The Film
When Battle Royale came out in 2000, I was 19 and just really getting into foreign language films. Like many of my generation of cinephiles, it was an early part of my DVD collection. While I enjoyed it though, I have to confess that I’ve not been back to it for over 15 years, and I never used it as a jumping off point to discover more of its director Kinji Fukasaku’s work. On this evidence, that was an error.
After a failed rebellion in which 37,000 Christians are massacred, their leader Amakusa Shiro (Kenji Sawada) returns from the dead, pledges his soul to the Devil and becomes a demon who can resurrect others to join him in his quest for vengeance. This is an interesting jumping off point for the film, because for much of the opening half hour, as Shiro gathers his band of demons (including swordmaster Miyamoto Musashi...
When Battle Royale came out in 2000, I was 19 and just really getting into foreign language films. Like many of my generation of cinephiles, it was an early part of my DVD collection. While I enjoyed it though, I have to confess that I’ve not been back to it for over 15 years, and I never used it as a jumping off point to discover more of its director Kinji Fukasaku’s work. On this evidence, that was an error.
After a failed rebellion in which 37,000 Christians are massacred, their leader Amakusa Shiro (Kenji Sawada) returns from the dead, pledges his soul to the Devil and becomes a demon who can resurrect others to join him in his quest for vengeance. This is an interesting jumping off point for the film, because for much of the opening half hour, as Shiro gathers his band of demons (including swordmaster Miyamoto Musashi...
- 6/21/2023
- by Sam Inglis
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
"Food tastes the best when eaten together." Enjoy this lovely trailer for an indie Japanese film called The Zen Diary, a humble drama about a man who loves to cook. It's getting released in Canada this summer after first opening in Japan last year. Tsutomu lives alone in the mountains in a cabin in Nagano, writing essays & cooking food with fruits & vegetables he grows and mushrooms he picks in the hills. His routine is happily disturbed when Machiko, his editor/love interest, occasionally visits. She loves to eat, and he loves to cook for her. They cook with seasonal ingredients & eat together. They have a good time. Tsutomu seems to be enjoying an easygoing life, but he is still unable to bury his dead wife's ashes in a grave. His wife died 13 years ago... Starring Kenji Sawada and Takako Matsu. Adapted from Tsutomu Mizukami's book, this gentle, thoughtful film...
- 6/11/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Samurai Reincarnation [Makai TENSHŌ] (Masters of Cinema) Special Edition Blu-ray is available to Pre-order now from the Eureka Store http://bit.ly/42x5ua2
In the aftermath of a failed rebellion, Amakusa Shiro (Kenji Sawada) is crucified, but returns as a vengeance-filled demon with the power to resurrect the dead. Shiro uses his power to assemble a team of undead warriors—including legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (Ken Ogata)—and the only one who can stop them is the wandering samurai, Yagyu Jubei (Sonny Chiba).
A spectacular chanbara fantasy epic from Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale), Samurai Reincarnation makes its UK debut from a stunning 2K restoration as part of the Masters of Cinema series.
Special Edition Blu-ray Features:*
Limited Edition Slipcase (First print run of 2000 copies) featuring artwork by Takato Yamamato | 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the original film elements | Uncompressed original Japanese mono audio | Alternate English dubbed audio...
In the aftermath of a failed rebellion, Amakusa Shiro (Kenji Sawada) is crucified, but returns as a vengeance-filled demon with the power to resurrect the dead. Shiro uses his power to assemble a team of undead warriors—including legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (Ken Ogata)—and the only one who can stop them is the wandering samurai, Yagyu Jubei (Sonny Chiba).
A spectacular chanbara fantasy epic from Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale), Samurai Reincarnation makes its UK debut from a stunning 2K restoration as part of the Masters of Cinema series.
Special Edition Blu-ray Features:*
Limited Edition Slipcase (First print run of 2000 copies) featuring artwork by Takato Yamamato | 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the original film elements | Uncompressed original Japanese mono audio | Alternate English dubbed audio...
- 3/31/2023
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
Times are tough. What is left to desire when we are feeling drained? No matter – life is a journey with all the flavours to meet our palates. Life is a feast, and how it tastes is how we experience the full spectrum of desires – mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs. Let’s escape to our delicious desires!
