"Actor: Fumio Watanabe"

• Cruel Story of Youth (1960) | Blu Ray | (17/08/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Eureka Entertainment to release Japanese Director Nagisa Oshima’s landmark film CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH a shocking tale of youthful delinquency in post-Hiroshima Japan on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK in a Dual Format edition available from 17 August 2015. This second feature by the Japanese cinema-insurgent Nagisa Ôshima (In the Realm of the Senses Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) galvanised its home-turf with its topsy-turvy directorial dexterity and stinging castigation of an indolent self-indulgent youth culture reposing on the eve of the turbulent 1960s. When high-schooler Makoto is saved from the advances of a lecherous middle-aged man by uni student Kiyoshi the pair embark on a fits-and-starts affair that finally settles into a sexually extortionary mutually exploitative dependency that promises to spell their relationship’s doom. Ôshima’s breakthrough portrait of alienated youth comes courtesy of the 2014 Shochiku 4K scan that resurrected the film’s glorious colour palette recently described by critic and programmer James Quandt as “running riot with retro: pulsing neon turquoise telephones hair teased into shellacked grandeur.” The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Cruel Story of Youth in a Dual Format edition for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK. Feature: Gorgeous 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray from the 2014 4K Shochiku restoration Optional English subtitles New video interview with film critic Tony Rayns Original theatrical trailer 36-page booklet containing an essay interview material and rare archival imagery

• Shogun's Joy of Torture | Blu Ray | (22/02/2021) from £11.96   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From the outrageous imagination of cult director Teruo Ishii (Orgies of Edo, Horrors of Malformed Men) comes this infamous omnibus of three shocking tales of crime and punishment based on true-life documented cases set during the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate. The first tale sees the beautiful Mitsu (Masumi Tachibana) going to horrifying lengths to tend to her older brother Shinzō (Teruo Yoshida), a carpenter injured in a work accident, but the law catches up on them and metes out a terrifying retribution after they violate the ultimate taboo. In the second, unfettered passions in a Buddhist nunnery are not allowed to go unpunished after abbess Reihō (Yukie Kagawa) and her attendant Rintoku (Naomi Shiraishi) encounter a virile young monk from a neighbouring temple. In the closing segment, a sadistic torturer (Fumio Watanabe) attempts to show a tattoo artist (Asao Koike) how to depict convincing expressions of faces of pain in his work by allowing him to sketch a selection of Europeans as they are tortured for entering Japan with the aim of spreading Christianity. Ishii's notorious portmanteau of Edo-era excess signalled a change in direction for a director until then regarded for his crime and yakuza films, setting the ball rolling on the run of grotesque historical anthologies for which he is now best remembered. Vehemently denounced by the critics of the day, Shogun's Joy of Torture set a new benchmark for the depiction of sex, sadism and depravity in Japanese exploitation, with Ishii staging his elaborate torture methods with an unmatched verve and inventiveness. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation Original uncompressed mono PCM audio Optional English subtitles Audio commentary by Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes Teruo Ishii: Erotic-Grotesque Maestro an exclusively newly filmed interview with the author Patrick Macias Bind, Torture, Thrill author and critic Jasper Sharp discusses the history of torture in Japanese exploitation cinema Original trailer Image gallery Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jacob Phillips

• Violence at High Noon | DVD | (28/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of Oshima's most powerful and controversial films. Telling the brutal story of real-life rapist and serial murderer Eisuke (Kei Sato) and his relationship with his protective schoolteacher wife Matsuko (Akiko Koyama) and his only surviving victim Shino (Saeda Kawagushi) Oshima takes the format of the 'real-life crime' drama and uses it as a canvas to lay bare the lost idealism and decay in postwar Japan. Although the action takes place in a seemingly idyllic rural setting Oshima's portrait of humanity is as dark violent and uncompromising as the urban wastes and hellish ghettos of Naked Youth and The Sun's Burial. Never presenting Eisuke as anything less than a monster Oshima goes further to suggest how such deviancy and (specifically male) violence reflects an amoral and corrupt modern society. Part thriller part reaction against the austere Japanese cinematic tradition with avant-garde experimentation and grim social commentary Violence At High Noon is fresh and as fearsome today as when it was first released.

• Female Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection | Blu Ray | (08/08/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Starring the iconic and beautiful Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood, Stray Cat Rock) in a role that came to define her career, the four-film Female Prisoner Scorpion series charts the vengeance of Nami Matsushima, who assumes the mantle of Scorpion, becoming an avatar of vengeance and survival, and an unlikely symbol of female resistance in a male-dominated world. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion introduces Nami, a gullible young woman unjustly imprisoned, who must find a way to escape in order to exact revenge upon the man who betrayed her. The visually avant-garde Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 sees director Shunya Ito and star Meiko Kaji re-unite as Nami and six other female convicts escape prison once more. The Gothic horror-inspired Beast Stable finds Nami branded public enemy #1 and on the run. She soon finds refuge with a sympathetic prostitute, but runs afoul of a local gang. The final film in the series, #701²s Grudge Song (from director Yasuharu Hasebe, Retaliation, Massacre Gun), shows a gentler side of Nami as she falls in with Kudo, an ex-radical suffering from physical and psychological trauma caused by police torture. Spiritual kin to Ms. 45, Coffy and The Bride Wore Black, the Female Prisoner Scorpion is the pinnacle of early 1970s exploitation cinema from Japanese grindhouse studio Toei, and one of the greatest female revenge sagas ever told. LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS Limited Edition Blu-ray collection (3000 copies) Brand new 2K restorations of all four films in the series presented on High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD Original mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays) for all films Optional English subtitles for all films Double-sided fold out poster of two original artworks Reversible sleeves for all films featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan Booklet featuring an extract from Unchained Melody: The Films of Meiko Kaji, an upcoming book on the starby critic and author Tom Mes, an archive interview with Meiko Kaji, and a brand new interview with Toru Shinohara, creator of the original Female Prisoner Scorpion manga FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION Newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Gareth Evans (The Raid) Archive interview with director Shunya Ito New interview with assistant director Yutaka Kohira Theatrical Trailers for all films in the series FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41 Newly filmed appreciation by critic Kier-La Janisse Japanese cinema critic Jasper Sharp looks over the career of Shunya Ito New interview with production designer Tadayuki Kuwana Original Theatrical Trailer FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: BEAST STABLE Newly filmed appreciation by critic Kat Ellinger Archive interview with director Shunya Ito New visual essay on the career of star and icon Meiko Kaji by critic Tom Mes Original Theatrical Trailer FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: #701's GRUDGE SONG Newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Kichiku: Banquet of the Beasts) Archive interview with director Yasuharu Hasebe Japanese cinema critic Jasper Sharp looks over the career of Yasuharu Hasebe Visual essay on the Scorpion series by critic Tom Mes Original Theatrical Trailer

