"Actor: Yûsuke Kawazu"

• Cruel Story of Youth (1960) | Blu Ray | (17/08/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Eureka Entertainment to release Japanese Director Nagisa Oshima’s landmark film CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH a shocking tale of youthful delinquency in post-Hiroshima Japan on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK in a Dual Format edition available from 17 August 2015. This second feature by the Japanese cinema-insurgent Nagisa Ôshima (In the Realm of the Senses Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) galvanised its home-turf with its topsy-turvy directorial dexterity and stinging castigation of an indolent self-indulgent youth culture reposing on the eve of the turbulent 1960s. When high-schooler Makoto is saved from the advances of a lecherous middle-aged man by uni student Kiyoshi the pair embark on a fits-and-starts affair that finally settles into a sexually extortionary mutually exploitative dependency that promises to spell their relationship’s doom. Ôshima’s breakthrough portrait of alienated youth comes courtesy of the 2014 Shochiku 4K scan that resurrected the film’s glorious colour palette recently described by critic and programmer James Quandt as “running riot with retro: pulsing neon turquoise telephones hair teased into shellacked grandeur.” The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Cruel Story of Youth in a Dual Format edition for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK. Feature: Gorgeous 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray from the 2014 4K Shochiku restoration Optional English subtitles New video interview with film critic Tony Rayns Original theatrical trailer 36-page booklet containing an essay interview material and rare archival imagery

• Play it Cool Limited Edition Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (03/03/2025) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Play it Cool is a chic and erotically charged drama starring popular Japanese singer of the day Mari Atsumi as a college girl negotiating her way through the male-dominated hierarchies of Tokyo's seductive but treacherous nightclub culture. Yumi (Mari Atsumi) is a pretty fashion student who shares a cramped home with her mother Tomi (Akemi Negishi, The Saga of Anatahan) and good-for-nothing stepfather Ryoichi. Tomi works at a local hostess bar and hopes for a better fate for Yumi. When Ryoichi violently forces himself upon her blossoming daughter, Tomi is not afraid to take action to protect her, an act which lands her in jail. Left to fend for herself, Yumi is taken in by her mother's former place of employment, where she finds herself fighting off the unwanted attentions of the men who swarm around her. Then one day, a rescue by handsome former lawyer Nozawa (Yusuke Kawazu, Cruel Story of Youth) from a vicious gangster seems to offer an escape into an altogether glitzier world, albeit one that turns out fraught with similar dangers. Arrow Films is proud to release this little-seen gem by one of Japan's most highly regarded directors of the 1960s, Yasuzō Masumura (Giants and Toys, Irezumi), a filmmaker known for his social satires and powerful portrayals of women, as Play it Cool is released for the very first time for the home video market outside of Japan in a brand new high-definition transfer. LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS ¢ High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation ¢ Original uncompressed mono audio ¢ Optional English subtitles ¢ Brand new audio commentary with critic and Japanese cinema specialist Jasper Sharp and professor and Japanese literature specialist Anne McKnight ¢ Too Cool for School, brand new video essay on Play it Cool and the career of writer-director Yasuzō Masumura by Japanese film scholar Mark Roberts ¢ Original theatrical trailer ¢ Image gallery ¢ Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella ¢ Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Earl Jackson

• The Human Condition | Blu Ray | (23/07/2018) from £16.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the towering masterpieces of Japanese and world cinema, this three-part war epic has rarely been seen in the UK, at least partly because of its dauntingly gargantuan nine hour length. Director Masaki Kobayashi (Harakiri) was attracted to Junpei Gomikawa s source novel because he recognised himself in the character of the protagonist Kaji, an ardent pacifist who came of age during the aggressively militaristic 1930s and 40s. In part one, No Greater Love, Kaji is relocated to a mine-supervising job in Manchuria, where he is horrified by the use of forced labour. Part two, Road to Eternity, sees him conscripted into the Japanese army and forced to fight in the name of an aggressively imperialist cause. Part three, A Soldier s Prayer, deals with the consequences of Japan s defeat, not least for Kaji himself. Throughout, Kobayashi unflinchingly examines the psychological toll of appallingly complex decisions, where being morally right risks outcomes ranging from ostracism to savage beating to death. As Kaji, Tatsuya Nakadai (Sanjuro) is in virtually every scene, providing a rock-solid emotional anchor and a necessary one in Japan, where the film was hugely controversial for being openly critical of the nation s conduct during WWII. But it s this willingness to confront national taboos head-on that makes it such a lastingly powerful experience. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original Japanese mono soundtrack Optional English subtitles Introduction to the film by critic Philip Kemp Selected-scene commentary by Philip Kemp Theatrical trailers Reversible sleeve featuring two choices of artwork by maarko phntm

