Over the years, yakuza movies have gone through an evolution, going from a feel-good high-values formula to a gritty, naturalistic portrayal of the Japanese criminal underworld, and finally transcending the genre bounds to become commercial blockbusters, that some perhaps see as watering itself down to fit into the modern superhero-obsessed cinema. The consistent core that remained throughout the genre is the over-the-top stylized violence, beautiful irezumi (Japanese tattoos) hidden under the sleek suits, vigorous sophistication of the inner hierarchy, and the strict code of honor.
The history of the yakuza genre starts with ‘Nikkatsu borderless action’ (meaning American film noir infused with French quirkiness and appropriated by the Japanese, resulting in unique cinema flavors) and Toei’s ninkyo eiga ‘chivalrous films.’ In the 1970s, however, the fairytale fatigue led to the end of the era of heroes, and there came the antiheroes and true-crime, almost documentary-style yakuza movies.
Update June 7, 2023: This list has been updated with even more great films centered around the yakuza.
Movies about mobsters used to wow audiences, but more modern entries seem to have lost their luster. Once studios stopped focusing on producing yakuza movies exclusively, only a handful have been made in recent years. Even Takashi Miike, the ever-prolific director, admits in an interview with Film School Rejects that the yakuza film genre has come to an end. It is never too late to enjoy great films and become a fan of the genre, though, so here’s a list of the most prominent yakuza movies from each period.
12 Minbo no onna (or The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion) (1992)
Minbo is a bit of an oddball in the ranking as the film does nothing to glamorize the Yakuza as many of the films in the ranking do. Directed by Juzo Itami, Minbo is a story about the employees of a high-class hotel in Japan. Kobayashi, the general manager, hopes to win a lucrative contract for the hotel to increase the prestige of the location. However, a group of Yakuza has taken a liking to his hotel to conduct most of their business on the premises.
Hoping to get rid of them, Kobayashi delegates the task to his subordinates, who lack the spine to carry on the job, until they meet Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer who knows how to deal with these criminals. The film was highly praised and very successful in its native Japan. So much so that it brought the ending of the filmmaker, with the rumor mill saying his suicide in 1997 was actually a hit by the Yakuza, who were pretty offended by their portrayal in the film.
11 Outrage (2010)
Takeshi Kitano is one of the most contrived figures in Japanese cinema. The man made a name for himself as a comedian in the land of the rising sun, but he only achieved international recognition for playing hardened criminals in most of his films. The Outrage trilogy is an action drama depicting the complexity of Yakuza relationships. Kitano plays Otomo, a man tasked by his underboss to keep a gang of the Murasi-gumi in line.
The rival gang plants a member of Otomo's crew in one of his nightclubs to justify a war against him. Unaware of his fallout with his Oyabun, Murase makes a series of mistakes that bring him down further with his family, and it's up to Otomo to make sure this man knows his place. The complete trilogy is full of deceit and deception, as many players move to take over the clan, with Otomo being the wildcard keeping everyone on their toes, as his tendencies for unrelenting violence go unchecked, leaving a long trail of bodies behind.
10 Ichi The Killer (2001)
Directed by Takashi Miike, Ichi, The Killer has the sole distinction of being the only film in the ranking based on a manga of the same name. However, this film's premise feels grittier than anything you'd ever read in American comic books. Ichi seems like a slob, a low-ranking soldier in the ranks of the Yakuza, an associate at most. That's the picture we get from him in the film's first part. When the shoe drops, Ichi is revealed to be the secret weapon of a Jijii, a Yakuza enforcer daring to dream big.
Related: Akira Kurosawa: The Best Films From His Middle Period
Ichi is a dangerously unstable individual. His fragile mind is prone to manipulation, which Jijii uses to plant false memories in his brain and keep him under control. However, his leash only goes so far, as Ichi's inherent violence is unleashed with minor provocation. In the end, Jijii ends up in the same place as Ichi, with delusions leading to his downfall and a maniac loss in the world without any control.
9 The Outsider (2018)
Some of the best takes about The Yakuza dynamics come from Western filmmakers. In The Outsider, the audience gets a great story from director Martin Zandvliet. In the story, an American soldier named Nick Lowe is doing time in Japan after the Pacific War and manages to get an early release after standing up for a Yakuza member in prison. He's quickly hired as an associate doing enforcer work for the Shiromatsu. His trademark violence is noticed soon by the head of the clan, who gives him a seat as a member.
The story explores multiple themes related to xenophobia and how the homogeny nature of Japanese society is incredibly hostile to foreigners. Nick quickly finds out his fellow Yakuza do not welcome him; he is unwanted. Jared Leto does a great job at playing Nick with an all-star Japanese cast beside him. The end of the story delves into recognizable Yakuza tropes as the bold decision of Shiromatsu has consequences that must be repaid.
