In the time warp tradition of ICEMAN comes GHOST WARRIOR. Suddenly awake after 400 years of frozen sleep, a valiant samurai warrior struggles to survive the harsh challenges of modern-day Los Angeles. This action-packed tale is the thrilling saga of Yoshi, a master of Japan's 16th Century fighting arts, who is accidentally frozen in time and miraculously revived by cryosurgery in the 1980's. On the run from the institute that ended his sleep of centuries, Yoshi must pit his ancient skills and power against the forces of a violent and confusing world. He has vanquished enemies from a distant time but can he prevail on the streets of the future?
In Love Song of Vengeance, Shurayuki-hime--a.k.a. Lady Snowblood, "Yuki" for short (played by Meiko Kaji)--continues her advertures in the female samurai saga that inspired Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. In Lady Snowblood, Yuki avenged her family by slaying the four criminals that killed her father, raped her mother, and predestined her to the life of a justice-seeking assassin. Love Song of Vengeance picks up where Lady Snowblood let off, not so much as a sequel like Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy, but a continuation of the lone assassin's adventures (similar to Zaitochi). Sentenced to death for her crimes of murder, Yuki is given pardon by Kikui, a secret government police agent. In return for her freedom, Kikui wants Yuki to assassinate anarchist Ransui and obtain a secret document he is hiding. While carrying out her orders, Yuki discovers the document in question is actually a letter incriminating agent Kikui. Always one to be on the side of justice, Lady Snowblood switches sides, joining anarchist Rasui to face off, expose, and destroy the crooked agent. The blood may not flow like geysers and there may be a lot less samurai action than in the first installment. However, Love Song of Vengeance is well-paced, nicely shot, and a well thought-out continuation of the heroine's adventures. Sadly, they ended with this installment. --Rob Bracco
Requiem From The Darkness: Complete Collection (4 Discs)
Tokyo Raiders stars Tony Leung (well known from such Hong Kong action movies as Hard-Boiled and Bullet in the Head) along with pop stars Ekin Cheng and Kelly Chen. When Macy (Chen) gets jilted at the altar in Las Vegas, she returns to Hong Kong to find her fiancé has disappeared--but in his apartment she finds Yung (Cheng), an interior decorator with surprising kung fu skills. Together they go to Japan, where they meet up with Lin (Leung), a private detective with an entourage of kung fu babes and stories that don't quite add up. From there, the plot gets more and more incomprehensible. It has something to do with counterfeit yen and a twisty series of double-crosses, but Tokyo Raiders is really about hip clothes and martial arts razzle-dazzle, all framed by the worst dubbed dialogue you've ever heard--sort of a Hong Kong version of The Mod Squad. Leung has demonstrated his acting chops in films like Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love, but he can't make this silliness sound sensible. Still, the actors are sexy, the fight scenes are splashy (if a little confusing), and the movie never wastes too much time getting from one action sequence to the next. A chase that starts out on a motorised skateboard and ends up on a trailer truck hauling new cars is particularly entertaining. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
Three great films from the Japanese king of hardboiled ass-kicking Sonny Chiba! Timeslip (aka G.I. Samurai) (1979): A Japanese Army unit is mysteriously transported 400 years back in time to the warring states period of Japanese history and ends up facing an army of Samurai warriors... Golgo 13 (1973): Sonny Chiba stars as the underworld's no.1 hitman in this hardboiled action-packed adaptation of Japan's all-time bestselling manga... The Bullet Train (1975):
In the time warp tradition of ICEMAN comes GHOST WARRIOR. Suddenly awake after 400 years of frozen sleep, a valiant samurai warrior struggles to survive the harsh challenges of modern-day Los Angeles. This action-packed tale is the thrilling saga of Yoshi, a master of Japan's 16th Century fighting arts, who is accidentally frozen in time and miraculously revived by cryosurgery in the 1980's. On the run from the institute that ended his sleep of centuries, Yoshi must pit his ancient skills and power against the forces of a violent and confusing world. He has vanquished enemies from a distant time but can he prevail on the streets of the future?
'From the cream of Japan's horror elite Tales of Terror.' The cream of Japan's horror elite were invited to contribute their short ghost films for a major Japanese television series Tales of Terror. This double disc set contains the whole collection amounting to nearly three hours of shock and terror from Japan's rising stars and grandmasters of horror. Contributors include Takashi Shimizu 'The Grudge' Norio Tsuruta 'Ringu O' Hiroshi Takahashi 'Ring 2' Kei Horie 'The Grudge 2'. The directors have condensed thirty-three of the purest ghost stories into five minutes of terror. Step inside to the world of Japanese ghosts... a place that the living should never see...
