Capo

Onimasa (1982) is one of the most underrated crime films of the 80s. It was marketed in the West as “Japan’s answer to The Godfather,” but it’s so much more than that. Legendary actor Tatsuya Nakadai plays a yakuza boss trapped in an identity crisis in early 20th‑century Japan: he’s trying to be both a noble feudal warrior and a modern crime boss. He believes he’s a man living by a code of honour but his self image clashes with his day to day life of dog fights, union busting, prostitution and bloody vendettas. What makes Onimasa so unique is that so much of it is told through the eyes of his adoptive daughter Matsue, who’s sold into the clan’s house as a child and, despite the toxic and oppressive environment, grows into an educated, independent woman. Through her perspective, the film becomes a character study of Onimasa and, by extension, the yakuza myth itself, tearing down the fantasy and showing these men as violent bullies clinging to a dying code. But Onimasa isn’t a two‑dimensional villain: he loves his daughters, he tries to stand on principle against his own bosses, and clings to a personal code in a world that never seemed to have room for it to begin with. That tension is exactly what makes this one of the most devastating deconstructions of the 1960s yakuza “chivalry films” ever put on screen. Highly recommended