GHOST KILLER: Win A Blu-Ray Or 4K UHD Copy Of Well Go USA’s Latest Hit Action Thriller
The film arrives next week on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K UHD!
masanori mimoto
GHOST KILLER Scares Up A Killer New Teaser For Kensuke Sonomura’s Latest!
Back to remind us of how cool Akari Takaishi and Masanori Mimoto are is the latest official teaser for supernatural action thriller, Ghost Killer. This one goes a little bit beyond for me in terms of my adoration for the film’s director, Kensuke Sonomura whose work quickly gained traction here in the states upon the release of his feature debut, Hydra, in 2019. Imaginably, if you’re curious about Sonomura’s back catalog of stunt work, there should be plenty to dive into. I can’t remember the last time I saw Yuichi Mori’s animated spectacle, Tekken: Bloodline, which Sonomura did the action for. I loved it then, and of course there’s Mamoru Oshii’s Nowhere Girl, Sabu’s crime comedy Hold Up Down, and Kenta Fukasaku’s Black Rat to name a few, and of course, Yugo Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins franchise. Alas, Takaishi, Mimoto, and Sonomura are additionally joined on Ghost Killer by Sakamoto who penned […]
Fantastic Fest XIX Review: Kensuke Sonomura’s GHOST KILLER Scares Up A Killer Thriller With Supernatural Delight
Ideally, if you follow a certain filmmaker favorite long enough, the possibilities grow even more fascinating in terms of tangential topical discourse. For starters, I’ve seen the action fandom opine over the connectivity of Jesse V. Johnson’s films, and chatter over what Jason Statham’s cameo in Michael Mann’s Collateral could mean. Even Hasbro is on the verge of finally coalescing two of its hit properties since Steven Caple Jr.’s Transformers entry last year. By extension, I imagine a world nowadays where discussions could – if not already – begin materializing on the kind of tapestrial coherence of the burgeoning directorial work of action specialist, Kensuke Sonomura. Immediately with 2019’s Hydra and 2022’s Bad City, Sonomura proved his vigor and value as a cinematic storyteller capable of putting together quality action cinema marketable to audiences worldwide. In doing so, he’s introduced fans to a colloquial cinematic world all his own – […]
GHOST KILLER Haunts With A First Teaser For Kensuke Sonomura’s Festival Latest!
Leave it to a surprise in my DMs to find out that Kensuke Sonomura has been keeping more than busy aside from his dealings over in Bad City and with the Baby Assassins franchise and Kenji Tanigaki’s upcoming The Furious. Monday morning over in Japan saw the first teaser trailer revealed for Ghost Killer, something I only wish I knew about sooner with this also being the latest co-production between Well Go USA Entertainment and Rights Cube. What?! Now how’s that for a partnership? What’s more is that Sonomura’s Ghost Killer marks the latest graduating lead role for actress Akari Takaishi who takes the reins alongside actor Masanori Mimoto who continues to be a fixture in Sonomura’s work since 2019’s Hydra. And, Baby Assassins franchise helmer Yugo Sakamoto is the man with the pen for the film’s script with Sonomura shepherding the winning action direction, and with a World Premiere […]
ONIMANJI: Masanori Mimoto Kills And Kills Again In The NSFW Trailer For Yoshihiro Nishimura’s ‘Torakage’ Spin-Off!
Holy Mother director Yoshihiro Nishimura has been a busybody in the last few years campaigning for his two most recent thrillers, the second of which is Onimanji, serving as the spin-off of The Great War Of Torakage (2015). Back at the mantle of course is Masanori Mimoto (Hydra, Bad City) to reprise his role this time for an upgraded story that transports our protagonist into a modern-day story that undoubtedly retains the same feudal swordplay action and unapologetic spectacle fans of Nishimura have come to know and love. Ninja samurai Onimanji, who has been sealed in a cursed urn for 631 years and 59 days, is resurrected in the modern era by the assassin-for-hire company, Kika Company. The odd team of Kika, Shigeru, a bumbling assassin, and Onimanjii perform a series of dark jobs and must still compete with rival company Nutmeg. The official trailer is online which you can […]
ONIMANJI Poster Debut Teases New Ninja Spin-Off Excitement For 2023
Genre favorite Yoshihiro Nishimura (Mutant Girls Squad, Tokyo Gore Police, Meatball Machine Kodoku) kept busy with the festival circulation of his most recent thriller, Holy Mother. In the meantime, he’s also been hands-on with the production of his forthcoming return in 2023 with ninja actioner Onimanji, for which we now have our first poster debut below. The film is a spin-off to his 2015 ninja action adventure, The Great War of Torakage, which Nishimura directed and co-wrote, featuring actor Takumi Saito in the story of a retired ninja forced into a quest to find scrolls leading to ancient treasure for his vicious former ninja clan leader, played by Eihi Shina. The film also saw Saito crossing swords and blows with co-star Masanori Mimoto who now takes the stage for his own leading venture in the title role, in addition to serving up the fight scenery as action director. Mimoto has […]
HYDRA: Kensuke Sonomura’s Japanese Action Debut Hits Hi-YAH! July 2, On Digital, DVD and Blu-Ray July 20
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
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 […]
HYDRA Review: A Slowburn Assassin Potboiler With Too Many Heads
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
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 […]
HYDRA Review: A World Roughly Built With A Welcome, Action-Packed Redemption Tale
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 […]
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