The Hong Kong Arts Centre (Hkac)’s signature programmes Opening House and Late Night Series – Art X, with the theme “Craving for…” to kick off 2023, present a full-day journey with diverse arts and culture on 25 March, 2023 (Saturday). Three food-related films will infuse your day with surprises and imagination: Heavy Craving – awarded at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, The Zen Diary – latest film starring Sawada Kenji and Matsu Takako, and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover – a sight and sound feast with Peter Greenaway, Michael Nyman and Jean-Paul Gaultier.
Tickets are available at www.
The Hong Kong Arts Centre (Hkac)’s signature programmes Opening House and Late Night Series – Art X, with the theme “Craving for…” to kick off 2023, present a full-day journey with diverse arts and culture on 25 March, 2023 (Saturday). Three food-related films will infuse your day with surprises and imagination: Heavy Craving – awarded at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, The Zen Diary – latest film starring Sawada Kenji and Matsu Takako, and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover – a sight and sound feast with Peter Greenaway, Michael Nyman and Jean-Paul Gaultier.
Tickets are available at www.
- 3/7/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Miyake Sho’s female-led boxing drama “Small, Slow, But Steady” has been named the best Japanese film of 2022 by Kinema Junpo magazine. This honor has been awarded annually since 1924 and is considered the Japanese industry’s most prestigious.
Kishii Yukino, who starred as a struggling deaf boxer, claimed the best actress award, while Miura Tomokazu, who played her supportive, but unsparingly, honest gym manager, was named best supporting actor. Finally, Miyake was voted the year’s best Japanese director in a readers’ poll.
The film premiered in the Berlin festival’s Encounters section last year. It later played widely on the festival circuit, including at China’s Pingyao festival where it won the gala-audience prize.
Among other awards, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” was named best foreign film, while veteran Takahashi Banmei won the best director prize and Kajiwara Aki the best screenplay award for the drama “No Place to Go” about a middle-aged woman driven to homelessness during the pandemic.
Kishii Yukino, who starred as a struggling deaf boxer, claimed the best actress award, while Miura Tomokazu, who played her supportive, but unsparingly, honest gym manager, was named best supporting actor. Finally, Miyake was voted the year’s best Japanese director in a readers’ poll.
The film premiered in the Berlin festival’s Encounters section last year. It later played widely on the festival circuit, including at China’s Pingyao festival where it won the gala-audience prize.
Among other awards, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” was named best foreign film, while veteran Takahashi Banmei won the best director prize and Kajiwara Aki the best screenplay award for the drama “No Place to Go” about a middle-aged woman driven to homelessness during the pandemic.
- 2/2/2023
- by Mark Schilling
- Variety Film + TV
Based on the essay “Tsuchi wo Kurau Hibi ” by Tsutomu Mizukami is a genuine Japanese movie, since all of its narrative elements seem to be rooted in the particular culture.
The Zen Diary is screening at Black Movie
Writer Tsutomu lives alone at a mountain cabin in Nagano, with his main dealing being growing fruits and vegetables, which he later meticulously prepares into simple but meaningful meals, as his Zen teachings during his childhood as a monk dictated. In fact, even his writings are based on the particular three aspects, as his frequent narration throughout the movie eloquently shows. Few things break his ascetic routine: the frequent visits of his editor Machiko, who is also his girlfriend, visiting his elderly neighbor, his mother-in-law, who is living in an even more remote location, and interacting, although not exactly in a pleasant way, with his brother-in-law and his wife. Lastly, Tsutomu does...
The Zen Diary is screening at Black Movie
Writer Tsutomu lives alone at a mountain cabin in Nagano, with his main dealing being growing fruits and vegetables, which he later meticulously prepares into simple but meaningful meals, as his Zen teachings during his childhood as a monk dictated. In fact, even his writings are based on the particular three aspects, as his frequent narration throughout the movie eloquently shows. Few things break his ascetic routine: the frequent visits of his editor Machiko, who is also his girlfriend, visiting his elderly neighbor, his mother-in-law, who is living in an even more remote location, and interacting, although not exactly in a pleasant way, with his brother-in-law and his wife. Lastly, Tsutomu does...
- 1/28/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
translation by Lukasz Mankowski
Yoji Yamada is a Japanese film director most known for his Tora-san series consisting of 50 films shot over 25 years, making it the longest theatrical film series. Yamada made his directorial debut in 1961, and has since won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Picture four times, and has been nominated for dozens of other awards and honours at festivals worldwide. In 2019, more than two decades later, Yamada returned to the series with “Tora-san, Wish You Were Here” (2019).
