Slash And Burn

Ronin Gai

Director: Kazuo Kuroki
Actors: Yoshio Harada, Kanako Higuchi, Shintaro Katsu
Year Released: 1990
Genre: Drama, Samurai
See Also: Twilight Samurai, Hidden Blade, Taboo

The early 1990s were not the best time for Japanese cinema, especially for jidai-geki (period piece) films. There's recently been something of a return to form for the genre, perhaps not in the grand action sense but certainly for the smaller, more contemplative film. Twilight Samurai is one such example, as is Taboo. Ronin Gai was a predecessor to those two films and runs in a similar vein, focusing more on characters and plot than strict swordplay and action, although it ultimately has that as well.

Translated loosely as "Street of Masterless Samurai," Ronin Gai tells the ensemble story of a poor neighborhood of Edo, the capitol of Japan (later known as Tokyo) in the waning years of shogunate rule. Everyone in the town—ronin, prostitutes and the occasional merchant—has a Lower Depths-like story of how they ended up at the bottom, and how they intend to climb back out.

Each charcater longs to rise above his current statuts, but is seemingly stuck by circumstance. Magozoemon, a former samurai of some ranking, raises birds to make due, and the smell of their guano taints his skin. His lowly position is broadcast to the world around him via the bad odor, a constant reminder of his fall. Horo, a ronin who makes his living testing swords on recently executed criminals, is also tainted. Although the film doesn't go into it, any contact with death in a Buddhist society is taboo, making him a literal outcast. And Bull, played by Zatoichi himself, Shintaro Katsu, is the bouncer at the inn where much of the action takes place. He is so desirous of position that he debases himself to an arrogant lord just to be in a position of fealty.

Redemption finally comes, as it so often does in samurai films, through bloodshed. A band of shogunate retainers, led by Bull's lord, have been murdering prostitutes in a self-righteous effort to clean up the world. When they capture Oshin, the favorite at the inn, and threaten to tear her apart with real bulls, our fallen protagonists all come to the rescue. Her womanizing lover Aramaki arrives drunk and carrying more swords than seem necessary, but quickly becomes a wild man, shirtless and reckless, cutting down samurai like he hadn't just spent the whole movie loafing and drinking. The film becomes extremely violent, almost apocalyptically so, making up for lost time with flying, hacked limbs and spurting jugulars. Aramaki is joined by Bull, Horo and Magozoemon, and the forest runs red with samurai blood.

There's a touching scene early in the film, where Bull is buying a bowl of noodles from a street merchant. "I used to be a samurai," the noodle vendor confesses. He gave it up because samurai have become pushy and showy now that's there no more wars to fight. "But here, I fight every day. When people say my noodles are good, I win," remarks the vendor to Bull, who is visibly moved by the tastiness of the noodles. The films seems to be saying that violence isn't the only way to redemption and honor, that there are many, like that of the noodle vendor. But for these formerly grand men, there is only the path of violence.

A satisfying, thought-provoking film.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku alert: Takashi Miike, director of Ichi the Killer and Audition, was an assistant director on Ronin Gai. Ronin Gai was Shintaro Katsu's last film.

Daimajin Trilogy

Title: Daimajin
Director: Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Actors: Miwa Takada, Yoshihiko Aoyama, Jun Fujimaki
Year Released: 1966
Genre: Kaiju, Samurai
See Also: Return of Daimajin, Wrath of Daimajin

Title: Return of Daimajin
Japanese title: Daimajin ikaru
Director: Kenji Misumi
Actors: Kojiro Hongo, Shiho Fujimura, Taro Marui
Year Released: 1966
Genre: Kaiju, Samurai
See Also: Daimajin, Wrath of Daimajin

Title: Wrath of Daimajin
Japanese title: Daimajin gyakushu
Director: Kazuo Mori
Actors: Riki Hashimoto, Shinji Hori, Shiei Iizuki
Year Released: 1966
Genre: Kaiju, Samurai
See Also: Daimajin, Return of Daimajin

In the late '60s, Daei released a trilogy of relatively sober kaiju films, the Daimajin series. In each, a giant stone god comes to life, usually at the behest of pious villagers who are being subjugated by some power-mad warlord. The stone god proceeds to unleash a Biblical level of vengeance upon the subjugators, reverting to the statue only when his anger has been spent.

When getting ready to write this review, I attempted to determine the actual release order of the films, which were apparently all shot back to back and then released years apart. IMDB.com only lists year made, not released, which is why all three listings above say 1966. In 2002, ADV Films released all three movies in one DVD set (now out of print). According to the printing on the discs, Return of Daimajin is film number two, which makes sense. But on the insert, Wrath of Daimajin is listed as number two. To further confuse things, both Return and Wrath have been released at some time in the US under the title Return of Daimajin. So for the purposes of this review, I'm going to refer to them by their Japanese titles, Daimajin ikaru (Return of Daimajin) and Daimajin gyakushu (Wrath of Daimajin).

