Posts Tagged ‘Japanese cinema’
A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness Blu-ray Review: A (Golf) Star Is Born
The film fully proves that Suzuki’s maverick nature wasn’t dulled by his ten years in feature film purgatory.
Read MoreV-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal Blu-ray Review: Violence & Sex Galore!
These aren’t the greatest films Japan has to offer, but they are mostly entertaining and enjoyable distractions.
Read MoreUnderworld Beauty Blu-ray Review: Nikkatsu Noir
While Suzuki exhibits some hints of his later iconoclastic directorial style, he’s mostly content here to color within the noir lines.
Read MoreYokohama BJ Blues Blu-ray Review: BJ’s Long Goodbye
Considering the minimal financial resources available to director Eiichi Kudo, this competent if unremarkable crime film is a minor miracle.
Read MoreRyuichi Sakamoto | Opus Blu-ray Review: Art is Long, Life is Short
Opus is a solo concert film produced a few months before Ryuichi Sakamoto’s death in 2023, comprising 20 pieces covering his five-decade career.
Read MoreTomie Blu-ray Review: Strictly for Junji Ito Completionists
Oikawa’s film adaptation of Tomie pales in comparison to its source material, with none of the manga’s suspense and barely any supernatural elements.
Read MoreDogra Magra Blu-ray Review: Matsumoto’s Swan Song
While it isn’t nearly as bonkers as its premise, it is a thoroughly entertaining and expertly crafted epilogue to Matsumoto’s notable film career.
Read MoreThe Sting of Death (1990) Blu-ray Review: Love, Lies, and Madness
An elliptical, unnerving film about infidelity, love, marriage and the sacrifices couples make for each other, even their sanity.
Read MoreThe Threat Blu-ray Review: Battle of Wits Royale
Fukasaku expertly ratchets up the tension throughout the film, turning an initially tense situation into a pulse-pounding game of wits.
Read MoreEighteen Years in Prison Blu-ray Review: Life After the War
First time on Blu-ray, this film explores the terror of post-war Japan and imprisonment for crimes necessary to survive.
Read MoreSympathy for the Underdog Blu-ray Review: Crime Takes a Holiday
Anchored by Tsuruta’s incredible performance, Fukasaku’s film lives up to its title by generating massive sympathy for its inspiring underdog.
Read MoreA Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu
Previously released on Criterion DVD in 2004, this Ozu double feature finally gets a Blu-ray upgrade with newly improved technical specs.
Read MoreBlack Tight Killers Blu-ray Review: Branded to Thrill
Yasuharu Hasebe’s delirious caper oozes with style, and is better than ever in this new hi-def transfer restored by Radiance Films.
Read MorePerfect Days Movie Review: Wim Wenders Examines Perfect Solitude
Perfect Days is nominated for an Oscar this year for Best International Feature Film, and opens in U.S. theaters this week.
Read MoreElegant Beast Blu-ray Review: The Family That Scams Together
This adaptation of a stage play is a dark satire about Japanese life in the early ’60s.
Read MoreMasaaki Yuasa: Five Films Blu-ray Review: Time to Ride the Wave
The new box set is a treasure trove of content for Yuasa fans, and a great reminder of the impressive anime legacy he has crafted throughout his career.
Read MoreSamurai Wolf 1 & 2 Blu-ray Giveaway
There will be three winners.
Read MoreViolent Streets (1974) Blu-ray Review: Blood and Guts Yakuza Story
Real life former yakuza Noboru Ando plays a retired gangster who wants to escape a life that won’t leave him alone.
Read MoreSamurai Wolf 1 & 2 Blu-ray Review: A Scruffier Yojimbo
Hideo Gosha’s sword for hire stories depict an unkempt but decent ronin in a hellscape of dishonor and violence.
Read MoreA Fugitive from the Past Blu-ray Review: An Epic from the Past Finally Reaches USA
Director Tomu Uchida’s sprawling 1965 crime drama has finally arrived on home video for the first time outside of Japan.
Read MoreThe House of the Lost on the Cape Blu-ray Review: House of Lost Time
Kawatsura has the technical chops to put together a warm, good-looking film, but his treatment of the story is simply too precious to deliver any kind of payoff for viewers.
Read MoreHiroshima mon amour Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Rich and Rewarding Film
The performances of the two leads are masterful.
Read MorePoupelle of Chimney Town Blu-ray Review: A Whole New World
While the film just doesn’t flow as well as it could, the world building and character development are done with enough finesse to make the project worth watching.
Read MoreTo Sleep So as to Dream Blu-ray Review: Ode to Silent Japanese Cinema
A startlingly weird directorial debut about detectives searching for a kidnapped girl, made in the style of a silent film.
Read MoreThe Legend of the Stardust Brothers DVD Review: ’80s Japanese Manic Musical
Directed by the son of Osamu Tezuka, this film is several music videos in search of a story… that somehow works.
