THE MISSION - Johnnie To is one of my favorite directors. He has made many yakuza movies.. if not yakuza, then films that have lots of violence, gangs, hitmen, and awesomeness. Some of his films are downright strange, but I'd say 90% of them are compelling and fun. FULLTIME KILLER is straight-up the best and by far the coolest action film since John Woo's "Killer" and "Hard Boilked" and "A Better Tomorrow". EXILED, VENGEANCE, ELECTION (which IS a hardcore yakuza film that strongly resmebles classic films in the genre, and really goes all out to explore the "dynamics", ie the inner workings, of the yakuz.. fascinating stuff), BREAKING NEWS (the first 8 minutes are down in one take, and it consists of LOTS of hardcore violence... definitely ranks up with the opening of SNAKES EYES and THE PLAYER, and.. uh.. all of ROPE and RUSSIAN ARK.. as the most mindblowing "single take shot" of all time), A HERO NEVER DIES, LONGEST NITE.. etc etc etc etc... all great. He has a filmography that is definitely worth exploring.
YOUNG YAKUZA - 2007! This is a DOCUMENTARY, and is shocking how much the notoriously-secretive yakuza left notoriously-polite people in notoriously-quiet Japan film. Great movie.
SPECIAL MIIKE AWARD - I mentioned Miike above, but lemme reiterate.. I've seen nearly 70 Miike films, last I checked, yet I'm not a big fan of him personally. I think he's kind of a hack. He doesn't write his own films, his movies are often sloppy, and I just flat-out don't like many of his movies. But you know what? I also happen to love quite a few of his films as well. Shock. Gasp! Yeah, IZO is my favorite, but that's a samurai film. Let me make a special mention of DEAD OR ALIVE 2. While in many many ways resembling Sonatine (one of Miike's favorite films -- he said Kitano is his favorite Japanese director next to Sogo Ishii), there is SO MUCH going on here that, well, it's definitely worth a watch. The opening and ending are pretty violent, but the middle has a lot of downtime.. very quiet, with the main yakuza toughguys putting on a child's play. This thing is just nutty, honestly. Miike's made lots of great yakuza films -- DEFINITELY his speciality, especially the BLACK SOCIETY TRILOGY (Ley Lines and Rainy Dog especially) and the 200 minute AGITATOR. DEADLY OUTLAW REKAH, FUDOH, CROWS ZERO, GUY FROM PARADISE, MAN IN WHITE, SABU, NEGOTIOTAR, the 185 minute FAMILY, GOZU (which is way too long and took me 4 watches to appreciate in any meaningful way), YAKUZA DEMON, and quite a few others are absolutely worth a look. DEAD OR ALIVE 1 is COMPLETELY different than the second one, btw, and is more of a quiet, slow, depressing little tale. DON'T WATCH DEAD OR ALIVE 3: FINAL THOUGH -- that is absolute garbage, and almsot seems purposely so (Miike has said he hates sequels.. even though he's made plenty of sequels by now). Most of Miike's films are skippable, and he only has a few that are great (BOX from 3 Extremes being another wonderful film), but DEAD OR ALIVE 2: BIRDS is absolutely one of the finest films ever made.
TOO MANY WAYS TO BE NO. 1 - saved the best for last (of this post). The director is friends with Johnnie To and is a huge fan of Kitano, and it shows, with this nutso, existentialist Japanese yakuza drama. The DIRECTION is insane, with some truely twisted angles.. at one point, everything goes black and you just hear sounds... another point, the scene is lit by all the gunfire.. at two different points, the camera spins upside down -- once after a long tracking shot in which someone bumps into the camera and konkcs it over and the camera follows around characters feet upside down from them on out as bodies fall over... blood constantly gets on the camera too.. I don't think the camera EVER stops moving.. it's almost like RUN LOLA RUN in that respect, as it has some of the most kinetic energy of any movie ever.. oh man this movie fucking rules. Check it out ASAP!