The Y-Team

Wicked Priest 2: Ballad of Murder

November 1968 •Japanese

The long awaited second film in the Wicked Priest series is a masterpiece of sword swinging fury as Shinkai is asked by a man on the run to bring his young son to live with his grandfather, the master of a ju-jitsu dojo during the Taisho period of the early 20th century. Shinkai then runs afoul of a gangster group using strong-arm tactics to take over the profits from local gambling. When he proves to be more than they can handle, they hire the one man who has the ability to kill Shinkai and exact revenge, Ryotatsu, the karate priest whom Shinkai blinded in the first film. This ultra-violent entry has long been considered the best movie in the series and never made its way to home video before. See a spectacular display of Wakayama Tomisaburo’s martial art expertise in this action packed film. The Holy Grail of sword movies has arrived at last! /Winterheart of CG

Brother

December 2000 •English

A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother's gang.

Dolls

October 2002 •Japanese

Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.

The Last True Yakuza

November 1985 •Japanese

A made man during the height of Hiroshima's yakuza turf war must maneuver through the violence and betrayal inside the criminal underworld.

The Pinkie

January 2014 •Japanese

Since they were both five, Ryosuke has been stalked by Momoko - the ugliest girl in the village. Her love for Ryosuke is so boundless that she has her face surgically altered to suit his taste - but still he wants nothing to do with her. Ryosuke goes in for fleeting romance - for example, with the girlfriend of a gangster boss. But when he finds out about their affair, he has Ryosuke's little finger hacked off. Magically, the finger falls into Momoko's hands, and she uses it to clone Ryosuke, so she can finally have him (or almost him) for herself. And this is just the first five minutes of Lisa Takeba's short-but-powerful feature debut. Just like in her previous short films, the director - who cut her teeth in the advertising world and as the writer of a video game - throws a lot of genres and techniques into the mix: from science fiction to gangster films, from hospital eroticism to animation. Hectic and absurd, but with its heart in the right place. © IFFR

Crying Freeman

April 1995 •English

A lethal assassin for a secret Chinese organisation, who sheds tears of regret each time he kills, is seen swiftly and mercilessly executing three Yakuza gangsters by a beautiful artist. She is captivated by the grace of his kill and later falls in love with him. An intense power struggle for the leadership of the Yakuza Clans ensues as they seek vengeance for the death of their leader.

Family Crest: Die Like a Man

March 1969 •Japanese

The story of three brothers who, after loosing their parents in the Great Kanto Earthquake, continued their respective yakuza family business and the revenge of the youngest one when his siblings were killed by a rival vicious yakuza boss. The first in the two part Daimon series.

Return to Kanto Prison

December 1967 •Japanese

Masakichi Murase has just been released from prison and appears in a fishing port town. Two Yakuza families have been feuding in this city for a long time. On the side of the Okai clan, Masakichi enters into a confrontation with the evil Kawade family, who wants to get the territory of their opponents and the possession of a railway loading dock… The third part of the series of films "Kanto" starring Hideki Takahashi.

Tokyo Mafia: Yakuza Wars

July 1995 •Japanese

After being excommunicated from the yakuza, Ginya Yabuki returns from the shadows as leader of his own crime syndicate known as the Tokyo Mafia.

Contract Killer

April 1998 •

Financially troubled, a newbie hitman reluctantly takes the job of finding the plotted killer of a Japanese tycoon.

Whipmaster: Ballad of Murder

November 1970 •Japanese

Ryotatsu, the wayward Priest blinded by Shinkai, the Wicked Priest, has his own story in this ultra-violent tale from the era of the Meiji Reconstruction. When a woman leaves her blind son at the Monastery, Ryotatsu is forced to teach the boy how to cope as a blind person in old Japan. When he takes the child with him on the road to find the boy's mother, they run afoul of not only yakuza gangsters, but some corrupt army officers have been trying to sway public opinion against the Satsuma rebels by posing as members of Saigo Takamori's group. It's a bloody mistake for them to underestimate the strength of the Blind Priest, and he'll make them pay with their lives!

The Great Okinawa Yakuza War

September 1976 •Japanese

Chiba, looking gnarly, and acting as animalistic as ever, stars alongside Matsukata as violent gangsters battling their way through fight after bloody fight with rival yakuza on the streets of Okinawa.

Tattoo

April 2002 •German

Marc Schrader, a rookie cop caught red-handed with drugs in a police raid of an illegal rave, joins a homicide investigation conducted by Chief Inspector Minks. The victim is a naked young woman with the skin stripped off her back, killed as she staggered into traffic. As Schrader and Minks investigate the murder, the case is complicated by a finger found in the stomach of the victim. Forensic examination proves the finger belongs to Nobert Günzel, who was previously convicted of rape and assault. The police raid Günzel’s residence, and discover a blood-stained table with restraints and bits of human flesh in his basement. They also find video equipment and preserved, tattooed skin from the victim’s back. Soon, they found dead bodies buried in the garden. Günzel then goes missing.

Crimson Night Dream

August 1983 •Japanese

Bloody Code

November 2012 •Japanese

Yoshicho-kai, which has never retreated and occupied a sole position in the center of Yokohama, has so far maintained a balance with Hama-gumi, which has territory across the river. However, the situation suddenly changes when Chairman Yoshicho-kai is killed by Hama-gumi bullets…

Ichi the Killer

December 2001 •Japanese

As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.

Chivalry Broken from All Sides

October 1966 •Japanese

This is a magnificent drama about love and chivalry, telling about the stormy fate of Seiji, nicknamed "The Rising Dragon", who swore never to take up a sword again because of the emptiness of the Yakuza's life, and the passionate fate of his named sister Maki, nicknamed "The Scarlet Cherry Blossom", who falls in love with him without suspecting that he was the one who was responsible for her father's death and to whom she should take revenge.

The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio

December 2016 •Japanese

A young undercover cop tries to get back with his former love, while unraveling the mystery behind the head of the police force. Meanwhile he has to protect the boss' daughter.

Sonatine

September 1993 •Japanese

Murakawa, an aging Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life, is sent by his boss to Okinawa along with a few of his henchmen to help end a gang war, supposedly as mediators between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, his group is attacked in an ambush. The survivors flee and make a decision to lay low at the beach while they await further instructions.

Woman Boss: Chivalrous Fight

September 1969 •Japanese

Sumi Muraoka, nicknamed "Sumi Banten", due to the fact that her back is decorated with a tattoo of the goddess Banten, the woman who heads the Banten Yakuza family. She comes into confrontation with a powerful of Yakuza group Mutsumi-kai, seeking to capture all power in their hands.