"Actor: Jô Shishido"

• Retaliation | Blu Ray | (11/05/2015) from £35.74   |  Saving you £-15.75 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In 1969 future sexploitation specialist Yasuharu Hasebe (Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) teamed up with the inimitable Jô Shishido (Tokyo Drifter Branded to Kill) for a follow up to their yakuza hit Massacre Gun. A tale of gang warfare that features a raft of the period’s most iconic stars Akira Kobayashi (Battles Without Honor and Humanity The Flowers and the Angry Waves) is a yakuza lieutenant who emerges from jail to find his gang dispersed and his aging boss in his sickbed. Shishido is the rival waiting to kill him and a young Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) is the girl caught in the crossfire. Gritty and cynical Retaliation is a hardboiled precursor to Kinji Fukasaku’s revisionist yakuza pictures of the 1970s. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: Limited Edition Blu-ray (3000 copies only) Restored High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation on Blu-ray for the first time in the world! Original uncompressed mono PCM audio Newly translated English subtitles Brand new interview with star Jô Shishido Interview with renowned critic and historian Tony Rayns Original theatrical trailer Gallery featuring rare promotional images Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp newly illustrated by Ian MacEwan and featuring original archive stills

• The Yakuza Papers: Final Episode | DVD | (08/08/2016) from £13.29   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The Final Episode of the Battles Without Honour and Humanity series brought a new, more contemporary mood to the film and its characters. The yakuza may be starting to resemble a legitimate business, but director Kinji Fukasaku, working with new screenwriter Koji Takada, never lets the audience forget their violent origins, and their tried-and-true methods of accomplishing their business. 1966. After a police crackdown, the gangs of Hiroshima and Kure have formed a massive, multi-family political and economic coalition called the Tensei Group, seeking a way forward into the 1970's as part of Japan's economic bubble. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) finds himself increasingly alienated from this semi-legitimate form of corruption, particularly as acting Tensei Group chairman Matsumura (Kinya Kitaoji) tries to put the gangs on a new, more business-like path. But old habits die hard, and when rivalries surface once again, they bring with them the promise of more bloodshed. The long-awaited conclusion to the epic series is an elegy for the bad guy, with the harsh realization that Japan's economic growth came about only through the sacrifice of the blood of its young men, victims of twenty long years of Battles Without Honour and Humanity.

• Branded to Kill | Blu Ray | (18/08/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Seijun Suzuki's absolutely mad yakuza movie Branded to Kill bends the hit-man genre so out-of-shape it more resembles a Luis Bunuel take on Martin Scorsese. Number Three killer Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido) is a hired gun who loves his work, but when he misses a target after a mere butterfly sets his carefully balanced aim astray, he becomes the next target of the mob. Goro is no pushover and easily dispatches the first comers, leaving them splayed in death contortions that could qualify for an Olympic event, but the rat-a-tat violence gives way to a surreal, sadistic game of cat and mouse. The legendary Number One mercilessly taunts his target before moving in with him in a macho, testosterone-laden Odd Couple truce that ends up with them handcuffed together. Kinky? Not compared to earlier scenes. The smell of boiling rice sets Goro's libido for his mistress so aflame that Suzuki censors the gymnastic sex with animated black bars that come to life in an animated cha-cha. Because Suzuki pushed his yakuza parodies and cinematic surrealism too far, his studio, Nikkatsu, finally called in their own metaphoric hit and fired the director with such force that he was effectively blackballed from the industry for a decade. It took about that long for audiences to embrace his audacious genre bending--Suzuki's pop-art sensibilities were just a bit ahead of their time. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Cruel Gun Story | Blu Ray | (23/06/2025) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Togawa (Joe Shishido, Branded to Kill) is released from prison early by his underworld bosses. They make him execute a daring heist on an armoured vehicle, knowing he has no choice but to do it, as he needs the money for his sister's surgery. With multiple partners and facets to the operation, much is at risk and all is never as it seems. A riff on Stanley Kubrick's The Killing from Nikkatsu's ˜Action' line, Takumi Furukawa directs this yakuza tale with every bit of the deftness found in classic American noir of the 1950s, featuring hard-boiled characters and enough twists to make your fedora spin. SPECIAL FEATURES High-Definition digital transfer of Cruel Gun Story, presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the world Original uncompressed mono PCM audio Audio commentary by author and filmmaker Jasper Sharp (2024) New introduction by critic and programmer Tony Rayns (2024, 21 mins) Visual essay by Japanese cinema expert Hayley Scanlon on Nikkatsu's noir films of the 1960s (2024, 12 mins) Archival interview with actor Joe Shishido (2006, 9 mins) Optional English subtitles

• Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Vol. 2 Blu-Ray + DVD | Blu Ray | (13/06/2016) from £21.19   |  Saving you £8.80 (41.53%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan, inaugurated a star system in the late 1950s, finding talent and contracting them to a series of wild genre pictures. This collection celebrates these Diamond Guys with three classic films from directors Buichi Saito (Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril), Ko Nakahira (Crazed Fruit), and Haruyasu Noguchi, who is a new discovery for the West. In Saito's Tokyo Mighty Guy, mega star Akira Kobayashi stars as Jiro in the rambunctious tale of a chef who opens a restaurant in the busy Ginza district. His culinary skills and dashing good looks bring in the women as well as unwanted trouble, while an explosive political scandal builds around his girlfriend's business Next, Jo Shishido (Massacre Gun, Retaliation), one of the most popular Diamond Guys in the West, stars in Danger Paws, a crime caper from Ko Nakahira about counterfeiting. When one billion yen goes AWOL, Joe the Ace (Shishido) spies an opportunity to get rich quick, but things soon go wrong as it turns out he isn't the only one who'll stop at nothing to get his hands on the missing cash Finally, Shishido stars once again in Noguchi's screwball classic Murder Unincorporated. When the mysterious Joe of Spades executes one of the bosses of a powerful syndicate, his colleagues, fearing for their own lives, call on the services of assassin agency Murder Unincorporated to take care of the problem. This unique entry showcases some of the most peculiar killing tactics to ever hit Japanese cinema! Presented on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time in the West, these thrilling genre films feature some of Nikkatsu's leading talent at the top of their game.

• Massacre Gun | Blu Ray | (28/06/2017) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Genre icon Jô Shishido stars in this tense and violent yakuza yarn from genre stalwart and Seijun Suzuki’s former assistant Yasuharu Hasebe (Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song). Shishido stars as Kuroda a mob hitman who turns on his employers after being forced to execute his lover. Joining forces with his similarly wronged brothers hot-headed Eiji (Tatsuya Fuji In the Realm of the Senses) and aspiring boxer Saburô (Jirô Okazaki Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) the trio escalate their mob retaliation to all-out turf war where no one will stop until one faction emerges victorious. Strikingly violent for the period and gorgeously photographed in monochrome like genre siblings Branded to Kill and A Colt is My Passport (Shishido’s other films from 1967) Massacre Gun is a bold iteration on the genre featuring some stunning compositions and the assured direction of Hasebe. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: Limited Edition Blu-ray (3000 copies only) Restored High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation on Blu-ray for the first time in the world! Original uncompressed mono PCM audio Newly translated English subtitles Brand new interview with star Jô Shishido Interview with renowned critic and historian Tony Rayns Original theatrical trailer Gallery featuring rare promotional images Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan booklet featuring new writing on the film by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp newly illustrated by Ian MacEwan and featuring original archive stills

• Gate of Flesh | DVD | (10/08/2009) from £11.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (33.36%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Gate of Flesh is one of the earliest examples of the sado-masochistic films called pinku eiga which galvanized Japanese Cinema during the 1970s. Directed by Seijun Suzuki considered one of the most important and influential voices in Japanese Cinema the film is set amidst the black markets and urban decay of Tokyo shortly after World War II had ended. Maya (Yumiko Nogawa) a young girl from a remote village with nowhere to go finds refuge with a gang of hookers living in a derelict building. The Women maintain order by adhering to a strict code the most important 'no sex without payment'. Those who break the code run the risk of enuring appalling punishment mostly at the hands of the gang's ringleader Komasa Sen (Satoko Kasai). The harmony of the group s broken when a violent ex-soldier on the run from the police Ibuki (Joe Shishido) seeks refuge in the building. All the women are drawn to Ibuki especially Maya resulting in trouble for both of them.

• Gate Of Flesh | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Set in Tokyo just after the war 'Gate of Flesh' is the story of a group of prostitutes who live and work in a derelict building. Now recognised as a classic of Japanese cinema the film is a shocking sometimes brutal yet always compelling experience.