"Actor: Kazunari Ninomiya"

• Tekkonkinkreet | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  From the creators of Animatrix comes this visually-stunning new anime film based on a popular Japanese manga written by Taiyo Matsumoto. In Treasure Town where the moon smiles and young boys can fly life can be both gentle and brutal. This is never truer than for our heroes Black and White two street urchins who watch over the city doing battle with an array of old-world Yakuza and alien assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis. Tekkonkinkreet is a dynamic tale of brotherh

• Flags of our Fathers & Letters from Iwo Jima (2 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (09/07/2007) from £8.31   |  Saving you £17.68 (212.76%)   |  RRP £25.99

  Thematically ambitious and emotionally complex, Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is an intimate epic with much to say about war and the nature of heroism in America. Based on the non-fiction bestseller by James Bradley (with Ron Powers), and adapted by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis (Jarhead screenwriter William Broyles Jr. wrote an earlier draft that was abandoned when Eastwood signed on to direct), this isn't so much a conventional war movie as it is a thought-provoking meditation on our collective need for heroes, even at the expense of those we deem heroic. In telling the story of the six men (five Marines, one Navy medic) who raised the American flag of victory on the battle-ravaged Japanese island of Iwo Jima on February 23rd, 1945, Eastwood takes us deep into the horror of war (in painstakingly authentic Iwo Jima battle scenes) while emphasizing how three of the surviving flag-raisers (played by Adam Beach, Ryan Phillippe, and Jesse Bradford) became reluctant celebrities - and resentful pawns in a wartime publicity campaign - after their flag-raising was immortalized by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in the most famous photograph in military history. As the surviving flag-raisers reluctantly play their public roles as "the heroes of Iwo Jima" during an exhausting (but clearly necessary) wartime bond rally tour, Flags of Our Fathers evolves into a pointed study of battlefield valor and misplaced idolatry, incorporating subtle comment on the bogus nature of celebrity, the trauma of battle, and the true meaning of heroism in wartime. Wisely avoiding any direct parallels to contemporary history, Eastwood allows us to draw our own conclusions about the Iwo Jima flag-raisers and how their postwar histories (both noble and tragic) simultaneously illustrate the hazards of exploited celebrity and society's genuine need for admirable role models during times of national crisis. Flags of Our Fathers defies the expectations of those seeking a more straightforward war-action drama, but it's richly satisfying, impeccably crafted film that manages to be genuinely patriotic (in celebrating the camaraderie of soldiers in battle) while dramatising the ultimate futility of war. Eastwood's follow-up film, Letters from Iwo Jima, examines the Iwo Jima conflict from the Japanese perspective. Critically hailed as an instant classic, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima is a masterwork of uncommon humanity and a harrowing, unforgettable indictment of the horrors of war. In an unprecedented demonstration of worldly citizenship, Eastwood (from a spare, tightly focused screenplay by first-time screenwriter Iris Yamashita) has crafted a truly Japanese film, with Japanese dialogue (with subtitles) and filmed in a contemplative Japanese style, serving as both complement and counterpoint to Eastwood's previously released companion film Flags of Our Fathers. Where the earlier film employed a complex non-linear structure and epic-scale production values to dramatise one of the bloodiest battles of World War II and its traumatic impact on American soldiers, Letters reveals the battle of Iwo Jima from the tunnel- and cave-dwelling perspective of the Japanese, hopelessly outnumbered, deprived of reinforcements, and doomed to die in inevitable defeat. While maintaining many of the traditions of the conventional war drama, Eastwood extends his sympathetic touch to humanise "the enemy," revealing the internal and external conflicts of soldiers and officers alike, forced by circumstance to sacrifice themselves or defend their honour against insurmountable odds. From the weary reluctance of a young recruit named Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) to the dignified yet desperately anguished strategy of Japanese commander Tadamichi Kuribayashi (played by Oscar-nominated The Last Samurai costar Ken Watanabe), whose letters home inspired the film's title and present-day framing device, Letters from Iwo Jima (which conveys the bleakness of battle through a near-total absence of colour) steadfastly avoids the glorification of war while paying honorable tribute to ill-fated men who can only dream of the comforts of home. --Jeff Shannon