• The Sun's Burial | DVD | (26/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set in the post-war slums of Osaka The Sun's Burial follows the lives and fates of the denizens of this hellish ghetto. Pimps prostitutes drug addicts vagrants hustlers and gangsters struggle to survive amidst the poverty and decay of 1950's Japan. Unflinching in it's portrayal of life in these slums the film goes beyond a documentary-style realism to achieve a garish lurid Cinemascope aesthetic that is at once repulsive and yet mesmerising. It's a pitiless and dispassionate portrait of a living hell that lurks behind the facade of a prosperous new Japan a place where everything - food sex even blood - is simply a commodity to be stolen and sold.

• Manji | DVD | (23/04/2007) from £19.75   |  Saving you £0.24 (1.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Practically unclassifiable Manji moves from lesbian love to adultery to multiple sexual relationships tangled in webs of deceit blackmail and maybe even murder. Sonoko (Kyoko Kishida Woman of the Dunes) having grown bored with her pampered life as the wife of an impotent lawyer enrolls in art class where she scandalizes the school with her lusty paintings of fellow art student Mitsuko (Ayako Wakao Red Angel). A torrid affair erupts between Sonoko and Mitsuko fuelling jealousy among their male lovers. Soon their lives are entrenched in desire deception blackmail blood oaths and suicide pacts in this controversial and visually stunning film from director Yasuzo Masumura. A dazzling tale of love lust and the extremes of desire this controversial and groundbreaking drama boasts a screenplay by Onibaba/Kureneko director Kaneto Shindo. Another twisted masterpiece from the director of Blind Beast and Red Angel Manji is as shocking today as when it was first shown in Japan in the mid-1960s.

• Naked Youth | DVD | (25/02/2008) from £11.48   |  Saving you £10.50 (110.64%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Oshima's second feature is a shocking tale of youthful delinquency in post Hiroshima japan. Conveying the pent up sexuality and disillusionment among Japan's post war generation it tells the story of teenage lovers Makato and Kiyoshi. She's a good girl gone bad dropping out of school and out of home; he's a violent hoodlum gambler and hustler. Making a living by performing shakedowns and attempting blackmail on unsuspecting middle aged men the film affords a bleak nihilistic take to the 'taiyo-zako' (Japanese cinema's 'delinquent youth' films). Often billed as Japan's Rebel Without A Cause but whereas Jame Dean's Jim Stark had the proverbial heart of gold Kawazu's Kiyoshi is filled only with rage and disgust. All of life's harsh realities await Makoto and Kiyoshi - this is no morality lesson or cautionary tale just a window into a terrible vision of humanity.

• Fighting Elegy | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £10.59   |  Saving you £9.40 (88.76%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Okayama in the mid 1930s Kiroku (Takahashi) attends high school and boards with a Catholic family whose daughter Michiko captures his heart. He must however hide his ardor and other aspects of his emerging sexuality focusing his energy on a gang he joins breaking school rules and getting into scuffles. He comes under the influence of a young tough nicknamed Terrapin and together they lead fights against rival gangs. Gradually Kiroku and Terrapin align themselves with the right-wing Kita Ikki and Kiroku becomes a stand-in for the attitudes of Japanese youth who embraced the imperialism leading to World War II... Screenplay adapted from Takashi Suzuki's novel by Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba Kuroneko).

• Gamera 2 - Attack Of Legion | DVD | (19/01/2004) from £6.73   |  Saving you £13.26 (66.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A classic Kaiju (monster) movie from Japan! A freak meteor shower near Sapporo Japan brings with it more than just a killer light show. Electrical problems over-grown plant life and a whole slew of rather irritable critters also drop in to threaten the human race! Local science instructor Midori Honami (Miki Mizuno) is called to assist the brave Colonel Watarase (Toshiyuki Nagashima) in the military's oft-confused attempts to save mankind. With giant flying turtle Gamera (Gua