More NYAFF Action This Saturday at the Japan Society

The only unfortunate thing about the NYAFF, besides the fact that it doesn't happen year round, is the fact that it is split between two different venues over it's 12 day run. Okay...maybe that's not so bad considering several of the films have multiple runs. Regardless, there aren't many times of year, with the exception of Halloween, when NYC residents get exposed to so many fantastic genre films over such a short period of time. Unfortunately, due to a mild case of the Summer lazies and several professional and social engagements, I completely forgot that the NYAFF was upon us. Thankfully, I still have time to "report" on the rest of this years screenings without losing too much respect from the asian film community(like I ever had it to begin with).

12:30 PM - Gantz(2011) 3 PM - Gantz: Perfect Answer(2011) North Amercian Premiere



NYAFF says - "Gantz is a phenomena. A wildly popular manga and anime by Hiroya Oku, the manga has sold over 15 million copies in Japan alone, and in the USA it’s wound up on the New York Times bestseller list. Critically acclaimed, the anime has sparked a global cult. We’re proud to present, back-to-back, the two live action GANTZ movies, subtitled and with their original soundtracks, for the very first time.

In GANTZ, it doesn’t pay to be a good samaritan. Salaryman-in-training Kei (Arashi boy-band superstar Kazunari Ninomiya) learned that a long time ago, but old classmate Kato (Kenichi Matsuyama, best known as “L” from the blockbuster Death Note series) didn’t get the message, and when he tries to save a drunk, passed out on the subway track during rush hour, they both end up meeting the business end of a bullet train. Instead of getting turned into human Sloppy Joes, Kei and Kato open their eyes and find themselves in a posh apartment near Tokyo Tower with a gaggle of total strangers who are all equally freaked out. An ominous black sphere toots a chipper worksong, sprouts high-tech weaponry, and announces that their old lives are over – that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Now, pop into these high tech gimp suits and go kill some aliens. Play til you win, win til you die. The first one to reach 100 points, wins. Whatever that means. This is the law of GANTZ and its sequel, GANTZ: PERFECT ANSWER, the double-headed death tool that has been devouring audiences in an orgy of squibs, body horror and beautiful Japanese pop idols getting vivisected.

The battle-slaves of Gantz live their normal lives by day, but every night they’re summoned back to the apartment. Every night the weird, alien orb puts twenty minutes on the clock and sends them out to kill another fearsome alien or die trying. Every contestant gets points based on their performance, and even grandma and the kids are possible targets in this inexplicable deathsport. As the few survivors grow battle-hardened and amoral, their alliance breaks down and they begin to chase each other for glory, but what Gantz really is remains a mystery. And what happens when you get 100 points?

Like “The Twilight Zone” on PCP, GANTZ is a funhouse reflection of modern 9-to-5 ennui, where all your dime-store motivational platitudes get warped into twisted mantras of survivalism. GANTZ is a celebration of the savage suicide wish inside all of us – so pump up your PVC, wipe the viscera off your face, and get in the game."


6 PM - Takashi Miike's World Premiere of Ninja Kids!!!(2011)

Fucking A' has Miike been on a roll lately, and hopefully he can keep this momentum going. It seems like the age of the Miike snoozefest might actually be over.



NYAFF says - "Last year, Japan’s wild man, Takashi Miike, made the majestically posh samurai movie, 13 Assassins, which went on to win several prestigious awards. This year, his stately, well-appointed samurai movie, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai was an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival. That’s all very nice, but we’ve got the best new movie from him since YATTERMAN and it’s got all the crazy Miike left out of his other two films, and then some. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another totally messed up kids’s film from Takashi Miike, a demolition derby of good taste….NINJA KIDS!!!

Exchanging noble samurai for kid ninjas has let Miike get back in touch with his wild side. This big budget, big screen version of popular Japanese kid’s show Rantaro the Ninja Boy (running for 1,437 episodes and counting!) this is like Harry Potter if Harry Potter was a ninja who hid underground and killed people with bamboo darts and ninja bombs. Young Rantaro is from a family of low class ninjas and he’s sent off to first grade at Ninja School by his parents who hope that one day he’ll grow up to be a respectable middle class ninja. But he’s hardly at school for five minutes when a classmate – literally – has the snot beaten out of him, the headmaster starts exploding and more wild and wooly ninja tricks than you can hit with a throwing star are zipping off the screen.

With the strangest, most deadpan sense of humor of any movie all year, this is a big budget kids film in the vein of Miike’s THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, possessing the same sense of fantastical freakery and goopy monster-based humanity except this time the monsters are wild, mutated, freaked-out ninjas with enormous, super-deformo skulls. With a subplot involving gangster hairdressers, constant interruptions form Mr. Konnamon, your friendly ninja trivia commentator, characters who can’t stop talking to the camera, and an ode on the favorite foods of the ninja, this is a high pressure blast of everything weird about Takashi Miike that we’ve all been missing from his new, mainstream, “respectable” motion pictures. Long live the ninja!!!"

8:15 PM - Yakuza Weapon(2011) New York Premiere



NYAFF says - "In MACHINE GIRL (2008), madman Noboru Iguchi famously slapped a machine gun onto a schoolgirl’s arm. How do you top that? Easy! Just slap a machine gun onto the arm of a vicious Yakuza thug, and then give him a rocket launcher for a leg. World, allow us to introduce you to Sushi Typhoon’s latest assault on sanity…YAKUZA WEAPON!!!

After four years of Rambo-esque jungle antics, Shozo Iwaki (co-director and star, Tak Sakaguchi, the hard-hitting action maverick) returns to Tokyo, only to discover his Yakuza father murdered, his family headquarters turned into a shady loan shop, and a powerful gang leader attempting to overthrow the entire criminal underworld! With rival gangs jacked up on “hyperdrug,” Shozo must becomes a one-man, butt-kicking army – and things only get wilder when he loses an arm and a leg, only to have them replaced with more firepower than the entire Japanese military.

