Synopsis: Japanese sixties comedy featuring a cunning female jewel thief named Black Lizard who tries to kidnap Sanaye, a wealthy jeweler’s beautiful daughter as part of a plot to steal the jeweler’s expensive “Star of Egypt” diamond. To thwart the planned kidnapping, the jeweler hires Japan’s number one detective, the brilliant Akechi. This sets off a dual between Black Lizard and Akechi as each tries to outwit the other. In the process, the two adversaries develop a mutual respect and affection for each other. Despite Akechi’s efforts, Black Lizard and her crew are able to kidnap Sanaye and gain possession of the “Star of Egypt”. Black Lizard takes Sanaye to her secret lair on a remote island which is populated by an eerie collection of naked human dolls. There Black Lizard plans to preserve Sanaye’s beauty forever by turning her into one of her dolls. As Sanaye’s doom quickly approaches, it is up to Akechi to save the day.

Black.Lizard.1968.576p.BluRay.AAC1.0.x264-Slope.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 26 min
Size: 	2.11 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x436 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 335 kb/s
BPP: 	0.312
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 1.0ch AAC LC @ 144 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/0F91366EE425778/Black.Lizard.1968.576p.BluRay.AAC1.0.x264-Slope.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Kinji Fukasaku – Kuro tokage AKA Black Lizard (1968) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Helen and her associates stage a confession play in order to remedy stuttering, but things go amiss.

Japanese Belly Button.1977.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 41 min
Size: 	1.93 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	768x576 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 500 kb/s
BPP: 	0.236
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/C1A3153F494C436/Japanese_Belly_Button.1977.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Eizô Sugawa – Nihonjin no heso AKA The Japanese Belly Button (1977) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
A feverishly perverse 1969 film noir oddity starring female impersonator Akihiro Maruyama. When wealthy Kyohei hires singer “Black Rose” to perform in his exclusive men’s club, he gets more than he bargains for when she attracts scores of homicidal past lovers. The film takes a bizarre twist when Kyohei’s son falls victim to the femme fatale’s unique charm.

Review:
If there was a touch of Seijun Suzuki about Blackmail Is My Life, there’s something of Yasuzo Masumura about Black Rose Mansion’s romantic melodrama with a touch of perversity. Based on a play by Yukio Mishima, who worked with Fukasaku the previous year on an Edogawa Rampo story for Black Lizard (1968), the story’s horror-suspense elements would also seem to bear some of Rampo’s Edgar Allan Poe influences. When combined with Fukasaku’s garishly colourful and typically over-the-top treatment, the whole thing takes on an outlandish quality all of its own.

Centred around the ambiguous figure of Ryuko Fujio (Akihiro Maruyama), a mysterious, glamorous singer discovered in Yokohama by an associate of Mr. Sako (Eitaro Ozawa), the film couldn’t fail to be anything but larger than life. A successful businessman and manager of an exclusive club, The Black Rose Mansion, Sako hires this exotic creature to perform each night for him and soon falls under her spell. The mysterious nature of her background and her comings and goings only add to her allure, but Ryuko seems immune to the approaches of the most influential men in society, be they writers or politicians.

Ryuko however is waiting for her true love and carries around a black rose wherever she goes in the belief that it will turn red when she finds the right man. Each night however, strange men turn up at the club, figures from Ryuko’s forgotten past, their lives devastated by their encounters with this strange, seductive and enigmatic woman. When Sako’s wayward son Wataru (Masakazu Tamura) returns home, it complicates matters further for both the businessman and his exclusive singer.

What actress could possibly carry such charisma to play Ryuko Fujio? None, obviously. In a film where the illusion is more important that the reality, what better way then to cast the role than through a female impersonator? It’s an inspired touch that is eerily disturbing and all the more so since there is no M. Butterfly moment of revelation (or self-denial) anywhere in Black Rose Mansion. The absurdity and perversity of the overheated emotions this gives rise to is afforded an additional twist through the overwrought production design and Fukasaku’s exaggerated mise-en-scène, the Black Rose Mansion achieving romantic grotesquery through the incongruity of placing these peculiarly Japanese figures within an absurd European-influenced Neo-classical setting with Art Nouveau décor, one that bears all the hallmarks of Mishima’s occidental-influenced writing, particularly his trashier work. The film finally topples under the weight of all this nonsense with a scarlet paint splattered bloody finale, and not before time.

— DVD Times.

https://nitro.download/view/EB944EE05D083A1/Black_Rose_Mansion_(1969)_–_Kinji_Fukasaku.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/8649D7A8529133D/Black_Rose_Mansion_(1969)_–_Kinji_Fukasaku.srt

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English (muxed, srt)

The post Kinji Fukasaku – Kuro bara no yakata AKA Black Rose Mansion (1969) first appeared on Cinema of the World.