The Yakuza is a 1975 post–film noir gangster story written by Leonard Schrader, Paul Schrader, and Robert Towne, and directed by Sydney Pollack.

The Yakuza portrays the clash of traditional Japanese values during Japan's transition from the US occupation to economic success in the early 1970s. The story's themes are concepts of moral indebtedness and obligation, loyalty to family and friends, and sacrifice; Eastern and Western cultural values are contrasted, and Classical Japanese tradition versus the modern, Westernized, tradition of contemporary Japan.

Following a lacklustre initial release, the film gained a cult following.

Harry Kilmer returns to Japan after several years in order to rescue his friend George's kidnapped daughter - and ends up on the wrong side of the Yakuza, the notorious Japanese mafia... Written by Michael Brooke

The presently private investigator and real-estate agent Harry Kilmer is bonded to Japan culture. In the end of World War II, he was assigned to stay in Tokyo, and meanwhile he felt in love with the Japanese woman Eiko Tanaka. In 1949, her Yakuza brother Ken Tanaka, who was missing in action in Philippines, returns to Japan. Harry proposes to marry Eiko, who is also in love with him, but she does not accept his proposal. With a broken heart, Harry decides to return to United States of America. He borrows some money from his close friend George Tanner, buys a small restaurant for Eiko and her baby daughter, and returns to his home country. After several years, his friend George asks Harry to return to Japan with his bodyguard Dusty to rescue his daughter, who was kidnapped by a Yakuza family, due to a weapon business. While in Tokyo and Kyoto, many revelations are disclosed to Harry about his close friends. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil