Exploitation films

Cops vs. Thugs

Fukasaku again, arguing the two categories in the title are the same.

Street Mobster

Bunta Sugawara as pure appetite. The jitsuroku style arriving fully formed.

Graveyard of Honor

Fukasaku's nastiest. A gangster too unstable for organised crime.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity

Not pinky violence. Fukasaku's handheld yakuza epic, and a classic.

Branded to Kill

Got Suzuki fired from Nikkatsu for making films nobody understood. Correct.

Tokyo Drifter

Suzuki given a budget cut and responding with pop-art abstraction.

Ichi the Killer

Miike hands out sick bags at the premiere and earns every one of them.