Slash And Burn

Reviews

Ashura (2005)
The Assassin (1970)
Audition (1999)

Battle Royale (2000)
Black Cat's Revenge (aka Blind Woman's Curse) (1970)
The Bodyguard (1973)
Boogie Pop And Others (2000)

Café Lumiere (2003)
Casshern (2004)
Charisma (1999)
Cromartie High: The Movie (2005)
Cutie Honey (2004)

Daimajin (1966)
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002)
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Dogora (1964)
Doing Time (2002)

Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani? (2005)
EM: Embalming (1999)
Exchange Students (1982)

Fantastipo (2004)
Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972)
Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)
Female Prisoner #701: Beast Stable (1973)
Female Prisoner Scorpion #701: Grudge Song (1973)
The 47 Ronin (1941, 1942)

Gamera, Super Monster (1980)
Gammera The Invincible (1966)
Gappa the Triphibian Monsters (1967)
Godzilla Final Wars (2004)
Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956)
Godzilla Vs. Destroyah (1995)
Godzilla Vs. Hedorah (1971)
Gojira (1954)
Goke The Body Snatcher From Hell (1968)
The Great Yokai War (2005)

Hachi-ko (1987)
House (1977)

In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

Kamikaze Girls (2004)
Karate Bearfighter (1975)
King Kong Escapes (1967)

Last Quarter (2004)
Legend Of The Eight Samurai (1983)
Linda Linda Linda (2005)
The Little Girl Who Conquered Time (1983)
Lorelei (2005)

Makai Tensho (1981)
Makai Tensho (2003)
Matango (1963)
Mike Yokohama: A Forest With No Name (2002)
Moonlight Serenade (1997)
The Mysterians (1957)

Nana (2005)
The Neighbor No. Thirteen (2005)
Ninja Wars (1982)

Return Of Daimajin (1966)
Ronin Gai (1990)

Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
Screwed (1998)
Shinobi (2005)
Snake Woman's Curse (1968)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
Space Amoeba (1970)
The Stairway To The Distant Past (1995)
Suicide Club (2002)
Sukebandeka The Movie (1987)
Sukebandeka The Movie 2: Counter-Attack of the Kazama Sisters (1988)
Survive Style 5+ (2004)
Swing Girls (2004)

Terror Beneath The Sea (1966)
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Tokyo Zombie (2005)

Vital (2004)

Wild Life (1997)
Wrath Of Daimajin (1966)

Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare (1968)

Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (1974)

Nana Mo Ichido

Kaiju Shakedown has kindly pointed out that Apple has the trailer up for Nana 2. It's no secret around these parts that I adored the first Nana, but I have my reservations about the sequel, namely the replacing of Aoi Miyazaki and Ryuhei Matsuda, both of whom are pretty easy on the eyes. Hey, at least Mika Nakashima is sticking around.

Yeah, just watched the trailer. I predict: crap. Nana reaching for the falling ichigo (strawberry) glass... ugh.

Linda Linda Linda!

Yay! Kaiju Shakedown reports that Linda Linda Linda, a movie about Japanese high school girls who form a band, has been picked up by Viz and is playing in a few theaters around the US. Well, actually, there's one print making the rounds of a few select cities like New York (currently), Chicago and then Seattle. (What, no San Francisco?) The movie got a great review in the New York Times today.

I'm super excited about Linda Linda Linda. And not only for the obvious reasons. It's meant to be really good. Viz has also picked up Ping Pong and A Taste of Tea. Happy me.

Janus Retrospective In Berkeley

A truncated list of films from the New York Film Festival's tribute to Janus Films is coming to Berkeley's Pacific Film Archives for the months of November and December. Only one Japanese film, Masaki Kobayashi's horror film Kwaidan, will be shown (November 26). On the Pacific Fulm Archives site, Kwaidan is described thusly: "Breathtakingly photographed on handpainted sets, Kwaidan is at once a Japanese woodcut writ large, and an abstract wash of luminescent colors that seem to come from another world." And it's damn scary too. See you there.

