When regular police procedure fails, an ex-police captain recruits a group of deadly assassins to take down a corrupt Yakuza boss. Their first assignment is to intercept a briefcase belonging to a Latin American gang that is smuggling drugs into Japan. Led by Ryuichi Koga (Sonny Chiba), the last descendant of the Koga Ninja clan, they will leave a trail of bodies along their way through Japan’s underworld.Read More »
When a priceless jewel owned by rich heiress Sabine is stolen, along with her daughter, professional thief and hired killer Ryuichi Koga and his gang are hired to retrieve both. At a ransom exchange, the team gets the girl back but lose the money and the jewel. When Sabine decides to deal directly with the thieves and obtains the jewel on her own by paying the ransom, Koga, having been stiffed of his fee by Sabine, steals the jewel. Little does he know, it’s a fake. Now, Koga and the team must break into a high security bank to steal the real jewel.Read More »
Synopsis:
Japan nineteenth century. High demand for tattooed geisha generates an entire industry for their “production”. Europeans pay more for tattooed beauties. Against this background, and considering the gorgeous tattooed women develop the history of confrontation between two highly skilled masters of tattoo.Read More »
Quote:
Director Teruo Ishi’s crime action follows the investigative adventures of an undercover cop working with a prostitution ring. It’s done in an unique documentary styleRead More »
Synopsis by AMG:
After a 14-year-absence, Teruo Ishii returned to the director’s chair with this anthology film based on the works of manga artist Yoshiharu Tsuge. The main character in all four segments is a fledgling cartoonist named Tsube (Shiro Sano). In the first segment, Tsube encounters a dotty old man named Ri (Akio Yokoyama) after renting a tumble-down cottage in the country. The following day, Ri, his equally weird wife (Chika Nakagami), and his two squalid children move into his house. Soon the wife is stealing the cucumbers in his garden while the two kids devour all the food in the house.Read More »
Synopsis:
Akemi and the man of her clan confront their opponents; Akemi delivers a sword thrust to kill the opponents’ leader, and Aiko, his daughter, tries to interpose herself, suffering a glancing blow to her eyes, thus cutting her badly, and blinding her. Amid the ensuing fight, no one notices that a black cat laps the young woman’s wound. Years later, revenge between the two clans continue, plus added dissension amongst Akemi’s people, leading to more deaths. A new member comes to help them, but she is a strange woman – and blind. The curse of the blind woman is about to fell on the dragon-lady.Read More »
Intrigue and mystery surround a cold-hearted assassin who must keep one step ahead of the Hong Kong police as he tries to find out who framed him for the murder of a woman and set him up as the fall guy in a complicated drug scheme. Starring Takakura Ken as Nanjo the assassin and directed by the critically acclaimed Ishii Teruo, this is a journey into the dark underside of Asia’s most exciting city. Will Nanjo be able to find the solution and exact revenge for the terrible situation he finds himself in?Read More »
PLOT SUMMARY
After escaping from an asylum, young medical student Hirosuke assumes the identity of a dead man in order to solve the mystery of a weird doppelganger whose picture he sees in the newspaper. Traveling to faraway Panorama Island, he discovers a mad scientist surgically remaking normal human beings into misshapen monsters…but that is only the beginning. Hirosuke soon learns the horrible truth about the island and his own family’s shameful past, and finds himself plunged into the depths of incest, murder, and madness.Read More »
To die is hell, but to live is also hell.
SUMMARY
Japanese cult movie guru Teruo Ishii (HORROR OF MALFORMED MEN; BLIND WOMAN’S CURSE) directs this deranged, over-the-top adaptation from the original manga by Kazuo Koike (creator of LONE WOLF AND CUB, LADY SNOWBLOOD and RAZOR HANZO) about a privileged samurai gang in charge of recruiting women for prostitution in old Edo’s pleasure quarter. It’s a perfect match for unapologetically decadent, phantasmagorical, softcore sex and bloody, sword-swinging sadism. Fascinating, brilliant and amoral, a tour through an ancient subculture obsessed with cruel, violent death and cruel, violent sex. Tetsuro Tanba (ZERO WOMAN: RED HANDCUFFS, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) is a standout as the hardboiled mercenary swordsman caught in the middle between the sex slave business, the corrupt Shogunate and rival gangs. When he goes into action, blood sprays, and heads and limbs fly!Read More »