DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Eleven Samurai DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/57838 Sat, 10 Nov 2012 13:33:24 UTC Highly Recommended

THE PROGRAM

"Eleven Samurai" marks the third film in director Eiichi Kudo's trilogy of samurai films. Those having seen both "Thirteen Assassins" and "The Great Killing" might approach "Eleven Samurai" expecting a familiar cinematography, but completely unsure of how Kudo will handle the tone of the film. The tonal shift between his two former films strongly cements Kudo as a master filmmaker, showing he can handle both grand scale and intimate narratives set in a very large, living world. "Eleven Samurai" sadly and thankfully doesn't deviate from those films, instead choosing to couple Kudo's beautifully shot style with the best of both worlds, resulting in a story viewers are certain they know the outcome to, but will be pleasantly surprised in...Read the entire review

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Lone Wolf and Cub: Complete Six-Film Collection (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/56970 Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:03:38 UTC Rent It

In a nutshell, this new Blu-Ray collection from AnimEigo collects all six original Lone Wolf and Cub films, adapted from the popular manga created by Kazuo Koike. Produced and released between 1972 and 1974, they captured the books' colorful celebration of poetic violence, bloodshed and revenge. These six films are briefly summarized below, followed by a technical review of AnimEigo's Blu-Ray collection.


Sword of Vengeance (1972) introduces us to Ogami Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama, who stars in all six films), a skilled swordsman and wandering ...Read the entire review

]]> The Great Killing DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/56421 Sat, 14 Jul 2012 07:17:27 UTC Highly Recommended

THE PROGRAM

"The Great Killing" marks the second of an informal trilogy of samurai films by director Eiichi Kudo. Beginning with the intense (but more restrained than its 2010 remake) "Thirteen Assassins," Kudo moved onto to direct this film, which is often heralded as his masterpiece. The relative premise of the film is quite simple: a power-hungry feudal lord is targeted for assassination by a band of samurai, but before the killing can take place, the plan is revealed and an intense manhunt is launched, resulting a tense dramatic offering that rewards viewers with a fantastic, shocking finale, logically built upon a fascinating character study of a large band of characters with different motives and beliefs.

Read the entire review

]]> 13 Assassins [1963] DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/55509 Thu, 07 Jun 2012 11:43:47 UTC Highly Recommended

THE PROGRAM

Somehow last year, I managed to completely find myself oblivious to the fact that Takashi Miike's magnificent "13 Assassins" was in fact a remake of a 1963 tale of the same name by legendary director Eiichi Kudo. The film was the starting point for an informal trilogy by Kudo that also includes "The Great Killing" and "Eleven Samurai." While Kudo's film may predate Miike's by nearly 50 years, it is no less technically proficient and what it lacks in sheer spectacle, it makes up for in unbridled artistry and philosophy. The two films make an interesting double-feature, as both are both masterpieces that provide a stunning example of how the concept of a remake can be a very positive factor.

As in Miike's film, the general driving point of the st...Read the entire review

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Sword of Desperation DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/54238 Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:49:48 UTC Highly Recommended

THE PROGRAM

Given the source material of Hideyuki Hirayama's "Sword of Desperation," it's a bit puzzling why two years after it's original release it's showing up quietly on DVD. Based off the novel of Shuhei Fujisawa, the writer behind "The Twilight Samurai," "The Hidden Blade," and "Love and Honor," a thematic trilogy of Samurai films brought to the big screen by Yoji Yamada, "Sword of Desperation" is easily more trying than any of those three films, but no less emotionally gratifying.

