Street Mobster

Kinji Fukasaku's 1972 film is one of the works that announced the end of the traditional honour narrative in Japanese yakuza cinema. A street thug released from prison is enraged to find his town carved up between two yakuza factions, gathers his crew and takes on both. Isamu Okita, played by Bunta Sugawara, recognises no rules, believes in no loyalty and is not afraid of losing. Fukasaku's handheld camera, wide-angle lenses and chaotic cutting take the fight scenes out of choreography and into genuine disorder. That style is the rehearsal for the Battles Without Honour and Humanity series that began a year later. The film's link to the poverty and abandonment of postwar Japan presents violence as a social outcome rather than an individual psychology. Who it's for: viewers interested in Japanese crime cinema, Fukasaku's style and the harder wing of the yakuza genre. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding scenes of sexual violence and sustained brutality, or looking for a protagonist to sympathise with.