The first Daimajin film was directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, a veteran jidai geki director for Daei. By the time he helmed Daimajin, he had already done a couple Zatoichi and Nemuri Kyoshiro (Sleepy Eyes of Death) films, and he brought this eye for jidai geki to his kaiju crossover. Those expecting Gojira-like levels of excitement could be disappointed, as the Daimajin films are samurai movies masquerading as giant monster films, and not the other way around. They're relatively understated, and never does Daimjin fight another monster—only hapless samurai.

The first Daimajin sets the template: pious villagers worship and revere the Daimajin. In the middle of a ceremony to assure that he'll stay sealed in the stone statue, usurpers within the local daimyo's castle perform a coup d'etat, take over, and shut down all that superstitious nonsense. In the midst of the confusion, the lord's young son and sister escape into Daimajin's mountain and hide out for ten years, returning at last to attempt to rescue the villagers from the yoke of the usurpers. Of course, things don't go quite as well as planned and the young lord is captured. Pretty soon Daimajin wakes up, fully pissed off. A good half-hour of giant stone god samurai trampling ensues.

Daimajin ikaru sees the plot replicated, only this time it's a neighboring warlord that enslaves Daimajin's worshippers. The film was directed by Kenji Misumi, a Daei contract director who went on to head most of the Lone Wolf and Cub films. Daimajin ikaru never reaches the heights of violence of those films, but it is the "roughest" of the trilogy, with the invading warlord delighting in slapping this film's young lord hero, and attempting to burn a pious member of the toppled daimyo family to death. Daimajin will have none of this. Slow-motion destruction ahoy.

Daimajin ikaru is my favorite of the three. It's the darkest and has the best effects. Daimajin actually parts a lake to get from his island home to shore. The effect of the water cascading down on either side of him is pretty damn impressive.

The last of the series, Daimajin gyakushu, pretty much sucks. OK, maybe that's being a little harsh, but the protagonists of this one are children and that's never a good sign for a kaiju series. Gamera went downhill fast after he started kowtowing to every short-shorts-wearing kid who shouted his name. Thankfully Daimajin doesn't stoop as low as to let the kids ride on his shoulders but he actually saves the life of one of them. Doesn't he know the movie would be better if they died, preferably under his giant stone foot?

The plot should sound familiar: a warlord in the territory neighboring Daimajin's is capturing Daimajin's worshippers and forcing them into slavery. Four sons of captured villagers strike out over Daimajin's mountain to rescue them. It's starting to look bad until Daimajin comes to life and, well, you get the picture. If Daimajin gyakushu has one thing going for it, it's the look of the picture. With its gorgeous outdoor shots and rich colors, it looks as if Hiroshi Inagaki (Samurai Trilogy) could have been in charge. Of course, the similarities end there.

Daei would again dive into the rubber suit/samurai crossover with its Yokai trilogy (100 Monsters, Spook Warfare, and Along With Ghosts).

—Adam Douglas

Otaku alert: Bad boy filmmaker Takashi Miike is reportedly shooting a remake of Daimajin.

Buying Japanese DVDs

If you're at all interested in Japanese film you're going to quickly discover that there are lots of films you just can't get at your local Tower Records. Even if you have a Mecca of cool like Amoeba or any other retailer with a large collection of hard-to-find DVDs nearby, you're still going to be hitting walls because a lot of Japanese movies just aren't released in the US. This doesn't have to stop you from seeing the movies you're reading about here or elsewhere, but it does require a bit of legwork on your end.

I'd like to point out that I am by no means an expert in this field. This is all stuff I've picked up along the way in my search for Japanese movies. If you have additional or counter information, please let me know.

When you've exhausted your US distributors like Criterion, AnimEigo, Panik House, and Kino, it might be time to start looking overseas for DVDs. Quite a few region-free versions of DVDs get printed up overseas and these can be played in your DVD player, no matter what your country of origin. However, if you're really serious, you're going to need to either, 1) hack your existing DVD player to ignore territorial lockout codes or, 2) buy a region-free player. I'm poor so I've opted for option one but as soon as I can afford it I'm going for a region-free player. Why? Region-free players can decode both NTSC and PAL, for one, so you can watch films from Europe as well as Asia. With hacks there's always the chance of something else going wrong in the player too.

