Yakuza film

Set in the Meiji and Taishō eras, ninkyo eiga depict honorable outlaws torn between giri (duty) and ninjo (personal feelings).

[5][6] Set in the Meiji and Taishō eras, the kimono-clad yakuza hero of ninkyo films (personified by Kōji Tsuruta and Ken Takakura) was always portrayed as a stoic honorable outlaw torn between the contradictory values of giri (duty) and ninjo (personal feelings).

[8] Ninkyo eiga were popular with young males that had traveled to cities from the countryside in search of jobs and education, only to find themselves in harsh work conditions for low pay.

"[9] Shundo supervised Takakura and helped Toei sign Tsuruta, additionally his own daughter Junko Fuji became a popular female yakuza actress starring in the Hibotan Bakuto series.

These films portrayed post-war yakuza not as honorable heirs to the samurai code, but as ruthless, treacherous street thugs living for their own desires.

[7] Based on the events of real-life yakuza turfs in Hiroshima Prefecture, the film starring Bunta Sugawara spawned four sequels and another three part series.

Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane believes the films were popular because of the time of their release; Japan's economic growth was at its peak and at the end of the 1960s the student uprisings took place.

One exception was the Gokudō no Onnatachi series starring Shima Iwashita, which was based on a book of interviews with the wives and girlfriends of real gangsters.

[16] In 1994, Toei actually announced that The Man Who Shot the Don starring Hiroki Matsukata would be their last yakuza film unless it made $4 million US in home video rentals.

Though the most well-known gokudō creator is Takashi Miike, who has become known internationally for his extremely violent, genre pushing and border crossing (yakuza movies taking place outside Japan, such as his 1997 Rainy Dog) films in the style.