Zenji Yamada

Acting

Zenji Yamada

Born

1914-07-17 (112)

Place of birth

Hokkaido, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

61 titles

Known for

Film credits

1970s · 3 titles

1960s · 24 titles

Youth of the Beast poster
6.9

When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo's underworld explodes with violence.

Youth of the Beast

1963

Gappa, the Triphibian Monster poster
5.6

An expedition in the South Pacific lands on a tropical island where the natives worship the mysterious deity Gappa. An earthquake opens up an underground cavern and a baby reptile is discovered inside. The natives warn the foreigners to leave the hatching alone, but they don't listen and take it back to a zoo in Japan. Soon after, moma and papa Gappa start smashing Tokyo looking for their kidnapped child.

Gappa, the Triphibian Monster

1967

Biographies of Killers poster
NR

1969 Nikkatsu yakuza movie

Biographies of Killers

1969

A Colt is My Passport poster
7.1

A gang lord hires Kamimura, a hit man, to take out a rival boss who's gotten greedy.

A Colt is My Passport

1967

I Hate But Love poster
7.0

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.

I Hate But Love

1962

Cruel Gun Story poster
6.7

Businessmen arrange the early release from prison of Togawa, serving time for taking revenge on the truck driver whose carelessness confined Togawa's sister, Rie, to a wheelchair. They want Togawa to hijack an armored truck loaded with 120 million yen; their leverage is to promise him money for surgery for Rie. Togawa consents and plans the heist with three others. The plan is solid, but it doesn't go smoothly. Togawa must improvise, there are traitors somewhere, and double-crosses mount. Can Togawa escape with enough money to help his sister and ensure a passage out of Japan?

Cruel Gun Story

1964

Yakuza sensei poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Yakuza sensei

1960

Kill or Be Killed poster
NR

When Yakuza decides to take avenge his brother, the war shall begin.

Kill or Be Killed

1966

Danger Pays poster
7.0

Joe, Okita, and Serizawa hear of the armed robbery of a truck carrying one billion eighty million yen's worth of Mint paper. Knowing that the thugs will now need a counterfeiter to make the bogus bills, they each decide to cash in on it by selling them the idea that they need Sakamoto, the best counterfeiter in Japan. A seesaw game unfolds between the three men as each tries to outdo the other two in handing over Sakamoto for one million yen to Hijikata, the big boss, who intends to make counterfeit money with the stolen paper. A little belatedly, they realize it needs their combined forces to outwit Hijikata and they raid his place together. Outnumbered, however, they are thrown into a basement room and the gas is turned on. Certain death stares them in the face, but the three men are not ones to take things lying down....

Danger Pays

1962

Black Sun poster
6.4

Akira, a young, jazz-obsessed drifter, returns to his squat, a ruined church, and finds Gill, a wounded African-American GI, on the run after the death of a white GI. Despite terrible misunderstandings and culture clash, Akira agrees to help Gill escape towards the sea, dodging military police along the way.

Black Sun

1964

Intimidation poster
7.2

Koreyoshi Kurahara's ingeniously plotted, pocket-size noir concerns the intertwined fates of a desperate bank manager, blackmailed for book-cooking, and his resentful but timid underling, passed over for a promotion. The marvelously moody Intimidation is an elegantly stripped-down and carefully paced crime drama.

Intimidation

1960

Velvet Hustler poster
6.8

A young yakuza hitman named Goro does a job and needs to hideout away from Tokyo for a while. He hangs out with loose women and hard men and always manages to stay one step ahead of the law. In his exile, he comes under suspicion for a murder and meets the girlfriend of the murdered man. They develop a strange bond while unbeknown to Goro, another hitman is after him for the job he did in Tokyo.

Velvet Hustler

1967

The Man with a Sinister Laugh poster
8.0

After getting out of prison, a young yakuza tries to find out who killed his girlfriend, attempts not to get drawn back into crime, and to find his missing sister.

The Man with a Sinister Laugh

1960

The Reckless One poster
NR

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.

The Reckless One

1967

Woman Gambler poster
6.4

Mourning the death of her boyfriend, Yukiko wanders aimlessly from one city to another. During her mourning, she becomes addicted to gambling. One day, a man that resembles her deceased lover asks for help. He's being pursued by a dangerous gang of yakuza.

