"Actor: Kunie Tanaka"

• The Sword Of Doom - The Criterion Collection | Blu Ray | (04/12/2017) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Japanese action drama directed by Kihachi Okamoto. Tatsuya Nakadai plays Ryunosuke Tsukue, a sociopathic samurai with no morals or feelings of consequence for what he does. When he kills a man in a fencing match, the brother of the deceased man vows to train with a master fencer and track down Ryunosuke to get his vengeance.

• PRISON WALLS: ABASHIRI PRISON I-III (Masters of Cinema) Special Edition Two-disc Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (27/05/2024) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Constructed in the late nineteenth century to house political prisoners, Japan's infamous Abashiri Prison served as the inspiration for a popular and prolific run of yakuza movies released between 1965 and 1972. The Masters of Cinemaseries is proud to present the first three entries in this landmark series, directed by the King of Cult Teruo Ishii (Shogun's Joy of Torture) and starring a titan of Japanese genre cinema, Ken Takakura (The Bullet Train).Abashiri Prison, Takakura stars as Shinichi Tachibana, a yakuza sent to Abashiri as punishment for an attack on a rival gangster. He intends to serve his time as a model prisoner until he is shackled to the bullish Gonzo Gonda (Kōji Nanbara), unwittingly roped into an escape attempt orchestrated by Heizo Yoda (Tōru Abe) and forced to face the frozen wilderness of Hokkaidō. In Another Abashiri Prison Story, Tachibana has just been released when he stumbles across a stash of diamonds recently stolen in a heist and attracts unwanted attention from criminals and cops alike. Finally, in Abashiri Prison: Saga of Homesickness, Tachibana reunites with his former yakuza associates, who are trying to go straight. That is, at least, until old rivals come looking for trouble Ken Takakura would reprise the role of Tachibana in another seven films under the Abashiri Prison banner all of them helmed by Teruo Ishii before the series was rebooted as New Abashiri Prison in 1968, leading to a further eight instalments with Takakura in the lead. It all began with these early entries, presented here for the first time ever on Blu-ray from brand new restorations of the original film elements by Toei.Extras:Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Tony Stella [First print run of 2000 copies only] | 1080p HD presentation of all three films from restorations of the original film elements supplied by Toei | Optional English subtitles newly translated for this release | Original Japanese audio (uncompressed LPCM mono) | Brand new audio commentary tracks by Tom Mes, Chris Poggiali and Mike Leeder & Arne Venema | Tony Rayns on Abashiri Prison brand new interview with critic and Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns | Brand new video appreciation by Jasper Sharp and Mark Schilling | Trailers | PLUS: A collector's booklet featuring new writing by Mark SchillingKen Takakura would reprise the role of Tachibana in another seven films under the Abashiri Prison banner all of them helmed by Teruo Ishii before the series was rebooted as New Abashiri Prison in 1968, leading to a further eight instalments with Takakura in the lead. It all began with these early entries, presented here for the first time ever on Blu-ray from brand new restorations of the original film elements by Toei.

• 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.

• Graveyards of Honor | Blu Ray | (31/05/2021) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Two peerless masters of Japanese cinema Kinji Fukasaku (Battles without Honor and Humanity, Battle Royale) and Takashi Miike (Dead or Alive, Audition) present their own distinctive adaptations of yakuza expert Goro Fujita's gangster novel Graveyard of Honor, each tapping into the zeitgeist of a distinct period of Japanese history. Set during the turbulent post-war years, Fukasaku's original 1975 film charts the rise and fall of real-life gangster Rikio Ishikawa (Tetsuya Watari, Outlaw Gangster VIP). Shot through with the same stark realism and quasidocumentarian approach as Fukasaku's earlier Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Fukasaku nonetheless breaks new ground through his portrayal of a gangster utterly without honor or ethics, surviving by any means necessary in a world of brutal criminality. Meanwhile, Miike's 2002 retelling transplants the story to Tokyo at the turn of the millennium. Less a direct remake of Fukasaku's film than a radical reimagining of the same overarching premise, Miike's film captures both the hedonism and nihilism of the modern Japanese crime scene in deliriously stylish fashion, resulting in a fascinating companion piece to the original that nonetheless stands as its own entity. Arrow Video is proud to present these two intertwined but unique crime thrillers from two celebrated filmmakers at the peak of their creative powers. Special Features Two-disc set featuring two different versions of Graveyard of Honor, the 1975 film by Kinji Fukasaku and the 2002 film by Takashi Miike Special edition packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan DISC ONE GRAVEYARD OF HONOR (1975) High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation Original lossless Japanese PCM 1.0 mono soundtrack Optional English subtitles Audio commentary by author and critic Mark Schilling Like a Balloon: The Life of a Yakuza, a visual essay by critic and Projection Booth podcast host Mike White A Portrait of Rage, an archival appreciation of Fukasaku and his films, featuring interviews with filmmakers, scholars, and friends of the director On the Set with Fukasaku, an archival interview with assistant director Kenichi Oguri Theatrical trailer Imagery gallery DISC TWO GRAVEYARD OF HONOR (2002) High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation Original lossless Japanese PCM 2.0 stereo soundtrack Optional English subtitles Audio commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes Men of Violence: The Male Driving Forces in Takashi Miike's Cinema, a visual essay by author and critic Kat Ellinger Archival interview special featuring Miike and cast members Goro Kishitani and Narimi Arimori Archival making-of featurette Archival making-of teaser Archival press release interviews featuring Miike, Kishitani and Arimori Archival premiere special featuring Miike, Kishitani and Arimori Theatrical trailer Imagery gallery

• Battles Without Honor and Humanity | Blu Ray | (06/09/2021) from £26.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale) gave the world Japan's answer to The Godfather with this violent yakuza saga, influencing filmmakers from Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs) to Takashi Miike (Graveyard of Honor, Audition). Made within just two years, the five-film series brought a new kind of realism and ferocity to the crime genre in Japan, revitalising the industry and leading to unprecedented commercial and critical success.Literally exploding on screen with a mushroom cloud, and ending with Hiroshima's A-bomb Dome, the epic story of Battles Without Honour and Humanity follows over 100 characters through twenty years of gang wars, alliances, betrayals, and assassinations, in an exciting exploration of criminal power and politics in Japan. In the opening episode, ex-soldier Shôzô Hirono escapes from the post-war black markets to become a key member of the Yamamori gang, but soon finds himself disillusioned by the selfish duplicity of his bosses. Hiroshima Death Match focuses on a demobilised kamikaze pilot drifting through the early 1950s, whose suicidal impulses find good use as a mob assassin. Proxy War and Police Tactics form a labyrinthine, two-part story of ambition and betrayal set against Japan's rapid economic growth of the 1960s, with Shôzô caught between warring factions. Final Episode concludes the series in the 1970s as the former Yamamori gang transforms itself into an economic conglomerate called the Tensei Group, in a bid for mainstream respectability.Fukasaku and his team broke with the longstanding studio tradition of casting marquee idols as honourable, kimono-clad heroes, defending their gang bosses against unscrupulous villains, and instead adapted true accounts torn from the headlines, shot in a documentary-like style, and with few clear-cut heroes or villains. The vibrancy and dynamism of the filmmaking, plus its shocking violence, Shakespearean plotlines, and wide tapestry of characters, launched a revolutionary new genre, establishing the series as one of the great masterpieces of world crime cinema.Special Features:High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation of all five original filmsOriginal Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays)Optional English subtitles for all five filmsReversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard KleistDisc 1: Battles Without Honor and HumanityAudio commentary by critic and author Stuart Galbraith IVYakuza Graveyard an interview with Takashi Miike about Kinji Fukasaku and the yakuza film genreOriginal trailers for all five filmsDisc 2: Hiroshima Death MatchMan of Action an interview with series fight choreographer Ryūzō UenoOriginal TrailerDisc 3: Proxy WarSecrets of the Piranha Army a documentary about the troupe of supporting actors who appeared throughout the series, featuring interviews with original Piranha members Masaru Shiga and Takashi Noguchi, plus second-generation Piranha, Takashi Nishina and Akira MurotaTales of a Bit Player an interview with supporting actor and stuntman Seizô FukumotoOriginal TrailerDisc 4: Police TacticsRemembering Kinji a featurette about director Kinji Fukasaku and his work, featuring interviews with Kenta Fukasaku and film critic and Fukasaku biographer Sadao YamaneFukasaku Family an interview with Proxy War and Police Tactics assistant director Tôru Dobashi Original TrailerDisc 5: Final EpisodeLast Days of the Boss an interview with Final Episode screenwriter Kôji Takada Original poster gallery for the seriesOriginal Trailer