I found my hack at www.videohelp.com, a user-updated site with a number of hacks for turning off the region code (as well as other things). Find the "DVD Hacks" link under the Lists header on the tool bar on the left, and then search for your model. Hacking my player was extremely easy. It was all done via the remote, and in less time than it takes to get all the plastic and security stickers off a new DVD, I was watching overseas DVDs.

Regions
Which region are you? Here's a breakdown of the codes:

0—Playable in all players
1—United States, Canada, Bermuda and US territories
2—Middle East, Western Europe, Central Europe, Egypt, French overseas territories, Greenland, Japan, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland
3—Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan
4—Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Oceania, South America
5—Africa, former Soviet Union countries, Indian subcontinent, Mongolia, North Korea
6—Mainland China
7—Unused
8—International venues (aircraft, cruise ships, etc.)

Why do these codes exist? Because movies are released to theater at different times throughout the year and go to DVD at different times. It prevents people in, say, Mongolia from buying the latest Harry Potter film on DVD before it's shown in theaters. This doesn't really stop anyone though, especially in the so-called Tiger countries of Asia where copyright laws are roundly ignored.

It should be noted that among the Asian countries, mainland China is PAL, so if you plan on watching any non-Taiwanese or Hong Kong Chinese DVDs, you're going to need a good all-region player with the ability to decipher different broadcast standards.

Japan DVDs
Let's start with the source, Japan. This is the obvious place to begin, as this is where the movies come from, right? There are a few roadblocks to buying and watching Japanese DVDs, even assuming you've already got yourself set up with a hacked or region-free DVD. Those roadblocks are: price and language.

Japanese DVDs are extremely expensive. If you've ever tried to buy anything imported from Japan you'll know how expensive their products can be. This isn't just because they're imported—the items are expensive to begin with. In Japan, domestic price is extremely high. Look at the back of a Japanese DVD and you'll probably see the price printed in the box copy. My copy of Ashura says 3800 yen. That's about $35 right now, though a few years ago it was more like $38. That's baseline. Add in import and shipping costs and you're looking at close to $50 for a single-disc DVD.

Language is the other prohibiting factor. Most Japanese DVDs are not subtitled in English. Unless you're fluent in nihongo (and if you are, congratulations) you're going to wish you had saved a few bucks and bought something you could understand. This isn't to say that Japanese DVDs are never subtitled in English. They do exist but they are by no means the norm.

Hong Kong/Taiwan DVDs
So what to do? Thankfully, Hong Kong and Taiwanese pressings of Japanese movies are cheap and plentiful, and almost always have English subtitles. I read somewhere that the reason Hong Kong movies were always subtitled in English is because Hong Kong was a British colony. I guess they've decided to keep up with the tradition.

Most legitimate HK and Taiwanese DVDs can be had for around $15. I say legitimate because bootlegging is rife. Bootlegged copies seem to run around $10. More on bootlegging later.

Even when buying legitimate HK DVDs, quality can sometimes be lacking. For the most part, the films are widescreen and, in the case of recent releases, mixed in 5.1 sound. But prints can be dark or grainy and, with older films, badly in need of remastering. Subtitles can be pretty bewildering at times. I'm not sure if the English is directly translated from the Chinese subtitles, or if these DVD producers actually employ trilingual translators, but suffice it to say that if an Ozu or Kurosawa title is available through Criterion, you're going to be a lot happier with the Criterion translation than the Hong Kong one.

All this being said, I've found Hong Kong DVDs to be the best option for getting Japanese movies that haven't been released here yet. The price is right and, more importantly, the selection is great. Many titles, including hard-to-find classics, are readily available.

A brief word on VCDs: I hate them. Sure, they're cheap, but the quality is so terrible I'd rather not have the movie than watch it as a VCD. Some DVD players won't play VCDs either, so if you want to get into this nether region of video quality, beware.

Other Countries
As I don't have a player that can translate PAL DVDs, I'm unfamiliar with discs from mainland China or other countries, like England. When buying discs from mainland China, always check that there are indeed English subtitles. It's not always the case like HK titles. The British market seems to be more receptive to Japanese classics than the American market, as I've seen a few Mizoguchi titles in Amoeba's imports bin as well as others that aren't available in the US (or even Hong Kong).

Buying Overseas DVDs
Now you know what to buy. But where do you buy them? If you're in a major metropolitan area like New York or San Francisco, there are undoubtedly shops that cater to Japanese and Chinese expatriates near you. San Francisco has both a Chinatown and a Japantown, as does Los Angeles. San Francisco's Chinatown is a great place to look for DVDs. Not only will you find Chinese and Japanese films, but also Hong Kong pressings of Thai films and those from other Asian countries, as well as the occasional Bollywood film. Clement St. in the Richmond is another San Francisco area with good DVD shops.

