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Stars: Vic Morrow, Sonny Chiba, Etsuko Shihomi, Philip Casnoff, Peggy Lee Brennan, Tetsurô Tanba, Mikio Narita, Makoto Satô, Seizô Fukumoto, Hiroyuki Sanada | Written by Kinji Fukasaku, Shotaro Ishinomori, Hirô Matsuda | Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

Message from Space, directed by Kinji Fukasaku, is a Japanese science fiction film that blends traditional space opera tropes with unique cultural elements, delivering a visually captivating yet narratively uneven experience. Released in the wake of the monumental success of Star Wars, this film ambitiously seeks to carve out its own niche within the genre.

One of the standout features of Message from Space is its visual presentation. The film showcases an impressive array of special effects for its time, with meticulously designed spacecraft and vibrant alien landscapes that reflect a distinctively Japanese aesthetic. The miniature models and practical effects, though not as polished as those in Hollywood blockbusters, possess a charming quality that adds to the film’s retro-futuristic appeal.

The Film

I’m trying to remember the title of a movie. There’s a bomber, who puts a device on public transport. If it registers a speed over… ah I forget what the exact marker was, but anyway, that arms the bomb, then if it goes below that speed…Boom! So the cops have to figure out who this guy is, and how to disarm the bomb. I think it was called “The bus that couldn’t slow down”, but it might have been a bit snappier than that.

That aside, 1975’s The Bullet Train definitely bears some striking similarities to, you know, that bus movie. Ken Takahara plays Okita, he’s 40, has lost his company in a bankruptcy and is recently divorced. Recruiting two friends (Kei Yamamoto and Akira Oda) to help set it up, he develops a plan to hold a bullet train with approximately 1500 passengers to...

On August 19, 2021, legendary Japanese actor Sonny Chiba succumbed to complications from Covid-19. He was 82. If you don’t know Chiba, he was a pioneering martial arts movie stars and a genuine master of the martial arts. Long before Bruce Lee, there was Sonny Chiba.

Chiba was his stage name. He was born as Sadaho Maeda and adopted “Chiba” after Japan’s Chiba prefecture where he grew up. His Japanese stage name was Shinichi Chiba, but he was known internationally as Sonny.

Chiba was a natural athlete and a contender for Japan’s Olympic gymnastics team until he was sidelined by an injury. He pivoted to study Karate under the venerated master Mas Oyama, a hardened full-contact fighter who was famous for killing bulls with his bare hands. Chiba went on to earn black belts in several schools of Karate, as well as Judo, Kendo, and Ninjitsu.

In the 60s, Chiba...

A year after the culmination of the original Sister Street Fighter trilogy that pushed their star Etsuko Shihomi into fame, she would appear in “13 Steps of Maki: The Young Aristocrats”, a production that many, even some hardcore “Sister Street Fighter” fans, would agree is a better Shihomi film.

Based on a comic-book, “13 Steps of Maki” centres around the titular Maki of the 13 Steps and her Stray Cats girl gang, a group of martial artists who come across as delinquents at times but use their skills to help others. When they run into trouble with a woman on the road, they leave her buried in the sand up to her neck on a beach but the woman, as it turns out, is the daughter of a big corporation head, who is in bed with the Yakuza. With the help of her Daddy’s Yakuza friends, she manages to have the...

Subway Cinema’s Old School Kung Fu Fest returns to the mothership with a two-day blast of bare-fisted fury that will leave the Anthology Film Archives a smoking pile of shattered bricks! The Anthology spawned Subway Cinema 19 years ago, and now we’re back to turn it into a Times Square grindhouse theater, circa 1978, showing nothing but old school kung fu flicks.

Kung fu movies belong on the big screen, so we’re psyched to screen a line-up of seven old school flicks – some classic, some totally obscure, some dubbed into crunky English, others subtitled, some cut into surreal storms of flying feet, others screened uncut – and every single one of these movies delivers more electrifying entertainment than anything in a modern-day multiplex.

Friday Night

The insanity begins with a screening of Dragon Princess an ultra-hardcore Sonny Chiba production where Chiba’s daughter (Etsuko Shihomi) grows up to murder men with her bare hands.

Over the next two months, Scream Factory’s releases include five Blu-rays limited to 1,000 units apiece. Each release will highlight an obscure and underseen sci-fi, horror, or fantasy film from the ’70s and ’80s, and the cover artwork and details on each Blu-ray have been revealed.

Deathstalker Double Feature (August 30th): “Deathstalker (1983)

Deathstalker (Richard Hill) is a mighty warrior chosen to battle the evil forces of a medieval kingdom who sets off on a journey to the most challenging tournament in the land. To the winner will go the throne of the evil wizard, the ultimate mystical power and the love of the beautiful Princess Codille (Barbi Benton). But first Deathstalker must prove himself worthy of his legacy . . . and treachery lurks at every turn.

Deathstalker II (1987)

Deathstalker II (John Terlesky) has a mission: to save the kingdom from the wicked grip of the immoral wizard Jerak and his queen Sultana,...

You may have heard that Quentin Tarantino's new interview at Vulture is entertaining, and that's because it is. He discusses "The Hateful Eight," perceptions about his career and influence, and his opinion of other filmmakers. He's especially keen on David O. Russell. Many Twitter users have said that the Q&A is filled with "truth bombs," and that's sort of true, but it's also filled with tired old biases disguised as brave stances, and one particular quote caused me to twinge in agitation and boredom. "I don’t know if we’re going to be talking about The Town or The Kids Are All Right or An Education 20 or 30 years from now. Notes on a Scandal is another one. Philomena. Half of these Cate Blanchett movies — they’re all just like these arty things. I’m not saying they’re bad movies, but I don’t think most of them have a shelf life.