• The Sun's Burial | DVD | (26/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set in the post-war slums of Osaka The Sun's Burial follows the lives and fates of the denizens of this hellish ghetto. Pimps prostitutes drug addicts vagrants hustlers and gangsters struggle to survive amidst the poverty and decay of 1950's Japan. Unflinching in it's portrayal of life in these slums the film goes beyond a documentary-style realism to achieve a garish lurid Cinemascope aesthetic that is at once repulsive and yet mesmerising. It's a pitiless and dispassionate portrait of a living hell that lurks behind the facade of a prosperous new Japan a place where everything - food sex even blood - is simply a commodity to be stolen and sold.

• Female Convict Scorpion - Jailhouse 41 | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £22.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (-43.70%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Shunya Ito's incredible Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 is amongst Japan's most famous ever cult films and the primary influence on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. It remains one of the most sought after cult films in existence!. A truly visionary one of a kind experience Female Convict Scorpion is an astoundingly visceral art house-feminist-exploitation hybrid featuring gorgeous Japanese cult icon Meiko Kaji. Shunya Ito's movie unfolds in a state of perpetual delirium and is by turns shocking perverse and hilarious. Beautiful bold and outrageous entertainment this is one of the most essential exciting DVD releases of 2007...

• Female Prisoner No. 701 - Scorpion | DVD | (20/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Shunya Ito makes his directorial debut in this highly entertaining and stunning revenge and action thriller film that inspired Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion is an amphetamine-fuelled descent into the humid cells of a women's lock-up. High-pulse nymphomania bone-shattering violence and a gruesomely gynaecological approach to torture rear their collective heads in the work yard in the cafeteria and in the showers. Stunning Japanese cult icon Meiko (Lady Snowblood) Kaji delivers a blistering performance of breathtaking intensity in one of the most stylish and sophisticated exploitation movies of all time. Get ready for a ferocious cult classic - visually beautiful brutal controversial entertainment straight from the wild side of Japanese cinema.

• Night And Fog In Japan | DVD | (23/06/2008) from £6.59   |  Saving you £13.40 (203.34%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Nagisa Oshima's most personal film is a reflection by the director on his own disillusionment with the revolutionary student movement of the 1950's and the failure of political radicalism. Taking it's title (as a reference or homage) from Alain Resnais' pivotal 1956 documentary Night and Fog the film has a group of former student revolutionaries who meet again years later at the wedding of one of their classmates. Old feelings rivalaries and grudges gradually erupt to the surface as the one-time friends recall the various treacheries by which their cause was defeated. Cutting between times past and the present and unfolding the action from each of his characters viewpoints Oshima creates an abstract and yet engrossing study of passions past and principles eroded. Controversial upon release - the film's producers pulled the film from distribution after only a few days in cinemas - Night & Fog in Japan retains both its power to shock and its ability to engage the viewer in it's radical form and themes.

• Naked Youth | DVD | (25/02/2008) from £11.48   |  Saving you £10.50 (110.64%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Oshima's second feature is a shocking tale of youthful delinquency in post Hiroshima japan. Conveying the pent up sexuality and disillusionment among Japan's post war generation it tells the story of teenage lovers Makato and Kiyoshi. She's a good girl gone bad dropping out of school and out of home; he's a violent hoodlum gambler and hustler. Making a living by performing shakedowns and attempting blackmail on unsuspecting middle aged men the film affords a bleak nihilistic take to the 'taiyo-zako' (Japanese cinema's 'delinquent youth' films). Often billed as Japan's Rebel Without A Cause but whereas Jame Dean's Jim Stark had the proverbial heart of gold Kawazu's Kiyoshi is filled only with rage and disgust. All of life's harsh realities await Makoto and Kiyoshi - this is no morality lesson or cautionary tale just a window into a terrible vision of humanity.

• Sword Of Vengeance | DVD | (19/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sword of Vengeance is the first of the internationally renowned Lone Wolf and Cub productions. Framed for treason the executioner of the Shogun is stripped of office and declared an outlaw. Together with his infant son he sets out as a mercenary on a blood soaked journey of revenge against the secret society that murdered his wife and robbed him of his good name. With his life in ruins and literally believing that he is in hell he and his baby son have become Lone Wolf and Cub