If you don't live near shops like these, or you just can't be bothered, there's always the Internet. I've found ordering HK movies off the Internet to be even cheaper than buying them from shops in Chinatown, although it's certainly not as fun. My site of choice is YesAsia.com, a site based in Asia but with warehouses all over the world. Their HK movies run around $13 each, and if you buy three or so you get free shipping. And, because there's probably a warehouse near you, shipping is fast.

And then there's eBay. I currently have a love/hate relationship with eBay. Back in the day, you knew exactly what you were buying by reading the copy. Now you have to ask a lot of questions to make sure that what you're getting isn't scratched or even a DVD-R copy. It's all online stores now. The individual seller seems to have disappeared, and with him a level of upfront honesty. Buyer beware, right?

DVD-Rs/Bootlegs
The deeper you get into Japanese film, the more you'll realize just how many movies have been released to theater over the years, and how few of them are actually available on DVD. Enter the bootlegger. I recently purchased a copy of Black Cat's Revenge off eBay and was surprised to see, upon opening, that it was a DVD-R. I wasn't really angry—I was too excited about seeing the movie—but I was pleasantly surprised at the level of quality of the image. It even had a previews section which was, apparently, spots for upcoming films on a satellite channel. I guess this company records Japanese movies off satellite, complete with subtitles, and then packages them and sells them. How deep into this you want to get is really up to you. I'm ambivalent. DVD-Rs don't last nearly as long as regular DVDs, so though you may be paying $15 for a DVD-R, it might not last more than a few years. However, there's really no other way to see a lot of these films unless you have the luxury of curating a rep house theater. What this experience has taught me is that I really need to get satellite TV.

Non-DVD-R bootlegs are readily available online as well as in some shops. The quality on these tends to be the same as legitimate copies. What gives it away is that the box art is obviously laser-copied. My feelings about bootlegs run like this: I'd rather not buy a bootleg if the option exists for a legitimate copy. Sometimes it's the only option, and then the obsessive collector in me overrides my inner moralist, who never really had much of a say anyway.

Happy hunting.

—Adam Douglas

Suicide Club

Director: Shion Sono
Actors: Ryo Ishibashi, Masatoshi Nagase, Saya Hagiwara
Year Released: 2002
Genre: Horror
See Also: Ringu, Ju-On, Synasthesia

The Japanese experience techno fear differently than Westerners, at least as depicted in their movies. In the West it's unmanned technology run amok that gets the hair on the backs of our necks up: West World and its murderous robots, Demon Seed's horny master computer, Maximum Overdrive's trucks gone wild. But in Japan, technology is rarely evil in and of itself. When it becomes a conduit for the hand of man, then it's time to lock the doors and hide under the futon. Of course, when you're locked in your apartment, all snug, you'll probably be tempted to surf the 'Net, and that's where you're likely to get in trouble.

There's been a whole slew of Japanese laptop (Japtop?) horror movies as of late. It all started with Ringu and its deadly VCR, but that's so '90s now that everyone has a PC. So there's Mail, in which spirits e-mail the living. You've got ancestors! Synthasthesia upped the paranoia to include webcams, which apparently have been posted up all over Tokyo, even in sewage run-off tunnels. Unfortunately more true-to-life is Suicide Club, which has people killing themselves en masse after visiting a website, a scenario inspired by actual online suicide forums where people arrange to kill themselves together.

Japan has one of the highest suicide rates among industrialized, non-Eastern Bloc countries, a statistic that deserves to be explored seriously and with good taste. Neither of these apply to Suicide Club, which veers unexpectedly from police procedural to social criticism to surreality without ever feeling the need to come to grips with itself. However, if what you want is a serious Japanese film, there's always a plethora of Kurosawa flicks to view. For something weirder, there's Suicide Club.

The film has an absolutely spectacular opening: 54 smiling school girls hold hands and throw themselves in front of a subway train as it speeds through a station, a wave of blood washing up onto the platform and splattering horrified onlookers. Before you can say, "Don't jump!" suicide has become absolutely trendy in Tokyo, and the cops are baffled as to why. While they're arguing over whether it's a crime or just the latest fad, things get weirder, and it all seems to revolve around a mysterious website.

