In the 1970s, director Fukasaku Kinji’s Yakuza Papers films chronicled decades of gang warfare in post-war Hiroshima. Over three decades later, up-and-coming young director Kubata Takashi brings a new generation of Hiroshima motorcycle gangsters to the big screen with Badboys. Based on Tanaka Hiroshi’s hit comic series of the same name (which also spawned five animated OVAs in the 1990s), Badboys depicts a violent battle between three rival gangs in the aftermath of a gang-related murder in Osaka. A gripping, exciting gangster action drama starring some of Japan’s brightest young actors, Badboys is the kind of new blood the Japanese gangster genre needs!
Direction
Kubota channels Fukasaku without being a cover band
Acting
Young cast sells desperation like they lived it
Cinematography
Hiroshima streets never looked this alive dying
Director
Takashi Kubota
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'yankii' subculture peaked in 1980s Japan but persists as working-class rebellion; Badboys updates this for a generation that knows Fukasaku only through their grandfathers.
Tanaka Hiroshi's manga ran 22 volumes and spawned those 1990s OVAs — Kubota fought to distance his live-action from anime aesthetics, insisting on documentary-style grime.
JP
