Movies: Takuzō Kawatani

An unusual blending of elements comes together in this crime story drawn from Japanese history. During the early Meiji period a number of “Dokufu” (Poison Women) committed a significant number of murders. These crimes were most often committed by wiv...

Based on a manga by Kosuke Miki and Tadashi Matsumori, this film follows the adventures of Yuki, who works in a Kyoto red-light district house of ill repute as a "tamawari," or "virgin-breaker." She's the gal who gets first dibs on the new recruits t...

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' h...

A story of yakuza lynching during the Edo, Meiji, and Showa periods....

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Japan, 1948: Hiroki Matsukata stars as a man facing a nine year prison sentence. He incites prisoners of Shimane Prison to the biggest riot in jail history. A fighter by heart, he sees a way out of any situation, but will he survive this, the gutsie...

Test driver Hayami loses control of his car and rolls over. His company then learns that he has kept secret that he is visually impaired, and he is fired. Without the prospect of returning to his old job he makes a plan to rob several jewelry stores....

This anthology film consists of nine incidents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when assassins changed the course of Japanese history....

A film about the substantial population of Koreans living in Japan, and the love affair between Kayako, a Japanese girl, and Im, a Korean....

Christina, on arriving in Japan, acquaints a Japanese man at the airport who looks like a sap. He takes her to his apartment where he brutally rapes her and keeps her hostage and bound in chains. Christina's alluring beauty eventually enchants the ra...

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....

Junko Fuji returns as Oryu the Red Peony, a wandering female yakuza on a soul-searching journey after the death of her father. After collecting her sickly follower from jail, she is taken in by a fishing village. Feeling indebed to their generosity, ...

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

When a fugitive begins a romance with the woman hiding him from the law, it becomes uncertain whether he will ever escape the shadow of his heinous crimes--or the detectives hot on his trail....

A local yakuza boss of a silk farming town shows kindness to the wandering gambler Oryu by letting her stay at his residence. When a rival yakuza gang, who wants to take over the town's businesses, murders him, Oryu is obliged to protect his children...

Sachiko is the leader of a girl gang from Shinjuku who wind up in Kyoto and make a bid to take over the local girl gangs there....

When Nizaemon Kumogiri, a major thief quits his job as a thief, he has two more big jobs planned in order to obtain a huge sum of money to enable his many subordinates scattered all over the country to live out the rest of their lives. First, he targ...

Second film of the Gokudo series starring Tomisaburô Wakayama...

Three men, all named Masa, join forces to capitalize on each of their unique yet questionable talents against a hyper-competitive Tokyo underworld....

The Silk Hat Boss becomes involved in a car imports business during his trip to Atami....