Woman Gambler

1965

Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki poster
NR

Hideo Ishizaki, who was painting on the shore of the lake, saves a woman named Keiko.

Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki

1963

Whirlwind Call the Storm - Ginza Hoodlum's Diary poster
NR

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.

Whirlwind Call the Storm - Ginza Hoodlum's Diary

1963

Beyond the Green Hills poster
7.0

Shinko Terasawa was always considered to be the odd ball of the bunch. At a time when romance was against school regulations, Shinko was the first to take a bite out of the forbidden fruit. Expelled from her former school, she finds herself in an all-girls school in Jokamachi, where rumors fly. One day, Shinko delivers an anonymous love letter addressed to her English teacher, Ms. Shimazaki. Convinced that the students are playing a prank, Ms. Shimazaki is adamant about getting to the bottom of this "problem”.

Beyond the Green Hills

1963

Outlaw: Gangster VIP 2 poster
7.0

Goro (Tetsuya Watari) wants to put his dark past behind. He heads to Hirosaki City to offer his condolences to Yumeko and to reunite with Yukiko (Chieko Matsubara), but finds that Yumeko is fatally ill. Although Yukiko was taking care of her, she is pressed for money. Goro wants to help and knows that there is only one way to come up with fast money.

Outlaw: Gangster VIP 2

1968

Love and Desire in the Night Mist poster
NR

A film from Nikkatsu's "moodo akushon" (mood/action) subgenre.

Love and Desire in the Night Mist

1966

Knock Down poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Knock Down

1960

Teenage Yakuza poster
6.9

A high-school vigilante protects his community from the extortions of mobsters from a neighbouring city.

Teenage Yakuza

1962

The Singing Gunman poster
NR

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.

The Singing Gunman

1967

Jiken kisha: Kenjû kashimasu poster
NR

1962 Japanese movie

Jiken kisha: Kenjû kashimasu

1962

1950s · 33 titles

Forever a Woman poster
7.5

Fumiko, mother of two and wife to an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In her final stages, Fumiko meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her experiences.

Forever a Woman

1955

Crazed Fruit poster
6.9

Two brothers compete for the amorous favors of a young woman during a seaside summer of gambling, boating, and drinking.

Crazed Fruit

1956

Brother and Sister poster
6.3

The eldest daughter of a rural family Mon returns home from Tokyo pregnant after an affair with a college student Kobata, which causes a scandal that will threaten the marriage prospects of the younger sister San, in her cash-strapped family. The ill-tempered eldest brother Inokichi decides to take on the role of disciplinarian, with harrowing results.

Brother and Sister

1953

Haha nami poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Haha nami

1953

Till We Meet Again poster
7.0

Jiro Sone sacrifices all comfort to devote himself to research. Young housewife Yachiyo is disappointed with her husband Kappei, who is more attracted to mountain climbing and another girl. When Yachiyo’s father is introduced to Jiro, all of their lives become intertwined...

Till We Meet Again

1955

Outlaw poster
NR

A young engineer and a pure-hearted mountain girl take on the challenges of the Akan primeval forest, where lawlessness and violence run rampant.

Outlaw

1953

Itsuki no komori uta poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Itsuki no komori uta

1954

To the Ends of the Earth poster
NR

In this downbeat, emotionally gripping drama, a lone guardian of some small huts on one of the northernmost, small islands off Japan remembers his once happier past and the events that destroyed everyone he held dear.

To the Ends of the Earth

1953

A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era poster
7.0

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.

A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era

1957

Zoku bakurō ichidai poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Zoku bakurō ichidai

1952

Eight Hours of Terror poster
7.5

A bus making its precarious way across a winding mountain road picks up some unwelcome passengers.

Eight Hours of Terror

1957

Man Who Causes a Storm poster
6.8

Shoichi Kokubun is a roughneck street musician, who has a brother that is determined to propel him into stardom. In attempt to catch the attention of a popular jazz band, his brother appeals to their manager who has the power to make him a star. In a graphic portrayal of love, betrayal and success, Shoichi brews up a storm with a 'rat-a-tat-tat' on the drums.

Man Who Causes a Storm

1957

No artwork available
NR

Eiji Izutsu, a young architectural engineer, suddenly came into a massive inheritance on the condition that he marry a woman named Chigusa Takemura, who owned a jade ring. If he failed to fulfill this condition, the inheritance would go to Chigusa instead.

