Japan

Two sisters, Kyoko and Hisako, run a restaurant in Kyoto. But an incident with the latter’s fiancé puts their relationship, and the future of their cuisine in jeopardy.Read More »

Review from Takuma_964 @ Letterboxd wrote:
An absolutely astonishing art house ninkyo yakuza film. Wandering gambler runs into a young swindler woman working with old man. They are both arrested by detective. A year later gambler is staying with gangster boss when he comes across that woman and her partner again. Boss lusts for both her and his own daughter, while the boss’s crazy yakuza brother loves his daughter, who, in turn, watches the player and wants to destroy the people standing in her way. And here lies one of the film’s remarkable departures from the standard ninkyo efforts: it doesn’t have a third party villain, nor a clear distinction between good and evil.Read More »

Quote:
Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.Read More »

A month later. Genji Takiya has graduated. New fights begin to see who will climb to the top at Suzuran High School. Meanwhile, a battle against nearby Kurosaki Industrial High School begins.Read More »

Review from Takuma_964 @ Letterboxd wrote:
An absolutely astonishing art house ninkyo yakuza film. Wandering gambler runs into a young swindler woman working with old man. They are both arrested by detective. A year later gambler is staying with gangster boss when he comes across that woman and her partner again. Boss lusts for both her and his own daughter, while the boss’s crazy yakuza brother loves his daughter, who, in turn, watches the player and wants to destroy the people standing in her way. And here lies one of the film’s remarkable departures from the standard ninkyo efforts: it doesn’t have a third party villain, nor a clear distinction between good and evil. It’s bursting with romantic emotion and wrenched with gritty realism, shot with striking black and white compositions, and explodes into shocking carnage. It has lengthier, more detailed gambling scenes than any other yakuza film I’ve seen. And it has a heartbreakingly beautiful score. You could call it the Ashes of Time of ninkyo yakuza films. A masterpiece!Read More »

Synopsis: A Japanese schoolgirl witnesses the suicide of her close friend. In the aftermath she gets caught up in a world of sex trafficking after meeting a guy hiding his true intentions. Of course she falls for him before realizing the magnitude of the situation, complicating matters further. Eventually, her mother gets involved…
One of the last major Nikkatsu Roman films to be produced (1987), directed by Nobuyuki Saito. Script by Haruhiko AraiRead More »

Nabeshima Naoshige murders his lord, Takafusa Ryuzoji, seeking to gain power and steal his Lord’s wife. To avoid her fate, Lady Takafusa drowns herself along with her cat in a nearby marsh. A decade later, Naoshige’s efforts to steal another woman triggers a curse on him when she also commits suicide at the same marsh forcing him to suffer the consequences of his past actions.Read More »

A war breaks out on the streets between rivalry Yakuza clans.Read More »

Two brothers compete for the amorous favors of a young woman during a seaside summer of gambling, boating, and drinking, in this seminal Sun Tribe (taiyozoku) film from director Ko Nakahira. Adapted from the controversial novel by Shintaro Ishihara, and critically savaged for its lurid portrayal of the postwar sexual revolution among Japan’s young and privileged, Crazed Fruit is an anarchic outcry against tradition and the older generation.Read More »