Bunta Sugawara

From the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki ("Princess Mononoke") (Studio Ghibli), this film follows the fanciful adventures of a ten-year-old girl named Chihiro, who discovers a secret world when she and her family get lost and venture through a hillside tunnel.

A young boy becomes an unlikely hero when he is chosen as the "Kirin Rider" and must lead Japan's ancient Yokai spirits in their apocalyptic war against the evil monsters. A lavish remake of the 1968 film "Yokai Daisenso" from acclaimed director Takashi Miike. (Media Blasters)

Samurai Koheita Mochizuki, who goes by the nickname Dora-Heita, meaning "alley cat" or "playboy," pretends to be an alcoholic magistrate but is in actuality an envoy from the daimyo sent to clean up the corrupt and lawless town. His task is complicated by the unexpected arrival of his mistress Kosei. (imdb)

Isamu is a punk born on the margins of post-war society. By virtue of his own courage and propensity for violence he becomes the leader of a street gang and attracts the attention of the more established yakuza crimelords. (IMDB Comments)

Something bizarre has come over the land. The kingdom is deteriorating. People are beginning to act strange... What's even more strange is that people are beginning to see dragons, which shouldn't enter the world of humans. Due to all these bizarre events, Ged, a wandering wizard, is investigating the cause... (imdb)

Kinji Fukasaku directed this powerful and uncompromising look at the deadly stakes of life among the Yakuza -- the Japanese Mafia. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) is a former Japanese soldier who, following his nation's defeat in World War II, finds himself in a prison cell in Hiroshima on a murder charge. While behind bars, Hirono gains a loyal friend in fellow criminal Wagasugi (Tatsuo Umemiya), and upon his release Hirono joins Wagasugi in an underworld gang. What starts as a seemingly easy way to earn some quick money becomes something darker and bloodier... (All Movie Guide)

Hirono, now dug deep into a Japanese crime family based in Hiroshima, finds a new adversary in the person of Katsutoshi Otomo (Sonny Chiba), a ruthless killer who is willing to do anything to promote his family's interests. Meanwhile, Shoji Yamanaka (Kinya Kitaoji) is an ambitious criminal who quickly scales the hierarchy of the Muraoka family, but his fall proves as sudden as his ascent. (All Movie Guide)

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)

Junior high student Harada Takumi is a pitching prodigy, but his attitude and arrogance alienates him from schoolmates and even his own family..Takumi finally finds a friend..in classmate Nagakura Go, a catcher who greatly admires Takumi's pitching. Together they form a "battery" and join the school baseball team, but [they] have a falling out after a loss, bringing the team to a standstill. At this time, Takumi's brother becomes..ill, and his only hope is for Takumi to win the big game for him. (crunchyroll)

It tells the story of a clean cut and quite wealthy twenty year-old who was the product of the violent rape of his mother. Living much of his life with his non-biological father's resentment (since he witnessed the entire brutalization of his wife at the time), the young man decides to follow in the footsteps of his real dad: a serial killer and sex offender. (imdb)

Police officers and gangsters work hand in hand in this bloody urban drama, which splits the difference between a good guy and a thug. Just as the Ohara gang -- a crafty group of criminals that's unofficially sanctioned by local police -- prepares to pull off a profitable scam, their leader emerges from prison with plans to go legit. To make matters worse, a new police lieutenant has plans of his own to shake things up in the department. (Netflix)

A misfit high-school science teacher decides to build his own atomic bomb. (imdb)

When a gang member finds himself estranged from his gang he joins up with his two brothers to start a new life.

In mid-career, while he is on a winning streak, and in the middle of a fight he is winning, a young boxer is revolted by the violence of the game. He allows himself to be beaten up and quits the match and the sport. He also leaves his wife and child and lives alone with his moth-eaten old dog, all the while losing his sight. Years later, he is hunted down by a young man who is ambitious to become a prize-winning boxer.... (KG)

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

Ichikawa remake of his 1956 classic.

