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After the positive reception of the first “Samurai Wolf”, fans of the “Furious Wolf” did not have to wait long for the sequel, which was released just one year after the first feature, again starring Isao Natsuyagi as the titular hero and with Hideo Gosha as director. While the two movies about the wandering ronin may not be the director’s most commercially successful works at the time, perhaps due to the over-saturation of the market at that point in the 1960s, but there are most certainly in the same league as the “Zatoichi”-series or the tales of “Lone Wolf and Cub”. However, as with many sequels within the chanbara genre, Gosha not only built this new feature on the qualities of its predecessor, but also aimed to tell a new story including such themes as corruption, greed and betrayal, which is much more complex and contains some quite interesting characters.

As Japan attempted to recuperate from its surrender in 1946, the nation tried to return to some kind of normality. However, especially during the 1960s, normal was nowhere to be seen, with a daily stream of riots, demonstrations and frequent acts of violence shaking the country. Aided by the yakuza, Japan’s political right slowly but surely decimated the nation’s left wing, exposing not only the true nature of Japan’s political caste but also leaving no doubt about the immorality of the yakuza. As author Grady Hendrix writes in her essay “Radioactive Yakuza Mutants Eat Japan” included in the Arrow Video-release of “Battles Without Honor and Humanity”, those were the times a young and aspiring director named Kinji Fukasaku experienced the daily events in his country, live and on the newsreel when he went to the cinema. Naturally, as he was planning to shoot his first films, he adopted...

It was a good day for both Hirokazu Koreeda’s Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters” as well as Kazuya Shiraishi’s crime thriller “The Blood of Wolves” who both managed to clean up at the 42nd Japan Academy Awards.

For a second year running, a Koreeda film managed to win most awards on the night, with “Shoplifters” picking up a total of eight awards.

The other big winner of the night was “The Blood of Wolves”, which, despite fierce competition in most of the categories in won in from Shoplifters” and others, managed to pick up an impressive four awards, including two for its male leading duo. The other two films to get a look-in were Mamoru Hosoda’s “Mirai” and Shinichiru Ueda’s “One Cut of the Dead“.

Check out all the winners below:s

Best Film: Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda)

Best Animated Film: Mirai (Mamoru Hosoda)

Best Director: Hirokazu Koreeda...

Despite the fact that his filmography is quite diverse, Teruo Ishii is commonly known as the “King of Cult,” since he directed a number of movies in his quite prolific career, that definitely justify the title. “Horrors of Malformed Men” and “Shogun’s Joys of Torture” are among the most famous in this category of his works, but the omnibus “Orgies of Edo” also demands a place among his highlights.

Set in the Gentoku era (as all of the stories), the first story follows Oito, an innocent young woman who falls victim to the mechanics of a cunning and handsome Yakuza, who eventually leads her into prostitution. Despite the extreme hardships she experiences, though, she keeps being in love with him, even when disaster hits them both quite hard.

In the second story, the focus is on Ochise, the daughter of rich merchant whose need for perversion...

Bloody havoc reigns! Kinji Fukasaku's no-holds-barred vision of ugly violence and uglier politics on the streets of Hiroshima is a five-film Yakuza epic that spans generations. The film amounts to an alternate history of postwar Japan, that puts an end to the glorification of the Yakuza code. The enormous cast includes Bunta Sugawara, Tetsuro Tanba, Sonny Chiba and Jo Shishido. Battles without Honor and Humanity Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video 1973-74 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 760 min. / Limited Edition Boxed Set Street Date December 8, 2015 / 149.95 Starring Bunta Sugawara, Hiroki Matsukata, Tetsuro Tanba, Kunie Tanaka, Eiko Nakamura, Sonny Chiba, Meiko Kaji, Akira Kobayashi, Tsunehiko Watase, Reiko Ike, Jo Shishido Cinematography Sadaji Yoshida Production Designer Takatoshi Suzuki Original Music Toshiaki Tsushima Written by Koichi Iiboshi, Kazuo Kasahara Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In the 1990s the American Cinematheque was headquartered in various places, but settled for a few years in a large...