Equal parts action, splatter, and slapstick – YAKUZA WEAPON is based on an adult comic co-created by Ken Ishikawa (of Cutie Honey fame). Just wait for Shozo’s scorned girlfriend to welcome him back to Tokyo by throwing a BOAT at him. Find yourself laughing too hard? Watch out for the film’s breathtaking, expertly choreographed four-minute fight scene – shot in a single take. Need both at the same time? How about a naked fembot (NYAFF 2010 guest Cay Izumi) who fires rockets from her crotch and whose head pops off to reveal a gatling gun?

Rest assured, cinephiles, this ain’t your granddad’s action-comedy. This is high-octane insanity, with the madmen at Sushi Typhoon at the controls. Co-director Yudai Yamaguchi (Battlefield Baseball, Cromartie High School) pays tribute to the choicest cuts from his previous efforts, delivering a smoldering hand-cannon of a film that was born in Japan – but kicks ass worldwide."

Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

Battle Royale 10th Anniversary Screening on Friday

Fuck!!! The Summer holiday lazies took a pretty strong hold on me this past week and caused me to forget that the NYAFF(New York Asian Film Festival) kicked off this past weekend. Typically, I like to be on top of this shit, but warm weather and summer in the City leads me astray. I've missed a couple of days but I can still provide this audience with the information they may need to enjoy the rest of the series.

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since the release of one of my favorite movies of all time. Granted, It took me about a year for me to get my grubby little paws on it. Battle Royale(2000) was the film most responsible for me getting into Japanese horror weirdness over a better part of the last decade. I love this film so much, I even bought the tee shirt, which gets both cheers and jeers from those few who know the masterpiece. Despite it's availability of the DVD, Battle Royale never really received a proper US screening when it was released a decade ago. Thankfully those of us who have longed for the day we get to see it theatrically will have to wait no longer. if you have never seen BR, I strongly urge you to take time out of your Friday drinking schedule to head into Manhattan for the opportunity of a lifetime. And don't pass it off as a run-of-the-mill Japanese gorefest. As awesome as the action and sheer brutality in the film is, the social commentary alone is enough to grab the attention of any art-school stick-in-the-mud.

Subway Cinema says - "The biggest, most important unseen Japanese movie of the past decade, BATTLE ROYALE is finally free to be shown on US screens! The last film from Japan’s master director Kinji Fukasaku (Battles Without Honor and Humanity series, among others), BATTLE ROYALE was a huge hit in Japan and became an underground sensation in America after its distributor took it off the North American market due to fears of copycat crimes in the wake of the Columbine Shootings. But this is not the atrocity exhibition you’ve been led to believe. This is the climax to the career of Japan’s most socially conscious director, a ferocious plea for kids to run from anyone over 30 who wants to put a rifle in their hands and a movie that was born in the hellfire of Fukasaku’s World War II experiences. If you’ve never seen it before, come prepared to be hit hard.

It’s the near future. Every year, a tenth-grade class is selected by lottery and let loose on an island in front of reality TV cameras to participate in the greatest game show of them all: the Battle Royale. The kids are forced to kill each other for the viewing enjoyment of the folks at home, and the last one standing wins the prize: life. When this class wakes up and have weapons put in their hands they’re faced with the stark choice of kill or be killed. Some choose suicide, some form alliances and some decide to kill every single person who crosses their paths.

When Fukasaku was the same age as the kids in this movie, WW II was raging and he worked in a bomb factory, cleaning up the mangled bodies of those killed in air raids. At 71 years old he made BATTLE ROYALE and it’s his passionate warning to those same kids to run from the powers that be. When BATTLE ROYALE was rated so that kids 15 and under couldn’t see it, Fukasaku advised them to sneak into theaters anyways, and we’re saying the same thing to everyone under 18. Sneak out of the house, show your student ID for a cheap ticket and sit down for a movie that’s going to change your life."

Friday, July 8th 9:15 PM @ Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

Helldriver(2010) Tonight at the Japan Society

I can't believe I almost forgot about this event. Vacations will do that to a man, no matter how dedicated he is to a silly cinema blog. Oh Well. Anyway, If you're a fan of the comical, ultra-gore that has been working it's way out of Japan recently (like Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police), I would suggest heading up to midtown this evening for a screening of Helldriver(2010).

The Japan Society says - "With director Yoshihiro Nishimura and actress Eihi Shiina in person.

Japan Cuts/NYAFF "Be a Zombie" after-party!

Your one chance to see the original director's cut of the film, with more action... and more gore!

The screening is also a very special launch event for our 5th Festival of Contemporary Japanese Film (July 7–July 18): Japan Cuts and for the New York Asian Film Festival 2011. It will be followed by a party for ye undead and proud, special announcements will be made revealing titles in this year's festivals, and prizes will be given away.


In a land where half of the population has become not-so-sexy flesh eaters and the economy gently withers away, all hope seems lost for Japan... until Kika (Yumiko Hara) arrives. A stunning high school girl armed with an artificial heart-powered chainsaw sword, she leads a motley crew of desperados on a secret mission into the zombie-infected wilds to exterminate zombie queen Rikka (Eihi Shiina from Audition and Tokyo Gore Police) and put an end to the plague of the living dead.

But the road is fraught with a thriving zombie culture that, with its own designs on the living half of Japan, refuses to just lay down and die.

Visionary filmmaker Yoshihiro Nishimura's first solo directorial effort since Tokyo Gore Police is an epic, apocalyptic road movie featuring non-stop, over-the-top splatter action. The long-awaited realization of his dreams, Helldriver is Nishimura's bid to create the ultimate zombie film.

The showdown for the future of Japan is at hand and no one, living or dead, may survive to see it!"

