YAKUZA GRAVEYARD
(やくざの墓場　くちなしの花)
dir. Kinji Fukasaku, 1976.
Japan. 95 mins.
In Japanese with English Subs.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 3RD - 5 PM
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8TH - 10 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16TH - 10 PM

The Nishida and Yamashiro families are at war and a newly transferred cop, Kurowia, has been tasked with cracking down on their exploits. However, it's not long before the corruption within the police makes him reevaluate his relationship with the Yakuza.

YAKUZA GRAVEYARD marks the final collaboration between Kinji Fukasaku and screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara, having worked on the BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY series, COPS VS THUGS, and a string of other Toei studio films together. Kasahara would spend time building up to a new project with real-life Yakuza, trying to perfect his characters and capture the essence of Jitsuroku Eiga, this practice earned him the title “the Shakespeare of Hiroshima Dialect”.

In 1976 Kasahara believed his work within the Yakuza sub-genre was done but decided to write YAKUZA GRAVEYARD as a response to critics who believed he hadn’t addressed the presence of Koreans in the Yakuza. The resulting film is a morally complex tale, just as gritty, violent, and beautifully chaotic as Kasahara and Fukasakus' previous collaborations.