Discotek Media announced a new slate of licenses and releases during their "It's a Very Big Discotek New Years! Livestream" ( Part 1 and Part 2 ) today, including the 1997 TV anime adaptation of Berserk , the final season of Medabots , the Urusei Yatsura Ova series and much more. Announcements made during the livestream are in alphabetical order. Berserk (1997 TV series): Blu-ray release of the original Berserk anime series in Japanese with English subtitles, the original Nyav Post dub, and extras from previous releases and outtakes. Scheduled for March 2024. Futakoi Alternative : Blu-ray release in Japanese with revised English subtitles of the 2005 spin-off anime from the Futakoi series. Scheduled for 2024. Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: The Attack of Darkness : Blu-ray release of the 11-episode Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple Ova series released in Japanese with subtitles and a new English dub for the first time. Lightspeed Electroid Albegas : Sd-bd release in Japanese with...
- 1/9/2024
- by Kyle Cardine
- Crunchyroll
First entry in the Girl Boss series, “Queen Bee's Counterattack” seems to embody all the elements of both the series, and of the Japsploitation of the 70s, with fanservice being the key word here.
The story takes place in the 1970s, where Reiko is the head of Athena, an all-girls gang, trying to survive among the yakuza, motorcycle gangs, and essentially the world, following a set of simple rules, with the most important being not falling in love with a particular man. Reiko, as much as the rest of the girls, frequently have sex with men, but they keep the rule intact, while their leader's ways and particularly her will to help any of the group in trouble have inspired unwavering loyalty by the rest of the members. The appearance of a newcomer, Mayumi, however, as much as of a previous boss that has just been released from prison, Jun,...
The story takes place in the 1970s, where Reiko is the head of Athena, an all-girls gang, trying to survive among the yakuza, motorcycle gangs, and essentially the world, following a set of simple rules, with the most important being not falling in love with a particular man. Reiko, as much as the rest of the girls, frequently have sex with men, but they keep the rule intact, while their leader's ways and particularly her will to help any of the group in trouble have inspired unwavering loyalty by the rest of the members. The appearance of a newcomer, Mayumi, however, as much as of a previous boss that has just been released from prison, Jun,...
- 1/5/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Sadao Nakajima passed away from pneumonia on 11th June, 2023. He was 88 years old. Active as a director until just four years before his passing, Nakajima left behind legacy of work that most directors would dream of. Alongside Kinji Fukasaku and Junya Sato, he is credited as being one of the main names to define the Yakuza genre, with some of his greatest works coming within that genre for Toei Studios, showcasing a range of styles and narrative complexities while at it. Outside of the yakuza genre as well though, Nakajima made a number of terrific features, mixing a range of genres and filmmaking styles effectively over an illustrious career that lasted a little under 60 years, starting from his debut in 1964 all the way until his swansong in 2019.
Without further ado, we list 12 essential films by Sadao Nakajima that are not in the Yakuza genre, in chronological order.
1. Female Ninja Magic...
Without further ado, we list 12 essential films by Sadao Nakajima that are not in the Yakuza genre, in chronological order.
1. Female Ninja Magic...
- 7/11/2023
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
Sadao Nakajima passed away from pneumonia on 11th June, 2023. He was 88 years old. Active as a director until just four years before his passing, Nakajima left behind legacy of work that most directors would dream of. Alongside Kinji Fukasaku and Junya Sato, he is credited as being one of the main names to define the Yakuza genre, with some of his greatest works coming within that genre, showcasing a range of styles and narrative complexities while at it. Having joined Toei Studio in 1959, he worked primarily at Toei's Kyoto studio, despite running his contract out and going independent in 1967. In fact, the majority of the titles we list here are productions from after he left Toei as a contracted director and yet continued to work for the Studio as a freelancer, likely because of the freedom it provided him and his relationship with their existing roster of actors and crew,...
- 6/21/2023
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
Review by Roger Carpenter
After experiencing huge critical and commercial success with the five-part film series collectively known as Battles without Honor and Humanity, the Toei Company asked director Kinji Fukasaku to continue the series. The original five films were based upon several magazine articles, themselves based upon the memoirs of an actual member of the Japanese mafia, or yakuza. The films proved to be so successful that Fukasaku essentially created a new subgenre known in Japan as Jitsuroku eiga, “actual record films,” or films based upon true tales of real-life adventures. But having run out of material with the first five films, Fukasaku would have to turn to more fictionalized stories as well as new characters if he wanted to continue the series. This three-film series became known as New Battles without Honor and Humanity and, though there have been other films in the series, these are the last directed by Fukasaku.