Ticket prices are $12/9 for members and 50% of all ticket sales will go to Japan Society's Earthquake Relief Fund.

Thursday, April 28th 7:30 PM @ Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

Suicide Club(2001) is Friday's Midnite Must-See

Most of the time I post these Big Screen in the Big Apple entries it is typically for cult movies I have never seen. Not only do I do this to try to advertise the cinematic awesomeness that is going on in the NYC nightlife, but I also have a genuine interest in seeing the film. Whether I do or not is another story, depending on what my financial and social situation look like at the moment, even if I have every intention. After months of reporting the happenings going on over at Spectacle Theater on the weekend, I can honestly say I am familiar with both films films screening this weekend.

Suicide Club(2001) was the movie that introduced me to modern Asian cinema. Before that, everything I knew of the Far East came to me in the form of Kaiju and Kung-Fu. If it wasn't for this decade-old gore-tastic classic, I probably never would have developed an obsession with everything from classic Chambara to silly Japanese body horror. I owe a large part of my movie collection, and even the existence of this blog to this film. If you haven't seen Suicide Club, I urge you to lay off the PBR for a couple of hours and head into Williamsburg on Friday Night.

IMDB says - "54 high school girls throw themselves in front of a subway train. This appears to be only the beginning of a string of suicides around the country. Does the new all-girl group Desert have anything to do with it? Detective Kuroda tries to find the answer, which isn't as simple as one could hope."

Friday, April 15th at Midnight @ Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Black Rain(1989) Friday at Midnight in Williamsburg

I think Spectacle Theater is throwing a curveball this Friday Night. After months of regularly scheduled "Midnite" movies on Friday and Saturday nights, Spectacle is doing something quite a bit different tomorrow. Rather than the cinematic trash that is the reason for this blogs existence being a Friday night standard, they decided to kick it up a notch with some art and high drama. These aren't concepts I am a stranger to, but after covering the majority of the Yakuza film series and all the Miike shit a couple of weeks ago, Japanese drama isn't really high on my list this week, but it doesn't mean everybody else won't enjoy seeing Black Rain(1989) tomorrow night.

IMDB says -"Mr and Mrs Shizuma, and their niece Yasuko, make their way through the ruins of Hiroshima, just after the atomic bomb has dropped. Five years later, Yasuko is living with her aunt and uncle, and her senile grandmother, in a village containing many of the bomb survivors. Yasuko does not appear to be affected by the bomb, but the Shizuma's are worried about her marriage prospects, as she could succumb to radiation sickness at any time."

Black Rain gets 8.1 out of 10 stars on IMDB, which is pretty impressive, so I don't think this is going to be a bad way to spend Friday Night. I just prefer the company of biker zombies over a really deep film to end a long week of non-work.

Friday, April 1st at Midnight @ Spectacle 124 S. 3rd St., (at Bedford Ave.)Williamsburg, Brooklyn

More Yakuza: International Premiere of Ryuji(1983) Friday at 7:30 PM

50% of all ticket sales will go to Japan Society's Earthquake Relief Fund.

We have even more Yakuza action continuing throughout the weekend at the Japan Society. This time with the First International release of the drama Ryuji(1983).

The Japan Society says - "Ryuji is more than just a film, it is the final testament of a dying man, a young stage actor eager to find an interesting role on the big screen. His name is Shoji Kaneko. He likes writing and yakuza cinema, and chooses to write the story himself--the portrait of a young yakuza who (following the usual conceit) wants to leave the underworld, for the sake and love of his wife and daughter, after a long stint in jail. A fragile film, not unlike the performance of the lead actor/writer, who succumbed to cancer one week after the film's release. Ryuji seems to be haunted by his disappearance, as if anticipating the mourning of its own central figure. With a realism reminiscent of the Actors Studio's famed method (the actor joined a real gang to capture the essence of the role and the world in which the yakuza live), the drama comes to life with the support of a formidable cast (notably, the actor's real-life daughter). An anti-noir film with unusual sheen and clarity, Ryuji is touched with breathtaking moments of loveliness and hints of peace, the blend of moral brinksmanship, and restrained visuals. The pleasures of the film reside in the mischievous yet tolerant recognition that behind brutality lies human frailty, in its infinite range. The manner of its delivery is so disarmingly graceful--lacking neither emotional impact nor aesthetic punch--that you can almost feel the blood of the film flow."

Friday, March 18th 7:30 PM @ Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

Four Miike Films Thursday 3/17 at Walter Reade Theater

Holy shit, there sure is a lot of action from Japan going on this month, both good and bad. My heart goes out to all the Japanese people, here and there, who have had to suffer through two natural disasters and now a possible nuclear meltdown. We all know you are a nation of survivors and have the support of all the world to get you through this horrific set of circumstances.

On a lighter note, between the Japan Society, Film Society at Lincoln Center, and Subway Cinema, there is a whole lot of fun going on. Fun that should keep you rabid Japanophiles busy until the end of the weekend. Thursday night the Walter Reade Theater is showing for, count them four, movies from the prodigal director, Takashi Miike. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his control, Miike had to cancel his trip to NYC, but there are obviously more pressing issues at hand. We wish the best for him and his family.

The fun kicks off with The City of Lost Souls(2000) at 2:15pm.

Filmlinc.com says - "Japanese-Brazilian hit-man Mario (Teah, Dead or Alive 2) and Chinese hairdresser Kei (Hong Kong actress Michele Reis, Fallen Angels) are desperate to escape the country–and their psychotic exes. To pay for their passage, the pair plot to steal a briefcase of cash from dueling, drug-dealing gangs. Instead, Mario accidentally swipes a couple kilos of cocaine and Kei is kidnapped by the yakuza. Effortlessly blending comedy, film noir, and HK-action, the endless plot twists and hilarious visuals are unadulterated Miike, and the film’s Matrix-inspired CGI cockfight scene is now a legendary part of the director’s filmography. Possibly the most succinct encapsulation of the director’s themes of displacement, multi-ethnic strife, outsiders in Japan, and the relationship between love and violence, The City of Lost Souls is also a non-stop thrill ride from start to finish."

