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In Memoriam: Richard Harrison, The B-Movie Titan Who Steered Cinematic History and Became an Accidental Ninja Legend

Richard Harrison, the chiseled American actor who built a legendary “A-life in B-movies” spanning sword-and-sandal epics, spaghetti Westerns, and infamous Z-grade ninja flicks, has passed away at the age of 90. Harrison died of natural causes on September 18, 2026, as confirmed by his long-time friend and producer Joan Borsten. For genre cinema purists, Harrison was far more than an expat actor working abroad; he was a foundational pillar of international exploitation cinema and a man whose decisions inadvertently altered the course of Hollywood history. Born in Salt Lake City, Harrison started his career in the 1950s as a physique model and scored minor parts in Hollywood productions like South Pacific (1958). Sensing limited opportunities at home, he packed his bags for Italy in the early 1960s. The gamble paid off instantly. Capitalizing on the muscleman wave popularized by Steve Reeves, Harrison became an overnight leading man with The Invincible […]

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Streaming Sleepers: In BULLET BALLET, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Ballistic Noir Still Hits Its Mark Years Later

Just shy of half a century is how long its been since director Shinya Tsukamoto entered filmmaking. He’s become one of the most celebrated filmmakers of this generation next to the likes of Takashi Miike and Sono Sion, and for good reason, aptly applying his visionary and stylish craft to numbers like his 1998 film, Bullet Ballet. Granted, Tsukamoto’s accolades didn’t come without some requisite pot-stirring along the way, which is exactly what Bullet Ballet achieved at the time, becoming one of the most polarizing pieces of work. Some critics have taken a liking to his “aggro art” style more so than others in the years since surfacing on the cinema map. The film certainly even goes out of its way breaking all sorts of rules during the more raucousing moments of action and danger, culminating its psychedelic, trippy, edgy indie feel to go hand-in-hand with its 35mm black-and-white lensing. All, in the end, to […]

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