"Actor: Masayuki Yui"

• Kagemusha | DVD | (03/06/2002) from £13.72   |  Saving you £-0.73 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The 1970s were difficult years for the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Having been unable to secure full Japanese backing for his epic project Kagemusha, the 70-year-old master found American support from George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, who served as co-executive producers (through 20th Century Fox) for this magnificent 1980 production--to that date the most expensive film in Japanese history. Set in the late-16th century, Kagemusha centres on the Takeda clan, one of three warlord clans battling for control of Japan at the end of the feudal period. When their leader Lord Shingen (Tatsuya Nakadai) is mortally wounded in battle, he orders that his death be kept secret and that his "kagemusha"--or "shadow warrior"--take his place for a period of three years to prevent clan disruption and enemy takeover. The identical double is a petty thief (also played by Nakadai) spared from execution due to his uncanny resemblance to Lord Shingen--but his true identity cannot prevent the tides of fate from rising over the Takeda clan in a climactic scene of battlefield devastation. Through stunning visuals and meticulous attention to every physical and stylistic detail, Kurosawa made a film that restored his status as Japan's greatest filmmaker, and the success of Kagemusha enabled the director to make his 1985 masterpiece, Ran. --Jeff Shannon

• To End All Wars | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Based on the book by Captain Ernest Gordon a phenomenal piece of work this is an unforgettable true-life story of extreme endurance survival and redemption set amid the brutal terror of a Japanese POW camp. A story of triumph faith courage and untimely forgiveness. The Times

• Madadayo | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £8.79   |  Saving you £11.20 (127.42%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The main story of the film is based on the life of a Japanese academic and author Hyakken Uchida (1889-1971). The film opens with him resigning as a professor of German in the period immediately before the Second World War. The plot of the film is centered around his relationship with his former students who care for him in his old age. The title 'Not Yet' in English is an allusion to an ancient Japanese legend mentioned in one scene of the film of an old man who refuses to die. This story is constantly referred to in the movie as every year on the professor's birthday his students throw him a party in which they all ask him ""Mada kai?"" (""Are you ready?""). He responds by drinking a large ceremonial glass of beer and shouting ""Mada dayo!"" (""Not yet!"") implying that death may be near but life still goes on!