"Actor: Toshie Negishi"

• Kurosawa's Dreams | Blu Ray | (22/04/2024) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director's own night time visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master's imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power-plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa's Dreams is both a showcase for its maker's artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.Product Features 4K digital restoration, supervised by cinematographer Shoji Ueda, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Audio commentary featuring film scholar Stephen Prince Feature-length documentary from 1990 shot on set and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi Interviews with production manager Teruyo Nogami and assistant director Takashi Koizumi Documentary from 2011 by director Akira Kurosawa's longtime translator Catherine Cadou, featuring interviews with filmmakers Bernardo Bertolucci, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Hayao Miyazaki, Martin Scorsese, and others Trailer PLUS: An essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri and Kurosawa's script for a never-filmed ninth dream, introduced by NogamiCover painting by Akira Kurosawa

• Audition | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £13.79   |  Saving you £1.20 (8.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  'Audition' is an eerie tale of a man (Ryo Ishibashi) who in his search for a new wife at the insistence of his son holds an audition for potential mates. He disguises his actual intentions by saying that the audition is for an actress to star in a new movie that he is making. When at last he finds the perfect woman (the model Eihi Shiina) she disappears leaving a bizarre trail of gruesome murders in her path... This collector's edition of 'Audition' features specially prepared

• Audition | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Much of the controversy surrounding Takashi Miike's Audition centres on the disturbing nature of the later part of the film--understandable when you consider the imprint these admittedly horrific images leave on the viewer--but fails to note the intricate social satire of the rest. This is a film that offers insight into the changing culture of Japan and the generation gap between young and old. Shigeharu Aoyama is looking for an obedient and virtuous woman to love and asks, "Where are all the good girls?"--a comment that seals his fate. A fake audition is organised to find Aoyama a wife. Asami Yamazaki is introduced as the virtuous woman he is looking for, dressing for the majority of the film in white and behaving with the courtesy of an angel, especially when juxtaposed against the brash stupidity of the other girls at the audition. Although his friend takes an immediate "chemical" dislike to her, Aoyama begins a love affair to end all love affairs. But as Asami's history unfolds we see her pain and torture and slowly understand that the tortured in this instance holds the power to become the torturer. Aoyama is slowly drawn away from his white, metallic and homely environment into the vivid- red and dirty-dark environment of Asami's sadistic world. Audition can be viewed on a number of levels, with important feminist, social and human rights issues to be drawn from the story. However, the real power of this film is its descent into the subconscious, to a point where reality is blurred and the audience is unable to decide whether the disturbing images on screen are real or surreal. This refined, hard-hitting and essentially Japanese style of horror is ultimately much more powerful than anything offered by Hollywood. This is a film that will get under your skin and infect your consciousness with a blend of fearless gore and unimaginable torture. It is not for the faint-hearted. --Nikki Disney

• Rhapsody In August | DVD | (14/04/2000) from £15.93   |  Saving you £0.06 (0.40%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Japanese grand master Akira Kurosawa's eloquent examination of the nuclear holocaust in Nagasaki as seen though the eyes of a survivor and her four grandchildren 44 years after the event. The grandmother recalls the history of her family and Japanese society. As she searches for an understanding of the past she falls into despair over the loss of her husband in the blast as its anniversary draws near.

• Warm Water Under A Red Bridge | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £10.87   |  Saving you £10.88 (119.43%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on the novel by Henmi Yo this is the story of Yosuke who finds himself down on his luck after he loses his job and is separated from his wife. He is told that a priceless item is to be found at a house on the Noto Peninsula and travels there to retrieve it. On his arrival at the house he is welcomed by a young lady called Saeko who has a very strange secret....

• Shikoku | DVD | (24/01/2005) from £5.38   |  Saving you £10.61 (197.21%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Some things are better left dead... As an adult Hinako returns to the island of Shikoku which she left when her parents moved her to Tokyo as a child. Upon her return she learns that her childhood best friend Sayori (Chiaki Kuriyama the vicious Go-Go Yubari from Kill Bill Vol. 1) - whom she lost touch with after moving to the city -drowned in a lake at the age of 16. Hinako's other friend from childhood Fumiya was dating Sayori when she died and he claims to be haunted by her