Read MoreDrive My Car Movie Review: A Sublime Journey
As the least-known contender in this year’s Oscar Best Picture nominees, Drive My Car has the best opportunity to surprise Western viewers unfamiliar with its story or cast. Thankfully, it takes full advantage of that opportunity, with director and co-screenwriter Ryusuke Hamaguchi somehow managing to turn a minor Haruki Murakami short story into a three-hour…
Read MoreRed Angel (1966) Blu-ray Review: Disturbing War Hospital Drama
Yasuzo Masamura’s dark drama about a nurse who struggles to maintain her humanity in the hell of war.
Read MoreWife of a Spy Blu-ray Review: Understated Japanese Spy Thriller
Yu Aoi’s brilliant performance bolsters Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s story in ‘40s Japan of a woman convinced her husband is a spy.
Read MoreBlind Beast Blu-ray Review: An Assured Vision by Director Yasuzo Masumura
The film is at its best when the captive Aki starts poking apart the relationship dynamic between the fully grown but totally dependent man and his nurturing old mother.
Read MoreThe Daimajin Trilogy Limited Edition Blu-ray Box Set: Stone Cold Kaiju Action
Generally overlooked in the West, but thanks to this expertly produced new box set the films have a much better chance to connect with discerning kaiju fans.
Read MoreIrezumi Blu-ray Review: Kiss of the Spider Woman
Another gem in Arrow Video’s rapidly expanding roster of spectacular niche films, and well worth adding to the library of all fans of Japanese cinema.
Read MoreIrezumi (1966) Blu-ray Review: Revenge and Obsession
A tattoo transforms a geisha into a spirit of vengeance in this moody period drama from Yasuzo Masumura.
Read MoreThe Invisible Man Appears Blu-ray Review: It Can Finally Be Seen
As the first existing tokusatsu, The Invisible Man Appears is massively important to Japanese history.
Read MoreSurvivor Ballads: Three Films by Shohei Imamura Blu-ray Review: Stories of Hardship and Endurance
Imamura’s ’80s era films demonstrate the famed director’s realist and humanist outlook with a trenchant mix of tragedy and satire.
Read MoreGraveyards of Honor Blu-ray Review: Grim Yakuza Renegade Dramas
Two adaptations of the same novel, made decades apart, about a yakuza too violent and self-destructive even for gang-life.
Read MoreWarning from Space Blu-ray Review: Starmen Waiting in the Sky
The first Japanese science fiction film shot in color is as surprisingly stylishly made as it is old-fashioned.
Read MoreBlack Test Car + The Black Report Blu-ray Review: Japanese Businessman Noir
Two ’60s crime thrillers by director Yasuzo Masumura that explore the dark side of post-war industrialized Japan.
Read MoreSukiyaki Western Django Blu-ray Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Quentin
Takashi Miike takes an inspired stab at the spaghetti Western genre.
Read MoreHiroshima Blu-ray Review: Unrelenting Terror
A documentary-style narrative film about the days following first atomic bomb dropping.
Read MoreThe Mad Fox Blu-ray Review: Kabuki-styled Cinematic Fantasia
Sometimes kabuki, sometimes animated, always fascinating, The Mad Fox is rife with political intrigue and forbidden romance.
Read MoreSolid Metal Nightmares: The Films of Shinya Tsukamoto Blu-ray Box Set Review
Arrow’s impressive box set contains a whopping 10 films surveying the career of this film auteur.
Read MoreInferno of Torture Blu-ray Review: Torsos, Tattoos, and Torture
Another in Teruo Ishii’s series of films depicting sadistic practices in Japanese history, all of which involve disrobing women.
Read MoreOne Missed Call Trilogy Blu-ray Review: Let This One Go to Voicemail
A spooky premise and an excellent set of extras can’t save this trilogy of films from getting hung up on.
Read MoreMillennium Actress Blu-ray Review: Animated Japanese Film Fantasia
Satoshi Kon’s second anime feature film about an actress’ pursuit of a lost love intertwines fiction and reality.
Read MoreRingu Collection Blu-ray Review: Ghostly Revenge, Again and Again
Four weird, gripping and often terrifying films of spectral revenge that began the J-horror boom are now on Blu-ray.
Read MoreRingu Blu-ray Review: One Ring That Started Them All
Arrow Video brings a new 4K restoration of this Japanese horror film that started a movement.
Read MoreThe Flavor of Green Tea over Rice Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Gentle Ozu Comedy
Grandmaster filmmaker Ozu’s minor, observant comedy about the growing differences between a middle-aged married couple.
Read MoreAkio Jissoji: The Buddhist Trilogy Blu-ray Review: New Wave Filmmaking, Naked Ladies
Challenging, evocative films from the Japanese New Wave that contemplate aspects of the Buddhist religion, with lots of sex.
Read MoreYakuza Law Blu-ray Review: Gory Fun Yakuza Anthology
Three fun but gory short stories of the Yakuza taking the law into their own hands, filled with bloody torture.
Read MoreNever-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki Blu-ray Review: Return of the King, or Don Quixote?
The legendary anime director emerges from retirement once again, with a documentary crew in tow exploring whether he’s still the master or just chasing an old man’s folly.
Read More