Five films directed by Kinji Fukasaku and starring Bunta Sugawara as Shozo Hirono (a character based on Minō) were produced between 1973 and 1974.
They were critically and commercially successful and popularized the subgenre of yakuza film called Jitsuroku eiga, which are often based on true stories.
Kazuo Kasahara, screenwriter of the first four films, told Toei he could work with the incidents in Kure, but not the events that followed in Hiroshima City because they were too complicated and the studio agreed.
He developed the original film around the story of yakuza underboss Tetsuhiko Sasaki, who rebelled against future Kyosei-kai leader Tatsuo Yamamura and was killed.
The writer had purposely avoided that part of the story for the first two installments, not only because he was daunted by all the names and relationships that were presented in a complex way, but also because he would have to write about the Yamaguchi-gumi and was concerned about the agreements he made to the people involved in the incidents.
[1] Nobuo Kaneko is the only other actor to portray the same character across all five films; playing Yoshio Yamamori based on Tatsuo Yamamura, who became the first leader of the Kyosei-kai.
[10] Set in post-war Japan, Fukasaku drew on his experiences as a child during World War II for Battles Without Honor and Humanity.
"[11] Using hand-held camera, zoom lenses and natural lighting to create a "gritty, chaotic look," the director showed his generation's struggle to survive in the post-war chaos.
The assistant director on Proxy War and Police Tactics, Toru Dobashi, claimed that Fukasaku was not as sharp in the mornings, napping while the crew prepped, usually only filming the first take in the afternoon.
The production team for the third movie had a hard time filming in Etajima with the officials saying they "gave the wrong impression of Hiroshima by depicting violent incidents that never happened."
[14] Battles Without Honor and Humanity was a box office success and made Sugawara a star and Fukasaku an A-list director.
[22] Yamane believes Battles Without Honor and Humanity was popular because of the time of its release; Japan's economic growth was at its peak and at the end of the 1960s the student uprisings took place.
Club's Noel Murray states that Fukasaku's yakuza instead only "adhere to codes of honor when it's in their best interest, but otherwise bully and kill indiscriminately.
"[26] Dennis Lim of The Village Voice writes "Fukasaku's yakuza flicks drain criminal netherworlds of romance, crush codes of honor underfoot, and nullify distinctions between good and evil.
"[27] DVD Talk's Glenn Erickson called Battles Without Honor and Humanity a "violent saga awash in blood, betrayal, treachery and aggression".
Describing the first two films as following Hirono as he forms ties with doomed friends who try to live up to the yakuza code, giving viewers something to care about in "what would otherwise be a completely nihilistic series of rotten deals and betrayals", Erickson wrote that by the third film Fukasaku and his writers veer into political territory; he interpreted the yakuza captains using their underlings as proxies in their fights as an allegory for what America and the Soviet Union did in the Cold War.
A sequel to this film, titled New Battles Without Honor and Humanity/Murder (新・仁義なき戦い／謀殺, Shin Jingi Naki Tatakai/Bōsatsu) or Another Battle/Conspiracy, directed by Hajime Hashimoto, followed in 2003, with a soundtrack by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra & Sembello.
[30] A theatrical play adaptation of Battles Without Honor and Humanity ran at Shinjuku's Kinokuniya Hall from October 24 to November 2, 1974.
[33] Based on the first two parts of the original film, Kaneko produced the play with the Mārui Theatre Company, which he presided over, while Fukuda and Kinji Fukasaku co-directed.
Other actors from the Battles Without Honor and Humanity film series who also appeared in the play include Shingo Yamashiro, Reiko Ike, Mikio Narita, and Sanae Nakahara.
[35] In 2019, female pop idol group AKB48 performed Battles Without Honor and Humanity: On'na-tachi no Shitō-hen (仁義なき戦い〜彼女（おんな）たちの死闘篇〜) at Hakata-za in Fukuoka from November 9–24.