Long-standing enmities between rival martial arts clans over an ultra-lethal kung-fu move known as Buddha’s Palm, a secret known only to a blind hermit who has sealed himself inside a cave for 20 years with a friendly dragon for company, come to a head when the hermit adopts a young man as his foster son and trains him in the … Read the rest
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Savage Wolf Pack (Yasuharu Hasebe, Japan, 1969)
Alaskan hunter Tetsuya (Tetsuya Watari) returns to Japan to discover that his sister has killed herself after being raped by a gang of hoodlums. After rescuing politician’s daughter Kyoko (Meiko Fujimoto) from a vicious motorcycle gang terrorising the locals around a US airbase he realizes these are the same scum responsible for his sister’s death. When Kyoko is kidnapped and … Read the rest
The Rendezvous (Koichi Saito, Japan, 1972)
To the accompaniment of an instantly memorable score an attractive middle-aged woman (Keiko Kishi) sits alone on a park bench watching the world go by – children at play, couples arm in arm strolling past. At the end of the film we’ll come back to this scene and understand its significance but after this intriguing opening we’re on a train … Read the rest
Assault! Jack the Ripper (Yasuharu Hasebe, Japan, 1976)
One rainy night a wimpy pastry chef named Ken (Yutaka Hayashi) reluctantly gives fellow restaurant worker – the dominant Yuri (Tamaki Katsura) – a lift home. But when the pair witness the gruesome death of a woman they’d stopped to help they find themselves sexually aroused by the accident. But what begins as a perverse sexual kink (killing as aphrodisiac) … Read the rest
I Hate But Love (Koreyoshi Kurahara, Japan, 1962)
Popular TV star Daisaku (Yujiro Ishihara), frustrated with his shallow lifestyle, agrees to drive a knackered old jeep 800 miles across country to a remote village to deliver it to the boyfriend of a woman whose love affair with her partner has been conducted entirely by letter. Pursued by his girlfriend/secretary Noriko (Ruriko Asoaka), who thinks the star has taken … Read the rest
Vital (Shinya Tsukamoto, Japan, 2004)
A young man named Hiroshi (Tadanobu Asano) loses his memory in a car crash that kills his girlfriend Ryoko (Nami Tsukamoto). After recovery he enrols at medical school only to discover that the female body he’s dissecting in the mortuary is… well, you can probably guess. As Hiroshi digs into Ryoko’s corpse his memories begin to return and he finds … Read the rest
Dragon Princess (Yutaka Kohira, Japan, 1976)
A most satisfying martial arts adventure as likeable Etsuko Shihomi is raised to become the instrument of her father’s vengeance after evil karate expert Nikaido (Bin Amatsu) and his three colourful thugs leave Dad (Sonny Chiba) badly crippled following a power struggle in New York. When Nikaido returns to Japan and announces a karate tournament Shihomi turns up to challenge … Read the rest
Midwinter Camellia (Yasuo Furuhata, Japan, 1992)
Japan, 1932; Brothel bodyguard Tomita (Toshiyuki Nishida) takes the innocent Botan (Yoko Minamino) under his wing when the girl is sold into the business. She quickly becomes the star attraction but falls deeply in love with Tomita while he only has eyes for his estranged wife Kiwa. But when a good-hearted Yakuza goon named Nioyama (Masahiro Takashima) falls for Botan, … Read the rest
A Stranger of Mine (Kenji Uchida, Japan, 2005)
Meeting by chance, office worker Miyata (Yasuhi Nakamura) and homeless Maki (Reika Kirishima) may have found in each other the perfect partner. But whether they can make a go of it depends on Miyata’s manipulative former girlfriend Ayumi (Yuka Itaya), a private detective and former schoolmate of Miyata’s named Kando (So Yamanaka), who’s been doing some checking into Ayumi’s past, … Read the rest
The Bow (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2005)
The elderly captain (Jeon Seong-hwang) of a fishing vessel plots his marriage to the beautiful teenage virgin (Seo Min-Jeong) he’s raised on the boat since she was a child. Renting his vessel out to fishing parties the captain proves a nifty shot with a bow and arrow when it comes to dissuading any contact between randy male visitors and his … Read the rest
