THE YAKUZA
Directed by SYDNEY POLLACK Screenplay by PAUL SCHRADER and ROBERT TOWNE
A cultural footnote: the Yakuza in Japan is very much like the Mafia Stateside: a clandestine and very powerful criminal organization with heavy political connections. The Yakuza has its own code of conduct but, typically, the code has a kind of fearful stringency that makes the Mafia look by comparison like a gang of clubhouse rowdies.
This movie, a fitful action adventure starring an excellent Robert Mitchum, must first explain all about the Yakuza to uninitiated Westerners, so that the whole opening...