8 The Yakuza (1974)
No film better explores the nuances of Yakuza culture from an American point of view than The Yakuza. This little masterpiece was produced and directed by Sydney Pollack. Robert Mitchum plays the film's main lead, Harry Kilmer. The story is set after the Pacific War, where Kilmer is stationed as a marine and intervenes to save a woman named Eiko, who is smuggling medicine for her young daughter. Kilmer takes a liking to Eiko, so he remains in Japan to protect her.
Eiko's brother returns and finds out Eiko has bonded with the enemy, making inbound to Kilmer by Giri, a Japanese concept related to lifelong obligations. Ken despises her sister for putting him in this position, leaving her to join the Yakuza. Years pass, and Kilmer returns to Japan to rekindle his relationship with Eiko. Still, he soon finds himself entangled in a web of conspiracies, as the Yakuza is out to get him for being a gaijin meddler.
7 Youth of the Beast (1963)
Youth of the Beast seemingly follows the early yakuza classic structure quite faithfully, with its thugs, drugs, and femme fatales. However, it was the movie that began the slow expulsion of its director, Seijun Suzuki, from the Japanese film industry. Tired of formulaic films, Suzuki played with plot, dialogue, and form, creating an edgy meta-narrative by making the film acknowledge its own artifice.
He would continue to deconstruct the yakuza film for the next few years until being fired and ostensibly blacklisted from the Japanese studio system. Misunderstood upon its release, later on, Youth of The Beast became a symbol for standing up to the system and one of the most important works during the Japanese university protests in the 1960s.
6 Pale Flower (1964)
Director Masahiro Shinoda pioneered the ‘Shochiku New Wave’ of independent filmmaking, Pale Flower being one of the most significant films of the movement. The plot in this feature becomes secondary to aesthetics; it is essentially a stylish philosophical parable of existential anguish put into an almost surrealistic story of a nonconformist middle-aged yakuza.
The lead, Ryo Ikebe, had become extremely popular through Toei’s Brutal Tales of Chivalry series, which made the film’s approach even more controversial, as it went against the formula of the major studio of the genre. Immensely praised by the critics, Pale Flower was even included in Roger Ebert’s list of the greatest movies ever made.
5 Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973-1976)
Film writers Naoto Mori and Yukio Todoroki discussed how yakuza films did a 180 and moved from heroes to antiheroes: “The male aesthetic of dashing gallantry lost traction, becoming overly idealized and hollow,” Both creators and viewers felt that the formula was disingenuous and over-glorified yakuza, so they turned to much more cynical, authentic depictions. A staple of the genre is, of course, Battle Without Honor and Humanity, a masterwork of Kinji Fukasaku and Bunta Sugawara, a phenomenal director-actor duo.
4 Sonatine (1993)
In the 80s, as Japan went through economic changes, its film industry had to rearrange itself. The yakuza movies started diversifying and deconstructing, going through a major paradigm shift from the genre canons to the director’s individual style. Film Inquiry likens filmmaker Takeshi Kitano’s postmodern approach toward yakuza movies to Hideaki Anno’s treatment of mecha anime with his Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Both understood the genre intrinsically, creating something subversive and dramatically divisive. Sonatine’s standouts are comically frigid, devoid of the loud and expressive choreography of classic yakuza movies, and a fairly generic premise ends up as a transgressive experience.
3 Graveyard of Honor (1975/2002)
This entry is a bit of a cheat, as it offers two movies for the price of one. It shows, however, the creeping problem of the 2000s — the budding of the filmmaking industry’s over-reliance on remakes, piggybacking on successful titles in lieu of creating unique content. The original Graveyard of Honor is a punk quasi-documentary about real-life yakuza Rikio Ishikawa who ended his life at age 30. This movie is an apogee of grim and naturalistic realities of the brutal yakuza world in cinema, a deliberate rejection of stylized cinematography and movie magic for the desperation and fatalistic chaos of the criminal’s life.
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The 2002 version stands out from the original with its gallows humor. It has Takashi Miike’s signature gonzo violence and treats the collapse of traditional values with mocking laughter.
2 The Blood of Wolves (2018)
The late 2010s see filmmakers attempting to revive yakuza movies as a genre, albeit with less frequency than ever before. These amazing movies update the format of gritty, hard-boiled Toei films. The Blood of Wolves is a ‘gore-splattered love letter’ to yakuza movies of the 70s and, at the same time, an expression of the creator's personal artistic vision and style.
Full of gratuitous violence and dark humor, neither a dull replica nor a parody, this movie researched the genre's heritage but, instead of deconstructing it, modernized and thus revived it. Even if just for a little bit.
1 First Love (2019)
According to Takashi Miike, First Love is not an attempt to artificially extend the life of the yakuza genre but a way to go out with a bang. The genre, in this case, is used as a medium for social commentary to tell the stories of the ‘invisible’ people, discarded to the wayside of society.
This is an awkward love story of a terminally-ill boxer and a psychologically traumatized sex worker, with teen angst reflected through cartoonish bloodshed and intense drama. A commercial film acting like a genre film about nobodies with interesting stories to tell, this is a tribute to low-budget Japanese indie films and B-cinema from the maestro of pulp Takashi Miike.