"Sword of Desperation" initially leaves viewers in a haze ...Read the entire review

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The Clone Returns Home DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/52019 Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:44:25 UTC Highly Recommended

THE PROGRAM

In move of being half-joking, half-serious, AnimEigo's release of "The Clone Returns Home" sports a notice in the section usually reserved for warnings of nudity, language, or violence. It reads, "WARNING: Contains Significant Amounts of Philosophy." Released in early 2009 in it's native Japan, the film is just now reaching shores, unfortunately on the heels of a 2009 sci-fi film that I won't name for fear of spoiling both films. I mention this only because on the surface "The Clone Returns Home" will draw comparisons to that film, despite the similarities only being surface. Written and directed by Kanji Nakajima, "The Clone Returns Home" was a film I approached with heavy bias, coming off viewing Nakajima's two short films "Fe" and "The Box" a day or two...Read the entire review

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Revenge DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/48496 Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:34:22 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:

Made by underrated Japanese director Tadashi Imai in 1964 for Toei Studios, Revenge is a grim and gritty samurai film that beings, quite simply, with an argument. Set in feudal times under the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate we see the Shogun's Inspector, Okuno Magodayu, inspecting an arms warehouse inside a castle. He finds a tiny bit of dirt on one of the spears being stored there and makes a comment that offends Ezaki Shinpachi (Nakamura Kinnosuke). The two argue about the minor issue and soon enough Magodayu feels insulted and challenges Ezaki, unhappy that someone beneath him would talk to him in such a way. The end result is that Magodayu is killed, an event which basically launches a feud between the Shinpachi family and the Okuno family, and as is typical with situations like this, it does not end well, particularly once Magodayu's brother (Tetsuro Tamba) shows ...Read the entire review

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The Secret of the Urn DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/49556 Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:48:00 UTC Recommended

The Film:




Hideo Gosha's early film The Secret of the Urn proves that a storied, eye-grabbing antihero can't always power an entry in samurai cinema on his own, even if he comes rather close to doing do. With a scarred face and a nasty snarl, let alone one of his arms missing, watching Japanese legend Kinnosuke Nakamura cut through enemies in Gosha's distinctive no-frills sword duels can be an exhilarating experience, easily the central draw to this bald-faced escapade. Though instead of the thoughtful ruminations that populate the director's yakuza pictures Onimasa and The Wolves, or his daring flare ...Read the entire review

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Sleepy Eyes of Death - Collector's Set, Vol. 2 (Sword of Fire / Sword of Satan / The Mask of the Princess / Sword of Villainy) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/48389 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:47:07 UTC Highly Recommended

Middle-period entries in Daiei Studios' 12-film Kyoshiro Nemuri series, released here under its popularly-known English name, Sleepy Eyes of Death - Collector's Set, Vol. 2, this four-film set is chanbara melodrama at its finest and features Raizo Ichikawa (VIII) in the title role. Though infinitely more prolific with 158 films to his credit, Ichikawa's premature death in 1969 at the age of 37 and a fiercely loyal fan base begat an enduring cult status for the actor in Japan that might be likened to James Dean's in America.

The movies are typical of Japanese genre filmmaking during the 1960s. On one hand their plots are highly repetitive and draw heavily on genre clichés but the filmmaking is consistently polished and highly imaginative - much more, in fact, than the average program pictures being made by Hollywood at the same time. In short, sophisticated filmmakers and actors workin...Read the entire review

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Shinsengumi Chronicles: I Want to Die a Samurai DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/45716 Fri, 24 Dec 2010 21:33:56 UTC Recommended

The Film:




You don't stumble onto many more loaded titles than that of I Want To Die a Samurai, the subtext underneath the more prominently-featured Shinsengumi Chronicles. Those six words tell a story in themselves; they affirm one's willingness to die for the code of honor that a samurai upholds, while also suggesting a hit of idealism in its tone. These elements surround the fabric of Lone Wolf and Cub and Zatoichi director Misumi Kenji's early film about the Shinsengumi during the mid-'1800s, a division of Shogunate supporter samurai in Kyoto. A real-life account of the tumultuous time in the faction's midst leads into what's considered one of the more apt portrayals of the Ikedaya Incident, an event where the Shinsen...Read the entire review

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Samurai Vendetta DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/46079 Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:06:27 UTC Skip It

THE MOVIE:

As the new AnimEigo disc of the 1959 Japanese movie Samurai Vendetta (Hakuôki) loads, there is a helpful screen that informs viewers that the movie is so tied into the popular legend of the 47 Ronin, those who aren't familiar with the tale might want to check out the on-disc liner notes before watching Vendetta, lest they find the flick impenetrable. Great, that was actually really informative. Now what do you do if you find it impenetrably boring?

