Action

  • Takashi Miike – Koroshiya 1 AKA Ichi the Killer (2001)

    2001-2010ActionCrimeJapanTakashi Miike

    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 achieving.Read More »

  • Pou-Soi Cheang – Ai Zuo zhan AKA Love Battlefield (2004)

    2001-2010ActionDramaHong KongPou-Soi Cheang

    Quote:
    “Love Battlefield” is one of those movies, along with Johnnie To’s crime thrillers, that you wish Hong Kong would do more of instead of indulging in 500 moronic slapstick comedies a year starring the same stable of pop “stars”. A blending of genres, “Battlefield” stars Eason Chan (”Heat Team”) as Yui, an ER nurse who finds life and love hard going after a bad breakup with live-in girlfriend Ching (Niki Chow). It’s bad enough that Yui’s love life is falling apart, but he soon stumbles into the nest of vicious drug smugglers from the Mainland who has come to Hong Kong to complete a transaction or die trying.Read More »

  • Yôichi Sai – Soo (2007)

    2001-2010ActionDramaSouth KoreaYôichi Sai

    Synopsis:
    A legendary assassin and a renowned problem solver, Soo has been searching for the twin brother he has not seen since their days in an orphanage. But his brother is murdered when he turns against a vicious gang to become a police officer. In order to get revenge, Soo has no choice but to take on his brother’s identity and use it to lure the gang into a trap.Read More »

  • Kinji Fukasaku – Bakuto gaijin butai AKA Sympathy for the Underdog (1971)

    1971-1980ActionCrimeJapanKinji Fukasaku

    From Kinji Fukasaku (Battles Without Honor & Humanity) comes this pivotal early crime drama in the celebrated career of the director who changed the face of Japanese action cinema. Stylish and hard-boiled, Sympathy for the Underdog stars Koji Tsuruta, one of Japan’s seminal figures in the Yakuza genre, as Gunji, an aging Yakuza who is released from prison after ten years. Gunji lives by a code of honor that has no place among Tokyo’s modern corporate gangs. He gets a new lease on life by reforming his former gang and taking over the whiskey trade on the island of Okinawa. But he is forced to make a final, fateful, bloody stand against the mainland gang that sent him to prison.Read More »

  • Kazuhiko Yamaguchi – Ginchô wataridori AKA Wandering Ginza Butterfly (1972)

    1971-1980ActionCrimeJapanKazuhiko Yamaguchi

    Gang leader Nami (Meiko Kaji) kills a member of a yakuza group and goes away to prison. Upon her release three years later, she’s a shamed woman confined to living in the shadowy world of sex clubs and street gangs. She returns to the city to live with her uncle, a billiard-hall owner, and after befriending pimp and ne’er-do-well Ryuji (Tsunehiko Watase), she gets a job working at a hostess club in the chic Ginza neighborhood, where the expensive shops and neon lights conceal a dark world of crime and sexual slavery. But when a rival gang attempts to muscle in on the club, Nami becomes enmeshed in a violent struggle that forces her to wield a skilled pool cue to defend her uncle’s business, and eventually a short sword to wreak bloody vengeance upon her enemies.Read More »

  • Lung Chien – Wu lin long hu dou AKA The Bravest Revenge (1970)

    1961-1970ActionLung ChienTaiwan

    Five good fighters (Polly, Tien Peng, Man Chung San, Sit Hon, and another guy) fight countless sword battles against evil Yee Yuen and his minions.Read More »

  • John Woo – Ying hung boon sik AKA A Better Tomorrow (1986)

    1981-1990ActionCrimeHong KongJohn Woo

    Quote:
    A reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.Read More »

  • Carl Schenkel – Beyond Betrayal (1994)

    1991-2000ActionCarl SchenkelDramaUSA

    Joanne is married to Bradley, who’s a cop and who abuses her. One day she decides to run away. She then meets Sam, who is separated from his wife, who is obsessed with him. Bradley finds Joanne and the lead takes him to Sam’s boat. Now his wife is on the boat and somehow she’s killed. The police suspect Sam because she was stalking him and because of certain peculiarities in his actions on the day she died. Joanne knows that it’s Bradley who did it but is too afraid to come forward and Bradley has another cop alibi him.Read More »

  • Kon Ichikawa – Kaettekite Kogarashi Monjirô AKA Kogarashi Monjiro Returns (1993)

    1991-2000ActionDramaJapanKon Ichikawa

    Synopsis:
    Although five years have passed since the reported death of roving gambler Kogarashi Monjiro, the rumors of his survival has struck fear into the heart of Gorozo, the biggest boss in the Joshu area. Having been rescued from drowning by a woodsman, Monjiro had given up the sword to lead a straight life cutting down trees in the Owari clan’s home territory. His newly found life unravels when his benefactor asks him to return to his former lifestyle and retrieve his son from the grasps of Gorozo’s yakuza family before tragedy can befall him. As Monjiro, superstar Nakamura Atsuo gives the performance of a lifetime as he reprises his signature role.Read More »

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