A trio of tales delineating Sex and the Japanese city, “Tokyo Noir” provides more emotional colors than just black and white. Picture marks a collaboration between writer-helmers Naoto Kumazawa and Masato Ishioka that’s less diverse than in “Female,” another recent erotic Nipponese collection, but is still emotionally rewarding, thanks to solid performances and considered pacing. Sexual slant could open up fest slots beyond Asia.

First installment, “Birthday,” tells the story of Mari (Takami Yoshimoto), a 34-year-old plain Jane whose ongoing singledom is complicated by fresh disasters every birthday. As her 35th approaches, Mari is beset by dizziness, and a doctor suggests that her sexless life may be harming her health. After a late night at the office, Mari enters a mysterious shop front adorned with Venetian carnival masks. Inside, she’s greeted by a stylish but unidentified man (Go Riju) who describes the therapeutic value of temporarily assuming other identities. The hairdresser/pimp also gives Mari a makeover and a one-off gig as a hooker. The money and sex improve her confidence, and she decides once is not enough. Sensitively helmed by Kumazawa, yarn unfolds gently, resembling a sexy variation on “Sayonara Midori” or the South Korean “This Charming Girl.” A mannered, but ultimately touching, perf by Yoshimoto lifts the seg far beyond apparent limitations.

Second episode, “Girl’s Life,” features the less sympathetic Miyuki (Aimi Nakamura), a university student whose prodigious sexual appetite and misanthropy is somewhat satiated by her sideline job in a massage parlor. While “Birthday” suggests prostitution as an option for self-discovery, in “Girl’s Life,” it helps Mari keep emotional pain at bay. Matter-of-fact portrayal of a sex worker’s life, plus a solid perf by Nakamura, makes this an intriguing entry, despite a glib conclusion.

In the final segment “Night Lovers,” Nao (Kimika Yoshino) is an office worker whose boyfriend goes AWOL after being suspected of trading company secrets. To cope with her grief, she begins picking up men but always backs off before consummation. One guy arranges a meeting with an internet hooker (Aya Keki) who’s also called Nao, so the wide-eyed girl can see the real thing. Gradually, both the viewer and Nao get embroiled in details of the hooker’s life and her professional dissatisfactions. Episode — helmed by both Kumazawa and Ishioka — manages to be both witty and tender.

Tokyo.Noir.2004.DVDRip.x264.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	2h 17mn
Size:	1.93 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	716x472 ~> 839x472
Aspect ratio:	16:9
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	1 786 kb/s
Audio
Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/098C9FE887F92B8/Tokyo.Noir.2004.DVDRip.x264.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Masato Ishioka & Naoto Kumazawa – Tokyo Noir (2004) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A tough woman is dragging a weaker man deeper and deeper into crime. Woman cop Miki is chasing a wanted man when she stumbles on a crashed car and sees the driver, Koichi, ignite spilled petrol to kill himself and his passenger. She drags Koichi to safety, but the passenger dies. Miki says nothing to challenge the inquest finding of `accidental death’, and when she visits Koichi in hospital he begins to understand that her complicity in his crime implies a sexual invitation. But a gumshoe has photos of the crash, and the only way to stall his blackmail is to kill him, the first of several murders…

Dogs.1998.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 18 min
Size: 	1.34 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	706x480 ~> 706x529
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	29.970 fps
Bit rate: 	2 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.197
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/CF9DB4C0139FD0D/Dogs.1998.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/17829BEF52D2E92/Dogs.srt

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Shunichi Nagasaki – Doggusu AKA Dogs (1998) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A set of twins — one a hard-working student and the other a drifter — team up with a dropout to unlock the secrets of the universe and to build one of their own.

3.41GB | 2h 13m | 1024×548 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/A92F5A955B1FC32/God’s.Puzzle.2008.WEBRIP.576p.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Takashi Miike – Kamisama no pazuru AKA God’s Puzzle (2008) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis;
A troubled and perverted family find their lives intruded by a mysterious stranger who seems to help find a balance in their disturbing natures.

A father, who is a failed former television reporter tries to mount a documentary about violence and sex among youths. He proceeds to have sex with his daughter who is now a prostitute and films his son being humiliated and hit by classmates. “Q”, a perfect stranger somehow gets involved and enter the bizzare family who’s son beats his mom, who in turn is also a prostitute and a heroin addict…

1.29GB | 1h 24mn | 714×480 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/1FD1190029FA522/Visitor.Q.2001.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv
or
https://fikper.com/GxoEZ7ENYO/Visitor.Q.2001.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Takashi Miike – Bijitâ Q AKA Visitor Q (2001) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Allegedly based on a number of true cases, The Guys From Paradise is a prison story set in the Phillipines against a background of corruption, drug trafficking and paedophilia. This being a Takashi Miike film however, the results are far from conventional. It’s essentially a film of two parts: the first set in a prison named “Paradise” where a small community of Japanese prisoners led by veteran criminal Yoshida (Tsutomu Yamazaki) enjoy a life of relative freedom and privilege, the second the story of their exploits outside prison walls with police and a deranged yakuza on their trail.

