Wasabi is a 2001 French action comedy film directed by Gérard Krawczyk and written and produced by Luc Besson. The film stars Jean Reno, Michel Muller and Ryōko Hirosue. In France, it was released as Wasabi, la petite moutarde qui monte au nez.
Audition is a 1999 Japanese horror film directed by Takashi Miike and written by Daisuke Tengan. An adaptation of Ryu Murakami's 1997 novel, it stars Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina. The film follows a middle-aged widower who enlists the help of his film producer friend to stage a fake audition in order to meet a new girlfriend, only to find that the dark past of the woman he chooses severely affects their relationship.
Kids Return is a 1996 Japanese film written, edited and directed by Takeshi Kitano. The film was made directly after Kitano recovered from a motorcycle wreck that left one side of his body paralyzed. After undergoing extensive surgery and physical therapy, he quickly went about making Kids Return amidst speculation that he might never be able to work again. The movie is about two high school dropouts, Masaru and Shinji, who try to find a direction and meaning in their lives—one by becoming a yakuza lieutenant, the other by becoming a boxer.
Warlock is a 1959 American Western film produced and directed by Edward Dmytryk starring Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn and Dorothy Malone. The picture is an adaptation of the novel Warlock by American author Oakley Hall. The film is both set and filmed in Utah.
Mind Game is a 2004 Japanese adult-animated experimental comedy-drama film based on Robin Nishi's manga of the same name. It was planned, produced and primarily animated by Studio 4°C, and adapted and directed by Masaaki Yuasa in his directorial debut, with chief animation direction and model sheets by Yūichirō Sueyoshi, art direction by Tōru Hishiyama and groundwork and further animation direction by Masahiko Kubo.
Yakuza film is a popular film genre in Japanese cinema which focuses on the lives and dealings of yakuza, Japanese organized crime syndicates. In the silent film era, depictions of bakuto as sympathetic Robin Hood-like characters were common.
Sympathy for the Underdog, known in Japan as Bakuto Gaijin Butai, is a 1971 Japanese yakuza film directed and co-written by Kinji Fukasaku and starring Kōji Tsuruta and Noboru Ando. It is director Fukasaku's last film featuring Kōji Tsuruta. Complex named it number 8 on their list of The 25 Best Yakuza Movies. Home Vision Entertainment released the movie on DVD in North America in 2005.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode is a 1974 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It is the final film in a five-part series that Fukasaku made in a span of just two years.
Street Mobster, known in Japan as Gendai Yakuza: Hitokiri Yota (現代やくざ 人斬り与太), is a 1972 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku and starring Bunta Sugawara and Noboru Ando. It is the sixth installment in Toei's Gendai Yakuza series of unrelated films by different directors, all starring Sugawara. Shot on location in Kawasaki, the plot centers around Okita, a street thug and troublemaker released from prison after ten years only to discover that the criminal underworld in which he used to operate and the socio-political landscape of Japan has changed dramatically. Complex named it number 3 on their list of "The 25 Best Yakuza Movies". Home Vision Entertainment released the movie on DVD in North America in 2004. Arrow Films released a special edition blu-ray in Europe and North America in June, 2018.
Take Me Out to the Ball Game is a 1949 American Technicolor musical film produced in the Arthur Freed unit of MGM. It stars Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold and Jules Munshin, and was directed by Busby Berkeley. The title and nominal theme is taken from the unofficial anthem of American baseball, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." The film was released in the United Kingdom as Everybody's Cheering.
Blue Tiger is a 1994 American action thriller film directed by Norberto Barba, and starring Virginia Madsen, Ryo Ishibashi and Yuji Okumoto.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon, is a 2007 Japanese crime film directed by Takashi Miike, based on the 2005 PlayStation 2 video game Yakuza. The film stars Kazuki Kitamura, Goro Kishitani, Show Aikawa, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Kenichi Endō and Tomorowo Taguchi.
American Yakuza is a 1993 American crime film directed by Frank Cappello and starring Viggo Mortensen, Ryo Ishibashi, Michael Nouri, Franklyn Ajaye, Yuji Okumoto, Anzu Lawson, and Robert Forster. The screenplay by John Allen Nelson and Max Strom is based on a story by executive producer Takashige Ichise. American Yakuza was released in the United States on December 22, 1993.
Madea's Witness Protection is a 2012 American comedy film directed, written and produced by Tyler Perry. The film stars Perry, Eugene Levy, Denise Richards, Doris Roberts, Romeo Miller, Tom Arnold, John Amos, and Marla Gibbs. It is the fourteenth film by Perry and the seventh installment in the Madea cinematic universe. It is the fourth Perry film not to be adapted from a play, alongside The Family That Preys, Daddy's Little Girls, and Good Deeds, as well as the first Madea film not to be adapted from a play. It tells the story about Madea being a host to a family that the FBI has entered into the witness protection program due to the fact that the patriarch has been the CFO of a company that a crime family was using to further their Ponzi schemes.
Strange Alibi is a 1941 American film noir directed by D. Ross Lederman, written by Kenneth Gamet, Leslie T. White and Fred Niblo Jr., and starring Arthur Kennedy, Joan Perry, Jonathan Hale, John Ridgely, Florence Bates and Charles Trowbridge. It was released by Warner Bros. on April 19, 1941.
Another Lonely Hitman is a Japanese yakuza film directed by Rokurō Mochizuki starring Ryo Ishibashi and Asami Sawaki, who was making her film debut. The film was based on a novel by Yukio Yamanouchi who also appears as an actor in the film. The Japanese title of the film begins with the character 新, shin (new), to distinguish this movie from a 1989 film 悲しきヒットマン, also based on a novel by Yamanouchi but unrelated in plot.
New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Last Days of the Boss is a 1976 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It is the third and final film in a series of films with unrelated plotlines, following New Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1974) and New Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Boss's Head (1975).
Suckers is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Roger Nygard, who co-wrote the story with Joe Yanetty. It is about the car sales business in the United States, and stars Joe Yannetty, Jake Johannsen, Daniel Benzali, Michael D. Roberts, Louis Mandylor and Lori Loughlin.
Back Street Girls is a Japanese manga series by Jasmine Gyuh. It is about three yakuza men forced by their boss to become a female idol group. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Magazine from March 2015 to September 2018 and was compiled into 12 volumes. The manga is licensed digitally in English by Kodansha USA. A 10-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by J.C.Staff and directed by Chiaki Kon, aired from July to September 2018 on BS11 and other channels. A live-action adaptation, Back Street Girls: Gokudols, was released in February 2019.
The Blood of Wolves is a 2018 Japanese crime yakuza film directed by Kazuya Shiraishi, starring Koji Yakusho and Tori Matsuzaka. The 2021 film Last of The Wolves was released as a sequel to this film.
