"Actor: Akira Ishihama"

• Harakiri (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD) | Blu Ray | (26/09/2011) from £13.35   |  Saving you £6.64 (49.74%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Of all Masaki Kobayashi's attacks on the cruelty and inhumanity perpetrated by authoritarian power (including The Human Condition and Samurai Rebellion) perhaps none are more brilliant than his visceral mesmerising Harakiri [aka Seppuku]. In a magnificent performance Tatsuya Nakadai (Yojimbo The Face of Another Ran) stars as Hanshiro Tsugumo a masterless down-and-out samurai who enters the manor of Lord Iyi requesting to commit ritual suicide on his property. Suspected of simply fishing for charity Hanshiro is told the gruesome tale of the last samurai who made the same request - but Hanshiro will not be moved... With its intricate structure and pressure-cooker atmosphere Kobayashi's first jidai-geki period drama is a full-scale demolition job of samurai ideals and feudal hypocrisy filmed with artistry and surgical precision and scored by celebrated composer Toru Takemitsu. Adapted from the same source novel in 2011 by notorious auteur Takashi Miike the original - winner of the 1963 Special Jury Prize at Cannes - still stands as a startling moment in Japanese cinema.

• The Snow Woman | Blu Ray | (23/06/2025) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Two woodcutters head into the mountains to fell an ancient tree. Caught in a snowstorm, they spend the night in a mountain lodge, where a female spirit appears and takes the life of one of the men. She spares the other man's life on the condition that he never tell anyone what happened that night. The woodcutter (Akira Ishihama, Harakiri) goes on to marry the mysterious beauty Yuki (Shiho Fujimura, Shinobi) and together they have a child. But Yuki catches the eye of a lecherous lord, whose advances force her to reveal a dark secret. Period film specialist Tokuzo Tanaka, a former assistant to both Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi, creates a broodingly atmospheric tale in which the viewer fully empathises with the ghost. Featuring a score by original Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube. SPECIAL FEATURES New 4K restoration Uncompressed mono PCM audio Appreciation by filmmaker Masayuki Ochiai Visual essay by Lafcadio Hearn scholar Paul Murray Trailer Newly improved English subtitle translation