, is a 2007 Japanese

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by

Takashi Miike is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over one hundred theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films run through a variety of different genres, and range from violent an ...

, based on the 2005

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

video game ''

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ...

''. The film stars

Kazuki Kitamura is a Japanese film and television actor who won the award for best supporting actor at the 21st Yokohama Film Festival for '' Minazuki'', ''Kyohansha'' and ''Kanzen-naru shiiku'' as well as the CUT ABOVE Award for Excellence in Film at JAPAN CUTS ...

, Goro Kishitani,

Show Aikawa is a Japanese actor. Career Show Aikawa was born in Tokushima and raised in Kagoshima. Aikawa has appeared in a number of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's films, including ''Eyes of the Spider'', ''Serpent's Path'', ''License to Live'', ''Seance'', and ''Pu ...

, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa,

Kenichi Endō is a Japanese actor and writer. He also worked as a narrator for many documentaries, both on television and film. He is best known for his roles in '' Visitor Q'' (2001), ''Crows Zero'' (2007), ''Crows Zero 2'' (2009), and '' The Raid 2: Beran ...

and

Tomorowo Taguchi is a Japanese actor, film director and musician. After leaving Dokkyo University without graduating, he started to earn his living as an illustrator, writer and pornographic cartoonist. He joined a theatre called Hakken no Kai in 1978 and he ma ...

. The English-subtitled version premiered on June 23, 2008, at

New York Asian Film Festival The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) is a critically acclaimed film festival held in New York City, dedicated to the display of Asian Film Culture. The New York Asian Film Festival generally features contemporary premieres and classic titles ...

, and was released on DVD in Northern America on February 23, 2010, by an affiliate of

Media Blasters Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

Plot

The plot is loosely based on the original ''Yakuza'' game and is a separate, "one-night-story" that unfolds in a hot summer night in Kamurocho, the fictitious version of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Shinjuku is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...

Kabukichō Kabukichō ( ja, 歌舞伎町, , ) is an entertainment district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Kabuki-chō is the location of many host and hostess clubs, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called the "Sleepless Town" (, , ...

. The night begins with a bank robbery by a manzai duo of amateur masked gunmen, and the disappearance of ten billion yen belonging to the

Tojo Clan Japanese video game developer Sega's ''Yakuza'' media franchise, known as ''Ryū ga Gotoku'' (, lit. "Like a Dragon") in its native Japan and other Asian territories, features an extensive cast of characters. This article describes notable ch ...

, a powerful yakuza syndicate. Meanwhile, in the streets of Kamurocho, former yakuza

Kazuma Kiryu is a fictional character and the protagonist of Sega's action-adventure beat'em'up Japanese role-playing game series ''Yakuza''. He is popularly known as due to the tattoo of a dragon on his back and him originally being a fearsome member of the ...

and his adopted daughter, a young girl called

Haruka Sawamura is a fictional character in Sega's action-adventure game series ''Yakuza''. She is introduced in the first ''Yakuza'' game as a young child searching for her missing mother, while being mysteriously pursued by multiple yakuza clans, including ...

, search for Mizuki Sawamura, the latter's mother and the sister of Kiryu's childhood love, with Kiryu's old rival, the psychotic yakuza

Goro Majima Goro Majima ( Japanese: 真島吾朗, Hepburn: ''Majima Gorō'') is a major recurring character in Sega's ''Like a Dragon'' video game series, previously known as ''Yakuza'' outside of Japan. He is one of the main playable protagonists of '' Y ...

, and his men following them. After a meeting with Kiryu and Haruka in a

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...

called Poppo, employee Satoru and his new girlfriend Yui decide to start holding up stores for money and for fun. Elsewhere in the district, a mysterious Korean hitman, Park, tracks down the culprit behind the Tojo Clan heist, which leads him towards the infamous Jingu, a figure also known as Mister N, and the Kamurocho landmark, the Millennium Tower. The search for Mizuki brings Kiryu to the top of Millennium Tower and ends with a climactic battle against yakuza

Akira Nishikiyama , often shortened to Nishiki, is a fictional character from Sega's action-adventure game series ''Yakuza (series), Like a Dragon'', previously titled ''Yakuza'' outside of Japan. He is the blood brother, sworn brother and childhood best friend of ...

, Kiryu's childhood best friend and former blood brother, who declares his intention to beat Kiryu and finally prove he is the better man.

Video

Amuse Soft Entertainment released the regular

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

edition on September 28, 2007, in Japan, with a limited edition "Deluxe Box" featuring three

Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

figures (Majima, Kiryu and Haruka). American distributor

Tokyo Shock Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

released a licensed DVD titled ''Yakuza: Like a Dragon'' on February 23, 2010, to coincide with the North American localization of ''

Yakuza 3 is the third main entry in the ''Yakuza (franchise), Yakuza series'', released for the PlayStation 3 in 2009. It was developed by Sega's New Entertainment R&D Dept., CS1 Team and published by Sega. It was released in Japan and South East Asia ...