Samurai Vendetta starts out well enough. Nakayama Yasubei (Shintaro Katsu, who was soon to become Zatoichi) is hauling butt to get to a fight where his sword fighting school is settling a rivalry with another school. He is stopped by a noble samurai named Tangé Tenzen (Raizo...Read the entire review

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Shogun Assassin (Blu-ray) Blu-ray https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/43813 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:59:40 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

Imagine this - it's the fall of 1980 and the downtown movie palaces-turned-grindhouses, for a time spared the wrecking ball thanks to the sudden popularity of martial arts movies made in the wake of Enter the Dragon (1973), now with few exceptions have closed forever. These same movies, heavily edited and horribly panned-and-scanned, were starting to turn up on TV, exiled to UHF channels, but these movies were from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or the Philippines generally - rarely were they Japanese. You might have caught Seven Samurai when it aired on PBS, or a revival of Yojimbo on some college campus, but in those days when cable TV was in its infancy and VHS and Betamax were luxuries few could afford, Japanese swordplay movies were otherwise next to impossible to see.

But then all at once, within just a few weeks of one another during October and November 1980, flashing swords suddenl...Read the entire review

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Blind Menace DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/42862 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:23:26 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movie:

Predating the Zatoichi series for which he'll always be remembered, Blind Menace sees the late, great Shintaro Katsu playing an entirely different sort of blind masseuse. When the film begins, we learn that even at a young age Suginoichi had a taste for crime when we watch him pick his nose and flick it into a pail of sake some men are enjoying. They obviously don't want it once he's done what he's done to it, so he brings it home to his mother to enjoy. Fast forward a few years and Sugaioichi's vile ways have only gotten worse. We see him now in his early twenties, venturing through rural Japan when he comes across a man in pain. He offers him his services and when he finds out that the man is carrying two hundred Ryo, he kills him and takes the money. What Suginoichi didn't realize is that a crook named 'Severed Head' has seen him commit murder. He offers the man...Read the entire review

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Ultimate Samurai Miyamoto Musashi DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/43153 Sat, 22 May 2010 16:32:10 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

The Movie Series:
 
Miyamoto Musashi, the famous Japanese sword fighter, hasbeen immortalized in many books and movies. In the US,the most well known adaptation of his life is Hiroshi Inagaki's threefilmcycle Samurai that has beenreleased on DVD by Criterion.  Animeigo hasjust released another multi-filmbiopic of the warrior's life, Uchida Tomu's five-movie Miyamoto Musashiseries.  Going into the set I didn'tthink it would equal the excellent Samurai films, but I was pleasantlysurprised.  The 10-hour saga iswonderful, presenting a conflicted and multi-layered c...Read the entire review

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Japan at War DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/42074 Sun, 28 Mar 2010 01:17:52 UTC Highly Recommended

THE PROGRAM

Four movies: an unflinching harrowing epic, an ultimately embarrassing biopic, an incredibly taut political thriller, and a heartbreakingly honest drama. Animeigo's four-disc box set appropriately titled "Japan at War" gathers the previously mentioned films for film fans to digest. The four films, "Battle of Okinawa," "Father of the Kamikaze," "Japan's Longest Day," and "Black Rain (Kuroi ame)" have all been previously released on DVD, with the latter arriving last October. Here however, they provide a wide reaching look at key events in the history of World War II from a Japanese prospective, with some films being utter masterpieces, while others reaching for the same heights, with varying degrees of success.