Plot in Suicide Club is a tenuous thing—just when you think you've got a handle on it (police/horror film with a dash of techno fear) it changes on you and kills off some of its main characters. It's almost as if the director, bored 30 minutes in, has changed his mind. "I'm tired of these cops! This movie needs a homicidal wannabe rock singer who keeps women in big bags in a bowling alley!" Well, OK then. We're more than willing to go along, Sono-san, just keep it creepy. So we get a happy housewife obligingly hacking through her fingers with a kitchen knife. Apparently the mind control has spread beyond the website but to try to rationalize it too much will prevent you from enjoying what the movie has in store for you next: Surreal kids and, um, eggs! Tattoo shaving! Dessert, the all-singing, all-dancing 'tween band and their catchy hit, "Mail Me"! Is it all connected? Possibly, but it really doesn't matter because it's all great fun. Who needs tragedy when pop culture is so much more engaging?

—Adam Douglas

Otaku alert: The death by fax scene was cut to keep the film under two hours but it's featured in the trailer extensively, and well worth a look. Who knew you could fax hair?

Godzilla Final Wars

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Actors: Masahiro Matsuoka, Rei Kikukawa, Kazuki Kitamura
Year Released: 2004
Genre: Kaiju, Sci-fi, Action
See Also: Godzilla, Godzilla Vs. Hedorah, Versus, Azumi

It recently occurred to me that my earliest film memories are of Japanese movies. Godzilla movies, to be specific. On Saturday afternoons, after the cartoons and Ma And Pa Kettle flicks had ended, my local Channel 2 would invariably run one of the Big G's adventures, and I'd sit glued while men in heavy rubber suits gamely tossed each other around, my face frozen in a rictus of glee. There are some delights that don't vanish with age, and all-out kaiju (giant monster) wrestling remains perennially enjoyable. Ryuhei Kitamura, director of such violent cult fair as Versus and Azumi, must feel the same way because he's infused Godzilla Final Wars with a joie de vivre not seen in a Gojira (Godzilla's name in Japanese) picture since its late-'60s heyday.

The title gives it away: Final Wars was intended as the last Godzilla picture of the decade, a big-budget 50th anniversary send-off to semi-retirement. It's not the final Godzilla picture, don't worry, Toho is just hoping that if it puts the big guy on ice for awhile he'll eventually become profitable again. Toho tried this once before in 1968 with Destroy All Monsters (Kaiju Soushingeki, "All Monsters Attack"), an all-star kaiju send-off for the box-office-slumping lizard. Destroy All Monsters was a surprise hit but it's not hard to see why, with all of those monsters running amok. It's fitting then that Kitamura should crib so much of Final Wars' plot from Destroy All Monsters—if you're going to go out, why not go out BIG?

Monsters are simultaneously attacking Earth's biggest cities, sending the planet into a panic and giving Australia another opportunity to appear as America in a Japanese movie. Rodan in New York! Anguiras in Shanghai! King Caesar in Okinawa! Zilla in Sydney! Wait, who? Oh, you'll see. The Earth Defense Force has its hands full until some aliens conveniently arrive and easily dispatch the monsters. All well and good, but hasn't anyone here seen V? Pretty soon the Earth Defense Force is waking up the Big G himself and all hell is breaking loose.

It has to be said that Godzilla Final Wars is pretty cheesy. There's some atrocious acting, and the subplot involving mutant humans and their special powers is way too reminiscent of The Matrix. Come on Kitamura, did you think we wouldn't notice? Masahiro Matsuoka even looks like Keanu Reeves! But before you get too riled up, remember: This is a Godzilla movie, done in the classic style, with way too many human actors and too much plot. Just about the point where you start thinking, "Where the hell is Godzilla?" Kitamura pulls him out and provides a full hour of kaiju goodness.

Although it may be full of CGI effects, the majority of monster battles are done—as they should be—by guys in rubber suits. Mothra, Gigan (in mecha form), Kumonga the spider, Kamacuras the praying mantis, Ebirah the giant shrimp (pardon my oxymoron), Hedorah the smog monster, and of course King Gidorah all get in the ring, plus there's the new Monster X, a cross between H.R. Giger's Alien and an Eva from Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's pure kaiju heaven. And for anyone who saw the American Godzilla, vengeance is sweet when Gojira takes on the previously mentioned Zilla, who looks suspiciously like that Roland Emmerich dinosaur disaster. The kaiju battles, of which there are plenty, are fast and damn exciting, with the Big G looking slim and trim for his blow-out anniversary party.

So ask yourself: do you love Godzilla movies despite their faults, or do you love them because of the faults? If it's the latter, then hell yeah, this movie is for you.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Famed keyboardist Keith Emerson provides some of the soundtrack music. His organ arpeggios are unmistakable.

