"Actor: Akaji Maro"

• Kikujiro | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £9.43   |  Saving you £6.56 (41.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Masao (Yusuke Sekiguchi) is a nine-year-old boy who is desperate to locate his long-lost biological mother. Abandoned by all of his friends for the summer holidays and with no one to accompany him on his quest Masao is left in the care of layabout yakuza goon Kikujiro (Kitano) who doesn't like children at all least of all demanding nine-year-old boys. Over time man and boy develop a fondness for one another embarking on an adventure of sorts through the Japanese countryside to find the long-lost mother... Japanese actor/writer/director Takeshi Kitano is perhaps best known to international audiences for his violent and stylish crime flicks Violent Cop and Sonatine. For this film he takes a change of pace to write direct and star in a comic road movie about a magical friendship between a middle-aged man and a little boy.

• City Of Lost Souls | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £12.67   |  Saving you £5.31 (54.86%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A stylised and violent thriller, prolific director Miike Takashi's The City Of Lost Souls (2000) is set in the ganglands of Tokyo and pays homage to Sergio Leone, Quentin Tarantino and, in a daft, animated cockfighting sequence, The Matrix. Mario (Teah) is the Japanese-Brazilian gunslinger fresh out jail who, in a hilariously audacious action sequence, hijacks a helicopter to save his Chinese girlfriend Kei (Michelle Reis) from deportation. He must then secure 18 million yen to secure fake passports for both of them to make a new life for themselves in Australia. In a misconceived operation, Mario arrives at the lair of the intriguing Ko, Kei's ex-boyfriend--a self-assured, effeminate young exchange student--who is somehow head of a vicious gang of Triads. He is on the point of buying a consignment of cocaine from decadent, cold-blooded Yakuza gangster Fushimi when Mario's arrival triggers a shootout, with Mario escaping with the wrong suitcase. Now, in time-honoured True Romancefashion, Mario and Kei are on the run from the mob. Although visually tricksy with some strong set-pieces, The City of Lost Souls is rather hazy when it comes to story and characterisation. We get little sense of the runaway couple as people. A young blind girl is introduced into the tale and there are romantic moments between Mario and Kei but these feel like sugary palliatives to the bloodshed rather than touching moments. Better perhaps to check out Takashi's Audition, a brilliantly gruesome satire on male Japanese attitudes towards womanhood. This is a flashier, faster but less artistically satisfying affair. On the DVD: The City of Lost Souls is presented in video aspect ratio 1.85:1, with reasonable clarity and sharpness. However, the English subtitles are a little pidgin and slapdash in places, none of which improves the main special feature, a rather dull and vague interview with director Takashi. --David Stubbs

• Yakuza Weapon (2011) (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (07/05/2012) from £8.49   |  Saving you £11.50 (135.45%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Working as a hard-to-kill mercenary in South America, ex-yakuza Shozo Iwaki (Tak Sakaguchi) is informed of the death of his gang boss father, Kenzo (Akaji Maro). Returning home after four years, Shozo discovers that his father's number-one man, Kurawaki (Shingo Tsurumi), has double-crossed and assassinated Kenzo, leaving Shozo not only in charge of what little remains of the Iwaki Family, but also burning with the desire for vengeance. After a titanic battle in which an entire building is levelled, both Shozo and Kurawaki are left barely alive, Shozo missing an arm and a leg.Despite his debilitating wounds, the nearly superhuman Shozo clings to life, and wakes up in a mysterious medical facility with an M61 Vulcan cannon in place of his right arm, and a rocket launcher where his left leg used to be! Although confused by his new body and tormented by the pain it brings him, Shozo quickly learns to love his weaponized frame, and makes himself ready for a rematch with Kurawaki, who also has some mechanical improvements of his own.But before that, Shozo must also deal with Tetsuo (Jun Murakami), his former best friend who's fallen into drugs and hard times, and has been coerced by the Kurawaki gang to find and kill Shozo! Nearly a match for Shozo's strength and fighting ability, Tetsuo also has a mechanical secret: his younger sister Sumire (Cay Izumi), who's been transformed into a naked weapon, using the same technology that gave Shozo his arm and leg! But can Shozo bring himself to destroy his own best friend, the only thing standing between him and final vengeance?Co-directed by Yudai Yamaguchi and Tak Sakaguchi, who between them have created crazy, action-filled comedies like Battlefield Baseball, Meatball Machine, Mutant Girls Squad and Deadball, and featuring action direction by Yuji Shimomura (Death Trance, Versus, Shinobi), special makeup effects by Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police, Helldriver) and based on an adult comic by Ken Ishikawa, who co-created Cutie Honey, Getter Robot and many other famous series, Yakuza Weapon is a wild combination of hard-boiled gangster action, manga-style comedy and splatterific special effects.

• Yakuza Weapon (2011) (DVD) | DVD | (07/05/2012) from £9.98   |  Saving you £10.00 (125.16%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Working as a hard-to-kill mercenary in South America, ex-yakuza Shozo Iwaki (Tak Sakaguchi) is informed of the death of his gang boss father, Kenzo (Akaji Maro). Returning home after four years, Shozo discovers that his father's number-one man, Kurawaki (Shingo Tsurumi), has double-crossed and assassinated Kenzo, leaving Shozo not only in charge of what little remains of the Iwaki Family, but also burning with the desire for vengeance. After a titanic battle in which an entire building is levelled, both Shozo and Kurawaki are left barely alive, Shozo missing an arm and a leg.Despite his debilitating wounds, the nearly superhuman Shozo clings to life, and wakes up in a mysterious medical facility with an M61 Vulcan cannon in place of his right arm, and a rocket launcher where his left leg used to be! Although confused by his new body and tormented by the pain it brings him, Shozo quickly learns to love his weaponized frame, and makes himself ready for a rematch with Kurawaki, who also has some mechanical improvements of his own.But before that, Shozo must also deal with Tetsuo (Jun Murakami), his former best friend who's fallen into drugs and hard times, and has been coerced by the Kurawaki gang to find and kill Shozo! Nearly a match for Shozo's strength and fighting ability, Tetsuo also has a mechanical secret: his younger sister Sumire (Cay Izumi), who's been transformed into a naked weapon, using the same technology that gave Shozo his arm and leg! But can Shozo bring himself to destroy his own best friend, the only thing standing between him and final vengeance?Co-directed by Yudai Yamaguchi and Tak Sakaguchi, who between them have created crazy, action-filled comedies like Battlefield Baseball, Meatball Machine, Mutant Girls Squad and Deadball, and featuring action direction by Yuji Shimomura (Death Trance, Versus, Shinobi), special makeup effects by Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police, Helldriver) and based on an adult comic by Ken Ishikawa, who co-created Cutie Honey, Getter Robot and many other famous series, Yakuza Weapon is a wild combination of hard-boiled gangster action, manga-style comedy and splatterific special effects.