Movies: Ryōji Hayama

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words used by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised th...

The most dangerous hired gun in Kyushu'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 hitman fend off the entire Japanese m...

With a Kansai syndicate setting their sights on Tokyo, a former yakuza boss gets dragged back into a world of violence....

Reiko Ike stars as the daughter of a man who has been pushed into drug dealing by the local Yakuza mob. Having outlived his usefulness to the gang he is murdered and Reiko is gang raped, leading her to attempt a knife attack on the Yakuza boss (Ryoji...

Tokyo hoodlums travel to Osaka and enter into rivalry with the local gangsters....

1961 Japanese movie...

Japan, 1946, just after the end of World War II. As the US occupation army patrols the dilapidated streets of Tokyo, a desperate and ambitious group of war veterans and gamblers struggle to take control of the Ginza district's underworld with the hel...

When the boss of the Nakano Family decides to retire and makes a loyal follower the new boss instead of his own son, it causes strife in the family. Sides are taken and lines are drawn. Meanwhile, a rival family with a land dispute with the Nakano st...

While imprisoned, Tatsu encounters Danshi, a man who is a big honcho in the prison pecking order. After initial conflict they become sworn brothers. Tatsu and the sworn brothers he acquires weren’t really gangsters before their prison time, just ruff...

Fumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In the last stage of...

Emerging from a stint in prison, yakuza lieutenant Sumukawa discovers that his gang has disintegrated. An ambitious type, he quickly hooks up with another gang who promise him a prominent position if he helps them deal with a rival family. But bonds ...

A continuation of Hungry Soul, from the same year. 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 f...

The Kanto Brothers' Code of Honor (関東兄弟仁義 仁侠) is a 1971 film directed by Buichi Saitō. It is the ninth and last film in the Duty of Brotherhood series....

The first time that up-and-coming architect Yuji Muraoka (Yujiro Ishihara) met Natsuko (Ruriko Asaoka) was at a contemporary art exhibition at the Ueno Museum of Art. At the time, he didn't feel anything special about her, other than being impressed ...

A public bath house is the scene of illegal female slave trading operations in 18th century Japan and government spy Shinzo is sent in to expose the ringleaders as well as working to get a law passed eliminating coed bathing....

A young man travels to Egypt and becomes embroiled in an independence movement by chance. Produced entirely on location overseas, which was groundbreaking at the time....

A jazz bandleader, falsely accused of murdering his girlfriend, tries to stay one step ahead of the police as he dives into Tokyo's sin-city in search of the real killer in this dark and beautiful noir from master Seijun Suzuki....

“I like shady dealings,” purrs undercover superspy Yabuki en route to infiltrating a sadistic, trigger-happy gang of international jewel thieves. Gone renegade from the shadowy espionage bureau that honed his killer instincts to a razor’s edge, the i...

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....

The first postwar war movie depicting the tragedy of a special force that shook the world at the end of the Pacific War, with thrill and speed...