In his character-defining moment in Fireworks, Kitano planted a pair of chopsticks into the eye of an offending yakuza. |
Shizuko is a famous tango dancer and deferential wife, who is kidnapped by yakuza as payment for her businessman husband's debts. |
Her world collapses when her firm forces her to take first chair defense in a murder case involving a smug yakuza who's obviously guilty. |
Tattoo art is still considered a lower-class macho symbol, traditionally practised among yakuza and construction workers. |
In another, an ageing yakuza gangster returns to a park where he used to meet his first love. |
Zatoichi's a reformed yakuza forever finding himself dragged into conflicts between the corrupt ruling classes and their exploited peasantry. |