Yakuza Graveyard

Kinji Fukasaku's 1976 film tells the yakuza genre from the police side, but there is no heroic policeman in it. Kuroiwa, a detective cracking down hard on yakuza business, realises the police are negotiating with certain factions and moves to the side of the syndicate he chooses. That crossing is presented not as betrayal but as an acknowledgement that there is no real difference between the two sides. Keiko, played by Meiko Kaji, is a figure excluded twice over because of her Korean background, and the film's most affecting line runs between her and Kuroiwa. Fukasaku's handheld camera and chaotic cutting work here too; the violence arises from disorder rather than choreography. Taking on discrimination against the Korean minority in Japan this openly is notable for the period. Who it's for: viewers interested in Japanese crime cinema and Fukasaku in the 1970s. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding intense violence and drug content, or looking for a protagonist to sympathise with.