47 Reasons To Love Japanese Film

One for each of the loyal 47 retainers, in no particular order.

1. Chiaki Kuriyama stabbing that guy in the nuts. "Every inch of me will resist you!" (Battle Royale)
2. The final battle in the rain. (Seven Samurai)
3. Setsuko Hara's smiling face. (Late Spring)
4. Dragon Eye Morrison Vs. Thunderbolt Buddha. (Electric Dragon 80000V)
5. Chiaki Kuriyama in cute mod dresses. (Last Quarter)
6. Kyoko Fukada as a lolita. (Kamikaze Girls)
7. Mekazawa! (Cromartie High: The Movie)
8. Trying to decide who's cuter, Aoi Miyazaki or Mika Nakashima. (Nana)
9. Tadanobu Asano cracking ribs like he was eating good in the neighborhood. (Vital)
10. Stellar lighting and frame composition. (Pale Flower)
11. The utterly charming acting of Mansai Nomura. (Onmyoji)
12. Eriko Sato. Bra and panties. Splits. (Cutie Honey)
13. Death of a German. Achtung! (Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs)
14. Best ending ever. (Survive Style 5+)
15. You've heard of wife-swapping, well, how about head-swapping? (Ninja Wars)
16. Even though I had to cover my eyes… (Audition)
17. Giant snake hugging. (Legend of the Eight Samurai)
18. Feudal Japan kaiju. (The Magic Serpent)
19. How he got the name Hoichi-The-Earless. (Kwaidan)
20. 54 smiling school girls + oncoming train = best opening scene ever. (Suicide Club)
21. The too-cute Sunekosuri getting the stuffing smacked out of it by Chiaki Kuriyama (looking mighty fine with the bleached-blonde beehive). (Great Yokai War)
22. Taking down a helicopter with a steel yo-yo. (Sukebandeka The Movie)
23. When Riki Takeuchi picks up the bazooka. (Deadly Outlaw: Rekka)
24. Whenever a kid in shorts screams Gamera's name, and Gamera looks at him sideways like, "Shut up, kid." (Any Gamera film)
25. The scent of boiling rice. (Branded To Kill)
26. The first day of school. (24 Eyes)
27. Kabuki meets exploitation. (Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41)
28. Cosmic sword battle! (Gojoe)
29. The Drunk Godzilla Theme. (Godzilla Vs. Hedorah)
30. Descent into hell. (Jigoku)
31. Never-ending opponents. (The Sword Of Doom)
32. Picnic with a ghost. (Ugetsu)
33. No. 13 saying, "Ittai, itaii, ittai, ittai," in that weird-ass voice. (The Neighbor No. 13)
34. The cinematography, which has no right to be that beautiful in a movie like that. (School of the Holy Beast)
35. Three and a half hours of near silence. (Eureka)
36. Yukie Nakama. (Shinobi, but really any film she's in is a reason to celebrate)
37. The epic riot at the end, which seemingly lasts half the film's runtime. (Burst City)
38. Hanzo's interrogation technique. Don't tell N.O.W. (Hanzo the Razor)
39. Skiing ninjas! (Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven In Hell)
40. Steppin Fetchit live. (Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani?)
41. Duel in the snow. (Goyokin)
42. Zhang Ziyi in a kimono, singing! (Princess Raccoon)
43. Words of wisdom from the noodle vendor. (Ronin Gai)
44. That Chewbacca-looking thing with the horns and the battle axe. (War In Space)
45. Hiding in the closet. (Moonlight Whispers)
46. Bathtub electrocution. (2LDK)
47. Walking through the streets of Edo, proudly carrying the head of Kira. (Chushingura)

Erotic DVDs OK!

