Ebla Mari and Dave Turner in The Old Oak (2023)

Japanese Gangster films. There are basically two sorts of yakuza films: Those set in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, with traditional dress and swords and knives. Modern day, 50s/60s/70s, with guns. The modern ones can then be split with the noir influenced, Japanese New Wave style from the 60s - i.e. the Seijun Suzuki , Nikkatsu films. Then there are the more violent 70s films, and the later Takeshi Kitano style films from the 80s and 90s. (Films like the Zatoichi series, or Red Peony Gambler, are included as Samurai films - though the characters are yakuza, they fight samurai with swords.)

Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee in Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

Japanese Gangster films . There are basically two sorts of yakuza films -  Those set in the late 19th / early 20th centuries , with traditional dress and swords and knives . Modern day , 50s / 60s / 70s , with guns .The modern ones can then be split with the noir influenced , Japanese New Wave style from the 60s - ie the Seijun Suzuki , Nikkatsu films . Then there are the more violent 70s films , and the later Takeshi Kitano style films from the 80s and 90s . ( Films like the Zatoichi series , or Red Peony Gambler , are included as Samurai films - though the characters are yakuza , they fight samurai with swords . ) Not in any order . 

the films from his greatest period. okamoto is still a little underrated director but those who know his work do know what i am talking about. i especially appreciate his war films which show the tragicomic absurdity of the whole thing but his contribution to the samurai genre has also fared better than many other directors in japanese film factory production.

kihachi okamoto (1923–2005): filmography 1958-1970

Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe, and Dileep Rao in Inception (2010)

Japan has produced some magnificent directors.

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