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Yakuza film

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The yakuza are a popular subject in Japanese films

The yakuza, or the Japanese mafia, are a popular subject in Japanese cinema. In Japanese, the genre is called yakuza eiga or yakuza films.

Ninkyo Eiga

Ninkyo eiga, or "chivalry films", were the first type of Yakuza films. Most were produced by the Toei studio in the 1960s. The kimono-clad yakuza hero of the ninkyo films (personified by the stoic Ken Takakura) was always portrayed as an honorable outlaw torn between the contradictory values of giri (duty) and ninjo (personal feelings).

Jitsuroku Eiga

In the 1970s, a new breed of yakuza eiga emerged: the jitsuroku eiga, or "true document film". Many jitsuroku eiga were based on true stories, and filmed in a documentary style. This genre was popularized by Kinji Fukasaku's groundbreaking yakuza epic Jingi Naki Tatakai, or "Battles Without Honour and Humanity". This film, which spawned four sequels, portrayed the post-War yakuza not as the honorable heirs to the samurai code, but as ruthless, treacherous street thugs. The films star Bunta Sugawara (often thought of as the anti-Ken Takakura) as a sneering ex-soldier who rises to power in the bombed-out Hiroshima underworld.

Modern yakuza movies

In the 1990s, yakuza movies in Japan declined. Now, many are low-budget direct-to-video movies. One exception has been the critically acclaimed films of Takeshi Kitano, whose existential yakuza movies are well known around the world.

Yakuza movie actors


Films

Bibliography

The Yakuza Movie Book : A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films (2003) - Mark Schilling