An honest cop (Tetsuya Watari) is stationed in Osaka and finds himself caught up in a nightmare world where his superiors launder money and carry out hits for several rival gangs. His sense of honour--already supporting the drunken, promiscuous widow of a man he killed--ties him ever closer to the principal heavy of the gang his superiors are gradually destroying and to the man's half-sister, with whom he falls passionately in love. A torrid interlude as waves beat on the shore--waves that somehow manage to be something other than a cliché--is just a break in the gloomy spiral of degradation and death. This is in some ways as corny as anything, in other ways a minor classic.

On the DVD: Yakuza Graveyard is presented in 16:9 widescreen and comes with a short text essay explaining the importance of the film in the development of Fukasaki's career and the yakuza genre. --Roz Kaveney