The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)

Genres - Action, Adventure  |   Sub-Genres - Crime Drama  |   Run Time - 99 min.  |   Countries - Japan  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Mark Deming

Kinji Fukasaku directed this powerful and uncompromising look at the deadly stakes of life among the Yakuza -- the Japanese Mafia. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) is a former Japanese soldier who, following his nation's defeat in World War II, finds himself in a prison cell in Hiroshima on a murder charge. While behind bars, Hirono gains a loyal friend in fellow criminal Wagasugi (Tatsuo Umemiya), and upon his release Hirono joins Wagasugi in an underworld gang. What starts as a seemingly easy way to earn some quick money becomes something darker and bloodier as Wagasugi and his comrades fall into a violent street war against another mob faction that grows into a long-standing feud. Jingi Naki Tatakai (aka The Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor and Humanity) was the first in a series of five successful crime films from Fukasaku.

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Keywords

gang-war, Mafia, underworld, prison, soldier, world-war