high & low the red rain

HIGH & LOW: THE RED RAIN Review: Action And Drama Hit Hard And Heavy With Sentiment And Swagger

Director and screenwriter Yudai Yamaguchi, best known for arousing regional cult film fandom with respective credits such as Battlefield Baseball, Deadball and Yakuza Weapon, as well as Ryuhei Kitamura’s Versus and Alive, cuts to the long-awaited chase in the High & Low universe, spinning off with High & Low: The Red Rain. Exile Tribe’s multifaceted in-house talents: Takahiro of Exile, and Hiroomi Tosaka of J Soul Brothers, reprise their roles respectively as Masaki and Hiroto Amamiya, otherwise infamously known as the Amamiya brothers, who are long heralded as two of the fiercest fighters among all the established gangs that make up the S.W.O.R.D. district. As the High & Low franchise presents thusfar up to this point, the Amamiyas have long been searching for their missing brother, Takeru (Takumi Saito). Highlighting a prelude to current events, High & Low: The Red Rain takes off in high octane fashion with the Masaki […]

The Epic Gang Saga Continues In The First Teaser For HiGH&LOW THE MOVIE 2: END OF SKY

Lee B. Golden III

I couldn’t tell you much about LDH and NTV or their innerworkings on any given day, except for what little I know of Japanese supergroup Exile Tribe and their stunning reign in TV and film as of late 2015 with in-house megaproject, HiGH&LOW. It’s only been available in Japan with its first two seasons of HiGH&LOW: The Story Of S.W.O.R.D. featuring the brewing drama and explosive action as gangs and crime families battle each other for dominance in a town divided by five warring territories. Apart from live concerts and events (the music itself kicks ass too), the saga ultimately led to last summer’s feature film debut with Kubo Shigeaki’s HiGH&LOW: The Movie, followed by its subsequent spin-off, HiGH&LOW: The Red Rain from Yamaguchi Yudai, and now Shochiku is poised to follow up on its trilogy with two more titles between August 19 and November. For this, the first short […]

HiGH&LOW: THE RED RAIN Pours With Drama And Thrills In The Second Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

The past year has been an extraordinary one knowing that a company like LDH, Inc. exists. The HiGH&Low: The Story Of S.W.O.R.D. series has been, and continues to be something that fascinates me with the overall look, imagery and style of action that encompasses the story that follows the events surrounding a myriad of gangs at war with one another, and the music courtesy of the film’s stars a la members of Japanese supergroup, Exile Tribe. It’s a saga that will no less continue to fascinate me until the availability of this show extends itself stateside, including director Kubo Shigeaki’s feature film follow-up in July, and this week’s forthcoming spin-off, Yamaguchi Yudai’s HiGH&LOW: The Red Rain, which focuses on the brothers who were intergral in the main story of the show in the first place. Front and center are actors Tosaka Hiroomi and Takahiro starring in the story of outlaws, […]

Gangster Thriller HiGH&LOW: THE RED RAIN Gets A Full Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

If there is one international film franchise I would love to see cross over, it’s that of the HiGH&LOW franchise. Having launched last year exclusively in Japan via NTV and Hulu through this past Spring, the folks over at LDH, Inc. and the creatives within Japanese super pop group, EXILE TRIBE, have exhibited nothing short of an amazing array of stunt talent to highlight the action that entails this sprawling gangster drama from director Kubo Shigeaki who directed the July feature film, HiGH&LOW: The Movie. This week, we’re about keep going even further with the latest treatmnent from Deadball and Chromartie High: The Movie helmer Yamaguchi Yudai. HiGH&LOW: The Red Rain follows up the epic action and drama with a spin-off into one other aspect of this latest musical action movieverse – all started from the tale of a town embroiled in gang warfare after splitting into five different gangs. […]

Watch The Teaser For EXILE Gangster Saga Sequel, HiGH&LOW: The Red Rain

Lee B. Golden III

This October, the saga continues the epic action-packed spectacle of EXILE TRIBE’s two season HiGH&LOW: The Story Of S.W.O.R.D. series and the feature film in July. A teaser has already begun circulating for a while now with Deadball and Chinyuki helmer Yamaguchi Yudai in the director’s chair for HiGH&LOW: The Red Rain, and it doesn’t dole out much, but it measures all the same in intensity and excitement as the franchise has done so far. SYNOPSIS: The Amamiya Brothers, Masaki (EXILE Takahiro) and Hiroto (J-Soul Brothers’s Hiroomi Tosaka), keep looking for their older brother Takeru (Takumi Saito) who disappeared one year ago. The three Amamiya brothers lost their parents when they were young. Since then, they relied only on each other. On the anniversary of their parents’ death, Masaki and Hiroto expect Takeru to appear. Instead, they meet a person who has a clue on Takeru’s whereabouts. Why did Takeru […]