Central figure is Kohei Hayakawa (Koji Kikkawa), a promising young corporate upstart, sent to Paradise prison on a false charge of possession of heroin. Arriving in a suit and carrying a suitcase of his belongings as he makes his way through the dirty, overpopulated concrete corridors, he assumes his lawyer will have no problem getting him out. When the message arrives that the only thing that will make him a free man is bribe money rather than evidence of his innocence, Kohei realises his old life of luxury is over and slowly surrenders to his fate, becoming increasingly close with the community of Japanese prisoners he was adopted into upon his arrival. The group is soon expanded with the inclusion of a female member from the neighbouring women’s jail (played by Nene Otsuka), whose presence greatly attributes to Kohei’s decision to leave his fiancée and devote his life to the illicit dealings of his convict compatriates, all of whom seem to have adopted to their more primitive surroundings as a means of survival.

Though somewhat overlong, The Guys From Paradise paints a lurid portrait of The Phillipines as a country awash with all manner of vice, symbolising a side of Asia which the civilised Japanese have lost touch with. Even though they hold a position of privilege, their suits and ties won’t protect them from being swallowed up by this more savage society. Harking back to the theme of Miike’s earlier festival hit The Bird People in China (Chugoku No Chojin, 1998), The Guys from Paradise expresses the feeling that Japan has had to pay for all its economic and social advancement with the loss of its Asian roots. But rather than simply rehash Bird People’s stranger-in-a-strange-land premise, this film takes a step further and suggests that the only way to survive and – as the hilarious surprise dénouement proves – emerge victorious is to adapt and embrace those Asian roots, and to construct a synthesis with neighbouring cultures.

Despite a talky first half, the film emerges as quite a grabber, especially when the pace and the weirdness are turned up a few notches in trusted Miike fashion. There are good performances by Tsutomu Yamazaki, a veteran of stage and screen who played one of the kidnappers in Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (Tengoku To Jigoku, 1963), and by Kenichi Endo, who once again flips his lid with gusto, much like he did in Miike’s other films of the same year: Family and Visitor Q. Amusing cameos are supplied by comedian Naoto Takenaka and Mitsuhiro Oikawa, who plays a comic variation on his character in the director’s The City of Lost Souls (Hyoryu Gai, 2000), complete with ping pong bat.

In big contrast however, there is lead actor Koji Kikkawa. Another The City of Lost Souls alumnus – he played the trench coated killer – his performance here is embarrassingly bad in places and shows that the former singer has the greatest of troubling conveying subtlety in his expressions and emotions. His exaggerated mannerisms might be intentional, like the body language of a wide-eyed young man trapped in an unknown situation, but most of the time he trudges around in such a clumsy manner you’d swear he’s performing in leg braces.

Still, with its exotic locations, typically warped supporting characters and strong dramatic drive, The Guys from Paradise is once again a highly rewarding cinematic experience courtesy of the uniquely gifted Takashi Miike.

1.37GB | 1 h 53 min | 660×364 | avi

http://nitroflare.com/view/C9386CBD666FFFF/The_Guys_From_Paradise_-_CD1_-_2000.ogm
http://nitroflare.com/view/001E84DBA386E15/The_Guys_From_Paradise_-_CD1_-_2000.srt
https://nitro.download/view/A31BFCE711CBE20/The_Guys_From_Paradise_-_CD2_-_2000.ogm
http://nitroflare.com/view/2AB861B42FA1326/The_Guys_From_Paradise_-_CD2_-_2000.srt

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Takashi Miike – Tengoku kara kita otoko-tachi AKA The Guys from Paradise (2000) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis
In this erotically charged drama, Shizuko (Aya Sugimoto) is a beautiful and talented dancer who feels like her husband no longer cares for her, and has begun to indulge in sexual fantasies of sadomasochistic edge play. When her husband falls deep in debt to a powerful gangster, Shizuko is kidnapped by members of the yakuza and held for ransom until he makes good on what he owes. To prove they mean business, the gangsters force Shizuko to take part in a series of perverse S & M performances, but Shizuko finds that her “punishment” is beginning to reflect the rough treatment of which she’s been dreaming. Hana to Hebi (aka Flower and Snake) was written and directed by Japanese underground auteur Takashi Ishii, adapted from a novel by Oniroku Dan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

http://www.nitroflare.com/view/06C8916214F1BA3/Hana.to.Hebi.2003.DVDRip.XviD.AC3.CD1-MaRu.avi
http://www.nitroflare.com/view/2D0323F39BAC3EC/Hana.to.Hebi.2003.DVDRip.XviD.AC3.CD1-MaRu.srt
https://nitro.download/view/285101B38184CC7/Hana.to.Hebi.2003.DVDRip.XviD.AC3.CD2-MaRu.avi
http://www.nitroflare.com/view/BD2D79947FC2F4E/Hana.to.Hebi.2003.DVDRip.XviD.AC3.CD2-MaRu.srt

Language:English
Subtitles:English

The post Takashi Ishii – Hana to hebi aka Flower and Snake (2004) first appeared on Cinema of the World.