When an American military officer is hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country's first army in the 1870s, he is unexpectedly impressed by the Imperial Samurai warriors and their way of life.
With Shogun Samurai, veteran Japanese director Fukasaku Kinji demonstrated that he could do more than the gritty social realist cop-and-gangster films for which he remains most famous. A deliberately stately historical drama, with a slightly ponderous narrator introducing some of its most powerful scenes, Shogun Samurai shows the succession crisis that followed the death of the second Tokugawa Shogun in the early 17th-century. The Imperial court fans the flames in an attempt to restore the Emperor's power; a young dancer tries to preserve the young prince she loves; a warrior clan take steps to return to their homeland; and the fencing master Yagyu will expend honour and lives, including those of his own children, to ensure that his school is patronised by the new Shogun. The film alternates powerful scenes of intrigue and stagy monomaniac rants by Yagyu with finely choreographed scenes of battle and duel; it has a powerful and tragic sense of the fragile sadness of things and the futility of all ambitions; Sonny Chiba is unusually impressive as Yagyu's most honourable son, the one-eyed Jubel. On the DVD: Shogun Samurai on disc has minimal additional features: a short prose profile of Fukasaku Kinji and some promotional clips. Picture is anamorphic 16:9. --Roz Kaveney
The ruthless Lord Danjo is determined to rule Japan and learns of a prophecy that whoever wins the love of Princess Ukio shall succeed in that task. Enlisting the help of an evil wizard and his five monk warriors Danjo seeks a way of seducing Ukio through diabolical magic. Enter Jotaro in love with Ukio's twin who is captured and killed by the monks. Jotaro now seeks to put an end to Danjo's sinister plot but he can't do it alone--he needs the help of samurai swordsman Muneyoshi
A princess whose clan is destroyed by an army of phantom warriors bands together with eight masterless samurai to defeat the ghostly swordsmen. Along the way they learn that a powerful witch is in command of the ghosts and it is she that must be defeated in order to enact their brutal but necessary vengeance... Inspired by the epic 1814 Japanese novel Nanso Satomi Hakkenden' by Takizawa Bakin this movie sees 1980s super-producer Hiroyuki Kadokawa and legendary director Kinji Fuku
This Heian period (A.D. 794-1185) epic stars Mansai Nomura as Seimei Kyoto's court Onmyoji (a kind of fortune teller in commune with the spirits). When a young samurai named Hiromasa comes to Seimei to discuss a possible plot against the government the two discover that the court's formidable magician Doson is indeed planning a coup. Teaming their skills to take on the powerful Doson Seimei and Hiromasa face a long and difficult battle.
This Heian period (A.D. 794-1185) epic stars Mansai Nomura as Seimei Kyoto's court Onmyoji (a kind of fortune teller in commune with the spirits). When a young samurai named Hiromasa comes to Seimei to discuss a possible plot against the government the two discover that the court's formidable magician Doson is indeed planning a coup. Teaming their skills to take on the powerful Doson Seimei and Hiromasa face a long and difficult battle.
When Wolverine is summoned to Japan by an old acquaintance, he is embroiled in a conflict that forces him to confront his own demons.
In pre-Meiji Japan, low ranking samurai Seibei Iguchi leads a simple life without glory. As a widower, he does not drink and socialise with fellow samurai, preferring instead to tend to his two daughters and his senile mother. Earning the nickname 'Tasogare Seibei' (Twilight Seibei) as he is always home by nightfall, he struggles in poverty to make ends meet.; ; Suddenly re-entering Seibei's life is his long time unrequited love Tomoe, who wishes to divorce her brutal husband. However, the sa...
In Bullet Train, Brad Pitt stars as Ladybug, an unlucky assassin determined to do his job peacefully after one too many gigs gone off the rails. Fate, however, may have other plans, as Ladybug's latest mission puts him on a collision course with lethal adversaries from around the globe all with connected, yet conflicting, objectives on the world's fastest train...and he's got to figure out how to get off. From the director of Deadpool 2, David Leitch, the end of the line is only the beginning in a wild, non-stop thrill ride through modern-day Japan.
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy