Posts Tagged ‘Japanese cinema’
Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki Blu-ray Review: Master Filmmaker’s New Challenge
An intimate look at Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s return from retirement to make a short CGI film.
Read MoreA Silent Voice Blu-ray Review: Bully Redemption in a Subdued Tone
An animated drama about a school bully picking on a deaf girl tells a story quiet about redemption and consequences.
Read MorePerfect Blue (1997) Blu-ray Review: Anime Psychothriller Lives Again
Satoshi Kon’s animated psychological thriller is a mind-bending story of violence and personality crisis in the Japanese pop world.
Read MoreThe Street Fighter Collection Blu-ray Review: A Thrilling Action Trilogy
Well worth adding to any martial-arts fan’s collection.
Read MoreLiz and the Blue Bird Blu-ray Review: Take a Flyer on This Moving Anime Film
Close friends face the end of high school and differing plans for the future.
Read MoreMaquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms Blu-ray Review: Anime at Its Finest
Veteran scriptwriter Mari Okada makes a dazzling directorial debut.
Read MoreAudition Blu-ray Review: Family Drama Turns Violent
Takashi Miike’s disturbing melodrama gets a nice restoration from Arrow Video.
Read MoreLu Over the Wall Blu-ray Review: Vampire Mermaids Warm the Heart
A boy befriends a mermaid, and director Masaaki Yuasa reigns in his anarchic animation style…for a little while.
Read MoreMaquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms Blu-ray Review: Emotional, Poignant Fantasy Epic
This visually arresting fantasy story of a mother and son that pulls at the heartstrings (and the tear ducts).
Read MoreThe Night Is Short, Walk on Girl Blu-ray Review: A Long, Strange Trip
Funny, bizarre, and strangely obsessed with underpants, this Japanese animated comedy deserves to be seen.
Read MoreA Story from Chikamatsu Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Tale Worth Watching
Criterion continues their welcome attention to the works of director Kenji Mizoguchi with this superb new Blu-ray release.
Read MoreShoplifters Movie Review: A Potent Mix of Pragmatism and Empathy
Shoplifters is a well-acted, bittersweet ode to the impoverished.
Read MoreOrgies of Edo Blu-ray Review: Torture, Surrealism, and Topless Women
Teruo Ishii’s strange anthology of period stories of sex and torture is more bizarre than erotic, though entertaining.
Read MoreMetropolis (2001) Blu-ray Review: Visually Opulent, Narratively Dormant Adaptation
Inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s manga and Fritz Lang’s movie, this anime has style in excess…but lacks a cohesive story.
Read MoreHorrors of Malformed Men Blu-ray Review: Complete Malformed Japanese Madness
Teruo Ishii’s strangest film of murder, doppelgangers, and the titular malformed men finally makes it to Blu-ray.
Read MoreBloody Spear at Mount Fuji Blu-ray Review: Low on Blood, High on Social Commentary
Despite the lurid title, Tomu Uchida’s most famous work is more social commentary road movie than samurai action film.
Read MoreMind Game (2004) Blu-ray Review: Endlessly Confusing, Endlessly Fascinating
Masaaki Yuasa’s debut animated feature is a kaleidoscope of images and scenes that, miraculously, make a coherent (if confusing) film.
Read MoreStreet Mobster Blu-ray Review: Gritty, Nasty Yakuza Drama
Kinji Fukasaku’s brings docu-drama realism and brutal ugliness to the Yakuza genre in this gritty film.
Read MoreThe Third Murder Movie Review: All Justice, No Truth
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s keen observation of human interaction is brought to a courtroom drama, winner of six Japanese Academy awards.
Read MoreDetective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! Blu-ray Review: Undercover Yakuza Hijinks
Released in 1963, director Seijun Suzuki was on the brink of his artistic breakthrough with this comic gangland picture.
Read MoreMishima: A Life in Four Chapters Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Portrait of the Artist As a Fascinating Man
Director Paul Schrader crafts a daring, spellbinding biography of Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.
Read MoreThe Bloodthirsty Trilogy Blu-ray Review: Dracula Goes East
Three Japanese movies directed by Michio Yamamoto that involve Western-style vampires, with style, atmosphere, and some decent sprays of blood.
Read MoreSeijun Suzuki: The Early Years Vol. 2 Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies Blu-ray Review: Nikkatsu Noir
Five early films by Seijun Suzuki spotlight Nikkatsu’s early 60s trends and the director’s growing ambition.
Read MoreIchi the Killer Blu-ray Review: Blood-soaked Fun
Well Go USA’s new 4K transfer of Takashi Miike’s splatter classic gives you all the gore you can handle in pristine high definition.
Read MoreFathom Events and GKIDS Present Mary and the Witch’s Flower
Studio Ponoc, heir apparent to Studio Ghibli, proves they have taken the animated torch and ran with it.
