hydra

HYDRA: Seize Your Blu-Ray Copy Of Kensuke Sonomura’s Debut Hit Action Thriller From Well Go USA [UPDATED]

UPDATE (7/23): Prior to posting this contest, I ordered three copies and was only sent one by the PR firm in charge, and given that it’s the release week for the film and the wait period for the other two, I moved ahead and launched the contest on Thursday. The other two copies finally arrived on Friday morning so.. there’s that! EARLIER (7/22): Kensuke Sonomura’s directorial debut, Hydra, was a magnanimous offering for all those involved, and definitely a fun ride for a first time effort from the stuntman-turned-filmmaker. The buzz generated on Twitter from the film’s streaming launch on Hi-YAH! is worth a look as well, putting actor Masanori Mimoto (Yakuza Apocalypse) in a very good position as we look forward to his next endeavor. Until then, fans looking forward to physical ownership can look toward wherever movies are sold to own a copy on Digital, Blu-ray and DVD as […]

HYDRA: Kensuke Sonomura’s Japanese Action Debut Hits Hi-YAH! July 2, On Digital, DVD and Blu-Ray July 20

Lee B. Golden III

Leave it to Well Go USA Entertainment and their in-house streaming service, Hi-YAH! to hail the coming of new names to the forefront of martial arts action and thrills. Paving the way for stunt professional-turned-filmmaker Kensuke Sonomura since taking his freshman feature actioner, Hydra, on the road back in 2019, Hi-YAH! is announcing a July 2 premiere for subscribers. The film marks a headlining stake for Japanese actor and action star Masanori Mimoto who has appeared in a number of U.S. releases such as Funimation’s Sushi Typhoon release, Alien Vs. Ninja and Samuel Goldwyn Films’s Yakuza Apocalypse, as well as Well Go USA’s Enter The Fat Dragon starring Donnie Yen. After retiring as an assassin, Takashi leads a quiet life as a chef at a sushi bar, where he secretly watches over the daughter of a former associate. His peace is short-lived: soon, he is recruited for a final job […]

Silver Harvest Talks Inspiration, Movies, Action And More With HYDRA Star And Director

Lee B. Golden III

Kensuke Sonomura’s feature directing debut, Hydra, is still circulating select film events and screenings. The Coronavirus outbreak may be a factor in its present movement for the time being, but I do know it has a screening pending in Spain last I heard. At any rate, while peddling this amazing thriller to other critics and bloggers for some coverage, I was able to pique the interest of my friends Therese Chen and Takashi Hara in Australia at Silver Harvest who’ve since unveiled both parts of their long-awaited interview with Sonomura-san, and the film’s star, Masanori Mimoto. The film really is a blast being such a concentrated, lo-fi independent actioner. The reactions are very much mixed from those who I know of have seen it given the varying tastes between most fans. I loved the film, and I’m not just saying because I’m friends with both Sonomura and Mimoto. There isn’t […]

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HYDRA Review: A Slowburn Assassin Potboiler With Too Many Heads

Scott Evans

Hydra, the new action crime thriller directed by Kensuke Sonomura, starts off strong with the brutal murder of a police detective in a men’s restroom stall by a silent, proficient assassin armed only with a Philips head screwdriver. We’re then introduced to a Cleaner type character who collects the body and cleans the crime scene. Then it smoothly segues into a nice homage to Michael Mann as the Cleaner travels through the city at night. His journey is accompanied by a track by Hydra’s composer Moku that apes Tangerine Dream as much as Director of Photography Yasuyuki Suzuki’s digital photography apes Dion Beebe’s work on Mann’s Collateral and Miami Vice. And then the problems start. We spend a fair amount of time with the Cleaner as he makes this gorgeously shot drive home, disposes of the body from the first scene and then feeds his pet piranhas. Just as we […]

HYDRA: Don’t Miss The Latest Domestic Trailer For Masanori Mimoto’s New Killer Role

Lee B. Golden III

I felt it only fair to catch up and share the latest official trailer for Kensuke Sonomura’s new movie, Hydra. The film is due for a November 23 screening release in Japan after circulating several festivals and events including back in April at Hamburg and just recently in New York City’s Urban Action Showcase. Masanori Mimoto makes his latest foray into lead stardom following credits like Ninja Hunter, Bushido Man, and Takashi Miike’s wildly entertaining Yakuza Apocalypse in which he plays frogsuited badass, Kaeru-kun. Jiro Kaneko penned the script for Hydra which centers on a cook at a midnight diner whose past life as an elite killer comes back to haunt him when the rival of his former organization marks them for death. The story is a layered, taut and intense action drama, thickly-crafted with slick, energizing fight action captured by Sonomura in all his burgeoning potential. It’s quite expected […]

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HYDRA Review: A World Roughly Built With A Welcome, Action-Packed Redemption Tale

Lee B. Golden III

It’s already a greatly deserved point of pride for screenfighting and stunt professional, Kensuke Sonomura, that his feature directorial debut, Hydra, is playing a role in proliferating veritable action cinema talent out of Japan within the festival circuit. A byproduct of the Kurata Action Club once upon a time, and the auspices of Re:Born director Yuji Shimomura’s U’den Flame Works, Sonomura comes into his own with a familiar assassin tale that introduces its own new world – one perhaps ripe with potential in many areas if not just one. Screenwriter Jiro Kaneko invites audiences to gaze at the taciturn, stoic, unassuming-yet-imposing veneer of one Takashi (Masanori Mimoto), a restaurant cook with an eye for photographic memory and hands made for much more than his intuitive culinary skillset. In the eyes of his employer, Rina (Miu), and co-worker Kenta (Tasuku Nagase), his culinary precision in memorizing ingredients and food preparation are […]