The movie is set in Kure (same place as Yakuza Papers part 1), and the initial story once again revolves around the Yamamori clan. Boss Yamamori is the same whining, crying bastard you hate from the original series. In this new series Bunta plays Mikio Miyoshi of the Yamamori family. He is a similar type of character to the one he played in the first set of movies. These new ones are differernt though. There is a lot more (uncoregraphed) gun violence. (KG)

The seventh in the shocking "Jingi Naki Tatakai" movie series, which exposes the true lives of the yakuza that is hidden by a mask of "jingi". The next stage of this continuing drama is the Kanmon Channel where the Owada and the Kyoei groups are battling for territorial rights and drug smuggling. The Owada sends their man, Tetsu, and his friend Shuji to kill the Kyoei boss. With the promise of fame and riches, Shuji takes the fall and goes to jail for 7 years. (AT)

The eighth sequel of the series by the successful ?ukasaku and Bunta?collaboration revolves around the men of a lesser organization that are constantly bullied by the upper organization and leed in vain?in gang wars. A minor dispute between the Sakamoto family based in Osaka (the largest organization in Japan) and the Kawahara family of Amagasaki (subsidiary of the Genryu Group of Kyushu) turns into a conflict that leads to several deaths in both families. (AT)

After his daughter is kidnapped and his wife murdered by drug dealers, a man finds that the gang is protected by corrupt politicians, and sets out to wipe out the gang and expose the politicians. | (imdb)

During the Taisho Period (early 1920's) a monastery of warrior monks was split apart between two factions. One of these factions was led by the Chief Abbot and his protégé, Shinkai. When Shinkai intercedes in a fight between a rival priest and some ruffians it leads to his expulsion from the order. This story introduced us to the character of Shinkai, a 'Karate Priest' and his long running feud with Ryotatsu, his greatest rival. (samuraidvd.net)

A young woman fends off a series of agressive marriage proposals from a man who comitted atrocities during World War II (Hulu)

Way out in the backwaters of rural Japan a strange fire-making festival is held once every ten years. Durng this ancient rite, a legendary sword must be cleansed with the blood of a living virgin, instead of the usual splash of water. The superstitious villagers kidnap a modern woman from Tokyo (who unfortunately happens to be the daughter of the police chief) to be the 99th sacrifice, but they are enraged to discover that she's anything but a virgin.

Yumi Aoyama is now a girl diver in shallow waters to cut oysters and other shellfish delicacies, and eventually pearls, from the shallow underwater rocks, like so many poor girls of her village. She comes from a rich family, but the Aoyama's treasure has been buried in a great earthquake when she was a little girl, and with the treasure, her lost sister.

The most dangerous hired gun in Tokyo's underworld has managed to trigger a vicious gang war, and now, there's a contract on his life. Though nobody is more skilled in the arts of dealing death, can the tattooed hit man fend off the entire Japanese mafia as he searches for the man who wants him dead? Bunta Sugawara, Tsunehiko Watase and Mayumi Nagisa star in this Japanese martial arts cult classic.

The flick is typical of the yakuza pictures of its era and tells the story of a criminal who, with the aid of his equally criminal (and apparently incestuously-inclined) mom, steals a valuable shipment of drugs (about enough to fit into a medium-sized backpack) from a local crime syndicate. (buncheness.blogspot.com)

When a man (Nakatani) is brought into the hospital fatally wounded after being hit by a car, Amamiya initially refuses to operate, seeing the case as hopeless. But after he sees the victim, whose given name is Sai, and recognises him as a private who fought under him under the Japanese name of Shibata in Okinawa during the war, he has a change of heart. (midnighteye.com)

The long awaited second film in the Wicked Priest series is a masterpiece of sword swinging fury as Shinkai is asked by a man on the run to bring his young son to live with his grandfather, the master of a ju-jitsu dojo during the Taisho period of the early 20th century. Shinkai then runs afoul of a gangster group using strong-arm tactics to take over the profits from local gambling. (japanesesamuraidvd.com)

First part of the "Kanto Street Peddlers" produced by Toei and starring Bunta Sugawara

Shinkai comes to the aid of a coastal village being held hostage by a group of political revolutionaries. The climax of this film features an extraordinary swordfight on the beach at sunrise. (japanesesamuraidvd.com)

In Meiji Period Japan, the carrying of swords had been outlawed, so Shikai, the Killer Priest carries his sword disguised as a Priest?s staff. One of the strongest entries in the series, Shinkai is badly injured, and must face his worst enemy in what could be their final showdown. (japanesesamuraidvd.com)

As the Killer Priest Shinkai travels around Japan during the Meiji era, he comes to the aid of a village headman fighting corruption from up above. Before he can do anything for the townspeople, he must first face his nemesis, Whipmaster, the blind Priest, a master killer thirsting for revenge. (japanesesamuraidvd.com)

