Brutal Tales of Chivalry

Hidejiro is a wandering yakuza with a ‘karashi botan’ (Chinese lion and peony) tattoo. Owing a favor to the Soda Family, he kills the boss of the rival Sakaki Family. When the Soda attacks the Sakaki and double-crosses him, with sword in hand, Hidejiro seeks brutal retribution.

The karashi Botan returns in the third chapter of the incredible Showa Zankoden series. This time legendary actor Ken Takakura plays Takei Shigejiro of the Shimazu family. When the boss of the Shimazu is killed, Shigejiro takes revenge and is sent to jail. Upon his release, he meets the dying widow of one of hid followers and takes her to her father, Boss Shiomasa, who take him into his family. But when Shiomasa is killed by an old enemy, Shigejiro is obligated to take revenge...

Fierce war breaks out when Shujiro’s rival clan attempts to sabotage his lucrative construction business.

Hidejirō is sent to prison after killing the boss of a rival family. After being released, he discovers that his family has scattered and he is taken in by a company of quarry workers, whose boss has a strict code of non-violence. When the rival family tries to take over the company and kills their boss, Hidejirō must choose between his promise of non-violence and his yakuza code of revenge...

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

Young yakuza Shujiro Hanada goes to prison after losing his cool in a rigged gambling game and slashing a few other players. When he's released in 1927, the world has changed. His sister died in the Great Kanto Earthquake and his father is also gone. His brother Jukichi invites him to stay at his in-laws and works in their family pub. He lies low, helping his blind mother-in-law and slowly developing a relationship with Ikuye, the hostess who helped him before his arrest. But trouble lurks when the resident gang decides to show its strength.

The story of a lone wolf struggling with human compassion and duty.

The ninth and final film in the Contemporary Tales of Chivalry series.

The story of an airport and its air traffic control crew in a remote and northern Japanese town. Three of the air traffic controllers are female with one of them working with her dead fiancé's sister. The engaged man had gone to war and never returned.

The harrowing journey of Kinu Wada, a young woman who is sold into prostitution to pay her family's debts.

In a small town, according to the homecoming of Professor Ishinaka, the youth culture group was overwhelmed to make a presentation for the summer festival, but because of lack of funds, she works part-time at the spectacle of a tour, a haunted house Especially. The ghost was a struggle amongst the people, it was a great success in filling the crowd, but in the circus hut next to it, Kenji who was supposed to have disappeared was pitiful.

The karashi Botan returns in the third chapter of the incredible Showa Zankoden series. This time legendary actor Ken Takakura plays Takei Shigejiro of the Shimazu family. When the boss of the Shimazu is killed, Shigejiro takes revenge and is sent to jail. Upon his release, he meets the dying widow of one of hid followers and takes her to her father, Boss Shiomasa, who take him into his family. But when Shiomasa is killed by an old enemy, Shigejiro is obligated to take revenge...

Hidejiro is a wandering yakuza with a ‘karashi botan’ (Chinese lion and peony) tattoo. Owing a favor to the Soda Family, he kills the boss of the rival Sakaki Family. When the Soda attacks the Sakaki and double-crosses him, with sword in hand, Hidejiro seeks brutal retribution.

The story of a lone wolf struggling with human compassion and duty.

The ninth and final film in the Contemporary Tales of Chivalry series.

Somewhat unique as it appears to be one of the very rare appearances of master thespian Itô in a yakuza role.

Katsuji takes revenge on evil Tamaru who forcefully took control of the fishery business run by Katsuji’s friend.

Shinkai, a Buddhist monk with a penchant for drinking and gambling, sets sinners straight with judo throws rather than sermons. After fighting off a gang of street thugs, Shinkai is placed on probation but manages to escape his superiors’ watchful eyes to covertly indulge in life’s pleasures. But when he hears of rogue priests in his order consorting with yakuza, Shinkai must make them see the error of their ways and reach enlightenment, one punch at a time.

Ronin Sasaki Kojiro pursues his ultimate goal of becoming a master swordsman. Along the way he encounters another great swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi.

Story of a gangster (Mihashi), newly released from prison, who specializes in blackmail. His standing in the underworld declining, he makes the risky move of blackmailing a government official tied to the Japanese mob.

Sonny Chiba's first martial arts film, a partially fictionalized judo biopic based on prominent judoka Shiro Saigo (Chiba), the second student of judo founder Jigoro Kano (Naoki Sugiura). Akira Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata is based on the same character and shares some scenes, but Judo for Life focuses more on the martial arts philosophy and training, including scenes depicting how the protagonist learned his famous cat-like landing, coined the term judo, and trained with Tsunejiro Tomita (Hideo Murata). There’s also a slight yakuza film influence. The port street ambush scene is found in both films, but in Judo for Life it’s not Kano but a travelling yakuza that jumps out of the rickshaw. Entertaining and beautifully old fashioned, one does however with there were more shades of gray between good and evil, and a stronger ninkyo-like moral / honour conflict.

Jidai-geki by Kiyoshi Saeki

In the 15th year of the Meiji era (1882), Ōkuma Shigenobu, expelled from the Council of State by the Satsuma-Chōshō clique, poured his personal fortune into establishing the Tokyo Professional School in a tea field in Waseda Village. With seven professors, including Takada Sanae and Tsubouchi Yūzō, and eighty-seven students, government interference extended even to finances; Ono Azusa, who tirelessly worked to secure funding, died from overwork.

A fairly entertaining yarn told in somewhat broad strokes with Wakayama playing against type as a reformed-gambler-turned- Christian minister. Of course, before the tale is finished he is forced by the utterly nefarious, heinous villains to once again pick up a sword and join fellow anti-hero Sugawara in wiping out Evil.