Japan

Synopsis
Zatoichi is forced to kill a young man who owes a debt to a yakuza boss. Moments later, his sister Osode arrives with the money she earned (prostituting herself) to pay his debts. The bosses true motives are revealed and he attempts to steal Osode even though the debt is paid. Zatoichi realizes his grievous error and protects the girl from the gang. Osode and Zatoichi are caught in a dilemma as she must rely on her brother’s killer for protection and Zatoichi wrestles with the injustice he has caused.Read More »

Mitamura Yuka is a normal, shy high school student… Except for the fact that she has psychic powers. When a new student with similar powers begins to show her skills, creating a force of psychic Nazi student enforcers, Yuka and her friends vow to stop her. But behind it all is a mysterious force that will put Yuka’s powers to the ultimate test!Read More »

Synopsis:
A young prostitute tries to understand why she suffers from melancholy and benumbed feelings. Against a background of sexual liberation and political subversion, this latest libertine work by radical film director M. Adachi is one of the very few existing feminist erotic films. Masao Adachi’s personality and films deserve careful consideration. Relatively unknown as yet to Western audiences, he happens to be one of the most radical film-makers around in recent years. Gushing Prayer, shows the influence of Koji Wakamatsu, another enfant terrible of Japanese cinema whom Adachi assisted on many films. Gushing Prayer does not hesitate to show the resentments and dissatisfactions of someone who ought to be nothing more than an object of fantasies. Highly pertinent, with a bold avant-garde style, he sets the record straight as far as the sexual desires of supposedly liberated Japanese women are concerned. One of the rare feminist films of the 70’s, it audaciously evokes sexual liberation and political subversion.Read More »

Synopsis:
Zatoichi the blind masseur and crack swordsman finds trouble in the edge of town in this 22nd installment of the classic samurai film series. When Zatoichi confronts the master Chinese martial artist Wang Kang and his young traveling companion, the blind swordsman finds that the duo are trying to escape from a group of terroristic samurai who have killed the boy’s parents. Zatoichi agrees to help them, but the rescue becomes complicated when he must rescue not only Wang Kang and the boy, but also everyone who they meet along the way!Read More »

Zatoichi returns to his home village for the first time in over ten years to find much has changed and that corruption abounds.Read More »

Quote:
The 3 Part of the Maiku Hama Triology is the best and probably darkest of all the films. In fact, this episode is more of a horror-like thriller reminiscent of a Takashi Miike film. “The Trap,” which is the final film of the trilogy was preceded by the more semi-comical episodes of “The Most Terrible Time In My Life,” and then followed by “Stairway To The Distant Past,” and finally concluding with this film, “The Trap.” In the previous episodes of the trilogy, Maiku Hama (Masatoshi Nagase) is not the aloof private detective he was originally portrayed as; but a much more intelligent and calm detective.Read More »

Quote:
Stray Dog is an intense criminal story that examines the psychology of the characters as in compares the similarities between criminals and detectives. These similarities are balanced on a thin line based on choice, which Kurosawa dissects studiously through the camera lens. Kurosawa’s investigation of the character’s psychology creates a spiraling suspense that is enhanced through subtle surprises and brilliant cinematography. The camera use often displays shots through thin cloths, close ups, and new camera angles, which also makes the film aesthetically appealing. When Kurosawa brings together camera work and cast performance, among other cinematic aspects, he leaves the audience with a brilliantly suspenseful criminal drama, which leaves much room for introspection and retrospection.Read More »

Quote:
Yamamoto Satsuo directed this masterful 9 hour epic trilogy on the effects of war on the five generations of a single Japanese family. Based on Gomikawa Jumpei’s (The Human Condition) bestselling novel, the film trilogy skillfully blends newsreel and archive footage with an all-star cast, exotic locations, and beautiful cinematography. The first part follows the rise of the Godai clan rise from war-profiteers to their becoming powerful industrialists in Japanese-occupied Manchuria during the 1930s. The second part follow the the stories of two brothers serving in different units of the Imperial Japanese army from 1935 to 1937 when Japan launched a full scale invasion of China. The third and final part details the family’s trials during the Sino-Japanese War to the Soviet army’s invasion of Japanese-occupied Northeastern China at the end of World War II.Read More »

Quote:
Yamamoto Satsuo directed this masterful 9 hour epic trilogy on the effects of war on the five generations of a single Japanese family. Based on Gomikawa Jumpei’s (The Human Condition) bestselling novel, the film trilogy skillfully blends newsreel and archive footage with an all-star cast, exotic locations, and beautiful cinematography. The first part follows the rise of the Godai clan rise from war-profiteers to their becoming powerful industrialists in Japanese-occupied Manchuria during the 1930s. The second part follow the the stories of two brothers serving in different units of the Imperial Japanese army from 1935 to 1937 when Japan launched a full scale invasion of China. The third and final part details the family’s trials during the Sino-Japanese War to the Soviet army’s invasion of Japanese-occupied Northeastern China at the end of World War II.Read More »