Teenage stepsisters Yui and Ai form a close bond as a result of the neglect and abuse from their respective parents. Fearing separation from each other when their parents plan to divorce, they run away together to Tokyo and, in order to survive steal a briefcase which they later discover belongs to the yakuza. This puts them in great danger. (letterboxd)

Coming out of jail and hoping for a quiet life, Yokohama yakuza has to take the lead of his gang after the death of his boss. His small group is is taken in a crossfire between a big yakuza group from Osaka at war with the Tokyo alliance for the control of the city. He tries to keep to the old yakuza code but he is no match for the new thugs who live and fight without honor. (imdb)

When Omuro Yahachi of the Omuro family is selected as Mutsumikai Soke's successor, the conflict between the Kitakyushu and Wakamatsu begins. (filmaffinity.com)

(...) Junko [Fuji] is a boss not over gamblers but this time of a trucking company. (...) She has run-ins with evil yakuza (& is aided by the standard "good" yakuza played by rawboned Bunta Sugawara) during the American occupation of Okinawa, an unusual time & setting for the ninkyo or chivalrous brand of yakuza film. Her hometown is threatened by usurers, gangsters, & indirectly by American GI influences. She must go with her employees to help settle things, ultimately with violence. (weirdwildrealm.com)

(...) A young Bunta Sugawara takes over as the oyabun of a crime syndicate in Yokohama, where he is struggling to keep operations at the port there alive. As his syndicate is eroding quickly, a major heavy industries company offers his gang the chance to chase some vagrants out of a shantytown where they are squatting on land where a factory is to be built. (...) (letterboxd.com)

An international gang fights with other families at postwar Kobe. (thehawaiiherald.com)

This is the fourth film in the series. There were seventeen Wolves of the City films between 1968 & 1974, in the main aimed at shock-value & "pinku" soft-core with sex, nudity, violence, gunplay, & a lot of mainly pointless foolishness when the biker gang coopts racist or nazi imagery, inventing a non-existent youth culture void of morality... (The Movie Database)

History's Strongest God Contest VS The worst god companion in history, the throne wearing a century confrontation! The unprecedented bad group "Capone group" finally took off from Japan, but the fishing village which is male heaven, female only reached. I gathered the daughters of the island and appeared in front of the Capone team who earned a profit in the prostitution club ...! Is it? Hachamacha's action, sex appeal, the 10th bad-sounding series fascinated by bursting with laughter! It is! (imdb)

When a rebellious roughneck enlists in the Navy and goes on a rampage against his superiors, he is sent to the Yokosuka Naval Prison. (imdb)

Tamako is a 13-year-old girl in her first year at high school. Her grandfather (Kenzo) returns home from prison and proceeds to deal with her school bullies. As Tamako starts to gain respect for her grandfather the pair find themselves being summoned by the local Yakuza leader. (imdb)

Yawara helps a group of timid grade school kids overcome their fears and compete in a judo competition. One of the kids is Hanazono's cousin, which is how she meets them. Another is a girl who seems a whole lot like Yawara. (myanimelist.net)

With her first love that unfolded in the battlefield in her heart, and with a short sword and a pillbox as her weapons, female gambler Okatsu the Tiger Lily travels from gambling site to gambling site. Surrounding her are Omon, an outlaw star blind lone gambler; Onaka, a thief who's after Okatsu to avenge her father's death; Ohide, a tattoo artist whose back is covered by a dragon tattoo; and Oryu, a young girl sold as a prostitute to a gambling family.

After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble. (themoviedb)

Koshizu (Fuji), a young geisha, tries to kill herself but is saved by cook Yukichi (Sugahara). Rival geisha Adakichi (Yumi), greedy trader Yasukawa (Abe) and wealthy businessman Asai (Soganoya) add up to dramatic turns. (imdb)

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

A pair of truckers show off their driving skills to each other while evading pursuing law enforcement.

A violent thug forces his young girlfriend into prostitution.

The story of a drunken fighter (Sugawara) and an ailing, blind singer (Baisho) amid the power struggle between the Shogunate government and the Emperor in mid-19th century Japan. (imdb)

Ise, a Yakuza mid-level drug dealer, is captured during a police sting operation. The Yakuza criminal breaks down under interrogation and agrees to become a police informant. (imdb)

A yakuza leader must balance his violent tactics necessary for the rough streets of 1960s Tokyo with the domestic needs of his daughters.