Second round starts at 4:30PM with Sinjuku Triad Society(1995)...

Filmlinc.com says - "Turf wars, rent boys, and so-bad-its-good club music abound in the first of Miike’s ultra-violent, serpentinely-plotted “Black Society Trilogy,” and the first film the director made specifically for cinema release in Japan, as opposed to his direct-to-VHS “V-cinema” titles. Tatsuhito Kiriya (Kippei Shiina, from Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage), a half-Chinese, half-Japanese policeman in Tokyo’s hard-boiled Kabuki-cho red light district, attempts to track down and arrest Wang, a vicious and lethal, gay Taiwanese Triad leader (played by Miike regular and original Tetsuo the Iron Man Tomorow Taguchi). To alleviate the heat from running a prostitution ring, baiting the yakuza, and evading the police, Wang hires a lawyer––Tatsuhito’s little brother. Unblinkingly documenting real-life brutality and ethnic tensions, it’s essential viewing for Miike completists and a gritty, hard-edged thriller, much of it shot guerrilla-style on location in the back alleys of Shinjuku."

At 7:00pm, the reason to celebrate this retrospective...13 Assassins(2010)

Filmlinc.com says - "Japan was violently rocked, swallowed by the ocean as the lives of many disappeared amid the rubble. I had wanted to be here with you all. I had wanted to thank you all for coming from the bottom of my heart. But that wish was not granted. It is unfortunate and I am very sorry. Please accept my regrets. But, from this adversity -- on our lives -- we will all rise up without fail. As a start, I would be grateful if you could enjoy Japan from this film."

Miike’s latest is an exciting, blood-stirring, totally faithful remake of the 1963 samurai-siege classic from director Eiichi Kudo, and a welcome respite from the typically antiseptic, overly melodramatic TV fodder that passes for swordplay cinema in Japan in recent years. Koji Yakusho (Shall We Dance?, Babel) stars as Shinzaemon, loyal retainer to Lord Doi (Mikijiro Hira, Pistol Opera), who gives him a difficult, delicate mission from which there will be no return: assemble a team of expert swordsmen and slay the half-brother and heir apparent to the current Shogun, a sadistic madman named Naritsugu (pop star Goro Inagaki) who will destroy the country if he comes to power. But after over 200 years of peace, the samurai are all but government functionaries, trained in the sword but without any experience in fighting. For Shinzaemon, however, it’s a perfect opportunity to realize the ultimate reward a warrior craves: to die in battle at the service of your master. So the plan is set in motion: stop Naritsugu’s caravan of soldiers at a small mountain town, trap his men, and slaughter them. The odds? An impossible 200 to 13.

With 13 Assassins, Miike finds the perfect opportunity to prove to audiences around the world that he is capable of a big, action-filled matinee crowd-pleaser, almost (but not completely) devoid of many of the bizarre quirks that define his films, yet filled with great performances, a strong screenplay by Audition scriptwriter Daisuke Tengan, and action action action. Easily taking its place beside many of the best swordplay films of the 1960s, 13 Assassins is bloody, dirty, and downright mean, and one of the manliest, most rousing big-screen adventures you’re likely to experience this year, with an unbelievable forty-minute battle royale finale. Magnolia Pictures will be offering the film on nationwide video-on-demand starting March 25th and opening it in cinemas at the end of April — here’s your chance to catch an early preview."

and the night ends at 10:00pm with a screening of Fudoh:The New Generation(1996)

Filmlinc.com says - "Among the first of Miike’s films to play overseas, and the first to come to home video in the U.S., Fudoh also marks the first time all the elements came together that audiences would later associate with his films: splatter, over-the-top plot devices, a mischievous sense of black humor, crazily-drawn characters, and a healthy dose of sex and violence. Originally made for the home video market, after completion producers decided it was good enough for a domestic theatrical run! Riki Fudoh is the son of a yakuza boss forced to execute his own son, Riki’s older brother Ryu, in penance for offending a rival gang. Ten years later, 17-year-old Riki leads a high school yakuza gang of his own making: a group of machine gun-toting rugrat hitmen, schoolgirl assassins, a transsexual stripper, and a hulking giant of a transfer student. After asserting control over the rival adult gangs in the area, Riki sets his sights on his ultimate target—his own father, to avenge his brother’s murder. Featuring an early appearance by V-cinema stalwart Riki Takeuchi (later the co-star of the Dead or Alive series) in a mullet that has to be seen to be believed, Fudoh is a crazy, sex-and-violence-filled tornado. It’s one of the wildest rides from a filmmaker who specializes in shocking his audience, and is guaranteed to offend you in one way or another. You have been warned."

Walter Reade Theater, West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave, on the upper level, Upper West Side

Big Screen Big Apple- A Yakuza in Love(1997) Thurs. 3/17 at 7:30 PM

50% of all ticket sales will go to Japan Society's Earthquake Relief Fund.

Yakuza in Love(1997)

The Japan Society says - "A dark, delicate, comic and complicated telling of a hard-as-nails, simple love story. Boy meets girl; boy falls in love, boy drugs girl. Boy and girl start a rather twisted, chemical-fueled affair. Things get sour. The boy is a low-ranking ne'er-do-well yakuza in an ill-fated gang, fighting a losing battle with their rival gang. The girl... well, the girl is just a waitress who should probably know better. Auteur Mochizuki (Onibi: The Fire Within; Another Lonely Hitman), director and co-writer, has fashioned this unlikely romance between two mismatched lost souls into a black comedy of startling directness and intensity, following the old boy's fumbling (and often funny) attempts at romance through questionable methods of courtship (which include kidnapping into the bargain). Generously spiced graphic sex scenes alternate with moments of lyricism and otherworldly calm, subtly layering the characters and their path to ruin. As the strange relationship blossoms, the yakuza's drug addiction and unstoppable habits of destruction threaten to destroy everything..."

