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Like the Hollywood gangster movies, films about the yakuza, Japan's indigenous gangsters, have long constituted a distinct film genre. And just as gangster movies have evolved over the years from the crudely powerful drama of Little Caesar to the more sophisticated villainies of the Godfather trilogy, the yakuza movies have also undergone changes in accordance with audience tastes, market pressures and directorial ambitions. The 1960s films of Takakura Ken and Tsuruta Koji, which contrasted the nobility of the good-gangster hero and the black-heartedness of his bad-gangster rivals, have since given way to the violently nihilistic dramas of Kitano Takeshi, whose heroes also have bloody hands.
The genre still thrives on video and via cable television (Nikkatsu Corporation's NECO channel devotes large chunks of its schedule to the studio's yakuza movie output), but it has slowly faded from the theater screen. One reason is the general exodus from the movie theater to the small screen. Motion picture theater admissions in Japan have fallen to one-tenth of their 1958 peak. Another factor is that many of the stars who carried the genre to its heights of popularity in the 1960s and 1970s have retired, died or gone on to better things, and the studios have not been able to find suitable replacements.
"The young actors we have today are no good," said Takaiwa Tan, the president of Toei Company Ltd., the studio that created and nurtured the yakuza genre. "People see them acting on TV in all sorts of roles and can no longer believe in them as yakuza tough guys." Still another reason is that the real-life yakuza have retreated from the national consciousness. "The police have been cracking down on them, using the new anti-gang law," Takaiwa said. "As a result, yakuza movies have begun to seem like fantasies."
To outsiders, yakuza may indeed seem to live in a feudalistic world, following a code of conduct drawn from the samurai ideals of unwavering fealty to emperor, lord and clan, and an absolute willingness to sacrifice one's life and limb rather than endure dishonor or disgrace. The realities of modern gang life, however, have often made that code a mere facade, masking the real economic motives of the gangs and their nefarious deeds. From their Edo...