• Tekkonkinkreet | Blu Ray | (07/01/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Tekkonkinkreet is a landmark in the increasing cross-pollination between Japanese and American animation: Based on a manga by Taiyo Matsumoto, the film was made in Japan at Studio 4C, but directed by American Michael Arrias. The story unfolds in Treasure Town, a scabrous metropolitan slum so gritty it makes the viewer want to clean under his fingernails. Orphans White and Black share an existence at the fringes of an already marginalized subculture. White seems naive, if not learning disabled: at 11, he can't tie his shoes or dress himself. But he has an uncanny sixth sense about what's happening in Treasure Town. Older, streetwise Black looks after White and receives the emotional support he needs in return: they're two halves of a damaged whole. The arrival of a murderous yakuza boss who wants to demolish Treasure Town and build an amusement park draws Black and White into an escalating spiral of physical and emotional violence. Although the ending of Tekkonkinkreet feels needlessly obscure, it's a striking and often powerful film from a first-time director. (Contains violence, grotesque imagery, brief nudity, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon, Amazon.com

• Flags Of Our Fathers/Letters From Iwo Jima - Battle For Iwo Jima Collection | Blu Ray | (09/07/2007) from £7.99   |  Saving you £20.00 (250.31%)   |  RRP £27.99

  This Blu-Ray double-pack brings together Clint Eastwood's outstanding World War II double bill which tells the story of the battle for Iwo Jima from both sides. Flags Of Our Fathers February 1945. Even as victory in Europe was finally within reach the war in the Pacific raged on. One of the most crucial and bloodiest battles of the war was the struggle for the island of Iwo Jima which culminated with what would become one of the most iconic images in history: five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi. The inspiring photo capturing that moment became a symbol of victory to a nation that had grown weary of war and made instant heroes of the six American soldiers at the base of the flag some of whom would die soon after never knowing that they had been immortalized. But the surviving flag raisers had no interest in being held up as symbols and did not consider themselves heroes; they wanted only to stay on the front with their brothers in arms who were fighting and dying without fanfare or glory. Letters Of Iwo Jima The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. General Kuribayashi however does not favor the rigid traditional approach recommended by his subordinates and resentment and resistance fester among his staff. In the lower echelons a young soldier Saigo a poor baker in civilian life strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese army itself all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms. When the American invasion begins both Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength honor courage and horrors beyond imagination.

• Letters From Iwo Jima | DVD | (24/12/2007) from £4.90   |  Saving you £8.09 (165.10%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The companion film to "Flags Of Our Fathers", "Letters from Iwo Jima" tells the story of the infamous WW2 battle from the Japanese perspective.

• Tekkon Kinkreet - Standard BD | Blu Ray | (24/02/2025) from £16.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From the creators of Animatrix comes this visually-stunning new anime film based on a popular Japanese manga written by Taiyo Matsumoto. In Treasure Town, where the moon smiles and young boys can fly, life can be both gentle and brutal. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White, two street urchins who watch over the city, doing battle with an array of old-world Yakuza and alien assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis.

• Gantz/Gantz 2 Perfect Answer - Movie Double Pack | DVD | (06/02/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Gantz is based on a hit manga series created by Hiroya Oku and stars leading Japanese actors Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Detroit Metal City).GantzAfter an accident on the train platform, recently deceased childhood friends Kei and Kato find themselves transported to an empty apartment populated by other confused strangers and a mysterious black ball known only as Gantz, which issues them a set of strange suits and alien weapons, instructing them that their lives are forefit and now they must exterminate dangerous aliens from Earth in a series of games.Gantz 2: Perfect AnswerPerfect Answer begins several months after the events of the first film. Kurono (Ninomiya Kazunari) is still fighting aliens under the order of Gantz and he is close to reaching the score he needs to resurrect his friend Kato (Matsuyama Kenichi). As the missions begin to get increasingly dangerous for both the alien fighters and the general public, Kurono discovers that the endgame for Gantz is quickly approaching.

• Letters From Iwo Jima | Blu Ray | (09/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The companion film to "Flags Of Our Fathers", "Letters from Iwo Jima" tells the story of the infamous WW2 battle from the Japanese perspective.

• Gantz | Blu Ray | (03/10/2011) from £6.49   |  Saving you £18.50 (74.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Gantz is based on a hit manga series created by Hiroya Oku and stars leading Japanese actors Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Detroit Metal City).After an accident on the train platform, recently deceased childhood friends Kei and Kato find themselves transported to an empty apartment populated by other confused strangers and a mysterious black ball known only as Gantz, which issues them a set of strange suits and alien weapons, instructing them that their lives are forefit and now they must exterminate dangerous aliens from Earth in a series of games.