Battle of Okinawa

Kihachi Okamoto's "Battle for Okinawa" is one of two films by the director in this set, the other being the fantastic "Ja...Read the entire review

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Bushido - The Cruel Code of the Samurai DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/41044 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:03:56 UTC DVD Talk Collector Series

Though widely regarded as one of Japan's greatest filmmakers - during the 1950s, his movies won Kinema Jumpo's annual Best Film Award five times - Tadashi Imai (1912-1991) is a director whose movies have been frustratingly hard to see in the west. Bushido - The Cruel Code of the Samurai (Bushidô zankoku monogatari , 1963) represents the first official DVD release of an Imai film in America.

It's an excellent if almost unbearably, relentlessly depressing film that's innovative and unusual in many ways, and it features a revelatory performance by star Kinnosuke Nakamura. AnimEigo's transfer is excellent, and the supplements help put the film and its story into historical and cultural context.


Japanese DVD cover art, adapted from the original one-she...Read the entire review

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Onimasa - A Japanese Godfather DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/40887 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:13:35 UTC Highly Recommended

Japanese director Hideo Gosha (1929-1992) specialized in yakuza stories and samurai dramas, and while he isn't quite as well known as, say, directors Kinji Fukasaku or Seijun Suzuki, his films are arguably superior. For one thing they tend to be much more polished and carefully crafted than Fukasaku's and less distractingly pretentious than Suzuki's. And, more to the point, Gosha's movies are subtly unique, unlike those of any other Japanese filmmaker. He's at his best doing pictures like Onimasa - A Japanese Godfather (1982) - epic and engrossing portraits of a yakuza or samurai clan's rise and fall over several decades, films that tend to be hugely critical of bushido and supposed yakuza chivalry while simultaneously romanticizing that way of life. His best films most remind this reviewer of Francis Ford Coppola at his peak - Gosha's Hunter in the Dark and this have more in commo...Read the entire review

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Tora-San: Collector's Set 1 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/40750 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:25:33 UTC Highly Recommended

THE MOVIES:

I wasn't sure what to expect when I signed on to review Tora-San: Collector's Set 1. I had read Stuart Galbraith IV's extensive reviews of the Japanese DVDs of this movie series over the years with some fascination. Forty-eight movies released nearly two a year from 1969 to 1996, starring the same actor in the lead and almost all directed by the same filmmaker--what a daunting and intriguing item. That's a lot of time to invest in one thing, but I've watched at least as many hours of various television series, invested t...Read the entire review

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Black Rain (Kuroi ame) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38513 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:11:48 UTC Highly Recommended

Did you know that two films released in 1989 were both entitled Black Rain, both set in Japan, and both had runtimes exceeding two hours? One was a typical (i.e., utterly forgettable and inconsequential) Hollywood exotic-locale, crime-thriller with a famous actor and director, and the other was an arthouse drama by legendary director of the Japanese New Wave Shohei Imamura about the physical and psychological aftermath of the American nuclear attack on Hiroshima. I had the misfortune of seeing the Hollywood film in the theater in 1989, but had to wait another twenty years to finally see Mr. Imamura's masterpiece on DVD.

Black Rain (Kuroi ame) begins on the morning of August 6, 1945. It's a hot, but otherwise typical, Monday morning. An air raid siren s...Read the entire review

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Black Rain (AnimEigo Release) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/40585 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:12:39 UTC Highly Recommended

The Film:


Black Rain (Kuroi Ame), Shohei Imamura's potent film about the World War II bombing in Hiroshima, delivers one of the strongest narratives that I've encountered in foreign cinema. This intricate masterwork does innumerable things correctly where other war films go awry. Instead of slapping on too much material and lambasting the viewer with ridiculous levels of military stratagems, Imamura's piece instead concentrates on afterthoughts and character reverberations through an acute visual style. Outside of the condemnation of military strife, this film serves more as a portrait of the time period instead of a message-based delivery. However, Black Rain does take on a theme revolving ...Read the entire review

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The Samurai I Loved DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/38293 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:17:11 UTC Rent It

The Film:


