Stop me if you've heard this one before; It's the 90's. A guy walks into a video store and goes to the anime section. After looking through and not seeing a certain title, he goes up to the register and the following exchange takes place: …Read more »
In my R5 Central column this past issue, I mentioned a hell of a film by the name of Geisha VS Ninjas . To recap, it's the story of one Geisha girl's journey to defeat the samurai who killed her father, along with his band …Read more »
Yoji Yamada's career is a long and prestigious one that's been riddled with awards, and this only increased in 2004, when his Oscar-nominated Twilight Samurai served to spread his notoriety even further. Known for incredibly long-running film series such as the 48 Tora-san films (most …Read more »
I recently hit up my last convention of the year (unless that Doctor Who event in Chicago announces Paul McGann as a guest). Sure it wasn't the great note to end the year on but there was one thing that kept popping up over the …Read more »
The Wachowski brothers' take on Speed Racer opens with a rotating kaleidoscope of colors, seizing the WB logo as if Willy Wonka were backstage tugging the ropes of the curtain himself. This jolt of candy isn't just pre-feature window dressing, though, it's a warning; a …Read more »
Actually, that's just one of two things that makes the Ghost in the Shell director's latest animated film a unique feature at this year's Sitges Film Fest. The other is the fact that, unlike its animated brothers Genius Party , Freedom and Evangelion: 1.0 You …Read more »
Sinking of Japan (2006) is a massive disaster and disappointment directed by Shinji Higuchi, who was once the greatest special effects director in Japan , creating the stunning FX for Shusuke Kaneko's Gamera films. Sinking of Japan is a remake of 1973's Submersion of Japan, …Read more »
In the Age of the Internet, the word "epic" is thrown around at least once per lolcat, slowly sucking the meaning from it with the swiftness of a vampire's bite. Yet, regardless of how stripped the word has become, I can assure you that Shinichiro …Read more »
Remember how I said two issues back that the reason I'm into tokusatsu nowadays is because of Ultraman ? My dad and my aunt watched the United Artists dub of Ultraman along with a majority of the other shows that were being dubbed and shown …Read more »
This should interest anyone that fancies action and anthologies in equal parts. Mamoru Oshii, famed director of classics like Ghost in the Shell , is overseeing a live-action project known as Kiru ~ Kill along with three other directors, another of which is Kenta Fukasaku …Read more »
Hana is the 2006 effort from director Hirokazu Kore-Eda, who garnered critical success with previous efforts like Maborosi , After Life , Distance , and Nobody Knows (among others, he scored the Best Director award at both the Venice Film Festival and the Blue Ribbon …Read more »
As far as I can tell, everybody that has reviewed the 1995 Keita Amemiya-directed film Mechanical Violator Hakaider has given it a collective thumbs-down. You could attribute this to the fact that most of the reviewers out there aren't tokusatsu fans and didn't find it …Read more »
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade , is a tale of two warring ninja clans, Iga and Kouga, forced to choose five of their best ninja each to square off against one another. The result of this grand ninja clash will decide who will serve as heir …Read more »
There's only one meat treat that the dreaded candiru likes to eat, and only Japan would have the temerity to strap a vagina dentata to the end of a naughty tentacle. All this and more can be discovered through the highly educational sexploitation horror/comedy Sexual …Read more »
(If you're slick you'll have figured out by now that the title for this bit is a reference to the famed song from m-flo by the same name. Either case, it shows that I'm such a sucker for nostalgia.) It was sometime after I finished …Read more »
Mike Dent
Joseph Luster
J.L. Carrozza
Paul Thomas Chapman