Kamikaze Girls

Japanese Title: Shimotsuma Monogatari
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Actors: Kyoko Fukada, Anna Tsuchiya
Year Released: 2004
Genre: Comedy
See Also: Nana, 2LDK

Kamikaze Girls had been on my list of movies to see long before it was released in the US. The film was out when I was living in Japan in 2004 but I had no idea it was a movie—I thought the girls on the posters were manufactured singing stars. It seemed to fit: one of them was dressed as a gothic lolita, from a youth trend involving frilly rococo dresses and bonnets, and the other looked like some kind of juvenile delinquent with her snarling upper lip and black lipstick. I wasn't too off the mark. Both leads, Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya, are pop stars, and now apparently actresses too.

Momoko (Fukada) is a lolita stuck out in Shimotsuma, a farming community some two hours outside of Tokyo. (The Japanese title of the film, Shimotsuma Monogatari, means "Shimotsuma Story." It makes sense that the title would be changed for Western audiences. Can you imagine a movie called Fresno Story playing well in Japan?) She's content in her own little fantasy world of sweet things and no friends until that world is invaded by Ichigo (Tsuchiya), a yanki with a chip on her shoulder the size of Shikoku. A yanki, by the way, is a biker, the name derived from the post war days when gangsters wore American ("yankee") shirts, or something like that. They're one level below yakuza—many "graduate" to yakuza status when they get old enough. Ichigo rides around on a souped-up scooter with a huge banner on the back like a samurai soldier, talks like a yakuza and likes to head-butt people, usually Momoko.

The director, Tetsuya Nakashima, made TV commercials before this, and it shows. The film rarely sits still long enough for you to register what's happening, throwing in as many pop-culture references as possible. Momoko sees herself on TV, as a cartoon—everything except in a mock music video, which may have been too close to home. There's even a nod to Kinji Fukasaku with a bit of the theme to Battles Without Honor and Humanity thrown in.

It has to be said that Kamikaze Girls was made for Japanese teenage girls. It is the story of an unlikely friendship, after all, and it's actually quite touching in an occasionally sappy way. But it's also manic, funny and surprisingly accurate in the youth subcultures it portrays. Kamikaze Girls even features the store Baby The Stars Shine Bright, the originator and still top designer of lolita clothing, in a major way. Perhaps that's because Novala Takemoto, the author of the book the film is based on, is himself a part-time lolita designer for Baby The Stars Shine Bright. So there you go.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Eiko Koike, who plays the gang leader Akimi, also appeared in 2LDK, but she's best known in Japan as a bikini model. An extremely busty bikini model.

Shinobi

AKA: Shinobi: Heart Under Blade
Director: Ten Shimoyama
Actors: Yukie Nakama, Jo Odagiri, Tomoko Kurotani
Year Released: 2005
Genre: Samurai, Action
See Also: Demon Spies, Shogun's Ninja

If there's one thing Americans love, it's ninjas. You know it's true. Don't deny you didn't buy shuriken (throwing stars) out of the back of Black Belt magazine and throw them around, pretending you were Sho Kosugi or Michael Dudikoff, the white guy from American Ninja. Maybe it's the outfits. Maybe it's the weapons. Or maybe it's the fact that ninjas kill a lot of people. But man, Americans love ninjas.

The Japanese too, if a search on IMDB.com for "ninja" is anything to go by. The early '80s saw a huge boom in all things ninja both in the States and across the Pacific, with plenty of studio screenwriters running to novelist Futaro Yamada's classic ninja epics for inspiration. If Shinobi feels familiar, it's because it comes from the same source material as stuff like Ninja Wars, but instead of a gruff Sonny Chiba and cheap special effects, Shinobi has the ever-so-hot Yukie Nakama and some pretty spiffy computer effects. It also has star-crossed lovers. When in doubt, go for the Bard, right?

Nakama is Oboro, heir to the Iga clan. Jo Odagiri (Princess Raccoon) is Gen-no-suke, heir to the Koga clan. One fine day they meet by a river and it's love at first sight. They're ready to live happily ever after but their respective clans are not. It seems that the Kogas and Igas are rival ninja clans, and sworn enemies. They've had a truce in place for many years, but now that Ieyasu Tokugawa has succeeded in uniting Japan and becoming shogun, he fears that the clans will use their ninja skills (and they have skills, just you wait) against him. He decrees that the best five warriors from each clan be chosen to compete in a contest, which of course—unknown to them—will be to the death. Gen-no-suke, wishing to buck tradition and just get it on with Oboro (can you blame him?) decides instead to plead with Tokugawa, leaving the village with the other four. Five Iga warriors, including Oboro (didn't see that one coming), take off in pursuit. Long story short: it's time for some hot ninja-on-ninja action.

