"Actor: Takahiro Tamura"

• Tora! Tora! Tora! | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.94   |  Saving you £12.05 (151.76%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Here is just one of the many mishaps chronicled in Tora! Tora! Tora!: "Sir, there's a large formation of planes coming in from the north, 140 miles, 3 degrees east." "Yeah? Don't worry about it." The epic film shows the bombing of Pearl Harbour from both sides in the historic first American-Japanese coproduction: American director Richard Fleischer oversaw the complicated production (the Japanese sequences were directed by Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, after Akira Kurosawa withdrew from the film), wrestling a sprawling story with dozens of characters into a manageable, fairly easy-to-follow film. The first half maps out the collapse of diplomacy between the nations and the military blunders that left naval and air forces sitting ducks for the impending attack, while the second half is an amazing re-creation of the devastating battle. While Tora! Tora! Tora! lacks the strong central characters that anchor the best war films, the real star of the film is the climactic 30-minute battle, a massive feat of cinematic engineering that expertly conveys the surprise, the chaos and the immense destruction of the only attack by a foreign power on American soil since the Revolutionary war. The special effects won a well-deserved Oscar, but the film was shut out of every other category by, ironically, the other epic war picture of the year, Patton. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Empire of Passion - Double Play (Blu-ray + DVD) | Blu Ray | (17/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  In feudal Japan a young soldier begins an intense affair with an older married woman. Driven by passion, obsession and jealousy they decide to violently murder her husband and dispose of the body in a nearby well. Claiming her husband is working away from home the couple carry on their affair in secret. Three years later her husband returns from the dead to haunt the illicit couple, feeding off their guilt and pushing them deeper into the dark realms of insanity.With films such as Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Gohatto and the infamous In The Realm Of The Senses, director Nagisa Oshima is one of the most celebrated and controversial figures in Japanese cinema. Made in 1978, Empire Of Passion is an atmospheric, unsettling and unforgettable experience. A huge influence on contemporary Asian horror it has lost none of its beguiling power.

• Empire Of Passion | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £32.37   |  Saving you £-12.38 (-61.90%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Very much a companion piece to Nagisa Oshima's classic In The Realm Of The Senses Empire of Passion is part ghost story part love story - a tale of murder guilt and revenge laced with a provocative air of eroticism. Set in rural Japan at the end of the 19th Century the plot is based on the true story of a housewife Seki (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) who embarks on a torrid affair with a younger man Toyoji (Tatsuya Fuji) a soldier recently returned from the war. Following a passionate enc

• Oshima Boxset - The Realm of the Senses & Empire of Passion | DVD | (02/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Realm of the Senses: Ai No Corrida is perhaps the most notorious erotic film in cinema history having been banned at the 1976 New York Film Festival and denied a video release in the UK until 2000. Based on fact the film depicts the relationship between an ex- prostitute who becomes a domestic servant and her master who have a mutual sexual appetite which is almost boundless. The climax to the film is legendary and has become one of the most talked about scenes in movie history. Empire of Passion: Oshima deservedly won the Best Director award at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival for this thrilling ghost story set in late 19th century rural Japan. A housewife embarks on a torrid affair with a younger man and they decide that they must kill her elderly husband in order to protect their sordid secret. Having committed the murder they dispose of the body and explain his absence to the village by claiming he had departed for Tokyo to find work but three years after his death the ghost of the dead husband starts appearing in the village threatening to expose the illicit passion

• Never Give Up | DVD | (20/06/2005) from £8.08   |  Saving you £-2.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Following a mass murder in rural Japan ex-special forces soldier Ajisawa (Ken Takakura) adopts the sole survivor of the massacre an amnesiac young girl. Intending to put the past behind them the pair instead find themselves in conflict with the corrupt and powerful leaders of a small town. As the girl's memories begin to emerge Ajisawa must call upon all of his killer instincts to ensure their survival...