The screenplay by Kazuo Kasahara adapts a series of newspaper articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi, that were rewrites of a manuscript originally written by real-life yakuza Kōzō Minō.

The violent, documentary-like film chronicles the underworld tribulations of Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), a young ex-soldier and street thug-turned yakuza in post-war Hiroshima Prefecture.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity won the 1974 Kinema Junpo Awards for Best Film, Best Actor (Bunta Sugawara) and Best Screenplay (Kazuo Kasahara).

The film is often called the "Japanese Godfather"[1] and marks a departure from traditional yakuza movies which had, for the most part, been tales of chivalry set in pre-war Japan.

Hirono and his gang of fellow ex-soldiers - Tetsuya Sakai, Seiichi Kanbara, Uichi Shinkai, Masakichi Makihara, and Shuji Yano - then join the Yamamori Family by swearing loyalty to the boss and to each other.

With the other members unwilling to act and Wakasugi forbidden by yakuza traditions to betray his boss, Hirono volunteers to handle the matter after Yamamori agrees to promote him.

Wakasugi murders Kanbara in revenge, but an anonymous tip to the police (provided by Yamamori) leads them to his girlfriend's house and he is killed trying to escape.

He said that six months before the movie was released, he was on the cover of Shukan Sunday with Tatsuo Umemiya and read this issue that also contained the first installment of the series while on the Shinkansen.

[2] When he returned to Tokyo, Kasahara told Toei he could work with the incidents in Kure, but not the events that followed in Hiroshima because they were too complicated and they agreed.

Although Minō had to be the protagonist, Kasahara found it difficult to create a character based on the notes he had taken and so developed the story around yakuza underboss Tetsuhiko Sasaki, who rebelled against Kyosei-kai leader Tatsuo Yamamura and was killed.

[2] When Shundo selected Fukasaku to direct he received backlash from his Toei colleagues, who felt the director could not make the film "interesting" or "commercial" enough.

[8] Set in post-war Japan, Fukasaku drew on his experiences as a child during World War II for Battles Without Honor and Humanity.

The film, noted for its "extreme violence," opens with Japanese soldiers, during America's occupation of their country, stealing food and murdering for a bowl of rice.

[9] 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.

[11] Scenes set to be filmed on-location were first rehearsed in studio, before being shot "guerilla-style" with hand-held cameras at the actual location and with civilian passersby giving real reactions.

[14] All five films in the series were released on DVD in North America by Home Vision Entertainment in 2004, under the moniker The Yakuza Papers.

Special features include an interview with the series fight choreographer Ryuzo Ueno and the 1980 edited compilation of the first four films.

[16] Battles Without Honor and Humanity earned its distributor $4.5 million at the box office,[a] making it the eleventh highest-grossing film of the year.

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.

"[25] 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.

Fukasaku biographer Sadao 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.

[28] Yamane also stated that for the rest of his career Fukasaku was approached many times by producers to create movies similar to Battles, but always turned them down wanting to move on to films he found interesting.

[29] American director William Friedkin stated that Fukasaku's trait of never redeeming bad characters and not catering to have the good guys win in the end was a "profound influence" on himself.