In early 2000's in Sapporo, Japan. Filipino transgender dancer Marie becomes entangled with the dangerous underbelly of the criminal world after an immigration raid pulls her into the orbit of the deadly Yakuza.
Social & External
The people behind it
Mariko Ledesma
Marie
Tsuyoshi Ihara
Rina Takeda
Shogen
Eiji Okuda
Shimamura
Christy Imperial
Vince Rillon
Ruby Ruiz
Hana Yuka Sano
Gigi Hernandez
In the midst of the war in Gaza during the Second Intifada in 2003, two 12-year-old boys, one Palestinian and one Israeli, along with a former surfing champion, form a friendship united by the love of water and learn from each other.
In the scorching heat of Okinawa, former lovers meet. Now, he is a gangster on a mission, she is a window trying to protect what is hers. Together, they get caught in the crossfire.
In the late 1890s, coal is a precious new natural resource. During an era of rapid economic growth, dreams are instilled into the lives of many across Japan. A vigorous young man with a look of fearless determination, sets foot on the northern part of Kyushu, an area where Yakuza thrived. His name is Kingoro Tamai (Yujiro Ishihara). With plans to travel the world, Kingoro worked diligently at a coal mine. His loyalty and hard work earned the respect of his peers, his courage won the heart of the beautiful Mon (Ruriko Asaoka), and his success evoked jealousy in his enemies.
When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.
After a three-year prison term in Japan, a yakuza heads for LA to buy two kilos of cocaine. He's going to smuggle it back to Japan, and it's to be his last score: he wants to marry Yoko, his long-suffering girlfriend, and get out of the life. But somebody sets him up, Yoko is shot, and he loses the suitcase of dope. He determines to stay in LA, retrieve the coke, and exact revenge: although he's a drug dealer, he still follows the samurai code of the yakuza. Along the way, he learns that his long-lost younger sister is in Los Angeles, and he teams up with an unlikely partner in his quest for justice: a petty thief who's trying to help a young woman get back to Japan.
Shozo Hirono has managed to separate from the Yamamori family and create his own small family, and extend his circle of acquaintances. These new friendships include a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, Noboru Uchimoto.
As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic Games, the cops start to crack down on the gangs, under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima.
Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.
While playing at the beach with their grandmother, two children witness an Elvis-like man walk out of the sea. They believe he's the "fishman" lover of a female taniwha, Hine Tai. Meanwhile their parents (played by Kirk Torrance and Nancy Brunning) are busy falling apart, and the mysterious man offers words that are either wise or dangerous. Set in a small seaside town, this magical realist fable was written by Briar Grace-Smith (Cousins) and directed by Peter Burger (What Really Happened - Waitangi). It got six nominations at the 2002 NZ TV Awards, and won for Best Drama, and for James Cowley's cinematography.
Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman returning home with her baby. When gangsters mistake her for Zatoichi and kill her, Zatoichi determines to escort the baby to its father. He gains the reluctant help of a young pick pocket and together they travel to find the baby's father. But they do not reckon on the father's reaction to their arrival, nor on their own growing feelings for the child.
A tragic accident leads Bryan Bruton on a wild and unforgettable experience within the Florida prison system.
A dramatic captivating tale tells of widowed Tei (Junko Fuji), she has become a coalmine operator and is determined to be successful despite mining being a predominately male domain. Overcoming the natural hardships, a more serious threat to Tei and her mine, the menacing presence of rival mining gangs who sense her vulnerability... Nihon jokyo-den:ketto midarw-bana is an outstanding drama, highlighted by wonderful characterizations/performances. Yamashita's excellent direction maintains a rich emotional flow from the opening seconds to the last. Intense and bloody encounters punctuate throughout the engaging multi layered tale!
When a local gambling house kidnaps some peasants because they failed to pay their debts, a rival gambling house pays their debts and sets them free.
Zatoichi is forced to kill a young man who owes a debt to a yakuza boss. Moments later, his sister Osode arrives with the money she earned (prostituting herself) to pay his debts. The bosses true motives are revealed and he attempts to steal Osode even though the debt is paid. Zatoichi realizes his grievous error and protects the girl from the gang. Osode and Zatoichi are caught in a dilemma as she must rely on her brother's killer for protection and Zatoichi wrestles with the injustice he has caused.
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 help of a deranged soldier.
This biopic of notorious yakuza-turned-actor Noboru Ando focuses on the days leading to his arrest after the shooting of businessman Hideki Yokoi.
Two petty gangsters get ransomed by a group of Yakuza members, fortunately they are rescued by a kindly Kindergarten teacher.
Hapless gangsters are hired by the yakuza to tail his daughter. Once the identity of the boy she's dating has been unveiled, the boss offers a reward for his capture.
Exciting fights between the police and a crime syndicate over the secret of poison gas.
When a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. Bodies pile up as he takes out everyone in his way to the top in a brutal quest for revenge.
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a gang of female thieves.
After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the "Viper", a ruthless gun-for-hire, to assassinate him. As the Viper trails his target through the countryside, the agile Phoenix Tetsu grows concerned that one of his former associates has betrayed him.
A former American G.I. joins a yakuza family after his release from prison in post-World War II Osaka.
A former assassin, known simply as The Bride, wakes from a coma four years after her jealous ex-lover Bill attempts to murder her on her wedding day. Fueled by an insatiable desire for revenge, she vows to get even with every person who contributed to the loss of her unborn child, her entire wedding party, and four years of her life. After devising a hit list, The Bride sets off on her quest, enduring unspeakable injury and unscrupulous enemies.
When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.
Ryūichi and his small gang of Triad vie for control of the Japanese underworld in a crime-ridden Shinjuku quarter while Detective Jojima tries to bring it down.
Ichi is a blind entertainer that travels the countryside with her traditional Japanese guitar and walking stick. She’s in search for the kind man that brought her up as a child, but because of her beauty she encounters problems every step of the way. Fortunately for Ichi, she is also a gifted swordswoman and carries a lethal blade within her walking stick.
After serving time, a defiant street thug is incensed to find his town overrun by two yakuza factions. He gathers his crew and takes them on.
A Japanese assassin stranded in Taiwan must take work from a local crime boss to make ends meet when suddenly a woman from his past delivers a son to him.
A barkeeper saves a yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
Sex & Fury chronicles Ocho's exploits as she searches for her father's killers, each identified by unique tattoos on their backs (a deer, a boar, and a butterfly). Along the way, she also crosses paths with Shunosuke, a radical set on murdering prominent politician Kurokawa, and Christina, an American spy posing as a gambler.
The struggles of a group of outcasts living in "Yentown", in an alternate-future Japan.
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
Mikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 years of sentence for murder. Hoping to find his long lost mother, from whom he was separated as a child, he applies for a TV show and meets a young TV director Tsunoda. Meanwhile, he struggles to get a proper job and fit into society. His impulsive, adamant nature and ingrained beliefs cause friction in his relationship with Tsunoda and those who want to help him.
After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.
When a young yakuza torments the customers in a rival crime family's nightclub, it is not long before his dead body is found. Soon, inter-family retaliation follows, resulting in the death for a prominent crime boss. Devastated by this turn of events, the temperamental Kenzaki vows to avenge his boss's death and, as bloody violence ensues, the body count reaches excessive proportions.
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.