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Director Kazuo Ikehiro, now on his third and final Zatoichi film, and lead star Shintaro Katsu attempted something different with this, the fourteen entry in the Zatoichi series. They roped in superstar director/screenwriter Kaneto Shindo, who had by then already made the hit productions “The Naked Island” and “Onibaba” and would go on to make “Kuroneko” two years later, to write the script for Ichi’s new adventure, in an attempt to bring some freshness to the series.

The reluctance to kill that Zatoichi showed in the previous films, and particularly in “Zatoichi’s Vengeance”, the one that immediately preceded this, has turned into full-blown repentance as he decides to take a pilgrimage to the 88 Temples in Shokiku. Before he embarks on the pilgrimage, he asks but one thing of God: to not make him have to kill again, necessarily or unnecessarily. God, as it turns out,...

Sci-fi alert! Classic science fiction discoveries are getting rare these days, which makes Arrow’s rejuvenation of Japan’s first science fiction tale in color such a special item. Fans may need both hands to count the ‘copycat’ elements but Kôji Shima’s epic improves on many of its American predecessors. Despite the star-shaped arts ‘n’ crafts aliens, this well-directed First Contact tale has impressive special effects at the service of a surprisingly mature and thoughtful storyline.

Warning from Space

Blu-ray

Arrow Films US

1956 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 87 min. (Japan), 88 min. (U.S. TV) / Street Date October 13, 2020 / Uchûjin Tôkyô ni arawaru (Spacemen Appear in Tokyo) / Available from Arrow Films / 39.95

Starring: Keizô Kawasaki, Toyomi Karita, Mieko Nagai, Shôzô Nanbu, Bontarô Miake, Kanji Kawahara, Kiyoko Hirai, Isao Yamagata, Sachiko Meguro, Fumiko Okamura, Shikô Saitô, Tetsuya Watanabe, Bin Yagisawa.

Cinematography: Kimio Watanabe

Film Editor: Toyo Suzuki

‘Color Designer’: Taro Okamoto

Original Music: Seitarô Ômori...

In the 1950s, while the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States heightened the threat of nuclear war, storytellers and filmmakers attempted to capture the mood of the times within their works. With the images of the atom bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima on everyone’s mind especially the science-fiction genre emphasized the catastrophic outcome of nuclear technology which can be seen in works like Ishiro Honda’s “Godzilla” and Robert Wise’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Especially the former sparked a plethora of similar stories and resulted in a boom for the genre, with many Japanese studios wanting their share of the success of Honda’s feature. In 1956, Daei released “Warning from Space, directed by Koji Shima, a feature that was met with negative reviews upon release, but has been a source of inspiration for other filmmakers, such as Stanley Kubrick.

Chicago – Beneath every honorable warrior is a cold-hearted opportunist hell-bent on dominating his victimized prey at all costs. That’s a theory indelibly illustrated by Teinosuke Kinugasa’s revered 1953 classic, “Gate of Hell,” a melodrama populated by such frustrating characters that it nearly loses the viewer’s interest before its admittedly splendid finale, when the tale takes on grand dimensions of Greek tragedy.

The real—and, regrettably, only—reason to seek out Criterion’s new release of this long-forgotten landmark is to marvel at the new digital master of a 2011 2K restoration that brought Kôhei Sugiyama’s vibrant color photography back to life. This was not only one of the first color pictures in Japanese cinema, but one of the first films to utilize color with the arresting vibrance of a truly painterly eye. The golds, reds and blues pop with such potency that they would’ve felt right at...

Teinosuke Kinugasa’s glorious and vibrant masterpiece, Gate of Hell, excitingly receives a Criterion digital remastering this month, a certifiable occasion because this not only recreates the film’s initial visual beauties, but the first time it will be widely available stateside (cinephiles were only previously privy to Eureka Entertainment’s UK Blu-ray release). Winner of the top prize at Cannes, as well as the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Costume Design, Martin Scorsese names the film among one of the most beautiful color films of all time.

Based on the play Kesa’s Husband by Ken Kikuchi, the setting is 1159 Ad, known as the Heiji Era, and a rebellion has been staged against the royal family. Under siege, it is decided that a decoy must be used to distract the rebel army, and Lady Kesa (Machiko Kyo) assumes the responsibility, carted away by a group of samurais.