• Flags of our Fathers & Letters from Iwo Jima (4 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (09/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £40.99

  Thematically ambitious and emotionally complex, Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is an intimate epic with much to say about war and the nature of heroism in America. Based on the non-fiction bestseller by James Bradley (with Ron Powers), and adapted by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis (Jarhead screenwriter William Broyles Jr. wrote an earlier draft that was abandoned when Eastwood signed on to direct), this isn't so much a conventional war movie as it is a thought-provoking meditation on our collective need for heroes, even at the expense of those we deem heroic. In telling the story of the six men (five Marines, one Navy medic) who raised the American flag of victory on the battle-ravaged Japanese island of Iwo Jima on February 23rd, 1945, Eastwood takes us deep into the horror of war (in painstakingly authentic Iwo Jima battle scenes) while emphasizing how three of the surviving flag-raisers (played by Adam Beach, Ryan Phillippe, and Jesse Bradford) became reluctant celebrities - and resentful pawns in a wartime publicity campaign - after their flag-raising was immortalized by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in the most famous photograph in military history. As the surviving flag-raisers reluctantly play their public roles as "the heroes of Iwo Jima" during an exhausting (but clearly necessary) wartime bond rally tour, Flags of Our Fathers evolves into a pointed study of battlefield valor and misplaced idolatry, incorporating subtle comment on the bogus nature of celebrity, the trauma of battle, and the true meaning of heroism in wartime. Wisely avoiding any direct parallels to contemporary history, Eastwood allows us to draw our own conclusions about the Iwo Jima flag-raisers and how their postwar histories (both noble and tragic) simultaneously illustrate the hazards of exploited celebrity and society's genuine need for admirable role models during times of national crisis. Flags of Our Fathers defies the expectations of those seeking a more straightforward war-action drama, but it's richly satisfying, impeccably crafted film that manages to be genuinely patriotic (in celebrating the camaraderie of soldiers in battle) while dramatising the ultimate futility of war. Eastwood's follow-up film, Letters from Iwo Jima, examines the Iwo Jima conflict from the Japanese perspective. Critically hailed as an instant classic, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima is a masterwork of uncommon humanity and a harrowing, unforgettable indictment of the horrors of war. In an unprecedented demonstration of worldly citizenship, Eastwood (from a spare, tightly focused screenplay by first-time screenwriter Iris Yamashita) has crafted a truly Japanese film, with Japanese dialogue (with subtitles) and filmed in a contemplative Japanese style, serving as both complement and counterpoint to Eastwood's previously released companion film Flags of Our Fathers. Where the earlier film employed a complex non-linear structure and epic-scale production values to dramatise one of the bloodiest battles of World War II and its traumatic impact on American soldiers, Letters reveals the battle of Iwo Jima from the tunnel- and cave-dwelling perspective of the Japanese, hopelessly outnumbered, deprived of reinforcements, and doomed to die in inevitable defeat. While maintaining many of the traditions of the conventional war drama, Eastwood extends his sympathetic touch to humanise "the enemy," revealing the internal and external conflicts of soldiers and officers alike, forced by circumstance to sacrifice themselves or defend their honour against insurmountable odds. From the weary reluctance of a young recruit named Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) to the dignified yet desperately anguished strategy of Japanese commander Tadamichi Kuribayashi (played by Oscar-nominated The Last Samurai costar Ken Watanabe), whose letters home inspired the film's title and present-day framing device, Letters from Iwo Jima (which conveys the bleakness of battle through a near-total absence of colour) steadfastly avoids the glorification of war while paying honorable tribute to ill-fated men who can only dream of the comforts of home. --Jeff Shannon

• Gantz | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Gantz is based on a hit manga series created by Hiroya Oku and stars leading Japanese actors Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note Detroit Metal City). After an accident on the train platform recently deceased childhood friends Kei and Kato find themselves transported to an empty apartment populated by other confused strangers and a mysterious black ball known only as Gantz which issues them a set of strange suits and alien weapons instructing them that their lives are forefit and now they must exterminate dangerous aliens from Earth in a series of games.

• Gantz 2 - Perfect Answer | DVD | (06/02/2012) from £18.88   |  Saving you £1.11 (5.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Gantz is based on a hit manga series created by Hiroya Oku and stars leading Japanese actors Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Detroit Metal City).Gantz 2: Perfect Answer begins several months after the events of the first film. Kurono (Ninomiya Kazunari) is still fighting aliens under the order of Gantz and he is close to reaching the score he needs to resurrect his friend Kato (Matsuyama Kenichi). As the missions begin to get increasingly dangerous for both the alien fighters and the general public, Kurono discovers that the endgame for Gantz is quickly approaching.

• Letters From Iwo Jima | HD DVD | (09/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. General Kuribayashi however does not favor the rigid traditional approach recommended by his subordinates and resentment and resistance fester among his staff. In the lower echelons a young soldier Saigo a poor baker in civilian life strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese army itself all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms. When the American invasion begins both Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength honor courage and horrors beyond imagination.