Don't forget to arrive early, because ticketholders get to sneak a peak at Bye Bye Kitty Exhibition from 6 to 7:30.

Thursday, March 17th 7:30 PM @ Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

Big Screen Big Apple- Audition(1999) Wed. 3/16 at 9:30 PM

To Celebrate the release of Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, in cahoots with Subway Cinema, are producing a 13 movie retrospective to celebrate the works of a cinematic Master. Miike's torturous thriller, Audition(1999), is set to kick off the series, which runs from March 16th to the 23rd. If you are unfamiliar with Miike or his large body of work, this experiment in terror is a good way to kick off a future love affair with the director.

IMDB says - "Seven years after the death of his wife, company executive Aoyama is invited to sit in on auditions for an actress. Leafing through the resumés in advance, his eye is caught by Yamazaki Asami, a striking young woman with ballet training. On the day of the audition, she's the last person they see. Aoyama is hooked. He notes her number from her file, calls her and takes her to dinner. He hesitates to call again, worried that he'll seem too eager. When he does, Asami knowingly lets the phone ring for some time before answering. She's alone in her darkened room - alone, that is, apart from the writhing victim she has tied up in a sack on the floor..."

Wednesday March 16th @ 9:30 PM Walter Reade Theater, West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave, on the upper level, Upper West Side

Some Underwater Love at Tribeca 2011

Here is one of the first images released for Shinji Imaoka's Underwater Love(2011), care of Twitch, a modern day pinku which will be screening during Tribeca Film Festival's 2011 Cinemania Line-up(all the good genre shit). I didn't know much about Underwater Love until a couple minutes ago, but Twitch describes it as "a full on fantasy musical involving cross species sex between human women and kappa males - the kappa being an iconic turtle like creature from Japanese folklore."(Looks like the koopa are finally going to get there way with the Princess.)

If you are unsure what pinku cinema is, think of it as the Japanese version of Skinemax Late Night flicks, but with no camera focus on the genital regions. Because of this taboo, Japanese directors have had to get creative with camera angles and object placement over the years, typically giving the pinku film a unique style not seen in your run-of-the-mill sexploitation film. Fantasy and action elements are not uncommon within the genre, especially in the direct-to-dvd market, which I have sampled on more than one occasion (strictly for the ninjas). Seeing pinku eiga at a world-renowned film festival is a bit odd by my book, but I could be wrong.

Hopefully, we won't have to wait very long for a trailer release

Big Screen Big Apple- Dead or Alive(1999) and Miike Tues. 3/15 at 7:30 PM

It's a good thing The Japan Society is taking a couple days off from Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence film series after the underworld onslaught this past weekend, because it get's dizzying keeping up with everything...phew! Tuesday night the cinematic slaughter continues with Dead or Alive(1999) followed by a Q&A with one of Japan's favorite sons, Takashi Miike.

The Japan Society says - "A mind-boggling carnival of ultra-violence, massive drug use, punch-drunk camerawork and unending stroboscopic editing, perfectly calculated to induce an outbreak of rapture that will leave the viewer shaking and ringing from the shock. Miike's legendary Dead or Alive pits a yakuza of Chinese descent (Riki Takeuchi) against a Japanese cop (Sho Aikawa) in the mean streets of Tokyo's crime-infested Shinjuku area, prowled by warring factions that vie for supremacy. Their fated encounter, propelled by an astonishing opening reel of hyperspeed action, leads a truly out-this-earth, apocalyptic conclusion, perhaps the most spectacular showdown ever committed to celluloid. Visuals, courtesy of "Hana-bi" D.P. Hideo Yamamoto, are slick and arresting and give a proud, bloody-minded majesty to the trip."

Tuesday, March 15th 7:30 PM @ Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

Big Screen Big Apple- A Dog Eat Dog World Sunday at the Japan Society

Just because it's Sunday doesn't mean the action over at the Japan Society is honoring the Sabbath. In fact, Dog Eat Dog World Sunday is throwing NYC three bones in the form of Yakuza action. Starting with Cops Vs. Thugs(1975) at 3:15pm.

Japan Society says - "With this film, which has all the grunting doggedness of the real thing, Fukasaku puts the spotlight on the forces of grand corruption and the ferocious business of butting heads with the law. 1963: The Kurashima City police have spent the past seven years eradicating the yakuza gangs, at the root of much mayhem. The last two remaining gangs, Ohara and Kawade, are in tatters, with the Ohara boss in prison. But with the police force full of corrupt officers, the gangs begin to prosper once again. Soon it's not only Cops vs. Thugs, but Thugs vs. Thugs and Cops vs. Cops. With genre supremo Bunta Sugawara as a police detective who makes Dirty harry look like a rent-a-cop."



