"Actor: Takashi Nakamura"

• Ikiru | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £14.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (33.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  ""Sometimes I think of my death "" wrote Akira Kurosawa ""I think of ceasing to be... and it is from these thoughts that Ikiru came."" The story of a man diagnosed with stomach cancer Kurosawa's film is a serious contemplation of the nature of existence and the question of how we find meaning in our lives. Opening with a shot of an x-ray showing the main character's stomach 'Ikiru' tells the tale of a dedicated downtrodden civil servant who diagnosed with a fatal cancer learns to c

• High And Low | DVD | (28/03/2005) from £14.49   |  Saving you £5.50 (37.96%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Kurosawa drew on the thriller 'King's Ransom' by Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter) for this contemporary study of the inequalities and hierarchical rigidity of modern Japan. In the first half of the film set in a single room an industrialist agonises on whether to pay the huge ransom demanded by kidnappers who have mistakenly snatched his chauffeur's son instead of his own. The second half of the film shot in a frenzied restless style on sleazy urban locations concentrates on the polic

• Red Angel | Blu Ray | (17/01/2022) from £9.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Directed by Yasuzo Masumura (Giants and Toys, Blind Beast), Red Angel takes an unflinching look at the horror and futility of war through the eyes of a dedicated and selfless young military nurse. When Sakura Nishi is dispatched in 1939 to a ramshackle field hospital in Tientsin, the frontline of Japan's war with China, she and her colleagues find themselves fighting a losing battle tending to the war-wounded and emotionally shellshocked soldiers while assisting head surgeon Dr Okabe conduct an unending series of amputations. As the Chinese troops close in, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Okabe who, impotent to stall the mounting piles of cadavers, has retreated into his own private hell of morphine addiction. Adapted from the novel by Yorichika Arima, Masumura's harrowing portrait of women and war is considered the finest of his collaborations with Ayako Wakao (A Wife Confesses, Irezumi) and features startling monochrome scope cinematography by Setsuo Kobayashi (Fires on the Plain, An Actor's Revenge). Special Features High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio Optional English subtitles Brand new audio commentary by Japanese cinema scholar David Desser Newly filmed introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns Not All Angels Have Wings, a new visual essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum Original Trailer Image Gallery Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Irene González-López

• The Mysterians | DVD | (13/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Join mankind's most treacherous battle for survival! From the director of the original Kaiju classic Godzilla comes The Mysterians - available on DVD for the first time! After a Japanese town is totally destroyed the military arrive to investigate. They encounter a giant robot that is decimating everything in its path. A dome appears out of the ground and a group of scientists are invited to meet the alien Mysterians from the planet Mysteroid. The Mysterians have come in peace all they ask humanity for is three-square kilometers of land and the right to interbreed with Earth women to repopulate their species. Outraged at such a suggestion humanity declares war on the Mysterians which leads to the revelation of the aliens' sinister secrets. However Earth stands little chance against the technologically advanced beings unless a group of scientists can come up with a super weapon to use against them. The Mysterians was the first colour Japanese science fiction film to be shot in widescreen. The creative team responsible for Godzilla reunited for the production and the special effects are striking. Flying saucers zeppelin-type aircraft ray-gun blasts mass floods and violent explosions are fantastically executed setting the standard for model effects and science fiction art design for years to come. Vibrant and bursting with action The Mysterians is an arresting vision of futuristic warfare and a cautionary tale for the atomic age; a treat not only for robot fanatics and cult sci-fi film fans but one of Ishiro Honda's most celebrated and spectacular extravaganzas.

• Red Angel | DVD | (24/07/2006) from £9.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (50.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of Japan's most notorious and internationally criminally under-exposed films. Shocking beautiful and moving in equal measure this is one of Masumura's very finest achievements. Set against the Sino-Japanese war in 1939 a young angelic military nurse is raped by her patients and sent to the front line for daring to register a complaint. Posted to a rag-tag demoralised unit she falls in love with an impotent morphine-addicted surgeon. Together the pair seek solace in each othe

• Pacific Battleship Yamato | DVD | (27/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Pacific Battleship Yamato