Cinq hommes, tous victimes du meme gang de yakuzas, decident de s'unir pour attaquer leur persecuteur. Mais les yakuzas ne l'entendent pas de cette oreille et engagent un redoutable tueur.
Un jeune fantassin du yakuza cherche à se venger lorsque sa petite amie prostituée meurt après une séance avec un politicien japonais de haut rang ayant le goût de la torture. Il se lance dans une mission « kamikaze » pour tuer ses patrons et le politicien ; en cours de route, il acquiert l'aide d'un chauffeur de taxi qui est récemment revenu au Japon après avoir vécu en Amérique du Sud pendant plusieurs décennies et qui lutte pour faire face à la pauvreté et aux préjugés des Japonais de souche.
Gina is a sweet and dedicated mother to her little son. One day, while shopping with him for a Halloween mask, her son is accidentally shot through the chest by a Japanese gunman who is trying to kill an opposing gang of bus operators. Gina notices that the gunman has a picture of a blue tiger tattooed on his chest. She becomes obsessed with vengeance and has an identical red tiger etched into her skin. She then tracks down the killer and plots his death. This leads her into the world of the Japanese Mafia, where she uses her sexual allure and newfound knowledge of the Japanese language to search the tattooed men for the same blue tiger bearer that killed her son.
Junpei, a low-level yakuza, steals 500 million yen from his boss. While he's being interrogated, a stroke of good luck saves his life and lands him in prison for five years. Upon release, he hires invincible professional bodyguard Kiba to escort him to the hidden loot, so he can find his girlfriend and escape forever. Every step of the way the two are ambushed by angry yakuza, and even angrier students from a rival dojo that are mortified by Kiba's alleged comments that his Karate is more effective than theirs.
During a party at the United States offices of a Japanese corporation in Los Angeles, a professional escort named Cheryl Lynn Austin (Tatjana Patitz) is found dead, apparently after a violent sexual encounter. Police Detectives Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) and John Connor (Sean Connery), a former police Captain and expert on Japanese affairs, are sent to act as liaison between the Japanese executives and the investigating officer, Smith's former partner Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel).
Kitano plays Murakawa, an enforcer for the Tokyo-based yakuza tired of gangster life. He is sent by his boss to Okinawa, supposedly to mediate a dispute between their allies, the Nakamatsu and Anan clans. Murakawa openly suspects the assignment is an attempt to have him removed and even beats up one of his colleagues, Takahashi, whom he distrusts, but ends up going with his men. He finds that the dispute is insignificant, and while wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, the group's temporary headquarters are bombed and they are then ambushed in a bar, leaving several of his men dead.
The owner of a high-class Japanese hotel, the Europa, hopes to win a prestigious and lucrative contract for the hotel as the site of a summit meeting between important international officials. Unfortunately, the yakuza have taken a liking to this hotel as both a hangout and a target for extortion. In order to win the contract, the owner realizes, he must rid the hotel of the yakuza. Fearing to confront them himself, he deputizes a hotel accountant, Suzuki (Yasuo Daichi) and a bellboy and former college sumo-club member, Wakasugi (Takehiro Murata). The hapless pair are no more daring than their employer, however, and their tentative attempts to address the problem fail until they meet Mahiru Inoue (Nobuko Miyamoto), a lawyer who specializes in dealing with the yakuza. With Inoue's direction, the hotel staff comes together to face down the yakuza ruffians, who are portrayed as craven, outwardly-threatening-but-inwardly-weak, fools.
Los Angeles (L.A.) cop Chris Kenner (Dolph Lundgren) is an American who was raised in Japan. He is given a new partner, Johnny Murata (Brandon Lee), an American of partial Japanese descent. Kenner does not appreciate American culture, while Johnny does not much like Japanese culture. One thing they both enjoy are the martial arts, of which they are both experts. The two are assigned to L.A.'s Little Tokyo, where they break up some criminal activity in a Japanese restaurant, and an arrest is made.
Ben, un étudiant hongkongais à Tokyo rencontre Tieh-Lan, une jeune chinoise qui travaille comme hotesse dans un bar de Shinjuku. Il se trouve bientôt confronté au monde des yakuzas.
Wai (Mark Cheng), a new immigrant from mainland China, works at a fish raft with his friend Nam (Benny Lai). In China, Wai served in the People's Liberation Army's special forces where he wss trained intensively in Chinese Kung Fu. One time during a misunderstanding, Wai meets Lee Wah-yu (Alex Man), mastermind of a financial group and triad, and becomes Lee's follower.
Masaki est un jeune ahuri qui joue au baseball dans une mauvaise équipe, les Eagles, et qui travaille dans une station-service. Un jour, il doit nettoyer la voiture d'un yakuza, membre du clan Otomo. Mais injurié par ce dernier, Masaki lui décoche un coup de poing. Le yakuza, en se protégeant, se brise le bras. Pour sauver la réputation de son clan, Otomo revient quelques jours plus tard pour racketter le patron de la station-service. Inquiet, Masaki se confie à son ami barman, Takashi Iguchi, qui fit partie du gang d'Otomo il y a quelques années.
When retired police detective Fan Chi-hung (Alex Man) hears that his former superior Brown's (Roger Ball) son has been kidnapped, he comes back to Hong Kong from the United States to assist in the rescue. Along with Brown's adopted son, Kit (Andy Lau), they go through several investigations and finally rescues the child, which Brown is grateful about. Fan also takes the opportunity to see his ex-lover, Shirley (Kelly Yiu). Kit also knows Shirley and gradually falls for her daughter, Cindy (Regina Kent). However, thing suddenly change. It is revealed that Brown actually engulfed a huge sum of money from a Japanese company, which leads Yakuza member Hoshida (Michael Chan) to Hong Kong to find out the truth. Hoshida, who was originally named Pu, was Shirley's ex-husband when the former was a triad member in Hong Kong. When Browns learns about this relationship, he tells Fan to depart from Hong Kong and let him negotiate in Japan. Unexpectedly, Brown betrays Fan, and the Yakuza tries to kill Kit and Fan and later kills Kit and Cindy. Fan also unintentionally learns of Hoshida and Shirley's relationship and Fan decides to battle to death with the Yakuza.
Sing (Alex Fong) and Hung (Waise Lee) grew up in a triad gang where they developed a great relationship with Uncle Lung's (Pau Fong) daughter Sophia (Idy Chan). Due to his old age and sickness, Lung decides to choose Sing as his successor. However, Sing refuses the offer and is kicked out of the gang. In his place, Lung chooses Hung as his successor and also arranges his marriage to Sophia.
Kitano plays detective Azuma, a Dirty Harry-type who uses violent methods when confronting criminals. After the suicide of his friend and colleague Iwaki (a vice cop who was involved with drugs), and the kidnapping of his sister by yakuza gangsters, Azuma breaks all the rules of ethical conduct. He responds to every situation with violence, and resorts to unethical methods if they produce results.
Nick Conklin is a New York City police officer facing possible criminal charges; Internal Affairs believes Nick was involved with his partner who was caught taking criminal money in a corruption scandal. Nick is divorced from his wife, who has custody of their two children. Nick also has financial difficulties.