• New Battles Without Honour & Humanity | Blu Ray | (21/08/2017) from £21.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  NEW BATTLES WITHOUT HOUNOUR AND HUMANITY: THE COMPLETE TRILOGY New Battles Without Honour and Humanity New Battles Without Honour and Humanity: The Boss's Head New Battles Without Honour and Humanity: Last Days of the Boss In the early 1970s Kinji Fukasaku's five-film Battles Without Honour and Humanity series was a massive hit in Japan and kicked off a boom in realistic modern yakuza films based on true stories. Although Fukasaku had intended to end the series Toei Studio convinced him to return to the director's chair for this unconnected follow-up trilogy of films each starring Battles leading man Bunta Sugawara and telling separate but fictional stories about the yakuza in different locations in Japan. In the first film Bunta Sugawara is Miyoshi a low-level assassin of the Yamamori gang who is sent to jail after a bungled hit. While in stir family member Aoki (Lone Wolf and Cub's Tomisaburo Wakayama) attempts to seize power from the boss and Miyoshi finds himself stuck between the two factions with no honourable way out. In the second entry The Boss's Head Sugawara is Kuroda an itinerant gambler who steps in when a hit by drug-addicted assassin Kusunoki (Tampopo's Tsutomu Yamazaki) goes wrong and takes the fall on behalf of the Owada family but when the gang fails to make good on financial promises to him Kuroda targets the family bosses with a ruthless vengeance. And in Last Days of the Boss Sugawara plays Nozaki a labourer who swears allegiance to a sympathetic crime boss only to find himself elected his successor after the boss is murdered. Restrained by a gang alliance that forbids retributions against high-level members Nozaki forms a plot to exact revenge on his rivals but a suspicious relationship with his own sister (Chieko Matsubara from Outlaw: Gangster VIP) taints his relationship with his fellow gang members. Making their English-language home video debut in this limited edition set the New Battles Without Honour and Humanity films are important links between the first half of Fukasaku's career and his later exploration of other genres. Each one is also a top-notch crime action thriller: hard-boiled entertaining and distinguished by Fukasaku's directorial genius funky musical scores by composer Toshiaki Tsushima and the onscreen power of Toei's greatest yakuza movie stars. LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS: High Definition digital transfers of all three films High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations Original uncompressed mono audio New optional English subtitle translation for all three films Beyond the Films: New Battles Without Honour and Humanity a new video appreciation by Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane New Stories New Battles and Closing Stories two new interviews with screenwriter Koji Takada about his work on the second and third films in the trilogy Original theatrical trailers for all three films Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist Illustrated collector's book featuring new writing on the films the yakuza genre and Fukasaku's career by Stephen Sarrazin Tom Mes Hayley Scanlon Chris D. and Marc Walkow

• Yakuza Papers | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This nihilistic chronicle of the gang-wars that ravaged Hiroshima in post-war Japan centres on the character Sugawara. Based on the prison diary of a yakuza involved in the wars (Kozo Mino) Sugawara is distinguished through extreme callous brutality. The villainous godfather Yamamoru initiates him into his ruthless gang which inevitably wins the power struggle through titanic gruesome battles. Once more with 'The Yakuza Papers' director Kinji Fukasaku elevates brutality and abrup

• The Wolves | DVD | (02/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An indisputable Yakuza masterpiece about loyalty and betrayal 'The Wolves' is as sharp as wolves' teeth. It chronicles one man's journey out of the simplistic values of the gang ethics that have provided him with a harsh haven into a wider and even darker world. Released from prison in a general amnesty Iwahashi returns to the bosom of the Enokiya gang. Here he findes that the feud between them and the Kannon gang has been resolved by a corrupt and successful enterpreneur Asakura.

