This project is inspired by Asian gangster films, a genre that has always been a very important part of my passion for oriental cinema. I am a great fan of Japanese and Korean criminal dramas and action films and that it why I have elected to divide the project into two parts dedicating each of them to a respective cinematographic origin.
The J Syndicate is a black and white homage to Yakuza-Eiga, Japanese Yakuza films. At first this genre which evolved in 1930s and flourished in 1950-60s provided Japan with a new modern national hero. The yakuza portrayed in these films upheld a strict code of honor and was bent on defending humanity. However soon the viewers grew bored of the repeated plots and flat ideas. That is why the sub-genre of jitsuroku-eiga or "actual record films” that followed the heroic era was based on real crime stories in ultra-violent style and contemplated modern yakuza not as honourable heirs to the samurai code, but as ruthless street thugs living for their own desires.
