The best Hōsei Komatsu’s movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Hōsei Komatsu’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 Hōsei Komatsu.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima
7.5/10
Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.
Lady Snowblood
7.6/10
Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Yuki never knows the love of a family but only killing and revenge.
Death by Hanging
7.5/10
A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next.
Profound Desires of the Gods
7.5/10
Tokyo engineer Kariya arrives on a primitive tropical island, where he interacts with the Futori clan, to drill a well to power a sugar mill.
Band of Ninja
5.8/10
A young boy joins a band of ninja during a peasant uprising, all depicted through an experimental form of filming pages from the original manga set to sound.
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
7.1/10
Matsu, known to the prisoners as Scorpion, is locked away in the bowels of the prison as revenge for disrupting the smooth operation of the prison and for her disfiguring attack on the warden. Granted a one day reprieve due to the visit of a dignitary, she takes advantage and attacks the warden again. This leads to more brutal punishment and humiliation. But the punishment gives her an oppurtunity to escape along with six other female prisoners. Their surreal flight from prison pits the convicts against the guards, the warden and each other.
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
8.5/10
During the Second World War, Japanese conscientious objector Kaji works as a supervisor in a Manchurian prison camp. He hopes to avoid duty as a soldier, but he also hopes to be helpful to the welfare of his prisoners. But an unexpected incident bring problems to Kaji's goals. He faces the possibility of transferral to combat--or worse.
Noboru Ando's Chronicle of Fugitive Days and Sex
6.3/10
Ando on the run, stopping in to service all the women in his life, with a bit of the old ultra-violence.
Madam Scandal: Let Me Die for 10 Seconds
3.6/10
Roman Porno from 1982.
Lupin the Third: Farewell to Nostradamus
6.9/10
A simple diamond heist leads Lupin into the machinations of a bizarre cult based around the prophecies of Nostradamus. They kidnap Julia, the daughter of Douglas, a wealthy American who is seeking the presidency, along with Lupin's diamond. At stake is the lost book of prophecy Douglas holds in the vault at the top of his skyscraper.
Shameless School
7/10
Comedy of high school where students and teachers run wild, based on a popular comic strip.
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?
Bungakusho satsujin jiken: Oinaru jyoso
6.4/10
A young doujinshi writer doesn't win the literary prize award, and ends up killing the selection committee.
A Taxing Woman's Return
6.7/10
Ryoko Itakura returns as the government tax agent willing to tackle the toughest cases. This time she takes on a fanatical but lucrative religious cult run by a vile lecher.
Hanzo the Razor: The Snare
7/10
Against the backdrop of the Edo treasury devaluing currency and driving many into poverty, Hanzo Itami enforces the law without regard to status. He shows inadequate respect to the treasurer, who wants him dead.
The Man Who Stole the Sun
7.5/10
A high school science teacher is the butt of all his students' jokes, until their bus is hijacked on a school trip. But something more sinister lurks beneath the surface: he's building an atomic bomb in his apartment.
Farewell to the Ark
7.3/10
A surreal, isolated village sees its inhabitants gradually leave behind their mutual traditions and superstitions as they leave for the city. Among them are two cousins who love each other and who get into a quarrel with other villagers.
Minbo: the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion
7.4/10
A grand old Japanese hotel is trying to get a prestigious contract as the site of a summit meeting of important foreign officials. Unfortunately, this hotel is quite popular with the Yakuza (Japanese gangsters) and is a favorite target of theirs for extortion. They employ a variety of schemes to con the hotel out of 'hush-money.' The hotel needs to rid itself of the Yakuza and finally begins to fight back by hiring Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer who is an expert at dealing with these criminals on their own terms. This film by Juzo Itami combines action with farce, as an all-out war ensues.
Truck Rascals: No One Can Stop Me
6.3/10
The first of many movies featuring the lighthearted adventures of two truck drivers. Momojiro and his best friend Kinzo take to the road on their cargo trucks impressing each other with their skills in driving fast and evading the police while transporting commodities throughout the country. Chance encounters with people along the way help them to come to terms with events clouding their past and offer them a shot at redemption.
The Man Without a Map
6.6/10
A private detective is hired to find a missing man by his wife. While his search is unsuccessful, the detective's own life begins to resemble the man for whom he is searching.
