is a 1973 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. The screenplay by Kazuo Kasahara adapts a series of newspaper articles by journalist Kōichi Iiboshi, that were rewrites of a manuscript originally written by real-life yakuza Kōzō Minō. It is the first film in a five-part series that Fukasaku made in a span of just two years.
The violent, documentary-like film chronicles the underworld tribulations of Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), a young ex-soldier and street thug-turned yakuza in post-war Hiroshima Prefecture. Starting in the open-air black markets of bombed-out Hiroshima in 1946, the film spans a period of more than ten years. The plot consists of a changing of the guard of new families and organizations with the same feuds and people, punctuated by the gritty violence.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity won the 1974 Kinema Junpo Awards for Best Film, Best Actor (Bunta Sugawara) and Best Screenplay (Kazuo Kasahara). In 2009, the magazine named it fifth on a list of the Top 10 Japanese Films of All Time. Due to the series' commercial and critical popularity it was followed by another three-part series, New Battles Without Honor and Humanity. The film is often called the "Japanese Godfather" and marks a departure from traditional yakuza movies which had, for the most part, been tales of chivalry set in pre-war Japan. The overall tone of the series is bleak, violent and chaotic, expressing the futility of the struggles between yakuza families. In the western market it is also known under the titles Tarnished Code of Yakuza (Australia), War Without a Code, and The Yakuza Papers.
Plot
In 1946 Kure, war veteran Shozo Hirono is sent to prison after shooting a sword-wielding yakuza who assaulted his friend. He befriends and becomes sworn brothers with another prisoner, Doi Family member Hiroshi Wakasugi, who arranges for Yoshio Yamamori, Patriarch of the Yamamori Family, to bribe the prison warden and get him released. Hirono and his gang of fellow ex-soldiers - Tetsuya Sakai, Seiichi Kanbara, Uichi Shinkai, Masakichi Makihara, and Shuji Yano - then join the Yamamori Family by swearing loyalty to the boss and to each other. Wakasugi's boss, Patriarch Doi, serves as an official witness to the ceremony, along with Kenichi Okubo, Patriarch of the powerful Okubo Family.
Three years later, in 1949, Hirono gets into a fight with a man named Toru Ueda at a gambling den. Since Ueda is a blood relative of Okubo's, Hirono commits yubitsume in apology to Okubo. Okubo accepts, but asks Yamamori to take Ueda into his family and perform a favor for corrupt politician Shigeto Nakahara by eliminating a vote for his rival Shoichi Kanamaru, who is supported by the Doi Family in a political dispute over allotment of public resources. Sakai kidnaps one of Kanamaru's allies before the vote, allowing Nakahara's side to win, and goes into hiding afterwards. Doi finds out due to Kanbara bragging about it while drinking and beats him severely, then goes after Yamamori. However, out of loyalty to Hirono, Wakasugi stops Doi from killing Yamamori and a deal is brokered: Wakasugi will become a guest member of the Yamamori Family while Kanbara takes his place in the Doi Family.
Six months later, Doi starts moving against Yamamori and prepares to form an alliance with the Kaito Family from Hiroshima City. With the other members unwilling to act and Wakasugi forbidden by yakuza traditions to betray his boss, Hirono volunteers to handle the matter after Yamamori agrees to promote him. Hirono successfully assassinates Doi while he's coming out of a meeting with the Kaito Family and escapes. While in hiding, Hirono is visited by Kanbara, who claims Yamamori has a plan to sneak him out of the city. However, it turns out to be a set-up and Hirono, finding himself abandoned by Yamamori and hunted by the Doi Family, turns himself in for murdering Doi. Wakasugi murders Kanbara in revenge, but an anonymous tip to the police (provided by Yamamori) leads them to his girlfriend's house and he is killed trying to escape.