After experiencing huge critical and commercial success with the five-part film series collectively known as Battles without Honor and Humanity, the Toei Company asked director Kinji Fukasaku to continue the series. The original five films were based upon several magazine articles, themselves based upon the memoirs of an actual member of the Japanese mafia, or yakuza. The films proved to be so successful that Fukasaku essentially created a new subgenre known in Japan as Jitsuroku eiga, “actual record films,” or films based upon true tales of real-life adventures. But having run out of material with the first five films, Fukasaku would have to turn to more fictionalized stories as well as new characters if he wanted to continue the series. This three-film series became known as New Battles without Honor and Humanity and, though there have been other films in the series, these are the last directed by Fukasaku.
- 9/20/2017
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Bloody havoc reigns! Kinji Fukasaku's no-holds-barred vision of ugly violence and uglier politics on the streets of Hiroshima is a five-film Yakuza epic that spans generations. The film amounts to an alternate history of postwar Japan, that puts an end to the glorification of the Yakuza code. The enormous cast includes Bunta Sugawara, Tetsuro Tanba, Sonny Chiba and Jo Shishido. Battles without Honor and Humanity Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video 1973-74 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 760 min. / Limited Edition Boxed Set Street Date December 8, 2015 / 149.95 Starring Bunta Sugawara, Hiroki Matsukata, Tetsuro Tanba, Kunie Tanaka, Eiko Nakamura, Sonny Chiba, Meiko Kaji, Akira Kobayashi, Tsunehiko Watase, Reiko Ike, Jo Shishido Cinematography Sadaji Yoshida Production Designer Takatoshi Suzuki Original Music Toshiaki Tsushima Written by Koichi Iiboshi, Kazuo Kasahara Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the 1990s the American Cinematheque was headquartered in various places, but settled for a few years in a large...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the 1990s the American Cinematheque was headquartered in various places, but settled for a few years in a large...
- 12/22/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It all started with Exposed. I’m not sure what brought this 1971 Swedish sexploitation film to the suggestion portion of my Netflix account (presumably the roster of Jess Franco films recently added), but after reading the description, I figured it was worth a shot: “A pretty young teen finds her innocence lost when an unguarded night of revelry yields shameful secrets, and a stack of nude pictures that could ruin her life. But to get her hands on the negatives, she’ll have to expose herself even further.” That is indeed the basic plot of the film, which plays out exactly as one would expect for such fare. But what was unexpected while watching Exposed (also known as the much less enticing Diary of a Rape), was the 21-year-old star of the film. Her name is Christina Lindberg.
Exposed, for lack of a better phrase, is what it is. It...
Exposed, for lack of a better phrase, is what it is. It...
- 9/25/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Stitch the lip and swap one glove for a puppet as Alexandra Coghlan mumbles through the best ventriloquists on film
There's something reliably disturbing about a ventriloquist act. Third only to taxidermists and gynaecologists among people you'd rather not find sitting next to you at a dinner party, ventriloquists reverse the natural order of things – giving grinning life to what should be inanimate, dead, silent.
Together with taxidermists (and gynaecologists, for that matter) these preternatural puppeteers have spawned a cinematic sub-genre all their own, feeding off our deepest psychoses of identity, or perhaps just exploiting an appealingly perverse avenue for horror.
Uncanny in the truly Freudian sense – at once familiar and deeply alien – a ventriloquist's dummy is the dysfunctional cousin of Chucky and Frankenstein who has yet to cut the paternal apron strings. These ties work both ways; as much as the ventriloquist gives life to his dummy so his dummy takes it from him.
There's something reliably disturbing about a ventriloquist act. Third only to taxidermists and gynaecologists among people you'd rather not find sitting next to you at a dinner party, ventriloquists reverse the natural order of things – giving grinning life to what should be inanimate, dead, silent.
Together with taxidermists (and gynaecologists, for that matter) these preternatural puppeteers have spawned a cinematic sub-genre all their own, feeding off our deepest psychoses of identity, or perhaps just exploiting an appealingly perverse avenue for horror.
Uncanny in the truly Freudian sense – at once familiar and deeply alien – a ventriloquist's dummy is the dysfunctional cousin of Chucky and Frankenstein who has yet to cut the paternal apron strings. These ties work both ways; as much as the ventriloquist gives life to his dummy so his dummy takes it from him.
- 9/1/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
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