Read MoreAn Actor’s Revenge Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Kabuki Costumes in Modernist Cinema
Kon Ichikawa’s remake of a ’30s movie dresses a stagey plot in innovative cinematic stylings.
Read MoreBlade of the Immortal Blu-ray Review: The Immortal Takashi Miike
Veteran director Takashi Miike reaches the unimaginable milestone of his 100th film with this spellbinding supernatural samurai tale.
Read MoreNapping Princess Blu-ray Review: Don’t Sleep on This
Veteran anime writer/director Kenji Kamiyama successfully launches a delightful new property.
Read MoreThe Green Slime (1968) Blu-ray Review: Would You Believe It When You’re Dead?
The Warner Archive Collection gives the campy U.S./Japanese cult classic a stellar new HD transfer.
Read MoreBook Review: Unchained Melody: The Films of Meiko Kaji by Tom Mes
A loving, informative reading on the films of a Japanese icon.
Read MoreNew Battles Without Honor and Humanity Blu-ray Box Set Review: Movies with Honor
Director Kinji Fukasaku and star Junta Sugawara team up again for more impressive results.
Read MoreBook Review: Unchained Melody: The Films of Meiko Kaji by Tom Mes
Arrow Books presents a critical overview of Lady Snowblood’s entire career.
Read MoreHana-bi Blu-ray Review: Violence, Beauty, and Beautiful Violence
Takeshi Kitano’s first international success is unique, enigmatic and frequently beautiful.
Read MoreNew Battles Without Honor and Humanity: The Complete Trilogy Blu-ray Review: More Frenzied Yakuza Madness
Returning to his Yakuza series a whole six months after the last, Fukasaku covers similar ground, but finds new angles.
Read MoreBrutal Tales of Chivalry (1965) Blu-ray Review: Who Says Chivalry Is Dead?
The one and only Ken Takakura shows those young upstarts how to do it in this early yakuza offering from Toei and Twilight Time.
Read MoreAfter the Storm (2016) Blu-ray Review: Human Drama is Equally Sad, Sweet
Japanese director Kore-Eda continues career-long streak of touching, humorous and very human dramas.
Read MoreIn This Corner of the World Movie Review: Daily Life in Wartime
A personal perspective on war is shown in this anime about a daydreaming house-wife’s life in Japan in WWII.
Read MorePulse (2001) Blu-ray Review: Loneliness Is Hell
Japanese horror doesn’t so much scare, but fills you with unnamed dread.
Read MoreDoberman Cop (1977) Blu-ray Review: Sonny Chiba Does It Doggy Style
Arrow Video unleashes a truly mind-blowing 1970s exploitation action-comedy equivalent to fusion cuisine starring the larger-than-life Shin’ichi Chiba.
Read MoreWolf Guy (1975) Blu-ray Review: Lycanthropy, Grindhouse Style
Arrow Video throws us a bone in the form of a shapeshifting werewolf feller like no other.
Read MoreDoberman Cop (1977) Blu-ray Review: Sonny Chiba’s Hick Dirty Harry
Entertaining cop movie despite a wildly fluctuating tone, a departure from director Fukasaku’s harder-edged Yakuza material.
Read MoreCops vs. Thugs (1975) Blu-ray Review: Kon’nichiwa, Dirty Harry-san!
Arrow Video busts Kinji Fukasaku’s gritty, offbeat crime drama out of the Toei vaults.
Read MoreCops vs. Thugs (1975) Blu-ray Review: Corrupt Cops Combat Corporatization
A vintage Yakuza story by Fukasaku in his prime about the corrupt links between cops and gangs.
Read MoreWolf Guy Blu-ray Review: Too Much Guy, Not Enough Wolf
A bizarre genre mashup gives plenty of ’70s exploitation awesomeness, but very little werewolf.
Read MoreThe Yakuza (1974) Blu-ray Review: That Time Robert Mitchum Went to Japan
Like a trusty katana, the Warner Archive Collection whips out this neglected, gritty, emotional ’70s cult classic with much grace and dignity.
Read MoreGood Morning (1959) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Japanese Master’s Flatulent Comedy
One of the great filmmakers of the 20th century fills his domestic comedy with wistfulness, charm…and fart jokes.
Read MoreKiju Yoshida: Love + Anarchism Blu-ray Review: Radical Politics and Radical Filmmaking
Thematic trilogy from a Japanese master, these three films are designed to be as beautiful, and baffling, as possible.
Read MoreDead or Alive Trilogy Blu-ray Review: Literally Explosive Cinematic Madness
Yakuza blow up the world, and that’s just first film of this loose trilogy starring Show Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi.
Read MoreMifune: The Last Samurai DVD Review: Japan’s Greatest Actor Profiled
Informative, engaging overview of the actor’s life and work, both with Akira Kurosawa and beyond.
Read MoreTampopo Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: An Endearing, Sensual, and Tasty Experience
Sweet, sexy, and hilarious food for thought.
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