Round 2 begins at 5:30PM with Battles Without Honor and Humanity A.K.A. The Yakuza Papers(pt. 3):Proxy War(1973)

Japan Society says - "The centerpiece of the five-film postwar yakuza arch-epic/classic is almost impossibly alert to the constant transactions of power within the unrepentantly violent world of Hiroshima gangsters. Inspired by real-life events, these Battles breathlessly accumulates unabashed close-ups of bloodletting and wounded bodies flying left and right, front and back. The film has the most treacherous plot of the lot--plotting, counter-plottings, alliances and betrayals will leave viewers dizzy and with only one certainty, that of violence; by fair means or foul, mostly foul, we are led into battle and bloody murders, with jitsuroku ("docudrama"-style) star Bunta Sugawara at the center of it. This is your chance to witness Japanese gangster violence in all its seedy, futile but spectacular glory.
"



And last but not least we go back to some 60's action at 7:15PM with Youth of the Beast(1963)

Japan Society Says -"Seijun Suzuki's breakthrough film is faster, rougher and wilder than most of his other outings (except perhaps the outrageously off-the-wall Branded to Kill). Raw, rugged and tumbling out of nowhere, Jo (Joe Shishido, a frequent leading man in Suzuki's films) wants employment and wants it now. Closer in temperament to a human lava flow, he's not about to let little things like a bunch of big, bulky brawlers get in the way. He barges into the headquarters of a notorious yakuza organization and there he proceeds to beat the living daylights out of the goons, points a gun at the boss and politely asks for a job. The boss is impressed and puts him on the payroll. Jo then heads over to the rival faction's gang... Repeat. In other words, all-out gang war is around the corner. This early Seijun Suzuki masterpiece paved the way for the late 1990s visual extravaganza (Takashi Miike and others)."

Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

It's nice to be able to find trailers for all the movies this time.

Big Screen Big Apple- Honor Among Ruffians Saturday at the Japan Society

The that the weekend is here The Japan Society's Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence film series is ready to kick it up a notch with a whole days worth of film. Not only do you get a whole day of yakuza films, but Saturday contains 4 screenings in the PM of films that You'll Never Find On DVD...Ever(JS's words, not mine. Honor Among Ruffians kicks off with The Walls of Abashiri Prison(pt.3):Longing for Home(1965).

The Japan Society says - "Forty-six years after its Japanese release, the most outstanding episode of the Abashiri series standing firmly on its own, is out in the world, and will have no issue attracting the uninitiated. Upon returning to his hometown of Nagasaki, recently released prisoner Shinichi Tachibana (Ken Takakura) wants to become a better man but must go back to his old gangster ways and former clan, the Asahi, in order to pay back a past debt. Trouble brews when the rival gang that was responsible for sending him to prison learns of his return. Left with no alternative, Tachibana decides to take them on."

Saturday, March 12th 1:00 PM @ Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue



At 3pm we have the international premiere of Brutal Tales of Chivalry(1965).

Japan Society say - "With this film, the honorable yakuza formula loiters on the threshold of formal perfection. Returning imperial soldier Gennosuke (Ken Takakura) finds his hometown hardly more than a pile of rubble. In short, it is Year Zero for this man whose world has been reduced to a dead zone of rusted, unpopulated townscapes. With the sheer power of his will and moral rectitude, Gennosuke must rebuild the local marketplace and protect it from the unscrupulous hands of a rival gang that couldn't care less about chivalry and honor."



Come 5:15pm the US premiere of Theater of Life: Hishakaku(1963)

Japan Society says - "Tadashi Sawashima's Theater of Life launched the 1960s ninkyo eiga boom and is in many ways, the whole genre's blueprint. Hishakaku (Koji Tsuruta), as honorable a gangster as is humanly possible, is in love with Otoyo, a courtesan. But his obligations to the yakuza code keep them apart, not the least because of his stint in prison. During this time, Otoyo struggles against sinister gangsters who see her not as the sweetheart of a chivalrous gambler doing time for his gang, but as a simple commodity. The film made both Toei studio actors Koji Tsuruta and Ken Takakura superstars of the yakuza genre, though it's the fragile beauty of the actress Yoshiko Sakuma that impresses the most."



And the movie program part of the day wraps it up at 7:30PM with Blood of Revenge(1965)

Japan Society says - "The outstanding performance by Koji Tsuruta, the yakuza genre's first star, is the most commanding reason to see this film, in addition to über-stylist Kato's masterly and distinctive mise en scène. Osaka, 1907: Asajiro (Tsuruta) lives between a rock and a hard place: he has to keep his business clean and running, tame his late oyabun's hot-blooded son and suffer the throes of his impossible love for beautiful geisha Hatsue (Junko Fuji). Life is tough, but misdeeds will not remain unavenged and trickling blood will swell to a flood, of course."

Looks like a pretty full day of gangsta shit..60's Japan style. Unfortunately I could only dig up a trailer for Blood of Revenge. These movies do go back almost 50 years, they can't all have trailers.

Big Screen Big Apple- The Wolves(1971)Friday March 11 at 7:30 PM

There is a whole bunch of shit going down this weekend ans it's going to be really hard for me to keep up with everything. Between two kick-ass film series and the midnight standards over at The Spectacle, There is nothing short of boredom going on for New Yorkers when it comes to genre cinema.

Let me kick it off with night three of The Japan Society's Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence film series. Hideo Gosha's The Wolves(1971) hits the screen at 7:30 followed by a gangsta party in which those who show up in a kimono get free entry.

The Japan Society says - "Directed by award-winning filmmaker Hideo Gosha (Sword of the Beast) and scored by Kurosawa's legendary composer, Masaru Sato (Yojimbo, Throne of Blood), The Wolves features Tatsuya Nakadai (Harakiri, Ran, Kagemusha), who leads an all-star cast (alongside real-life yakuza-turned-actor Noboru Ando) and outstares the whole film with impossibly hollow and haunted eyes. In 1929, to celebrate the Showa Emperor Hirohito's ascension to the throne, hundreds of yakuza were pardoned and released from jail--men who, perhaps, would have been better off behind bars. As Seiji Iwahashi, one of these men, comes to realize, their world is disintegrating from moral rot and he finds himself at the tattered edge of what he takes to be civilization and the shattered remains of a once honorable underworld. The essential thrust of the tale--of uprooted men, strangers in a strange world--feels as acute and sharp as samurai sword, while the mood of resigned bitterness, hard to shake off, wafts through the film like incense. "

Friday, March 11th 7:30 PM @ Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

Big Screen Big Apple- Onibi:The Fire Within(1997) Thurs. March 10 at 8:15 PM

Day Two Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence, the Japan Society's yakuza film series, brings us something a bit more somber and up-to-date than the series opening. The US premiere of Onibi: The Fire Within(1997) Kicks of with a separate lecture about what the taboos are of depicting yakuza in Japanese pop culture.

