The Movies That Moved Me: Ridley Scott’s BLACK RAIN
A pulsating East-meets-West Hollywood crime thriller classic.
ken takakura
WOLVES, PIGS AND MEN And VIOLENT PANIC: THE BIG CRASH: Two Exclusive Clips From The Upcoming Film Movement Classics Titles Arriving Friday
Film Movement Classics is readying the VOD and Digital releases of two classic titles – restored in 2K – from one of the most lauded filmographies in world cinema history. Kinji Fukasaku’s Wolves, Pigs and Men (1964), and Violent Panic: The Big Crash (1976) are set to stream on the SVOD network this Friday, and we have a pair of clips from both films which we can share exclusively. Japanese director and genre master Kinji Fukasaku is often remembered amongst cineastes for his final film, BATTLE ROYALE (2000), but in his home country, the prolific auteur – across a 40-year career, he directed over sixty movies, received three Japanese Academy Film Prizes for best director, and helped redefine many genres, most notably the Yakuza genre – was respected for a broad range of films that often used violence to make statements about social control, authority, and individual freedom. Of the […]
THE PRISON WALLS TRILOGY Eureka Classics Blu-Ray Review
This was a pretty big task to take on in the past week, but I really wanted to dive into some classic Japanese cinema. Eureka Entertainment remains on the ball as one of the foremost niche outlets priming throwback titles out of banners like Toei, including the Prison Walls Trilogy culminating the first three movies of the “Abashiri Bangaichi” franchise. The trilogy is now available in a box set containing the first three films on two blu-ray discs. The movies are presented in original Japanese Mono with optional subtitles, and commentaries from experts on the stars and subject matter, and much more. I had a blast with these, and if you didn’t pre-order these discs yet, I highly recommend ordering them now. It’s a must-have for anyone in the western world who discovered actor Ken Takakura in Tony Scott’s Black Rain like I did, and is purely keen on venturing […]
PRISON WALLS: ABASHIRI PRISON Trilogy: Eureka Locks Up Ken Takakura For A Trio Of Restored Crime Classics In May!
I missed out on posting about this yesterday when I got the alert, but there’s still plenty of time given the three-month window. For this, you’re welcome to take a gander at what’s in store with Eureka Entertainment’s upcoming Masters Of Cinema Series rollout, director Teruo Ishii’s Prison Walls: Abashiri Prison Trilogy. The films all star late legendary actor Ken Takakura who became a household name, priming the yakuza genre with the franchise beginning in 1965. There are actually seventeen of these based on the literary work of author Hajime Itō, but Eureka is putting out three of these for the taking, packaged in limited edition O-card slip cases, currently for the first run of 2000 copies. May 28 is the date for those of you living in the U.S., so mark it and get your pre-orders in if and when you can. More info below! Constructed in the late […]
THE YAKUZA Review: A Look Back At Sydney Pollack’s Masterpiece
If someone makes a list of manly movies, without any doubt this film deserves to be at the top of that list, because there’s no a bigger display of manhood that putting together onto the screen two badasses as Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura… in fact, the whole movie is an exercise of badassery wrapped into the crafty and sophisticated excellent job of Sydney Pollack who managed to make a really arty Yakuza movie, filled with gory moments of glorious violence and a good script that really captures the essence of Yakuza cinema, without making the mistake of most Hollywood movies when they go east, misrepresenting asian cultures, respecting all the essence of Japanese culture at its fullest. Mitchum plays a retired detective who returns to Japan after being several decades away to rescue his friend’s daughter from the Yakuza. Once there, he will meet again with a past he […]
STATION (駅) (1981) Review: When life is a station where trains of regret never stop coming
Ken Takakura and Chieko Baisho screen romances were something special that went beyond any definition that words could express. They were restrained and quiet on the surface but passionate and intense underneath. This classic from Japanese cinema directed by Yasuo Furuhata (Demon Yasha) hides on its plot a story of vengeance that is caught into a love story. 2 hours and 15 minutes of feelings put into images and two terrific actors that put on display their incredible talent in an acting masterclass, to tell a story about regrets, in which Ken Takakura plays a detective training to be a sharpshooter at Olympics who goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer specialising in policeman murders when his coach is gunned down by a fleeing criminal. Ken Takakura leads the story, being restrained and serious but filling every scene with his smashing screen presence, showing […]
DEMON/YASHA Review: Even the toughest guys live passionate romances
Ken Takakura plays Shuji, a retired Yakuza gangster who lives in a small coastal town trying to put his dark past behind him, but when a gorgeous young woman (Yuko Tanaka) also from Osaka comes to town to settle down, the world of our cold and ruthless Yakuza seems to stop. She becomes a forbidden passion for him, and we all know that passion blinds reason and is guided by heart. So our cold protagonist lets his weakness for the beautiful Yuko Tanaka, (gorgeous as always), guide him back to that past he left in Osaka, for just one and only reason, LOVE. Because when real tough guys as ken Takakura falls madly in love, all the passion they keep inside their soul, explodes in glorious violence splashing the screen for the enjoyment of movie junkies and moviegoers all around the world. A restrained story full of silences, complicit glances, […]
John Woo Returns To Action In 2015 For MANHUNT
Masterful action auteur John Woo‘s most recent efforts with the two-part romantic epic, The Crossing, met some lackluster commerical results upon its release late last year while its second half could arrive in May. In the meantime, the legendary director is refilling his plate once more following updates from the blurbosphere in lieu of this month’s events at the Hong Kong FilMart where Media Asia unveiled a new poster announcing their development for the new revamp of a classic Japanese novel and its proceeding film. Manhunt is the name of the film which doesn’t have a cast yet, but bodes excellently as an action thriller that centers on a lawyer who must set out to clear his name after being wrongfully accused and framed for robbery, rape and multiple murders. An adaptation of late author Nishimura Juko’s classic novel, Kimi yo Funnu no Kawa o Watare from publisher Tokuma Shoten […]
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