• Yakuza Papers / Yakuza Graveyard / Street Mobster | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Yakuza Papers: This nihilistic chronicle of the gang-wars that ravaged Hiroshima in post-war Japan centres on the character Sugawara. Based on the prison diary of a yakuza involved in the wars (Kozo Mino) Sugawara is distinguihed through extreme callous brutality. The villainous godfather Yamamoru initiates him into his ruthless gang which inevitably wins the power struggle through titanic gruesome battles. Once more with 'The Yakuza Papers' director Kinji Fukasaku elevate

• Pitfall | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A wandering miner looking for work with his young son is pursued and savagely killed by a mysterious silent assassin in a white suit and hat. The killer threatens a female witness to lie to the police and blame it on someone else. As mistrust and more killings spread through the barely populated rundown mining community ghosts of the dead appear and follow the action unheard by the living yet imploring them for answers. Who is the man in white and why does he sow confusion? Te

• Graveyard Of Honour | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Rikio Ishikawa is a brutal street thug who is drawn into the powerful Kawada gang in 1946 Tokyo. His insubordination and rebelliousness encourage him to start his own Yakuza family but he decides the easiest way would be to challenge his own Godfather whom he brutally attacks. This disrespect to his boss brings the ultimate form of disgrace upon himself and his 'family'. For his own safety he surrenders to the police and spends more than a year in jail. But Ishikawa's dishonourable

• Sword Of Doom | DVD | (02/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Tatsue (Nakadai) a man brought up to recognise only the way of the sword as the way of life finds that the art of killing is a pleasure. Ranged against him is Shimada (Mifune) who regards the use made of the sword as the manifestation of a man's spiritual state and vows to end Tatsue's spree in an era without values...

• Evil Of Dracula | DVD | (02/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Professor Siraki is totally unprepared for the horrors that await him when he starts his new job at Seimei School for Girls...

• The Bullet Train | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A madman (Ken Takakura) plants a bomb on one of Japan's prestigioss Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Hakata the Hikari 109. Threatening to blow it up unless his demands are met if the train slows below 80km/h it will be destroyed. While the police try to track down the culprit it's up to a heroic train conductor (Sonny Chiba) to find the bomb and disarm it in time... Pre-dating ""Speed"" (and its Korean homage ""Tube"") by almost two decades ""Bullet Train"" is gripping edge of

• Roningai | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  On the outskirts of old Tokyo stands an eatery which is a hangout for prostitutes. When the prostitutes are murdered one by one and a squad of samurais arrive in the area at the same time denouncing the whores as vermin who deserve death it is up to the local ronin to put an end to the injustice...

• Blood Thirsty Trilogy | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Director Michio Yamamoto's early 1970's 'Blood Thirsty Trilogy' classic Japanese vampire tales rarely seen in the Western world! Legacy Of Dracula: When Kazuhiko visits the grave of his girlfriend Yuko he is shocked by what he finds... Following his subsequent disappearance his sister and her boyfriend follow his tracks to Yuko's ancestral home. Lake Of Dracula: When 5-year old Akiko witnesses a bloody murder by a hideous golden-eyed vampire she grows up forever

• Demon | DVD | (28/10/2002) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A yakuza member Shuji turns his back on his gangster lifestyle and moves to a remote fishing village. His past is kept hidden as is the yakuza style 'demon tattoo' on his back. But when another gangster comes to the town ensnaring the fishermen with all the night drinking gambling and drugs Shuji's secret is revealed. Shuji must either pursue his new found freedom or the demon on his back.