale is suspenseful and well-staged.

Following the well-received previous film “Confrontation”, Asahi returns as the wandering drifter Manshū Tsuné, who joins forces with the righteous man Hideki.

1962 Japanese movie

It is the end of the Taisho era (1912-1926), and at the Hanazuki-tei theatre in Asakusa, the famous performance of storyteller Koiso Kikuji and performer Kataoka Koshin is reaching its climax when the Tawaraya family interferes... This is an entertaining action film bursting with righteousness and humanity, centred on men who try to live righteously against a corrupt boss who preys on the performers.

No synopsis available yet.

Two brothers seek revenge on the yakuza responsible for the death of their father.

A yakuza frames another yakuza who goes to jail for 5 years. When he is released he goes to seek revenge only to fall in love with the daughter of the man who framed him.

Handsome young Katsuta tries to follow the yakuza code, but even his boss doesn't believe in it. Diamond Fuyu is less ethical, and allows the idiotic Tetsu to trick a schoolgirl he fancies, Hanako, into a type of bonded prostitution. Because of gang conflict, the Izu family (to whom Katsuta belongs) has their last gambling den taken over, and he seeks revenge. This brings him back into contact with a former lover who is also a card trickster - she is also Diamond Fuyu's sister, and is now married to Okaru-Hachi, who has mastered a clever card cheating trick called Okaru, which involves the deft use of mirrors.

Takuya witnesses the homicide of the detective leading an investigation into the murder of the chairman of the People’s Economic Association, and he disguises himself.

Fourth installment of Nikkatsu's "Drifter" series, with Kobayashi Akira.

The film is set in Fukagawa in the early Showa period and depicts a fateful confrontation between two men who rise and fall in a black stream, trying to live a real human life, violating the cruel laws of the passing generation.

The wandering gambler (Akira Kobayashi) once again picks up the dice he forswore in order to take revenge of the gangsters who exploit good citizens. The second installment in The Gambler series.

Kosuke Suzuki returns to Hakata's hometown after learning that his best friend Takehara has disappeared. Kosuke is persistently hindered by Hasebe from Omura Sangyo. Kosuke's partner Kumagoro investigates and finds out that Hasebe, who killed the head of the Muraoka clan, made Takehara disappear in order to keep him silent. The third film in the series.

A kidnapping occurred over a seven-million-dollar diamond that was sewn into his stomach. Takuya Nikaido, the hero of Kamideki, challenges the underground organization of fear. The final work of Asahi Kobayashi's "Ginza Whirlpool Child (Mitsugai)" series.

A once-powerful yakuza clan disbands as a result of a police crackdown, but one small group refuses to bow to police pressure, and launches a campaign to take over Tokyo's drug, prostitution, and gambling rackets. Someone wants to stop them. Is it the police? Rival gang members? Or is it an entirely new group of hired killers who will stop at nothing to gain complete control of Tokyo's "bloody territories"?

The 3rd film of the famous "Wataridori" (The Rambler) series from Nikkatsu. The young rambler, Shinji Taki (Akira Kobayashi), with his guitar arrives in Sadogashima Island, Niigata, Japan. Of course, Shinji meets yet another beautiful girl named Noriko, who closely resembles the famous actress Ruriko Asaoka again. Of course, Noriko is in trouble. Of course, Shinji's yet another skilled rival named "Tetsu, the Gunman" comes to Sado shortly. Of course, the villain tries to kill Shinji and Tetsu. Of course, Shinji solves the problem and leaves Sado suddenly.

The year is 1926. It has been three years since the Great Kanto earthquake hit Tokyo. Everything is being rebuilt from the ground up. Odera crime syndicate saw this as an opportunity to expand its territory. The Odera boss arranges marriage between his daughter Orin (Ruriko Asaoka) and the son of notorious Gyotoku clan, but Orin’s heart belonged to Shinjiro (Yujiro Ishihara), a member of her father’s clan.

In the early Meiji era, two contrasting craftsmen, who had been bound by a ten-year strong friendship, suddenly hated each other and face many obstacles. Adapted from Shugoro Yamamoto novel.

Follows the struggles of a yakuza wife after his husband gets hurt in a knife fight.

Based on the original work of Yasunori Kawauchi of "Moonlight Mask", this is the fifth in the "Ginza Whirlwind Child (Mitsutogai)" series in which Asahi Kobayashi dressed as a hero of the dead ghost. Familiar Takuya Nikaido challenges the international call girl organization.

Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of his situation by performing various tasks amidst the tumult of the end of the shogunate—but always by making sure to get a “commission” for his troubles.

Reiko, who tolerates abuse in her marriage to a man 23 years her senior, is friends with Mayumi, a beautiful widow. Reiko meets her husband’s business rival, a young, capable businessman, and falls for him. Meanwhile, Mayumi enters into a relationship with Shimotsuma, a friend of her late husband.

Eikichi Yamashiro, who is a former contender for the boxing title, works as a manager at a Club Champion owned by his fiancé Natsuko’s father. He lost a title match five years ago as he was besotted by Natsuko, but Eikichi actually cannot give up the dream of the championship. One day, he meets Shuntaro Fuma, who is a punk kid but a promising boxer, and realizes the dream that he himself could never fulfill. Then, they together start to train with the aim of the title. Mari Shiraki is an up-and-coming ballerina under the patronage of Eikichi as well. Eikichi forbids Shuntaro and Mari to be romantically involved with someone during their training, however, they start to go on a date.

A continuation of Hungry Soul, from the same year. Reiko, who tolerates abuse in her marriage to a man 23 years her senior, is friends with Mayumi, a beautiful widow. Reiko meets her husband’s business rival, a young, capable businessman, and falls for him. Meanwhile, Mayumi enters into a relationship with Shimotsuma, a friend of her late husband.

The "Ginza Whirlwind" (Akira Kobayashi) uncovers a diamond smuggling operation led by a Chinese man behind the opening of the new nightclub "Monaco", and teams up with the daughter (Ruriko Asaoka) of a man the smuggler killed during the war. First in the "Ginza Whirlwind" series.

Udaka is a new, post-war city where corruption has already taken hold. A persistent district attorney wants to arrest and convict Katsumata, a laughing, self-confident thug. The D.A. gets an anonymous letter about the suicide five years' before of a city council member. Evidence about the case leads the D.A. to Tachibana, struggling to go straight after involvement with the mob and a prison sentence for killing the man responsible for the rape and suicide of his fiancée. One of Tachibana's friends is Keiko, the daughter of the dead councilman and the ward of another powerful official. How do these stories connect?

Arriving in the town of Hakodate, a wandering musician, Shinji Taki, is soon recruited by the local gang as a hired hand. However, with the arrival of a sinister gunman, Taki's mysterious past catches up with him.

College students come up with a scam to rob a gambling house. When it comes time to collect, the money isn't there, leading the young men into even more serious crime.

A coming-of-age story about two newcomers to the world of professional baseball who compete for Rookie of the Year honors and love.

1957 Japanese movie

No synopsis available yet.

Film about a car dealer who gets into financial trouble.