Akira Kobayashi Movies

Proxy War

75/100

Yakuza boss Shozo Hirono must choose his alliances carefully as the local gangster family affiliations prove themselves to be wildly unstable, causing gang conflicts to slowly escalate.

Police Tactics

75/100

Conflicts between Hirono's family and Yamamori's family (and their allies) are made more tense by the ambitious underlings and the police's efforts to impose a crackdown on the gangs.

Rusty Knife

68/100

Two friends who witnessed an organized crime murder are threatened by the local mob into keeping quiet.

Kantô mushuku

71/100

Three schoolgirls are infatuated with a yakuza, Katsuta, of the Izu Clan. They meet another yakuza, `Diamond` Fuyu, of the rival Yoshida clan. As he gets a tattoo, two of the girls become ... See full summary »

Black Tight Killers

70/100

A military photographer takes a cute stewardess out to dinner where she is promptly kidnapped. Deciding that he has fallen in love with the girl, our "hero" decides to investigate her kidnapping himself.

The Flowers and the Angry Waves

68/100

Another subversion of audience expectations has Kobayashi acting somewhat cowardly in the snow-bound final showdown, an unheard-of trait in a ninkyô yakuza hero. Also with Tamio Kawaji as a sword-wielding assassin in Zero-cape-and -hat(!)

Violent City

69/100

A retired yakuza is caught in the middle of a growing conflict between two rival clans.

Retaliation

69/100

Jiro, an ex-convict, comes back to the street after eight years. The gang to which he belonged is nearly disbanded; only the aging boss in his sick bed remains. Still loyal to the ex-boss, ... See full summary »

The Rambling Guitarist

64/100

Shinji (Akira Kobayashi), a wandering street musician, gets involved with a mob boss, Akitsu (Nobuo Kaneko), after saving one of his henchmen in a bar fight. Akitsu gives Shinji a job to ... See full summary »

Bakuha 3-byô mae

59/100

A lightning-paced 60's crime film from Japan's Nikkatsu Studios, 3 SECONDS TO EXPLOSION packs enough subterfuge and action into its 84 volatile minutes to fill out a dozen pictures made anywhere else.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Complete Saga

59/100

A compilation edition of the first four films in Kinji Fukasaku's violent yakuza saga, previously screened only as part of a limited Japanese theatrical release in 1980 and on the Toei cable channel.

Tokyo Mighty Guy

61/100

After mastering the art of French cuisine, young Jiro (Akira Kobayashi) returns to Japan and opens a restaurant in the busy streets of Ginza...

The Rambler Rides Again

61/100

The Elder Sister

55/100

Hiroshima jingi: Hitojichi dakkai sakusen

78/100

Kôiki bôryoku: ryuuketsu no shima

66/100

A once-powerful yakuza clan disbands as a result of a police crackdown but one small group refuses to bow to police pressure, and launches a campaign to take over Tokyo's drug, prostitution, and gambling rackets.

Oretachi no chi ga yurusanai

70/100

Aoi chibusa

74/100

Kuroi tobakushi

60/100

Tarao Bannai

62/100

Fumihazushita haru

79/100

Women's Police

65/100

Kuchibue ga nagareru minatomachi

36/100

Rambler Shinji arrives in town armed with nothing but a guitar. With assistance from an old gun-for-hire friend, he sets about to stop the mob from turning an honest ranch into a gambling resort.

Arashi o tsukkiru jetto-ki

48/100

Nangoku Tosa o ato ni shite

58/100