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Exclusive:Cologne-based distributor-producer Rapid Eye Movies (Rem) is expanding its operations with the launching of an in-house world sales arm under the banner of Rapid Eye Movies International Distribution.

The initial line-up includes the maverick Filipino filmmaker Khavn’s latest project Rizal’s Makamisa: Phantasm of Revenge, a hand-coloured 35mm silent film about his country’s fragmented colonial history at the turn of the 20th century, and 93-year-old German director Alexander Kluge’s latest two films made entirely using AI, Cosmic Miniatures and Primitive Diversity, which premiered in Rotterdam in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

In addition, the new venture will be handling a...

Shot at the same time with “Wild Jumbo” (and premiering just one month later), Yasuharu Hasebe saw his protagonists shuttling between the two sets. However, while they seemed to mostly have fun in Fujita’s film, they reserved their more serious work for “Sex Hunter”, which emerges as the best part of the series.

The film revolves around two delinquent gangs; one all-female, named “Alleycats” and led by Mako, and one all-male, named “Eagles” and led by The Baron. The two crews have a peculiar relationship, since there is a definite attraction between the two leaders, but things take a turn for the rather worse, when Alleycat Mari turns down the advances of Eagle Susumu, in favor of a half-Japanese, half-African American named Ichiro. Her attitude enrages the Eagles and especially the Baron, whose sister was raped by a half-breed American Japanese man many years ago, with...

Shot at the wastelands near the city of Gotemba, at the foot of Mount Fuji, “Violent Virgin” was conceived by Wakamatsu while he was producing Masao Adachi’s “High School Girl Guerilla”, and shared casts and crew with it. Atsushi Yamatoya came up with a script in three days, Nagisa Oshima came with the title (“shojo geba geba”), while the miniscule budget (even for Wakamatsu’s standards) is obvious in its bareness in almost all aspects, in a film that is distinctly exploitative.

The rather basic script has a group of yakuza and their “girls” coming together in a wasteland-like area to lynch Hana, the unfaithful mistress of the boss, and her lover Hoshi, a low-level yakuza. Initially, the lovers are tied together and blindfolded, with them even starting to caress each other erotically despite their situation, but soon they are split, with the girl getting tied...

Akihiko Shiota – attended Rikkyo University, where he was in a film club with other students such as Makoto Shinozaki and Shinji Aoyama and began making 8mm films in the tradition of other Rikkyo students like Kiyoshi Kurosawa. His independent films were recognized at Pia Film Festival and he began writing film criticism and working as an assistant for Kurosawa and other filmmakers. He also studied scriptwriting under Atsushi Yamatoya and worked as the cinematographer for films by Takayoshi Yamaguchi. His films ‘Moonlight Whispers’ and ‘Don’t Look Back’, both released in 1999 earned Shiota the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award. ‘Don’t Look Back’ won also the Jury Prize at the Three Continents Festival. ‘Harmful Insect‘ (2002) was screened at the Venice Film Festival and earned two more awards at the Three Continents Festival. His first major commercial film ‘Yomigaeri’ was the fourth biggest grossing Japanese film in 2003. ‘Canary’ (2005) inspired by the...

Koji Wakamatsu

The 17th Busan International Film Festival (Biff) selected Japanese filmmaker Koji Wakamatsu as the 2012 ‘Asian Filmmaker of the Year.’

For the past 50 years, Wakamatsu has been the most controversial filmmaker in Japan. He has directed various genres from pink films to extremely political films. His filmography continues as a director as well as a producer who has produced controversial films like In the Realm of the Senses (1976) by Oshima Nagisa, Dutch Wife in the Desert (1965) by Atsushi Yamatoya, and The Red Army/Pflp: Declaration of World War (1971) by Adachi Masao.

This year, despite his age of 76, Wakamatsu completed three masterworks in a row – 11.25 The Day He Chose His Own Fate, Kaien Hotel in Blue,and The Millennial Rapture. The 17th Busan International Film Festival decided to give him the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award to honor his spirit of independent film as a rebellious auteur and his never-ending passion for cinema.