On the occasion of “It’s a Flickering Life” screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival, we speak with him about adapting Maha Harada’s novel, the Japanese studio system of the past and the differences with the current situation, Masaki Suda and Kenji Sawada, and nostalgia
“It’s a Flickering Life”screened at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Why did you decide to adapt “Kinema no Kamisama” by popular multiple prize-winning...
Yoji Yamada is a Japanese film director most known for his Tora-san series consisting of 50 films shot over 25 years, making it the longest theatrical film series. Yamada made his directorial debut in 1961, and has since won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Picture four times, and has been nominated for dozens of other awards and honours at festivals worldwide. In 2019, more than two decades later, Yamada returned to the series with “Tora-san, Wish You Were Here” (2019).
On the occasion of “It’s a Flickering Life” screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival, we speak with him about adapting Maha Harada’s novel, the Japanese studio system of the past and the differences with the current situation, Masaki Suda and Kenji Sawada, and nostalgia
“It’s a Flickering Life”screened at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Why did you decide to adapt “Kinema no Kamisama” by popular multiple prize-winning...
- 7/17/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Yoji Yamada’s 92nd film, which is based on the novel “Kinema no Kamisama” by popular multiple prize-winning novelist Maha Harada, inspired by her own family and experiences, is also a commemoration of Shochiku Films’ centennial, and particularly its trademark style, ‘Bright and Cheerful Shochiku Cinema’
“It’s a Flickering Life” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Goh is an elderly man who has always had problems with gambling, forcing his wife Yoshiko and daughter, Ayumu, to bail him out a number of times, despite the fact that he had repeatedly promised not to do it again. This time, however, neither his daughter nor his wife are willing to help once more, with the latter taking over all his financial matters on her hands, and sending him back to deal with his second big passion, cinema. Goh now has to go back to his old friend and associate from...
“It’s a Flickering Life” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Goh is an elderly man who has always had problems with gambling, forcing his wife Yoshiko and daughter, Ayumu, to bail him out a number of times, despite the fact that he had repeatedly promised not to do it again. This time, however, neither his daughter nor his wife are willing to help once more, with the latter taking over all his financial matters on her hands, and sending him back to deal with his second big passion, cinema. Goh now has to go back to his old friend and associate from...
- 6/17/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Nikkatsu has added “Hiruko the Goblin,” a 1991 adventure-horror film by cult director Tsukamoto Shinya, to its sales slate at the Cannes Market, an adjunct to the Cannes Film Festival. To mark the 30th anniversary of the film’s original release, it has been restored and remastered in a new 2K version.
The second feature by Tsukamoto, who had made a sensational debut in 1989 with the bizarre sci-fi shocker “Tetsuo: The Iron Man,” “Hiruko the Goblin” starred pop star and actor Kenji Sawada as an archeologist who investigates a tomb said to haunted by evil spirits. Meanwhile, his brother-in-law, a junior high school teacher, goes mysteriously missing together with one of his students and, while hunting for him, the teacher’s son encounters the titular goblin. Various strangeness ensues. The story was based on a manga by Morohoshi Daijiro, with a script by Tsukamoto.
Made with then cutting-edge visual effects, as well as stop-motion animation,...
The second feature by Tsukamoto, who had made a sensational debut in 1989 with the bizarre sci-fi shocker “Tetsuo: The Iron Man,” “Hiruko the Goblin” starred pop star and actor Kenji Sawada as an archeologist who investigates a tomb said to haunted by evil spirits. Meanwhile, his brother-in-law, a junior high school teacher, goes mysteriously missing together with one of his students and, while hunting for him, the teacher’s son encounters the titular goblin. Various strangeness ensues. The story was based on a manga by Morohoshi Daijiro, with a script by Tsukamoto.
Made with then cutting-edge visual effects, as well as stop-motion animation,...
- 7/4/2021
- by Mark Schilling
- Variety Film + TV
Go (Kenji Sawada) has been spurned his wife Yoshiko (Nobuko Miyamoto ) and family because of his enthusiasm for gambling. Go as a youth (Masaki Suda) loved cinema and worked at a film studio, but the wheels of destiny went awry when he and his friend fell in love with a beautiful girl (Mei Nagano).