With the whole romance thing happening, Shinobi occasionally plays like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It has the same overwhelming sense of importance as well, a far cry from the fast-and-furious ninja films of the early '80s. That being said, Shinobi also knows how to kick ass, and kick ass it does. Each of the warriors has his or her own super-human power, ranging from camouflage and shape shifting abilities to poisonous breath and the ability to slow down time. The combination of the romance and ass-kicking makes for a pretty good movie. And, better yet, the kind of movie you could show your girlfriend and not get in trouble for it. And, did I mention, Yukie Nakama is hot?

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Shinobi was based on Koga Kinpocho, a novel by Futaro Yamada. Many movies were based on works by Yamada, including the Makai Tensho films.

Sukebandeka The Movie

Director: Hideo Tanaka
Actors: Yoko Minamino, Akie Yoshizawa, Haruko Sagara
Year Released: 1987
Genre: Action
See Also: Battle Royale

When considering Japanese film, the '80s often get overlooked. Kurosawa did Ran, and there's Shohei Imamura's Black Rain, but what else is there to compare with the greats of the other decades? What cinematic achievement is there to match Ozu's 1950s "home dramas," or Hideo Gosha's 1960s samurai epics, or indeed even Kinji Fukasaku's 1970s nihilistic yakuza pictures? If only there was something with highly trained assassin schoolgirls who used steel yo-yos and deadly attack marbles as their weapons, who had bad hair and weren't afraid of getting whipped by evil school principals intent on taking over the government with an army of brain-washed juvenile delinquents. Oh, but there is. Enter Sukebandeka The Movie, exit good taste, believability, and the laws of physics. Take that, Ozu!

Based on a manga and hit TV show, Sukebandeka The Movie ("Female Juvenile Officer") finds Yoko trying to live a normal high school life now that she's retired from being a Sukeban Deka (apparently there was a new yo-yo wielding girl in each season of the show—Sukebandeka The Movie came between seasons two and three and served as a sort of bridge between them, making Yoko Deka number two). Her newfound life is thrown into chaos when she picks up a satchel dropped by a student, Kazuo (Shinobu Sakagami), who's being chased by some toughs. Yoko follows them onto a bus and pretty soon she's whipping the bad guys in the face with a newly purchased yo-yo and then—inexplicably!—the bus crashes into the scoop of a back hoe in slow motion. Before long she's caught up in a plot to overthrow the government from within using juvenile delinquents. What, that old scenario?

Yoko's old agency won't help her—the heat's too much for them, being part of the government—so she goes it vigilante style, recruiting her old team and a few new girls, including former teammate O-Kyo, nasty with the marbles, and Yui, the new Sukeban Deka. There's also the sister of a student at Sankou Gakkuen (little does she know he's been turned into a lobotomized zombie!) who doesn't have any cool weapons but is cute nonetheless.

The plot is, of course, ludicrous. But you'd never pick up a DVD about assassin schoolgirls for an intricate storyline. You'd buy it because the girls are cute and they kick ass. And in that, Sukebandeka The Movie certainly delivers. Neither man nor machine is impervious to their schoolyard weapons. There really is nothing like seeing a girl in a sailor suit uniform take down a helicopter with a yo-yo. And when Yoko gets her extra-powerful reinforced steel yo-yo—use it too many times and it'll tear your shoulder apart—she's going through brainless delinquents like they were out-of-style cell phones.

Sukebandeka absolutely refuses to take itself seriously. You can almost hear the staff sniggering off-set. And that's the way an '80s schoolgirl assassin movie should be.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Kenta Fukasaku, who wrote Battle Royale and took over direction on Battle Royale II after his father Kinji died, has directed a new version of Sukebandeka. Let's hope it's better than BRII.

Battle Royale

Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Actors: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Chiaki Kuriyama
Year Released: 2000
Genre: Action
See Also: Sukebandeka The Movie, Battles Without Honor and Humanity

The premise is devastatingly simple: high school students are taken to a deserted island, given weapons, and forced to kill each other. There are a lot of different ways a movie like this could go. In the wrong hands, it could be unforgiveably melodramatic. We can all admit it—Japanese movies can be a tad over-the-top, and this just screams "operatic." But Battle Royale, the Lord of the Flies-like film that bears this premise, is anything but melodramatic, and that's because Kinji Fukasaku was at the helm.

Fukasaku is the man behind the Battles Without Honor and Humanity movies, that gritty yakuza series that forever changed Japanese cinema. They were angry, defiant and completely violent films, hard-core statements about post-war Japan and its loss of honor. Battle Royale, while not as obviously outraged as Fukasaku's earlier films, still has more of an agenda than just violence for violence's sake. There's some definite social commentary going on here.

