The best Akira Takahashi’s crime movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Akira Takahashi’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Akira Takahashi.
Branded to Kill
7.2/10
After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.
She Cat
5.3/10
Dr. Cat Kagami was hoping to leave her torrid past behind, but a failed assassination attempt has now put her square in the crosshairs of a team of brutal killers. Now no one is safe, including her lesbian co-worker and a mysterious woman with a terrible secret that could bring down an entire Japanese company. Cat must take the law into her own hands and enact her own special kind of revenge!
Outlaw: Goro the Assassin
6.7/10
On a cold winter day, Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) and Masahiko murder the mob boss of Meishin-Kai. The deed costs them time in prison, but Goro had no shred of regret. When Goro is released 2 years later, Masahiko is dying in prison hospital and entrusts his last wish; "find my sister and take care of her." Goro leaves as a free man with a mission, but soon finds that he might have been better off in jail.
Rape! 13th Hour
5.8/10
A serial rapist takes on a young protégé to his craft as he is pursued by a homosexual gang seeking vengeance for an attack on their leader.
Blind Woman's Curse
6.5/10
Akemi is a dragon tattooed leader of the Tachibana Yakuza clan. In a duel with a rival gang Akemi slashes the eyes of an opponent and a black cat appears, to lap the blood from the gushing wound. The cat along with the eye-victim go on to pursue Akemi’s gang in revenge, leaving a trail of dead Yakuza girls, their dragon tattoos skinned from their bodies.
True Story of a Woman in Jail: Sex Hell
5/10
When a group of young women is thrown into juvenile hall, they will soon realize how bad their lives are about to become.
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards!
6.8/10
Tajima is a private detective in charge of his own company, Detective Bureau 2-3. When warring criminal gangs go overboard by robbing U.S. military munitions, Tajima steps in to stop what the cops can't.
Outlaw: Black Dagger
6.5/10
A street war breaks loose between two rival gangs in the Kansai region of Japan. Goro is in the middle of action. Through a knife fight against Sueo, a high profile gangster from Busou-kai, Goro notices a familiar face approaching him from amidst the chaos - his girlfriend, Yuri. Goro had sent her to safety, but she had returned, aching to see him. Caught between Goro and his enemy knife, she reunites with her love - the price was her life.
Outlaw: Kill!
6.7/10
Goro has always been a lone wolf. When he arrives at an industrial city in Keihin, there is certain restlessness in the air. The Iriezaki family and the Kanto Touyu-kai were in the midst of a territorial dispute. Goro was quick to notice, but had no intent to take sides. At a department store nearby, he sees an elevator lady being harassed by a couple of hoodlums. Goro decides to intervene. Unbeknownst to him, the hoodlums are Touyu-kai members – and the girl has strong ties with the opposing family.
Bad Girl Mako
6.3/10
Patronized by a gang ruling the city, Mako delinquently plays around a night club every night with her bad company. One night, a guy Hideo gets closer to her for one-night stand, and they consequently fall in love. However, Hideo is killed by the gang. Mako swears vengeance on her beloved's murderer.
Tattooed Life
7.1/10
‘Tattooed Life' begins with a parasol wielding Yakuza assassin attacking a rickshaw. It almost looks like feudal Japan until somebody pulls a gun and we're reminded that it's the 20th century. Post-shooting, the assassin delivers his bounty to his brother (to pay for his art school education) before getting ambushed in one of the few rickshaw-jacking incidents in film history, and being rescued by his art-student brother. In the aftermath, one brother is marked for death by the Yakuza, and the other brother won't go to art school with blood on his hands, so they decide the perfect way to deal with such hardships is to become fugitive construction workers in northern Japan . And why not?
Red Handkerchief
6.8/10
A hot-shot detective in Yokohama kills a witness during a drug investigation. He flees to the countryside and evades his past for several years, only to return to find the woman he loved married to his former partner. He searches for answers to his troubled past, knowing that his inevitable doomed fate is more or less sealed.
Detective Bureau 2-3: A Man Weak to Money and Women
A sequel to Detective Bureau 2-3: Go To Hell Bastards!
Retreat Through the Wet Wasteland
5.3/10
A group of burglars in black tights breaks into a church to commit robbery and commits outrages upon the pastor's young daughter. After some time, Detective Harada and his squad rush/came back to the church they robbed earlier. In the duty station, the police chief informs Harada that his ex-colleague, Nakamura, has escaped from a mental hospital where he had been hospitalized for insanity. Harada and his partner, Kato, are assigned to pursue Nakamura on the run. If Nakamura's insanity turns out to be false, the cop buddies must terminate him and masquerade it as self-defense.
Rape Shot: Momoe's Lips
5.3/10
Toru, a down and out tabloid reporter is looking for his next “big” story. In order to get paid decent money in the supermarket rag business, you need to find controversy! The elusive “Momoe” is forbidden fruit, so he sets his sights on Miki Yoko, an up and coming young singing sensation. She’s young and beautiful and Toru thinks her record company is pumping her full of drugs. He will do anything to get a story, even assaulting her and tailing her everywhere she goes. One night, she is kidnapped right in front of him and, with his reporter instincts at work, Toru’s life spirals into a torrid world of sex, drugs, and corruption in the entertainment business. In his quest for a huge story, will he come out unscathed?
The Call of Blood
6.4/10
Two brothers seek revenge on the yakuza responsible for the death of their father.
Blood For Blood
6/10
The Akiba and Shimura crime families run the streets of “K City”. With the construction of new buildings and new factories underway, the city has sprouted into a boomtown and business is good. Two of the most infamous mobs of Tokyo want a piece of the pie. As out-of-town yakuza flood the city overnight, the crime boss of the Akiba family, Tezuka (Joe Shishido), is released from prison after a five year sentence. He does not like the "change" he sees.
The Man with a Shotgun
6.3/10
Ryoji, a wanderer, arrives in a remote mountain town, carrying a shotgun and claiming to be a hunter. He quickly becomes embroiled in a web of trouble surrounding the town's mill.
Outlaw: Gangster VIP
7.1/10
Goro had grown up in the yakuza world. As an active member of the Mizuhara family crime syndicate, he expressed his loyalty by always putting himself in the forefront of every battle. Violence never bothered him. However, after being sentenced to three years in prison for stabbing a rival gang’s hit man, he becomes disenchanted with the Yakuza life style. Goro is determined to start anew, but karma catches up. His two closest friends are murdered by his ex-boss. He is left with two options: to kill or be killed.
Ryuji
6.9/10
Ryuji tries quitting the yakuza to actively support his wife and daughter; as he's used to easy money, it's a difficult transition.