Twitch has been kicking ass lately. Articles on both Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective and Sion Sono's (sort of) sequel to Suicide Club, Noriko's Dinner Table have appeared recently, and both sound amazing, but I've been too busy with school and work to write about them properly. What has got me excited, however, is an announcement about a little erotic DVD called Sukepan Deka: Baijin Nemu = Moromie Saki ("Sukepan Deka: Virgin Name = Moromie Saki").

If the title sounds familiar, it should. It's a direct play on Kenta Fukasaku's new Sukeban Deka: Kodo Nemu = Asamiya Saki ("Sukeban Deka: Code Name = Asamiya Saki"), or Yo-Yo Girl Cop, itself a remake of (or at least a continuation of) Sukebandeka The Movie. Normally I wouldn't write about something like porn, but when it's a parody of this movie, and it stars Mihiro, well, I just can't help myself.

What better pairing than schoolgirls who fight with steel yo-yos and Mihiro, perhaps the most beautiful girl in Japanese A/V (adult video)? Not that I'm an expert or anything, but pick up any porn mag at any conbini in Japan and you're bound to see Mihiro in there somewhere. Here's the site for the movie (warning: hot nakedness). Want to buy it? Try YesAsia.com.

In other silly erotic DVD news, Japundit has run an article on a language DVD set to teach Japanese men how to pick up blondes in English. As originally posted on the Mainichi Daily News site, English By The DTM Method (that's Direct Translation Method), contains such gems as, "What's your favorite position," "I'm going to take you to heaven," and, "I'm cumming." Because these phrases will obviously only work on blondes.

Beginner- and intermediate-level DVDs sell as a set for 19,800 yen, or about $200.

New Nakashima Tetsuya Film Previewed

Twitch has a preview up for Memories of Matsuko, the latest from Nakashima Tetsuya, director of Kamikaze Girls. The preview calls Memories, which just played at the Hawaii International Film festival, "visually stunning and visually poignant." Stars Miki Nakatani of Densha Otoko fame. Thanks, Twitch.

Tartan Update: Fuck Wal-Mart

I just came home from my local Wal-Mart (Mountain View, CA), empty-handed. I went to check out the deals they had on Tartan DVDs ($9 was what I posted from second-hand information). I probably should have called first. Fair enough if a certain store in a chain doesn't have whatever sale other stores may have, but I had such a terrible experience that I just had to post about it.

Terrible experience: First off, there was no one available to help me find what I was looking for. Anyone I could flag down either didn't work in that department or didn't know what I was talking about and was too busy to find someone that did. Secondly, it was really hot in the electronics department. Stiflingly hot. Thirdly, it smelled overpoweringly of body odor.

As I ran out the door, I thought, this is what's putting America out of business? I thought about my own place of employment, Tower Records, and its customer service. We may not have always had enough employees on the floor to help, but at least we tried our best. Wal-Mart doesn't even care, it seems.

This is my first real experience at a Wal-Mart. They're new to the Bay Area. I will never go to Wal-Mart again, no matter how low the prices on Japanese DVDs. And you can hold me to that. Please, hold me to that.

Tartan On The Cheap

Kaiju Shakedown has posted that from now until Halloween, Wal-Mart is selling Tartan titles for $9. That means flicks like Doppelganger and Marebito (as well as non-Japanese titles like Whispering Corridors and Memento Mori) can now be had on the cheap. Provided you can deal with shooping at Wal-Mart.

New DVD Announcements From Animeigo

Animeigo has announced five new titles for 2007: Dora-heita and 47 Ronin, both made in the '90s by master Ichikawa Kon, Shinsengumi, a 1969 film starring Toshiro Mifune, Hideo Gosha's The Wolves, and Kihachi Okamaoto's Battle of Okinawa, the last two both starring Tasuya Nakadai.

I'm excited about all of these but especially Battle of Okinawa. Too few Japanese films about the Pacific Theater have been made available in the US. And with Clint Eastwood's Ken Watanabe-starring Letters From Iwo Jima coming out next year, it will be interesting to have Okamoto's film to compare it to.