When we last saw Kenichi, he was making the transition from wimp to warrior... Okay, maybe not warrior, but he was definitely taking steps to man up. Well, the world is starting to notice, which is good and bad. On the plus side, he's making friends and getting more respect. In the minus column, his rep is growing faster than his skills, which is tricky now that every thug in town wants to test his new techniques. That means between street brawls and trying to score with Miu, Kenichi still h...
In 1856 U.S. Counsel General Townsend Harris arrives in Japan docked in the port of Shimoda at a time when foreigners were not welcomed. Harris is testing a previous open-door agreement between the two nations although Japan has no intention of going through with it. While international diplomacy moves at a snail's pace a nobleman ""gives"" Harris a geisha Okichi to ease his boredom...
Masmura's debut feature with its stripped down narrative and handheld camerawork sent a shock wave through Japanese cinema in much the same manner as Godard in Europe. With its liberated camera and even more liberated protagonists this is the film which caused Oshima to say of Masumura ""a powerful irresistible force has arrived in Japanese Cinema."" A young boy and girl meet while visiting their respective fathers in prison. The young lovers soon embrace both each other and their mu
A talk show hostess asks her viewers to send in home videos to profile on her program. When she receives a snuff video she and her crew set out to follow the path of the video and locate the scene of the crime and get to the bottom of this mystery. The only problem is that there is someone or something waiting for their arrival...
D Gray Man: Series 1 Part 1 (2 Discs)
Samurai X - The Motion Picture: The war against Tokugawa Shogunate ended two years ago. But there are some who are not happy with the outcome. Shigure Takimi watched his friends and family get slashed down in the name of freedom and prosperity. Now he and a band of desperate rebels have sworn to settle one final score. Only one man stands in their way... Rurouni Kenshin. Will the former assassin take up his sword and fight again? When Shigure discovers Kenshin's true identity and his fight becomes a personal vendetta the young hero will have no choice... Samurai X - Trust: Kenshin is a young orphan whose fighting skills where honed by the great swordsman Hiko. But Kenshin's soul is embattled just like the battlefields of Japan his hopes for a new world peace at odds with his life of blood and killing. His world is thrown into further confusion by the arrival of a mysterious woman named Tomoe. Her kindness and attention show him a kind of life he didn't know existed. Can she help the assassin become a real man? Or does she hide a secret that could destroy everything he has come to depend on? Join Kenshin and discover the enemy within. Samurai X - Betrayal: After the great fire in Edo Kenshin and Tomoe are sent into exile on a small farm. They experience peace and quiet for the first time in their turbulent lives. The rebellion wounded after the events in Edo is slowly rebuilding far away from Kenshin and Tomoe. Their only link to the outside world is Lizuka who brings them dire news from the city. Samurai X - Reflection: Known throughout all Japan as the Hitokiri Battousai (sword-bearing master assassin) Rurouni Kenshin is now a lost soul cursed to seek atonement for his bloody past. Even the peace that now exists as a result of Kenshin's sword brings him no solace driving him to wander far from those he loves. His wife Kaoru steadfastly awaits his return as she mourns his absence. Will Kenshin come home before she dies of grief?
Samurai X - The Motion Picture: The war against Tokugawa Shogunate ended two years ago. But there are some who are not happy with the outcome. Shigure Takimi watched his friends and family get slashed down in the name of freedom and prosperity. Now he and a band of desperate rebels have sworn to settle one final score. Only one man stands in their way... Rurouni Kenshin. Will the former assassin take up his sword and fight again? When Shigure discovers Kenshin's true identity and his fight becomes a personal vendetta the young hero will have no choice... Samurai X - Trust: Kenshin is a young orphan whose fighting skills where honed by the great swordsman Hiko. But Kenshin's soul is embattled just like the battlefields of Japan his hopes for a new world peace at odds with his life of blood and killing. His world is thrown into further confusion by the arrival of a mysterious woman named Tomoe. Her kindness and attention show him a kind of life he didn't know existed. Can she help the assassin become a real man? Or does she hide a secret that could destroy everything he has come to depend on? Join Kenshin and discover the enemy within. Samurai X - Betrayal: After the great fire in Edo Kenshin and Tomoe are sent into exile on a small farm. They experience peace and quiet for the first time in their turbulent lives. The rebellion wounded after the events in Edo is slowly rebuilding far away from Kenshin and Tomoe. Their only link to the outside world is Lizuka who brings them dire news from the city. Samurai X - Reflection: Known throughout all Japan as the Hitokiri Battousai (sword-bearing master assassin) Rurouni Kenshin is now a lost soul cursed to seek atonement for his bloody past. Even the peace that now exists as a result of Kenshin's sword brings him no solace driving him to wander far from those he loves. His wife Kaoru steadfastly awaits his return as she mourns his absence. Will Kenshin come home before she dies of grief?
Floating Weeds (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1959): Floating Weeds is one of the final films directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. A remake of one of his own silent features it tells the story of a travelling Kabuki acting troupe led by Komajuro who arrive in a small coastal town. There Komajuro is reunited with his former lover Oyoshi and their illegitimate son who is unaware that the itinerant actor is his father. But the reunion provokes the jealousy of Sumiko Komanjuro's current mistress who plots a devastating revenge. Beautifully composed and surperbly played 'Floating Weeds' is one of Ozu's most affecting poignant and powerful films. The End Of Summer (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1961): This penultimate film by Japanese master director Yasujiro Ozu examines the difficulties faced by the Kohayagawa family as they struggle to adapt their traditional values to a rapidly changing post-war Japan. As the family's generations-old sake making business begins to fail in the face of increasingly fierce competition Manbei the incorrigible elderly patriarch rekindles an affair with an old flame much to the disapproval of his daughter Fumiko. He is further distracted by his attempts to marry off his other two daughters: Akiko the eldest and a widow with a small son and Noriko the youngest who is still single. A sublime bittersweet elegy for a vanishing world The End of Summer is beautifully shot in muted colour elegantly acted and masterfully directed by one of the 20th Century's greatest filmmakers. The Lady of Musashino (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1951): Mizoguchi's dissection of the Japanese reaction to the aftermath of war as a fastidiously moral woman faces upheaval with the changing times brought about by the new post-Imperial period... The Life of Oharu (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1952): In feudal Japan the daughter of a samurai Oharu falls in love with a man below her station. Expelled from the castle in Kyoto her family tries to regain respectability but Oharu is forced into a new life as a concubine and then a fallen woman ever hoping to preserve some semblance of purity in a corrupt world...
D Gray Man: Series 1 Part 1 (2 Discs)
The Black Angel: Ddirector Takashi Ishii continues to explore his distinct vision of Tokyo as a dark forbidding Technopolis a city of faceless chrome and marble structures cold lights and deep shadows. The Black Angel stars Riona Hazuki as Ikko the most powerful female action heroine ever to hit celluloid. At age 6 Ikko was safely put on a plane to Los Angeles by hitman Mayo but not before seeing her Yakuza boss father and mistress mother killed before her eyes. Flash forward 14 years. Ikko returns to Tokyo seeking revenge for the killings. She too calls herself the Black Angel styling herself after Mayo whom she remembers as a towering almost superhuman figure. When her target realises that she is after him and his gang he enlists the original Black Angel to wipe out Ikko and the stage is set for a violent reunion... (Dir. Takashi Ishii 1997) Gonin: Japanese Director Takashi Ishii's brutal hyperstylish hallucinogenic "" roller coaster"" of a movie takes a group of five desperate men through the robbery of a Yakuza gangster and the bloody revenge that follows. Ishii has assembled a cast of Japan's coolest actors including Naoto Takenaka (""Shall We Dance"") and the legendary 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano and his fluid sensual camera work creates sequences of unrivalled ballistic bloodshed. But what really raises this movie to a different level is the off-beat characters: 'Beat' Takeshi's sadistic portrayal of the one-eyed hitman gay hustlers and downtrodden ex-cops give 'Gonin' an eccentric film noir atmosphere that will blow you away. (Dir. Takashi Ishii 1995) Score: A gang of thieves come together for a jewellery heist one which they naturally carry out in their finest Reservoir Dogs outfits. All goes pretty much according to plan until a pair of psychotic highway robbers follow them to their hideout and attempt to part the gang from their loot... (Dir. Atsushi Muroga 1995)
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