The movie “Kinema no Kami” will be released nationwide from August 6, 2021.
The movie “Kinema no Kami” will be released nationwide from August 6, 2021.
- 5/2/2021
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
Quite a controversial film, particularly for its too detailed depiction of how to construct an atomic bomb and a number of scenes that can only be described as beyond controversial, “The Man Who Stole the Sun” has currently achieved the status of cult, despite being both a commercial and a critical success upon its release in Japan, for a number of reasons we will deal with going forward.
The titular man is high school science teacher Makoto Kido, a rather strange individual who boasts long hair and an almost surreal behavior in campus, which includes him practicing karate, hanging from trees with ropes, and caring very little for his classes, where he either sleeps or teaches his students the procedure of making an atomic bomb. The people in the school mock him, calling him ‘Bubblegum’ not so secretly, but everything changes when Makoto, along with hard-nosed Inspector...
The titular man is high school science teacher Makoto Kido, a rather strange individual who boasts long hair and an almost surreal behavior in campus, which includes him practicing karate, hanging from trees with ropes, and caring very little for his classes, where he either sleeps or teaches his students the procedure of making an atomic bomb. The people in the school mock him, calling him ‘Bubblegum’ not so secretly, but everything changes when Makoto, along with hard-nosed Inspector...
- 7/13/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Mana Yasuda is a Japanese movie director and scriptwriter, member of the Japan Writers Guild. She started her career making 8mm films at the Kobe University Cinema Club. After she graduated from Kobe University, Yasuda worked for Panasonic for 10 years. In 2006, she directed and scripted her first commercial film; “The Switch to Happiness”, in which Juri Ueno and Kenji Sawada played the main roles. For this film, Yasuda received:
– Special woman Director Award at the 16th Japanese Movie Critics Award
– Best Script Award at the 2nd Osaka Cinema Festival.
After giving birth to a baby boy in 2006, Yasuda mainly worked on script-writing. During these years, there were many dramas with Yasuda’s script:
– “Yasashii Hana (A Tender Flower)”
– “Osaka Loop-line part2 Ashiharabashi Station — Dadada yuute Don”( Broadcasted on Kansai Television Co. Ltd.)
participated in the National Arts Festival by Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Yasuda came back to filming with...
– Special woman Director Award at the 16th Japanese Movie Critics Award
– Best Script Award at the 2nd Osaka Cinema Festival.
After giving birth to a baby boy in 2006, Yasuda mainly worked on script-writing. During these years, there were many dramas with Yasuda’s script:
– “Yasashii Hana (A Tender Flower)”
– “Osaka Loop-line part2 Ashiharabashi Station — Dadada yuute Don”( Broadcasted on Kansai Television Co. Ltd.)
participated in the National Arts Festival by Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Yasuda came back to filming with...
- 5/9/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Takashi Miike has answered the “Can a film be so bad that is good?” question affirmatively a number of times, and the “Katakuris” is definitely among the movie that provide a positive reply.
The script is loosely based on Kim Jee-woon’s film, “The Quiet Family”, but Takashi Miike took the basic premises of the original and turned them completely upside down, in order to present a movie that lingers between the musical and the thriller, also including elements of slapstick comedy, parody and claymation.
The Katakuris are a four-generation family of failures: patriarch Masao Katakuri, his wife Terue, his father Jinpei, his formerly criminal son Masayuki, his divorced daughter Shizue, her child Yurie and their dog, Pochi. The family uses the father’s redundancy pay to purchase an old home in the country, near Mount Fuji, in order to convert it into a bed and breakfast.
The script is loosely based on Kim Jee-woon’s film, “The Quiet Family”, but Takashi Miike took the basic premises of the original and turned them completely upside down, in order to present a movie that lingers between the musical and the thriller, also including elements of slapstick comedy, parody and claymation.
The Katakuris are a four-generation family of failures: patriarch Masao Katakuri, his wife Terue, his father Jinpei, his formerly criminal son Masayuki, his divorced daughter Shizue, her child Yurie and their dog, Pochi. The family uses the father’s redundancy pay to purchase an old home in the country, near Mount Fuji, in order to convert it into a bed and breakfast.