Byakuran kōran

1952

Yobiko hoshi poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Yobiko hoshi

1952

The Wild Geese poster
6.7

A young woman, who must support her father as a middle-aged man's mistress, finds herself falling in love with a student closer to her age.

The Wild Geese

1953

Underworld Beauty poster
5.9

The moment he's released from prison, the honorable gangster Miyamoto recovers the stolen diamonds he had stashed before getting pinched. When he returns to his haunt to make good by friend who took a bullet for him, he is diverted by the greedy boss Oyane and his insatiable taste for Miyamoto's precious stones.

Underworld Beauty

1958

The Heart poster
7.0

In the dying months of the Meiji era, a sympathetic student befriends a married couple, but soon realizes they share a curiously strained relationship stemming from an unknown incident in their past.

The Heart

1955

Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District poster
7.0

A jobless young couple, Yoshigi and Tsutue, wind up at the outskirts of the Suzaki red-light district in Tokyo. Tsutue talks her way into a job pouring sake for male customers at a small bar run by a sympathetic older woman, while Yoshigi is shunted off into a nearby noodle shop, where he gets a job delivering noodles. Tsutue charms and runs off with one of her clients. Yoshigi, ignoring the attentions of a sweet co-worker, pursues Tsutue.

Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District

1956

Tales of Ginza poster
7.0

In the thriving Tokyo neighborhood of Ginza, a woman in the process of selling her estranged husband’s art collection attempts to identify the man who painted her own portrait fifteen years prior.

Tales of Ginza

1955

Red Pier poster
6.5

Shortly after arriving in Kobe, "Jiro the Lefty", a killer with a natural talent, witnesses a man die in a crane accident which turns out to be a cover-up for a murder. Jiro soon finds himself on the run, tailed by a determined cop.

Red Pier

1958

Asakusa monogatari poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Asakusa monogatari

1953

Daigaku no kotengu poster
NR

With his mother’s wishes and a young woman’s prayers in his heart, a spirited young man fights to uphold the honor of college judo.

Daigaku no kotengu

1952

Freedom School poster
NR

Released on the same date as Shochiku's version.

Freedom School

1951

Vendetta of a Samurai poster
6.6

Mataemon Araki, a renowned swordsman, helps a young man find vengeance.

Vendetta of a Samurai

1952

The Champion poster
6.7

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.

The Champion

1957

Enoshima Elegy poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Enoshima Elegy

1951

Haha chidori poster
NR

Due to obligation, they parted ways, but mother and child meet again in front of the father's grave.

Haha chidori

1951

Utau onna kengeki poster
NR

A musical entertainment piece centered on a traveling women’s sword-fighting troupe.

Utau onna kengeki

1953

Women of Ginza poster
9.0

At Shizumoto, a geisha shop not far from Ginza, a group of geisha are going about their day, putting up a modest resistance to the tragedies of life. The proprietress, Ikuyo, is a ridiculously good-natured woman who gives money to a poor but brilliant young man, Eisaku Yanoguchi, to attend college on the condition that he will take care of her in the future.

Women of Ginza

1955

The Human Cyclone poster
NR

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.

The Human Cyclone

1959

The Valley Between Love and Death poster
8.0

A great ambition to portray with sharp satire and humor the course of modern anxiety and love that is about to be driven to despair.

The Valley Between Love and Death

1954

The Maid's Kid poster
8.3

In order to pay back Mrs. Kajiki for her good deed in the past, Hatsu moves from her village in Akita to Tokyo to start working as a maid for her family. She grows close to their youngest son Katsumi, experiencing things that will change her view on life.

The Maid's Kid

1955

Birth of a Jazz Maiden poster
NR

Kawai Midori's father left the family a long time ago and since her mother passed away, she has taken care of her younger siblings by herself by working with a group of itinerant camellia oil peddlers. While she is In Izu selling camellia oil, she meets a young student, Katō Yutaka, who asks her to let him take her picture. The peddlers also meet a jazz band, and when Midori sings a song, teased by the band's star singer Nanjō Haruo, the band members are enraptured by her beautiful voice. She eventually joins the band and quickly becomes a popular jazz singer.

Birth of a Jazz Maiden

1957

Series credits