Japan Society says - "Coming from a man who started his career as a porn director, this is a surprisingly spare and emotionally savage film. Often regarded as Rokuro Mochizuki's masterpiece, Onibi injects both sexual passion and subdued sentiment into the macho world of yakuza cinema. Within the confines of the genre, Mochizuki artfully builds a parable of implacable fate, probing the leading performer's inner life with a calm intensity that is almost unparalleled. Noriyuki Kunihiro (Yoshio Harada, in one of his most unforgettable roles) is a yakuza who has just spent half a lifetime in prison, doing time for a double murder. Although his former acolytes try to tempt him back into the fold, he prefers to put his aging but still strong body to more honest work. He finds love in the person of young pianist... and trouble soon follows."

Thursday, March 10th 8:15 PM @ Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

Big Screen Big Apple- The Yakuza(1974) Wed. March 9 at 7:30PM

Tomorrow opens up The Japan Society's Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence series, ten days of the best cinema the Japanese underbelly has ever inspired. Sydney Pollack's East-meets-West classic, The Yakuza(1974) opens up the event. If you're a Robet Mitchum fan there is no reason you should miss this screening, unless, of course, you hate Japanese culture, in which case you are a dishonorable cur.

The Japan Society Says - "Few films show more deference and respect to Japanese film culture than Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack's overlooked 1970s gem, The Yakuza. Both a taut thriller and a touching, finely layered character piece, the film features Robert Mitchum in one of his finest roles and shows Pollack in absolute command of his skill. The Yakuza is a fine piece of American noir filmmaking from its golden age, perfectly fusing East and West. Between making The Way We Were and Three Days of the Condor, Pollack directed this little-seen homage to yakuza cinema from a script by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) and Robert Towne (Chinatown). The Yakuza stars Robert Mitchum as Harry Kilmer, a former soldier who returns to Japan to help rescue the daughter of his friend George Tanner (Brian Keith). Once he arrives in the country, Kilmer discovers that the daughter has been kidnapped by the yakuza. To save the girl, Kilmer finds himself left with no other options than to enlist the help of an old and dangerous acquaintance, Tanaka (Ken Takakura). Behind the twists and double-crosses, there emerges the elegiac celebration of the chivalric male relationships of countless American Westerns, and quite possibly the most original introduction to the yakuza movie genre."

If that's not enough for you, their will also be an introduction/post-film Q&A with the writer Paul Schrader.

Wednesday, March 9, 7:30 PM @ Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, at 47th Street and First Avenue

Japan Society Presents Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence

Every couple of months I receive an email from the Japan Society, and I'm typically tickled pink(u). I can always count on some kind of chambara series at least once a year, and a great deal of the time the films are from the 60's and 70's, which happens to be my favorite era in Japanese cinema. This time around, the line-up looks fantastic:

This season, Japan Society is proud to present the new Globus Film Series, Hardest Men in Town: Yakuza Chronicles of Sin, Sex & Violence. From March 9 to 19, Japan Society will be screening a series of 15 yakuza films, from 1960s productions featuring chivalrous kimono-clad, sword-wielding gangsters to today's ruthless gun-toting villains dealing in debt, dark trades and deeds. Featuring films by internationally acclaimed directors such as Takeshi Kitano, Seijin Suzuki, and Kenji Fukasaku (among many others), the series includes a large number of premieres and titles never-before shown in the U.S. Also introducing some of these screenings will be a few very special guests, including writer/director Paul Schrader, author Jake Adelstein, and director Takashi Miike.



Featured Films:
The Yakuza – Directed by Sydney Pollack

Onibi: The Fire Within – Rokuro Mochizuki

The Wolves – Hideo Gosha

The Walls of Abashiri Prison (pt. 3): Longing for Home - Teruo Ishii

Brutal Tales of Chivalry - Kiyoshi Saeki

Theater of Life: Hishakaku - Tadashi Sawashima

Blood of Revenge – Tai Kato

Cops Vs. Thugs – Kenji Fukasaku

Battles Without Honor and Humanity A.K.A. The Yakuza Papers (pt. 3): Proxy War – Kenji Fukasaku

Youth of the Beast – Seijin Suzuki

Dead or Alive – Takashi Miike

A Yakuza in Love A.K.A. Villainous Love – Rokuro Mochizuki

Ryuji - Toru Kawashima

Yakuza Wives – Hideo Gosha

Outrage: The Way of the Modern Yakuza – Takeshi Kitano





More information on the festival as well as past series and events is available at:

http://www.japansociety.org/film



Please visit our blog (www.japansocietyfilm.tumblr.com), which will be covering the series during its 10-day run.

Excited? I am. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be covering each film, in either promotional or review film. March is a big month for NYC in genre cinema, and I'm excited to cover as much as possible.

Japanese Film Blogathon June 15-21

As many of you who read the cinematic rantings here know, I love Japanese film. I tend to focus on film from the 60's and 70's but occasionally wander into the other areas depending on the director and style. Starting Monday, I, and several other bloggers will be entering a Japanese cinema Blogathon. This means you will find at least a dozen or so film dorks such as myself writing as much about the films from The Land of The Rising Sun as we can. For me. I'm going to try for one review a day, or at least some kind of write-up. It will not only test my boundaries as a movie reviewer, something I've been neglecting heavily as of late, but my ability to spend the time watching at least one movie a day. Again, something else I've been having a hard time doing over the last couple of months. I will try to stay as focused as I can be, while still delivering as much excellent content as I, the CdT Master, can put out. I'm sure it will be a challenge with most of us. But I think the end result will be more fun than we intend it to be.

