Akira Kobayashi

The story involves Katsuta, a yakuza member who falls in love and is torn between giri (duty) and ninjo (humanity)

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 syndicate from Kobe enters the picture. (All Movie Guide)

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. (All Movie Guide)

n 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 powerful and legal. (All Movie Guide)

Kikuju, a yakuza, runs off to Tokyo with his master's proposed bride on the way to her wedding and marries her, leaving a few elegantly-killed corpses behind. He works for corrupt building contractors- the normal method of getting and keeping a contract is gang fights, blackmail and bribery. An assassin from his old gang is looking for him. (imdb)

When the American Mob and Japanese Yakuza team up, danger follows. Daisuke, a photographer, teams up with a gang of lady killers (killer ladies, not sweet-talkin' men) armed with deadly 45s (records, not pistols) in an attempt to rescue his stewardess girlfriend from the Underworld alliance. Soon they discover the real reason for all the criminal interest; gold.

Former hoodlums trying to leave behind a life of crime find their past coming back to haunt them when the authorities seek them out as murder witnesses.

Comedy about a man stuck in a brothel after he can't pay his bill.

The Oonogi Clan, faced with police and syndicate pressure to legitimize, cannot leave the way of the yakuza behind. When the rival Kansai Corporation vies for Oonagi territory, war seems inevitable, but it may be simply money they are after instead...

An retired yakuza is caught in the middle of a growing conflict between two rival clans. (imdb)

After a devastating event, a yakuza family converts itself (on the surface only) into a "legitimate" business company dealing with real estate and construction. However, old habits die hard.

Pop star Akira Kobayashi stars as a former prizefighter who takes a job as an undercover agent for Japan's Internal Bureau, working as a mole among thieves who are plotting a heist worth 30 billion yen. His mission, if he chooses to accept it? To keep the cache of uncut gems and gold bullion that was confiscated by the Japanese military during World War II from falling into the hands of an ex-Nazi. (Netflix)

A tale of gang warfare that features a raft of the period's most iconic stars, Akira Kobayashi (Battles Without Honor and Humanity, The Flowers and the Angry Waves) is a yakuza lieutenant who emerges from jail to find his gang dispersed and his aging boss in his sickbed. [Jô] Shishido is the rival waiting to kill him and a young Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) is the girl caught in the crossfire. (Arrow Films)

A group of five college students decide to jinx a bicycle race in their favor and claim the money to pay off their debts, but when the illegal bookie cannot pay, they take up his offer of "collateral" as revenge and complexities begin to unravel and ruin their scheme. (imdb)

Shinji (Akira Kobayashi), a wandering street musician, gets involved with a mob boss, Akitsu (Nobuo Kaneko), after saving one of his henchmen in a bar fight. Akitsu gives Shinji a job to evict an offshore fishery, but things take an unexpected twist when Shinji finds out the owner's wife is Akitsu's actual sister. As Shinji protects the Akitsu family, Akitsu's daughter takes a romantic interest in him.... (imdb)

After mastering the art of French cuisine, young Jiro (Akira Kobayashi) returns to Japan and opens a restaurant in the busy streets of Ginza. His dashing looks, iconoclastic culinary skills, and charismatic character attracts not only women, but unwanted trouble. Things get personal when he finds out that a scandalous political figure is trying to take over his girlfriend's business.

Otaki, a member of a small yakuza family, hunts down the people who murdered his boss.

Nobuo is a hot-headed hoodlum fresh out of reform school who struggles to make a clean break with his tearaway past. (imdb)

Tarao's services are called upon to solve the mysterious death of bride-to-be, Mariko, who was found dead with an eerie mask of a devil.

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. (MUBI)

A guitar-playing drifter arrives in Niigata, Japan and gets mixed up in a revenge plot of a gangster.

Tokyo in the late 1950s. Eikichi, a car salesman, is baffled by the new business practices born with the Americanization of society. Near ruined, he is approached by one of his younger competitors, false charity, who asked him to partner with him to mount insurance fraud. Eikichi will not resist the temptation of easy money ... (KG) ASIDE thin IMDB listing has correct crew and cast but synopsis is very wrong (perhaps for "Black Sun"?? - is repeated on several sites unfortunately)

Tarao Bannai is a dialogue loaded detective film that gets increasingly weird as the case becomes more complicated. Although the tempo is rather slow in the beginning, it changes later. Humour is plenty, and Suzuki has a couple of big surprises in his back pocket, including some Italian genre cinema borrowals.

Masaaki Kagari is the recruiter and protector of hostesses at the Club Rose. One day he visits Club Aron, to complain about attempts to lure hostesses from Club Rose. Aron's madam Hisayo reminded him of a tragic experience five years before when a lovely girl named Kumi committed double suicide with a man in a hotel. Aron's madam is Kumi's elder sister. Kagari's friend Hayazaki introduces him to Chie, the young sister of the man who died with Kumi, who has come to Tokyo to learn the truth ...