Minoru Ôki

Long ago there was a great samurai warrior who served his Shogun honorably. The Shogun however grew paranoid as he became more and more senile... (imdb)

In the second film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto battles a group of female ninja in the employ of the Yagyu clan, and must assassinate a traitor who plans to sell his clan's secrets to the Shogunate who is guarded by the three "Gods of Death". (imdb)

After escaping from an asylum, Hirosuke assumes the identity of a dead man in order to solve the mystery of a weird doppleganger whose picture he sees in the newspaper. Traveling to faraway Panorama Island, he discovers a mad scientist surgically remaking normal human beings into misshapen monsters but that is only the beginning. Hirosuke soon learns the horrible truth about the island and his own family's shameful past, and finds himself plunged into the depths of incest, murder, and madness. (synapse-films.com)

A veteran police officer and his younger partner search for a fugitive in heat of the summer.

When Oryu catches a dealer cheating in an illicit card game she makes some powerful enemies.

A pitiless take on Japan's professional baseball industry. An excoriation of the inhumanity bred by a mercenary, bribery-fueled business, it follows the sharklike maneuvers of a scout dead set on signing a promising athlete to the team the Toyo Flowers. (criterion.com)

SOMEWHERE BENEATH THE WIDE SKY (1954, aka KONO HIROI SORA NO DOKOKA NI) came near the end of Masaki Kobayashi's formative period as a director -- scripted by the sister of his mentor Keisuke Kinoshita (and scored by Kinoshita's brother), this drama of middle-class life in postwar Japan tells the story lower-middle-class workers in the city of Kawasaki, and their troubles and travails. (KG)

This is a classic early Japanese Ninja movie. The Iga ninjas are a dying breed as Toyotomis rule allows Japan to experience some peace. Juzo, an Iga ninja who had vowed revenge for the death of his family, is hired by a rich weapons merchant to assassinate Toyotomi, restarting his quest for blood. In his way are rival ninja, and his once best friend who has decided to become a government vassal. The main plot centers around the conflicts that confront Juzo... (imdb)

A jeweler hires detective Akechi to find his daughter kidnapped by a famous thief known as the Black Lizard. (imdb)

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)

"Fightin' Tatsu the Rickshaw Man" (...) injects a lighter note into a yakuza tale as fiercely free-spirited Tatsu (Ryohei Uchida) arrives in Osaka in 1898 from Edo with the first rubber-wheeled rickshaw the city has ever seen. Far from happy about his arrival is the Nishikawa yakuza clan, which has a lock on the rickshaw business emanating from the busy main train station (...) (articles.latimes.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)

After causing problems, Ken Takahara is transferred from Abashiri to the honor factory at Tanigawa Prison. When the local yakuza gang is hired to destroy the factory, Takahara has to take violent action to save it. (imdb)

A good set-in-per-WW2 ninkyô type film with outstanding performances. (imdb)

Ryoma is a former military man who gets to know the leader of a yakuza group and begins to work with them, helping them defend themselves against other yakuza gangs. (imdb)

This is the original 1964 version of author Futaro Yamada's "Kunoichi Ninpocho" produced by Toei and starring Yumiko Nogawa.

Set in Osaka in 1907, it centers on a yakuza, Asajiro (Koji Tsurata), a man of honor, who must deal with a conflict over a prostitute while struggling to compete with another clan; both are hoping to go legitimate as the city is poised to develop its port for international trade. (latimes.com)

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.

The story of Tei, a female coal mine operator, who risks her life to protect the business that was passed on by late husband. (thehawaiiherald.com)

In the year 1651 the Kishu clan is about to rise against the Tokugawa shogunate using a stash of muskets being guarded by Jinza the leader of the Koga ninja. The Iga ninja are called upon to stop the revolt under the leadership of Hattori Hanzo setting off a spy versus spy battle of silent ninja stealth. Through all the turmoil, Shizaburo and Yuka have broken the taboo of ninja falling in love and strive to achieve the forbidden life of happiness that is denied to all members of the ninja class.

The lives of three Yakuza wives become tragically and violently intertwined. One wife whose husband is murders.Another whose husband leaves her to make a name for himself. And the last who pushes her husband to go against his conscience. (imdb)

When the country is in peril, Lord Tajima summons his son to retrieve the mystical Yagyu Scroll is order to save all of Japan. This time, Jubei must stop the evil plot of Lord Hayatonosho who secretly plans on overthrowing the Shogunate. (imdb)

Two ninja clans are conned into fighting each other for years by their evil leaders. Watari; small hard as nails Ninja Boy saves the day. (imdb)

President of the territorial yakuza organization is being manipulated by a crooked leader in the military and some capitalists Ishikiri. The plan is to get multiple family of the organized crime groups based in Osaka to war it out and order the Shima to the Onishi group of the branch to expand the territory. Now members of the same yakuza gang are forced to fight each other over territory and honor.

In 1914, Sakuragi, a famous Karate master, gets hired by a military commander to eliminate spies sent to Japan from Germany and Russia. Sakuragi heads to Yokohama China Town to hunt a spy leader.

This is the sixth film in the Brutal Tales of Chivalry series.

Cho, leader of Kibamasa, finds out that his gang has been threatened by another one that, besides being more modern, wants to buy the gueisha that he's in love with.

V-cinema classic about a wanted Brazilian Japanese gangster who flees to Tokyo and fights yakuza.

After a plan to force the farmers of Enoki Village to partake in the rebuilding of Edo Castle crumbles, the government lays siege to the peasant hamlet. Upon taking away their food, heavily taxing them, and murdering those who refuse to pay, the villagers lead an uprising by building a fort around their homestead from which to defend themselves. Fearing the government will eventually wipe them out, a young man seeks the help of the famous bounty hunter, Shikoro Ichibei. (imdb)

The third movie following the exploits of bounty hunter Shikoro Ichibei. The theft of almost a half ton of gold from the shogunate's official mine threatens to bankrupt the government of Japan. Despite a desperate search the gold has not been found, causing officials of the Tokugawa bakufu to call on their most skillful secret agent, Shikoro Ichibei. (TMDB)

The second film of the Gokudo series starring Tomisaburô Wakayama

During the ultra-violent era of the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, one man rose above the rest with his ideas of how to overthrow the corrupt government and end the bloodshed between the Choshu and Satsuma clans which would ultimately lead to the alliance of these 2 clans, and restoration of the emperor to full power. Based on the play that made Sawada Shojiro famous, this is the story of Tsukigata Hanpeita, a forward-looking samurai from Choshu, who along with ...

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)