''. The release date was originally planned to March, probably in order to coincide with the North American localization of the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

video game ''

''. Prior to this official release, an English-subtitled DVD was distributed in North America by Bonzai RCS; its case featured a Korean cover for some reason (it was likely an unlicensed product); it was similar to the Korean market edition by

CJ Entertainment CJ Entertainment (Hangul: CJ 엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean film production and distribution company under CJ ENM. The company operates as a film production company, film publishing house, investment and exhibition. History During early 1 ...

.Yesasia.com - Like a Dragon (DVD) (Korea Version)
/ref> As of November 2020, it is available on the

streaming service provider An over-the-top media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributors of s ...

Fandor Fandor is a film streaming service, dedicated to independent films, documentaries, international titles, and classics, and is a division of the American entertainment company, Cinedigm. Relaunched in 2021, Fandor offers thousands of films, rang ...

, under the title of simply ''Yakuza''.

Soundtrack

The motion picture soundtrack features three songs by Crazy Ken Band from his 2006 album ''Galaxy'' released on the Almond Eyes label (XNAE-10010), these are ''Hama no Ambassador'' (ハマのアンバサダー, ''hama no anbasada'', lit. "ambassador of Yokohama") featuring Fire Ball and Papa B., ''Kuroi Kizuato no Blues'' (黒い傷跡のブルース, ''kuroi kizuato no burusu'', lit. "black scar blues") and the ending theme ''12 gatsu 17 nichi'' (12月17日, lit. "December 17th"). The latter two are also included in the ''

Yakuza 2 is an action-adventure game by Sega, the sequel to ''Yakuza''. It was released on December 7, 2006, for the PlayStation 2 in Japan and in September 2008 in North America and Europe. The game focuses on the former ''yakuza'' Kazuma Kiryu who recei ...

'' game's soundtrack.

Cast

(桐生一馬) *Natsuo as

(澤村遥) * as

(真島吾朗) * Shun Shioya as Satoru (悟) *

Saeko Saeko is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings *サエコ in katakana *さえこ in hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic letterin ...

as Yui (唯) *Haruhiko Kato as Kazuki (一輝) *

Saki Takaoka is a Japanese actress. Her uncle is the jazz pianist Yōsuke Yamashita. She won the award for best actress at the 19th Hochi Film Award for ''Crest of Betrayal''. Filmography Film * ''cf girl'' (''cfガール'', 1989) * ''Swimming Upstream' ...

as Yumi Sawamura (澤村由美) / Mizuki Sawamura (美月) *

as detective Noguchi (野口刑事) *

Gong Yoo Gong Ji-cheol (; born July 10, 1979), better known by his stage name Gong Yoo (), is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in the television dramas '' Coffee Prince'' (2007), '' Guardian: The Lonely and Great God'' (2016–2017), ...

as Park the Korean hitman (朴) *

Yutaka Matsushige is a Japanese actor. Career Matsushige has appeared in the films such as '' EM Embalming'', ''Adrenaline Drive'', ''Last Life in the Universe'', and ''Outrage Beyond''. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 31st Yokohama Film Festi ...

as Makoto Date (伊達真) *

Claude Maki (born October 3, 1972) is a Japanese surfing and flight champion, actor and hip hop singer, under the stage name A.K.T.I.O.N., from Akasaka, Tokyo. He is the eldest son of actor and singer Mike Maki. His mother is , a Japanese-American actres ...

(錦山彰) *Yoshiyoshi Arakawa as the Korean-Japanese weapon smuggler (武器屋) *

as Imanishi the bank robber (今井) *

Sansei Shiomi is a Japanese actor. Career Born in Kyoto Prefecture, Shiomi went to Doshisha University. He joined the theater troupe En in 1978 and soon also began appearing in film and television, mostly as a character actor. He won a Japan Movie Critics Aw ...

as Shintaro Kazama (風間新太郎) *

as the Korean-Japanese barbershop owner *

Toshihiro Nagoshi is a Japanese video game producer, director and designer. He was the chief creative officer for Sega until 2021 when he became creative director. He went on to be the general director of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, and later became a member of the ...

as Jingu but listed as Mister N (ミスターN) *

Alexander Otsuka , better known by his ring name Alexander Otsuka and Otoko Sakari, is a retired Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. Having competed for multiple pro wrestling organizations in his career, most recently with Antonio Inoki's ...

as a Yakuza (ヤクザ)

References

External links

Official website
* * on