- 4/15/2018
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Mubi is showing Seijun Suzuki's Taisho Trilogy from November 13 - December 27, 2017 in the United States and United Kingdom.In a now-famous quote from a 1997 video interview, the late Japanese filmmaker Seijun Suzuki paraphrases Nikkatsu Studio executives when he declares, "I make movies that make no sense and make no money.” The quip is put forth in the context of 1967’sBranded to Kill, the pop-influenced noir that arguably stands as the artistic pinnacle of Suzuki’s career as a filmmaker of yakuza, gangster, and proto-pink films with Nikkatsu. While others have contested Suzuki’s claims that his nonsensical and unbankable output lead to the fissure between the filmmaker and Nikkatsu—pointing instead to the drain he and his dedicated coterie of assistant directors placed on the studio—Branded to Kill was the cap to a prodigious run of no less than two features a year from 1956 through 1966, and Suzuki's his...
- 12/5/2017
- MUBI
Shudder will take viewers to the place that's "not as brightly lit" this Halloween season, as the 1980s anthology series Tales From the Darkside will be available to watch in its entirety on the horror streaming service beginning October 1st:
Press Release: New York, New York – September 26, 2016 – The AMC-backed streaming service, Shudder, is The entertainment destination for everything you need to watch this Halloween season. Whether you’re a hardcore horror fan or simply looking for the scariest films to celebrate this time of year, Shudder has something for everyone in its sweeping library, carefully curated by some of the top horror experts in the world.
As Halloween approaches, Shudder is expanding its database with a variety of new titles including cult favorites, blockbuster hits, and classic thrillers. Additionally, for the first time ever, Shudder will be offering horror TV series to complement its expansive film library.
Premiering October 20th...
Press Release: New York, New York – September 26, 2016 – The AMC-backed streaming service, Shudder, is The entertainment destination for everything you need to watch this Halloween season. Whether you’re a hardcore horror fan or simply looking for the scariest films to celebrate this time of year, Shudder has something for everyone in its sweeping library, carefully curated by some of the top horror experts in the world.
As Halloween approaches, Shudder is expanding its database with a variety of new titles including cult favorites, blockbuster hits, and classic thrillers. Additionally, for the first time ever, Shudder will be offering horror TV series to complement its expansive film library.
Premiering October 20th...
- 9/28/2016
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Takashi Miike‘s The Happiness of the Katakuris begins with a woman probing a freshly delivered bowl of soup only to fish out a miniature angel/gargoyle/teletubby? whose presence seems to instigate the onscreen conversion of the world into claymation before tearing out the poor woman’s uvula and tossing it into the air to float away like a heart-shaped balloon. This is a film that, even in an oeuvre that includes works as disparate as gross out shocker Visitor Q and the kid friendly The Great Yokai War, is pure unpredictable insanity that baffles as much as it entertains. Essentially a horror comedy musical, Miike’s genre mashing farce is loosely based on Kim Jee-woon’s The Quiet Family, in which a family owns a remotely located bed and breakfast whose customers always happen to die during their stay, yet takes that simple premise to its outermost extremes in the silliest of ways.
- 6/30/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Stars: Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda, Naomi Nishida, Kiyoshirô Imawano, Tetsurô Tanba, Naoto Takenaka, Tamaki Miyazaki, Takashi Matsuzaki | Written by Ai Kennedy, Kikumi Yamagishi | Directed by Takashi Miike
Being a Takashi Miike fan takes you down some strange roads. Whether it is the extreme Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q, or the fun Crow Zero movies there is always something a little off about all of his movies. One of the strangest to come from him has to be The Happiness of the Katakuris, a musical about happiness, family and death which is out now from Arrow Video…
When the Katakuri family build a bed and breakfast in the country, they do so on the promise of a new road being built close to it to provide them with plenty of customers. When the road doesn’t appear though they start to wonder if they are cursed to fail.
Being a Takashi Miike fan takes you down some strange roads. Whether it is the extreme Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q, or the fun Crow Zero movies there is always something a little off about all of his movies. One of the strangest to come from him has to be The Happiness of the Katakuris, a musical about happiness, family and death which is out now from Arrow Video…
When the Katakuri family build a bed and breakfast in the country, they do so on the promise of a new road being built close to it to provide them with plenty of customers. When the road doesn’t appear though they start to wonder if they are cursed to fail.
- 6/22/2015
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
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