In the film, the educational system is failing. Students are boycotting school, so the government passes the "BR" act, which allows them to take one high school class each year to an island and make them kill each other. To prevent them from mutinying, each student is fitted with a collar that not only tracks their movements but can be triggered to explode if the student tries to escape. If there is no winner after three days, all the collars go off simultaneously. Ingenious. Dastardly. Totally entertaining.

What makes Battle Royale so watchable is the combination of extreme violence and realistic teenage characters. Shuya (heart throb Tatsuya Fujiwara) and Noriko (Aki Maeda) may be our stars but they're just two of an entire class of hormone-addled, crushed out kids all seemingly in love with each other. Who are, of course, now armed to the teeth. Some refuse to fight, and kill themselves. Some throw themselves into it like any other school activity. And some, well, some are just sadistic. The characters react to the killings as real kids would, not like action heroes, and that believability drives the film.

You'd never know Fukasaku was 70 years old when he made Battle Royale. The camera never flinches from the gore, of which there is plenty, and the film barrels along like a high school track team in the state finals. By the time you've managed to catch your breath the body count is already into the double digits. Fukasaku has wisely soundtracked the film with classical music rather than teen pop. That, and the school uniforms the kids wear, prevents the film from being immediately identified as being from any specific year. It is, in effect, timeless.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Looks like the people that brought you The Fast And The Furious will be remaking Battle Royale for America. Maybe now the original will finally get a US release.

Availability Note: Import only, though readily available region-free on the Internet and at specialty shops.

The Stairway To The Distant Past

Director: Kaizo Hayashi
Actors: Masatoshi Nagase, Eiji Okada, Joe Shishido
Year Released: 1995
Genre: Comedy, Yakuza
See Also: The Most Terrible Time In My Life, The Trap, Mike Yokohama: A Forest With No Name

Maiku Hama, Yokohama private eye. Just a nice guy trying to make it in post-Bubble Economy Japan, taking quick jobs finding lost pets and getting caught in the crossfire between yakuza and the cops.

The Stairway To The Distant Past is the second Maiku Hama film, following 1993's The Most Terrible Time In My Life and preceding 1997's The Trap. Less self-consciously noir than the first (Stairway is shot in color, with generous use of primary-color filters), this episode finds Maiku still operating out of an office in a movie theater, scrounging for jobs in a timely reflection of Japan's recently deflated economy.

"I thought private eyes were shady but you're nice," says Kyoko, a friend of Maiku's high school-age sister Akane. And seeing as nothing happens in movies without a reason, you can bet there's a whole lot of tragedy heading Kyoko's way, by way of a fairly complex plot involving both yakuza and police vying for control of the riverfront, the longstanding territory of a mystery figure known only as the White Man. Expectedly, Maiku gets sucked into the melee (via a crooked cop who sells him out faster that you can say "gambling debts settled"), and the only way out is, of course, through a face-to-face with the White Man.

Masatoshi Nagase (who made waves on these shores with his appearance in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train) plays Maiku as an everyman, not quite as flat or cool as his detective predecesors. This is an astute choice, for when Maiku's deadbeat mom, the stripper Dynamite Sexy Lily, returns to town after 15 years, it dredges up all sorts of emotional unpleasantness for Nagase, which he handles admirably, his anger driving the film towards its inevitable conclusion.

Not quite a parody of the yakuza genre, but much more than a mere paean, The Stairway To The Distant Past succeeds, thanks to its ability to cover lots of stylistic ground, and to do so effortlessly. It starts out all quirky humor, reminiscent of films like Tampopo, with Maiku chasing dogs around the city on a bicycle, his car having been repossessed by a loan shark. This light tone is soon obliterated by a yakuza massacre, as some brash yakuza thugs learn not to mess with the White Man's territory. And no private eye film is complete without a jet ski chase, nor without sappy closeups of a crying girl's tear-streaked face (I told you Kyoko was going to have a hard time of it).

Where the film really coalesces is when Maiku sets off to kill the White Man. Walking through a dream-like series of backstreets hidden behind a giant, broken pocket watch, Maiku is transported back in time to postwar, occupied Japan, the streets populated with frozen American GIs and black market stalls. In the center of all this is an abandoned factory, and here Maiku must face the White Man, keeper of the old ways. I won't give it away, but suffice it to say Maiku Hama is back for not only The Trap, but a Japan-only TV series as well.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku alert: The White Man is played by Eiji Okada, former pin-up star and the male lead in Hiroshima Mon Amour. The film was written by Daisuke Tengan, who also adapted Takashi Miike's Audition. It also features an aging Joe Shishido, AKA Number 3 Killer from Branded To Kill. And the film is endorsed by the Assoc. Detective Agencies of Japan. How can you go wrong?