Violent Streets (1974)

After making his name in the samurai genre, master filmmaker Hideo Gosha (THREE OUTLAW SAMURAI, SAMURAI WOLF, SAMURAI WOLF 2: HELL CUT) turned his camera to the world of the yakuza, and the violent streets they control. Legendary gangster-turned-actor Noboru Ando plays Egawa, a retired yakuza underboss, now nightclub owner, who gets pulled back into the life when his old comrades demand control of his club. Meanwhile, a gang war quietly roiling behind the scenes erupts into open violence in response to a high-profile kidnapping, lending unimaginably high stakes to Egawa’s reemergence onto the yakuza scene. The result is a kinetic and stylish explosion of deception, mayhem, and death that leaves no one safe – and a masterpiece of 1970’s yakuza cinema.