Yutaro Kida, a worker at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal, volunteers for the navy but finds himself a cook's mate in the galley of a gunboat. But his dream is eventually realized when he is transferred to the new and powerful destroyer Yukikaze which he helped to build. When the Pacific War breaks out Yukikaze performs valiantly in the South Pacific, and while on shore leave...

In this crime thriller produced by Toshiro Mifune (who has a supporting role), hard-boiled Shiro Akitsu goes on a relentless search for his abducted 7-year-old daughter, with the aid of an Ainu dog summoned by a whistle she gave him.

Japanese comedy film.

Stowe came up with a determined line instructs the blackmail involving van iron Sabunado construction, but enraged the way of Stowe antagonize also sponsor, Shingu, which had begun on the path as a businessman already, generation of Shingu meeting I stripped from Stowe crest. Although it was Kogure you are trying to persuaded Stowe deepen the isolation gradually ...

Back after four years, Goro learns his younger brother's been thrown out of the gang and his girlfriend's married another man. It's payback time.

During the Showa era, a young yakuza survives war and injury and rises to become a clan boss with the help and respect of his sworn brothers.

Upon his release from prison, Masa (Bunta Sugawara) is disappointed to not be picked up by his brother Katsu (Tamio Kawaji). After hitching a ride on a bus full of old women, Masa finds out that Katsu tried to fake a car accident and get some money for Masa to live on after prison. Together, the two decide to blackmail the woman (Yoko Horikoshi) who hit Katsu, who happens to be the daughter of a rich company president (Seizaburo Kawazu). 6th film in a series of 8.

8th film in a series of 8.

Part 5 in a long-running (8+1 films) action/comedy/melodrama series about a pair of short-tempered, amoral, but not evil chinpira (Bunta Sugawara and Tamio Kawachi) thinking too big of themselves. After serving four and a half years in prison, Masa and his brother Katsuji leave Kobe to go to Nagoya to help a hostess get her daughter back from her mother. As they arrive in Nagoya, they get into a scuffle with the local yakuza affiliate.

7th film in a series of 8.

Part 4 in a long-running (8+1 films) action/comedy/melodrama series about a pair of short-tempered, amoral, but not evil chinpira (Bunta Sugawara and Tamio Kawachi) thinking too big of themselves. Sugawara tries to overcome the traumatic experience of getting in bed blindfolded with a girl who turned out to be an old granny. Later he and Kawaji try to settle down in a neighbourhood harassed by businessman yakuza Bin Amatsu.

1st film in a series of 8.

Part 3 in a long-running (8+1 films) action/comedy/melodrama series about a pair of short-tempered, amoral, but not evil chinpira (Bunta Sugawara and Tamio Kawachi) thinking too big of themselves.

Part 2 in a long-running (8+1 films) action/comedy/melodrama series about a pair of short-tempered, amoral, but not evil chinpira (Bunta Sugawara and Tamio Kawachi) thinking too big of themselves.

A crossover between Wakayama's Gokudo and Sugawara Mamushi series. Gokudo runs a restaurant and makes Takuzo Kawatani his kitchen bitch. He tries to do the same for the Mamushi bros. but the boys don't play along, which pisses Gokudo off. Things get worse when he starts helping a young teacher and Bunta has a crush on a pretty girl... and unbeknownst to them it's the same woman! Yes, the film has not one but two romantic subplots! Of course, it all ends in bloodshed.

An Osaka gangster Shimamura just got married. His new bride, Mineko is also involved in drug trafficking. When she goes to China to make a deal, things get botched pretty badly. Shimamura must travel to save her and recoup his employers’ losses. (Avistaz)

Shinza is known for his stubborn personality and continues to hold a low-ranking position as a magistrate, despite his colleague Kato becoming the deputy chief retainer. His daughter has feelings for Hachiro, one of her father’s subordinates, but she is afraid to express her emotions because of Shinza’s intimidating presence. One day, Shinza gets involved in a violent incident within the castle.

Kumazou, a “cleaner” for hire, encounters a woman attempting to commit suicide with her two young siblings one night. Kumazou gives them all the money he has and saves them from jumping off a bridge. The next morning, he wakes up to find that the woman and her sons have invaded his home and settled in…