So stayed tuned starting Monday. This Blogathon will probably be more triumphant than we all intend.

Tokyo is Burning...should you care?

From the team that brought you the over-the-top splatter/comedy/martial arts/revenge flick, The Machine Girl, comes Tokyo Gore Police. For those who have seen The Machine Girl, it goes without saying that Director Yoshihiro Nishimura ( who provided the gooey goodness for Machine Girl ) has quite a tough act to follow. In fact, it may be Nishimura's desire to outdo the insanity of the previous outing that leads to Tokyo Gore Police being decidedly less satisfying.

Tokyo Gore Police stars Eihi Shiina ( known to most as the piano wire wielding psycho from Miike's "Audition" ) as Ruka, a ruthlessly efficient Police Officer tasked with hunting down and eliminating a breed of vicious super-mutant criminals known as Engineers. Besides being extraordinarily depraved, the Engineers are also extremely difficult to kill: each open wound regenerates itself as a bio-mechanical weapon. This leads to some inventive ( and revolting ) setpieces involving partially dismembered Engineers sprouting chainsaw limbs, penis cannons, and drooling crocodile vaginas. The effects are impressive for the most part and, thankfully, lean more heavily toward practical elements as opposed to CGI. The action is the sort of hyper-kinetic, gerbil-on-meth style that can be expected of this kind of Asian splatterfest and the level of gore and sadism on display rivals Hershell Gordon Lewis at his most excessive.

So, where does Tokyo Gore Police go wrong? One would think that the combination of unapologetic, grotesque elements offered here would lead to a non-stop, blood-drenched good time. One would be only partially correct. The problem lies with the fact that Tokyo Gore Police aspires to be too much and as a result, fails to acquire any real consistency of tone...an issue only exacerbated by its longer-than-average running time. In between bouts of flashy dismemberment and imaginative mutants, Nishimura attempts to place the story within a dystopic, nihilistic social context. In Nishimura's Tokyo, the Police have become a privatized, for profit enterprise and society has come to reflect humanity at its self-absorbed, narcissistic, jaded worst. The Engineers can be said to only be a symptom of a greater problem, as Televisions cheerfully advertise products such as the "Wrist Cutter" and "Remote Control Terminate." The Police seem to treat their duties as a glorified gladiator sport rather than public service.

There is certainly nothing inherently wrong with attempting to frame mayhem within a greater, satirical context. Where Tokyo Gore Police turns a potential asset into an Achiles Heel is that it can't seem to decide whether it wants to go for a darkly humorous tone or simply drop all pretense and let the audience have it full-on in the face with a firehose of gore. Nishimura attempts to do both, and instead of an engaging, intriguing experience like Suicide Club, we are left with a loosely connected series of set-pieces unsuccessfully straddling the divide between clever and stupid.

Manga to Movies Week

Over the last week or so, I have watched several Japanese movies from the 60's and 70's to support my current habit for all things Toei and Toho. As it turns out ,several of the movies I watched were adaptations from Manga, as Lone Wolf and Cub is. This was not on purpose, except for the in the case of the Golgo 13 movie I watched. I played the shitty video game 20 years ago and have known for several years that it is one of Japan's longest running mangas. I figured instead of writing one seperate review, I would just give you a rundown of the comic-born awesomeness that blessed my television screen.

Lady Snowblood: I would have to say Lady Snowblood now has a place in my permanent top 10 if I had such a thing. I started watching Snowblood knowing that Tarantino was heavily influenced by it. So much in fact, he used alot of the greatest elements found in Lady SnowBlood and used them in Kill Bill. Killer swordplay, ridiculous blood sprays, and vengeance up the fuckin' ass. This movie was very much the blueprint for the latter half of Kill Bill. I tried, for the life of me to write a seperate review, but i couldn't put into words how great this movie is. Take a very hot Meiko Kaji, of Pinky Violence genre fame, and throw her into the role of an assassin raised to avenge her mother, add a sword and some very violent killings, and you have yourself a masterpiece. At first I picked this up because its considered a Pinky Violence, but then realized there was a whole fuckin' bunch more to it. It turns out that the creator of the manga, Kazuo Koike, is also the same guy responsible for Lone Wolf and Cub. Yet another reason this caught me hook, line, and sinker. I have never been much of a manga fan, as I have stated in ealier posts, but watching Snownlood has made me crave for something more than the two movies, which I'll still watch over-and-over again.



Oggon Batto(the GoldenBat):It's a bird,it's a plane, it's...ummm......a flying mummy with a shiny, gold jumsuit and a hideous laugh?!? As ridiculous as it sounds, Oggon Batto was a pretty entertaining movie. If your a fan of Kaiju, golden-age superhero serials, and Sonny Chiba in one of his earliest roles (no he wasn't the Golden Bat), this is probably the movie for you. This was yet another movie that was not only based on a comic character, it was based on THE japanese comic character. Apparently, Oggon Batto has existed in one for or another since the 40's and is Japan's first superhero creation. The movie had such a great reception when it was first released in 1966 that it ran for 52 episodes on TV as an anime series,w hich is apparently impossible to find if you live in the States like I do. Fucking bullshit. It's probably a good thing I can't get my hands on the anime series right now, I wouldn't leave my room until I had seen every fucking episode because I'm like that.



Golgo 13: Kowloon Assignment: What more do I really have to say about this than Sonny Fuckin' Chiba plays manga's premiere sniper. Not only do we get Chiba shooting muthafuckas with pinppoint accuracy, but we also get the ultra-violent karate action that made The Street Fighter such a fucking kick ass movie. This happens to be the second Golgo 13 movie, I still have yet to see the first one. Again, all I really have to say is Sonny Fuckin' Chiba and that name should speak volumes.