Toshio Kurosawa Movies

A long-standing gang war on the streets of Hiroshima escalates despite police pressure in this, the fourth film in Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza Papers series. It's 1964, and with the Tokyo Olympics turning the eyes of the world to Japan, lawmen have set out to keep the Yakuza -- Japan's organized crime system -- out of sight. While dozens of low-level mobsters are thrown into jail, crime lord Takeda (Akira Kobayashi) attempts to keep the peace for the best of all parties on the wrong side of the law. But when a high-ranking Yakuza figure is killed by a low-level "mechanic" in a moment of anger, an explosion seems imminent. Meanwhile, gangster Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) sees an opportunity to use the chaos to settle a score against a mobster who had done him wrong years before. Jingi Naki Tatakai: Chojo Sakusen (aka Yakuza Papers, Vol. 4: Police Tactics would be followed in 1975 by Jingi Naki Tatakai: Kanketsu-Hen (aka Yakuza Papers, Vol. 5: Final Episode), the last film in the series. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This bizarre Japanese vampire film (preceded by Lake of Dracula) begins with the arrival of a new professor at a small girls' school. He is invited by the creepy principal to spend the night, during which he encounters a variety of chilling phenomena. He first discovers that the corpse of the principal's wife (who was apparently killed in a recent car accident) is currently on display in the school basement; later, he sees a mysterious woman roaming the halls and hears a hypnotic singing voice. Before long, it becomes apparent that the entire school is lousy with vampires -- from the faculty to the students themselves -- leading the plucky prof to take matters into his own hands and search for the lead vampire himself. Despite the title, Dracula is nowhere to be found; what s available, however, is a fairly compelling and colorful horror tale, with some well-staged shocks and haunting photography. Uncut prints feature a fair amount of gory footage. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Wolves is set in Japan in the 1920s. The disintegration of the ancient samurai traditions is paralleled with the rise of the Yakuza, Japan's equivalent of the Mafia. Three gangsters try to keep themselves from getting killed, not only by their higher-ups but by those who perceive them as a threat against the old ways. Evocatively photographed, Wolves allows Western audiences a glimpse of an oft-ignored chapter in Japanese history. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Zensaku (Makoto Fujita) is middle-aged patent consultant and inventor, living a sedate life as a married father of two grown children, decades after service in the army during the Second World War that left him physically maimed -- he is completely deaf in his left ear, and must wear a hearing aid in his right. He suddenly finds his existence turned upside down when his past and present collide amid two seemingly unrelated events. His restless son (Toshio Kurosawa), who is struggling to make the grades necessary for college, has fallen in love with a young woman who turns out to be the daughter of Suzuki (Kei Seto), a wealthy industrialist who was Zensaku's wartime commanding officer -- he is also the man responsible for Zensaku's deafness, the result of a beating he received for refusing to beat a helpless Allied prisoner. Equally troubling, his son has been drawn to the idea of enrolling in the Defense College, which will give him an education but also train him as a soldier -- Zensaku cannot face the possibility that his son would become part of the same Japanese military that maimed him and caused so much misery for the world (including Japan). At the same time, an encounter with an old flame from his youth forces Zensaku into a possible business deal with Suzuki, and a series of recriminations about his marriage. This leads to a confrontation with Suzuki in which the man claims to feel no guilt or sympathy for Zensaku -- indeed, Zensaku expresses little but contempt for Zensaku and his humanitarian impulses, or the latter's outrage that their possisble business deal may allow Suzuki to manufacture a flame-thrower that he plans to sell to the Americans for use in Vietnam. Zensaku must wrestle with these conflicts out of his past, and also with the renewed allure of his old flame, now suddenly available to him again -- if he is willing to walk away from his responsibilities as a husband and father. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

This star-studded and relatively lavishly produced fact-based war drama, set in 1945 Japan during WW II, chronicles the attempts of Japan's War Minister, (played by Toshiro Mifune), to prevent Emperor Hirohito from publicly broadcasting the declaration of surrender. The War Minister rallies those officers around him who also want to keep the war going. The conspirators murder the leader of the Imperial Guards and storm the palace. Fortunately they are stopped by the palace guard. On learning of this failure, the War Minister commits suicide. At least one Western reviewer of this 1967 film (for Variety) still bore very harsh memories of the war and attributed all sorts of face-saving propagandistic intent by the Japanese to this relatively innocuous movie. He was particularly distressed that the aura of sanctity surrounding the Emperor remained intact and was even enhanced by this film; even so, he praised it as expertly acted and entertaining in its own right, despite being an apparently "official" film. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi