"Actor: Hitoshi Ozawa"

• Dead or Alive Trilogy | Blu Ray | (27/03/2017) from £24.69   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Beginning with an explosive, six-minute montage of sex, drugs and violence, and ending with a phallus-headed battle robot taking flight, Takashi Miike's unforgettable Dead or Alive Trilogy features many of the director's most outrageous moments set alongside some of his most dramatically moving scenes. Made between 1999 and 2002, the Dead or Alive films cemented Miike's reputation overseas as one of the most provocative enfants terrible of Japanese cinema, yet also one of its most talented and innovative filmmakers. In Dead or Alive, tough gangster Ryuichi (Riki Takeuchi) and his ethnically Chinese gang make a play to take over the drug trade in Tokyo's Shinjuku district by massacring the competition. But he meets his match in detective Jojima (Show Aikawa), who will do everything to stop them. Dead or Alive 2: Birds casts Aikawa and Takeuchi together again, but as new characters, a pair of rival yakuza assassins who turn out to be childhood friends; after a botched hit, they flee together to the island where they grew up, and decide to devote their deadly skills to a more humanitarian cause. And in Dead or Alive: Final, Takeuchi and Aikawa are catapulted into a future Yokohama ruled by multilingual gangs and cyborg soldiers, where they once again butt heads in the action-packed and cyberpunk-tinged finale to the trilogy. Each of them unique in theme and tone, the Dead or Alive films showcase Miike at the peak of his strengths, creating three very distinct movies connected only by their two popular main actors, each film a separate yet superb example of crime drama, character study, and action filmmaking. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: High Definition digital transfers of all three films Original uncompressed stereo audio Optional English subtitles for all three films New interview with actor Riki Takeuchi New interview with actor Sho Aikawa New interview with producer and screenwriter Toshiki Kimura New audio commentary for Dead or Alive by Miike biographer Tom Mes Archive interviews with cast and crew Archive making-of featurettes for DOA2: Birds and DOA: Final Original theatrical trailers for all three films Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena

• Dead Or Alive | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £5.49   |  Saving you £9.50 (63.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The director of Dead or Alive, Takashi Miike, made his name on the international scene with Audition, a chilling psychological thriller that builds from a quiet start towards a prolonged torture sequence almost too unbearable to watch. But such deliberate pacing isn't typical of Miike, whose movies often assault the viewer with an onslaught of slam-bang action that makes John Woo look like Eric Rohmer. Dead or Alive, his most successful cops-vs-yakuza thriller to date, kicks off with six non-stop minutes of machine gun-paced violence, sex and slaughter, all set to a pounding heavy-metal beat. Thereafter things calm down a little, though not much. Given Miike's penchant for murky, livid-toned visuals and skewed camera angles, it's not always too easy to work out exactly who's doing what to whom, but the general outline's clear enough. The Tokyo underworld is being torn apart by a turf war between the yakuza gangs and the invading Chinese triads. Ambitious yakuza member Ryuichi isn't above playing both sides off against each other in his bid for power, while police detective Jojima, himself none too scrupulous in his methods, is out to destroy the gangs. Into this conventional plot framework Miike piles enough warped characters and bizarre, twisted happenings to fuel half-a-dozen Tarantino movies, while cheerfully borrowing--and inflating--key moments from such hard-boiled gangster-noirs as The Big Heat and Kiss Me Deadly. One character deep-fries his own hand, a stripper is drowned in a paddling-pool filled with her own excrement, and the literally apocalyptic finale, the showdown to end all showdowns, will leave you gasping. The appallingly prolific Miike, who regularly makes about five movies a year, has since directed two sequels--the first only three months after the original.--Philip Kemp

• Dead or Alive Trilogy | DVD | (27/03/2017) from £8.50   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Beginning with an explosive, six-minute montage of sex, drugs and violence, and ending with a phallus-headed battle robot taking flight, Takashi Miike's unforgettable Dead or Alive Trilogy features many of the director's most outrageous moments set alongside some of his most dramatically moving scenes. Made between 1999 and 2002, the Dead or Alive films cemented Miike's reputation overseas as one of the most provocative enfants terrible of Japanese cinema, yet also one of its most talented and innovative filmmakers. In Dead or Alive, tough gangster Ryuichi (Riki Takeuchi) and his ethnically Chinese gang make a play to take over the drug trade in Tokyo's Shinjuku district by massacring the competition. But he meets his match in detective Jojima (Show Aikawa), who will do everything to stop them. Dead or Alive 2: Birds casts Aikawa and Takeuchi together again, but as new characters, a pair of rival yakuza assassins who turn out to be childhood friends; after a botched hit, they flee together to the island where they grew up, and decide to devote their deadly skills to a more humanitarian cause. And in Dead or Alive: Final, Takeuchi and Aikawa are catapulted into a future Yokohama ruled by multilingual gangs and cyborg soldiers, where they once again butt heads in the action-packed and cyberpunk-tinged finale to the trilogy. Each of them unique in theme and tone, the Dead or Alive films showcase Miike at the peak of his strengths, creating three very distinct movies connected only by their two popular main actors, each film a separate yet superb example of crime drama, character study, and action filmmaking. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: High Definition digital transfers of all three films Original stereo audio Optional English subtitles for all three films New interview with actor Riki Takeuchi New interview with actor Sho Aikawa New interview with producer and screenwriter Toshiki Kimura New audio commentary for Dead or Alive by Miike biographer Tom Mes Archive interviews with cast and crew Archive making-of featurettes for DOA2: Birds and DOA: Final Original theatrical trailers for all three films Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the films by Kat Ellinger

• Score 2 | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A small group of violent criminals carry out a daring bank robbery and escape with million eventually hiding the loot on a construction site. Months later when one of their number is killed during a high-speed car chase the surviving members of the gang decide to recover the money. Returning to the hiding place they discover the site has now been turned into an amusement park at the same time coming to the realisation that the only one who knew where the money was hidden is now dead. Recruiting a number of other gangsters to help search for the cash the unlikely thieves find themselves involved in a traitorous maze of double-crossing and betrayal further complicated by the unwanted attention of two crooked cops who have taken a personal rather than professional interest in the case...

• Gozu | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £8.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (66.74%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Minami a member of the Azamawari crew highly respects his Aniki (brother) Ozaki who has saved his life in the past. However lately Ozaki's eccentricities have been making everyone wonder about his sanity... A typically skewed take on the Japanese Yakuza lifestyle from maverick director Takashi Miike.

• Tokyo Dragon Chef | DVD | (25/01/2021) from £13.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Two retired Yakuzas open a ramen restaurant and become an overnight social media sensation, thanks to their unique recipe that they came up with whilst in prison. Meanwhile a mysterious upstart gang is taking down every Yakuza family, one by one. The chefs must come out of retirement one last time to stop this new gang from gaining total domination over the whole of Tokyo. Extras: Making of Behind the scenes photos Director exclusive intro

• Mafia Family Yanagawa - Part 1 | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Renowned street thug Jiro Yanagawa is released from prison in Shimonoseki Japan's Kyushu region. Bailed out before his partner in crime Koichiro Tachikawa Yanagawa enters the notorious Yoshimizu Yakuza family only to bust out and return to Osaka to launch a bloody territory war with his own newly-formed clan against the Devils Dragons. ""If you want to rise to power you have to steal from the rich!"" became his mantra... No one in Japan is unfamiliar with this blood-soaked true s

• Score | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  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...

• Kunoichi Lady Ninja | Blu Ray | (19/04/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A