Those accustomed to the deliberate yet powerful film adaptations of Shûhei Fujisawa's novels, namely Twilight Samurai and Love and Honor, will find The Samurai I Loved (aka Semishigure, or In Chorus of Cicadas) excruciatingly familiar. Sadly, in this case, that's not a good thing; the absence of Yôji Yamada is certainly felt, as Mitsuo Kurotsuchi adamantly tries to replicate the tone from his successful samurai dramas with little avail. Though aptly performed and attractively photographed in a similar fashion, it instead makes us appreciate the delicate directorial measures taken by Yamada to keep Fujisawa's novels compelling within their pacing, instead of this drab, ...Read the entire review

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Sleepy Eyes of Death: Collector's Set, Vol. 1 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37909 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:12:54 UTC Highly Recommended

The Movies:

Based on a popular series of Japanese novels, the Sleepy Eyes Of Death films follow a nihilist ronin named Nemuri Kyoshiro. While the initial wave of films began with three entries that were made by Toho between 1956 and 1958 and starred Koji Tsuruta in the lead role, the better known wave began in 1963 with The Chinese Jade. The first to feature popular actor Ichikawa Raizo in the role, Daiei Studios would have the actor return eleven more times before his all too early death in 1969. Animeigo released the first six films of the sixties/Raizo run on VHS and is now releasing the series on DVD much to the delight of samurai movie fans around the country.

The Chinese Jade (1963):

The first entry introduces us to Nemuri Kyoshiro, a strange looking masterless samurai who is feared throughout the land for his signature technique, the Full Moon Cut. Wh...Read the entire review

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Shinobi No Mono, Vol. 4: Siege DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/37667 Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:45:44 UTC Rent It

Part of the love of any film series is following a character. That's usually the linchpin. You can even replace a lead actor or reinvent a series but, so long as the main character remains familiar, people will still stick around. For me, that is where the Shinobi No Mono series stumbles. While actor Raizo Ichikawa sticks around, by this fourth film in the series Daiei producers must have felt they had mined enough out of the Ishikawa Goemon character and switched things up with Raizo playing a different historical ninja character, Saizo Kirigakure.

Just imagine, it's the 60's and you are going to see the new Sean Connery spy film, only instead of his playing James Bond he plays Ian Fleming's Frank Dudley. For all intents and purposes, the film is a James Bond film, same budget, story beats, and action trappings, except he's playing a lesser character. That is pretty much what happens in the <...Read the entire review

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The Loyal 47 Ronin (Chushingura) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36856 Sun, 05 Apr 2009 13:20:41 UTC Highly Recommended

Chushingura, also known as The Loyal 47 Ronin, is one of, if not the most frequently dramatized story in Japanese mass media. It's regularly adapted for long-form television and reportedly there have been around 200 movie versions dating back to the early silent era. (Probably that number includes TV-movies/series and one-reel silent films, if it's true at all....) And like oft-filmed western-world stories such as The Three Musketeers, the adventurers of Robin Hood, and Shakespeare's Hamlet, the story and its characters are so innately compelling that filmmakers are hard-pressed to do it badly. Some Chushinguras are more routine than others, but few could be called terrible. (On the other hand, a new adaptation to star Keanu Reeves is being discussed....)

Chushingura was also surefire box office and a means for each of the major Japanese movie studios ...Read the entire review

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Shinobi No Mono 3: Resurrection DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36714 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:23:43 UTC Recommended

Click for reviews of the first and second films.

Picking up directly where the last film left off, we find our hero Ishikawa Goemon (Raizo Ishikawa) on his way to a cliffhanger-worthy date with a vat of boiling oil, his punishment for the failed assassination of the evil Hideyoshi. Of course, the film isn't going to start with the gruesome death of the lead. Instead Goemon's fellow ninjas pull the ol' switcheroo and some poor sap is deep fired in Goemon's place. The "Ressurection" subtitle is quite fitting, he is saved from the brink of death and Goemon in this film is very much a man who is back from Hell.

Goemon takes to hiding out, keeping to the ruse of being dead, and this time he mostly shuns any help from his fractured ninj...Read the entire review

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The Geisha DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/36249 Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:16:36 UTC Recommended

Remember the melodramatic, historical miniseries of the 1970's and 80's? Add to that a dash of Dynasty-catfight and saucy Pinku, and you've got The Geisha (Yokiro), directed by Hideo Gosha.

Based on Tomiko Miyao's original story and set in 1930s Kochi, Japan, the film centers on Yokiro - the region's most distinguished and powerful geisha house - and the turbulent lives that are drawn to it.

Momowaka (Kimiko Ikegami), sold to Yokiro at age 12, has bested over 200 competitors to become top geisha. Despite a glamorous façade, Momowaka's life is largely empty and unsatisfying, with her beauty, talent, and wit wasted entertaining licentious patrons three-times her age.

Read the entire review

]]> Father of the Kamikaze DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35931 Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:11:51 UTC Recommended

Though it's not even listed on the Internet Movie Database, Father of the Kamikaze (Aa, kessen kokutai, 1974) was a massive production for Japan's Toei Studios. Trailers for the film touted its all-star cast - Koji Tsuruta, Bunta Sugawara, Akira Kobayashi, Kinya Kitaoji (mistranslated as "Kinja Kitaoshi" in the credits) - and high production cost, which at ¥500 million came to around $2 million back then - a lot of money at a time when the Japanese studio system had just recently collapsed and the industry generally was in dire straits.

In a sense, Toei had picked up the banner previously held by rival Toho Studios, which thanks to special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya had held a firm grip on the genre with such films as Storm Over the Pacific (1960) and Battle of the Japan Sea (1969). Moreover, Toho also had director Kihachi Okamoto under contract and his films, includi...Read the entire review

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Shogun Assassin: 5 Film Collector's Set DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35835 Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:40:07 UTC Highly Recommended

Background: Having watched movies since the 1960's, I occasionally look back at some of the defining moments when this time of year rolls around. Hollywood is much like any other business in how most companies chase the successes of others as being cheaper and a more reliable manner of increasing their return on investment with fewer risks. Well, back on a premium satellite service my family had years ago, I was introduced to an Americanized version of a Japanese slasher samurai flick that initially seemed to spawn dozens of take offs over the years, providing an almost parody amount of blood in each volume, the show called Shogun Assassin. The series in Japan inspired the Lone Wolf & Cub manga that were also released here in slightly edited form, and today's review is for the AnimEigo Shogun Assassin: 5 Film Collector's Set that bundled the previously released series into ...Read the entire review

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Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl Season One DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35556 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:10:55 UTC Highly Recommended


The Menu for Disc #1

Background: When most people think of anime, they seem to concentrate on shows with large robots clashing, humanized animals, supernatural or even science fiction themes but fans know it encompasses a lot more than that too. The trouble is that most media moguls or domestic companies involved with anime tend to play things conservatively, importing shows that already have large followings in order to maximize their profits. One company that has repeatedly bucked these trends is AnimEigo, sometimes referred to as the "Criterion of anime" or more accurately, "the best company for quality anime overlooked by the big boys". Needless to say, when they obtain a license for a show it becomes news all over the globe, their latest bo...Read the entire review

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Revenge of a Kabuki Actor DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35104 Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:12:56 UTC Highly Recommended



The Film:

There's no subtlety behind the rhythm that Kon Ichikawa's Revenge of a Kabuki Actor (aka An Actor's Revenge) follows, as the film conducts itself as a mirror to the kabuki's play structure. It starts by gradually and slowly introducing Yukinojo (Kazuo Hasegawa) as a well-revered gender-blurred actor who has also learned the arts of combat due to the enraged loss of his parents at a young age. While performing in the first of only a few glimpses into his actual stage talent, his darting glances find his parents' killers in the audience. Amid his performance, he begins to plot murderous revenge by, in essence, telling the film's audience through recurring narration exactly how he plans on achieving his satisfaction. It sets up the oppor...Read the entire review

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The Wolves DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34529 Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:47:33 UTC Recommended

Taking both Kurosawa and Kobayashi's color work fully into consideration, I still think I'm more of a black-and-white Tatsuya Nakadai kind of guy. There's a certain wildness in his eyes that pours through so well in the classic monochrome photography of films like Sword of Doom and Hara Kiri. Yet, in Hideo Gosha's The Wolves, something compelling stands out about the lack of animosity present in his gazes -- well, most of them. Amid early 20th century gangster politics and testosterone-infused conflict displayed in brash full color, his strained presence adds a different form of hunger to Gosha's hard-boiled and slow trotting dissection of early-release criminal gangsters.


The Film:




While plot is as important as a framew...Read the entire review

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Shogun Assassin, Vol. 5: Cold Road to Hell DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34054 Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:46:09 UTC Recommended

Shogun Assassin 5- Cold Road to Hell is actually the sixth film in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974). In the original US release the first two films were cut into one and titled Shogun Assassin, which meant the only other US released sequel was actually the third film, retitled Lighting Swords of Death (aka. Lupine Wolf). After releasing original Japanese series and old the US dub versions, Animeigo has created new Shogun Assassin dub editions to complete the series. Got it? Good.

Based on the acclaimed samurai manga by Kazu Koike and Goseki Kojima, the series tells the tale of deposed executioner Ogami Itto and his quest for vengeance against the Yagyu Clan who framed him and murdered his wife. Now a wandering sword for hire, Ogami and his son Diagoro stay on the move, hunted, living for the day when they might see ...Read the entire review

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The Ballad of Narayama (1983) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33718 Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:47:36 UTC Highly Recommended

Does love and compassion define our humanity, or are they merely luxuries to be cast aside when survival is at stake? That's the core of The Ballad of Narayama (Narayama bushiko, 1983), director Shohei Imamura's acclaimed remake of Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 film of the same name, each adopted from Shichiro Fukuzawa's 1956 novel. Despite the original novel and Kinoshita's film, the 1983 adaptation is pure Imamura, an almost cumulative expression of all of the writer-director's concerns. And a lot of sex.

Though one might reasonably have expected this Palme d'Or-winner to turn up on Criterion's slate, it is instead an AnimEigo release. Imamura, who died in 2006 at 79, probably would have been amused that, given the label's reputation, AnimEigo likely was attracted less by the film's standing than by extensive nudity and grimly comic violence.* The transfer overall is okay, but glitch-pr...Read the entire review

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Shinobi No Mono 2: Vengeance DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33493 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:32:42 UTC Recommended

The myth is always going to be more interesting than reality. We like to romanticize and fantasize our history, especially where there are gaps of evidence. Sometimes its just easier to ignore the ugly or boring truth and spin a yarn. Drunken sociopaths are painted as misunderstood geniuses. Criminals become rebels. Con men turn into prophets. And then of course, there is the "good old days."

As far as the ninja are concerned, there is far more myth than there is concrete evidence. To what capacity they actually existed is pretty vague. Even defining their basic class be it monks, a specially trained samurai, or just some bumpkin, is open to loose interpretation because no one exactly knows. So, what survives the most, what has become indelible, is the myth of the ninja being a group of men and women keen on guerrilla warfare stratagem and possessing near superhuman skill. The eight film Shinobi N...Read the entire review

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Ramen Fighter Miki: Miso Mayhem, Vol. 1 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/33268 Sun, 18 May 2008 14:39:01 UTC Recommended

The Show:

Nonsensical comedy anime is a polarizing genre because you either get the brand of humor or you don't. So many shows have come along to test viewers' funny bones such as Excel Saga, School Rumble, and to some smaller, more refined extent Azumanga Daioh. In 2002 a manga created by Jun Sadogawa came out and instantly found itself nestled in the company of bizarre off-the-wall comedies.

Noodle Fighter Miko turned out to be reasonably successful in Japan and a few years later it garnered an anime spin-off. Presented as a twelve episode series the whole thing came out in 2006 and found its way to America in 2007 thanks to Anime Works. Dubbed Ramen Fighter Miki, the tone of the series was more or less the same as the manga and featured outlandish characters and even kookier situations.

The star at the center of everything is a youn...Read the entire review

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