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A samurai travels through time and winds up on the set of a samurai TV show in A Samurai in Time.

The Japanese sci-fi comedy will be released August 5 on Fandor and VOD.

At the end of the Edo period in Kyoto, a samurai prepares to fight against an opposing clan member when a flash of lighting hits. He wakes up to find himself transported through time to the present day, and the location where he was about to duel is now a samurai TV show set.

He is mistaken for an extra and immediately thrust into the world of period drama productions. Due to his very ‘authentic’ look and speech, he starts working on many productions and finds himself playing the role of a “kirareyaku,” a swordsman whose job is to die spectacularly on film.

Junichi Yasuda writes and directs. Makiya Yamaguchi, Norimasa Fuke, Yuno Sakura, Rantaro Mine, Ken Shonozaki,...

Spain’s Basque Country, an ever-evolving film hub, continues to see a consolidation of talent driven by an animation boom alongside an increase in the production of ambitious genre cinema, marked by the colossal success of recent projects on streaming platforms and pick-ups by labs and festivals.

As San Sebastian unspools, the sequel to “The Platform,” the second most watched non-English Netflix movie in the streamer’s history, is in production in the Basque Country, produced by Carlos Juárez at Basque Films. Director Paul Urkijo, who opened the Fantastic Pavilion, heads to the fest to screen“Irati,” which has broken box office records for a Basque film and continues its prize trawl at festivals.

Spanish helmer Carlota Pereda’s follow-up to “Piggy,” “The Chapel” was produced in the region by Filmax and the Basque Country’s Bixagu, co-founded by producer Iñaki Gómez and amusing and intimate short effort “Priorities,” (“Prioridades”) from writer-director Tamara Lucarini Cortés,...

As diverse in style and content as they are, Álex de la Iglesia’s films do share a few notable characteristics: an adrenaline-rush narrative propulsion, a penchant for startling left-hand swerves in their storylines, and an almost gleeful willingness to offend more delicate sensibilities when it comes to depictions of sex, violence, and religion. This holds true from the start of his career. De la Iglesia’s feature debut, the scrappy sci-fi satire Acción Mutante, revels in the chaos of his anarchic sensibilities, even if its critique of religion is mostly limited to a hysterical takedown of the sanctity of marriage.

In a future society dominated by the cult of health and beauty, the disenfranchised have been forced underground, turning to acts of terrorism against the ableist establishment. The most notorious of these bands of brothers is the so-called Mutant Action group, whom we meet in the middle of the...

The first official American release of the classic Spanish dystopian scifi movie Acción Mutante is now restored in 4k with new special features. Continue reading for all the details!

Before The Day Of The Beast, Perdita Durango and the HBO series 30 Coins, writer/director Álex de la Iglesia made his smash debut with this "delightfully tasteless" (A Wasted Life) and "ridiculously aggressive" (Reel Rundown) "crazy genius sci-fi classic you've probably never seen" (A Taste of Cinema).

Synopsis:

In a dystopian future ruled by the wealthy and attractive, a deformed and disabled terrorist organization known as 'Mutant Action' will kidnap an heiress, flee to a desolate...

Álex de la Iglesia has been one of my favorite genre filmmakers ever since he released his 1995 horror comedy The Day of the Beast. While he’s never quite made a better film, he has been consistent in delivering a winningly insane blend of hard violence, sex, black humor, and social satire. Among his many hits is The Last Circus and the wicked, pitch-black, El Crimen Perfecto. His first feature Acción Mutante, an outrageous sci-fi comedy about a group of disabled terrorists, had its debut at Midnight Madness way back in 1993. Here, he returns once again with s, described as a zany spectacle that will leave audiences gobsmacked! Comparisons have already been thrown around to From Dusk Till Dawn, only replace the vampires with a coven of angry witches. Watch the trailer below.

****

The post Trailer for Midnight Madness Entry, ‘Witching & Bitching’ appeared first on Sound On Sight.

Year: 2010

Directors: Álex de la Iglesia

Writers: Álex de la Iglesia

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by: projectcyclops

Rating: 4 out of 10

The Last Circus is the latest film from Álex de la Iglesia (Acción Mutante, The Day of the Beast, etc) and it.s full of stuff happening all over the place. Tons of stuff: people fighting, exploding, mutilating each other, shooting guns, blasting themselves into the air, falling in love and never once pausing for breath. For the first twenty minutes or so this is all agreeably daft and fun, but after an hour the actions of the grotesque circus folk on screen had me worn down to the point of actual boredom. This film was a battle I was happy to fight until I realised that I was losing.

Javier (Carlos Areces) has a major case of arrested development after witnessing his father.s demise at the hands...

Not many have had the chance to see the latest flick from Álex de la Iglesia (ACCIÓN Mutante, The Day Of The Beast) about a circus clown in a very tumultuous time of Spain's history. Up until now The Last Circus has only been hitting the festival circuit, in the U.S. anyway, and this country is in for a twisted treat they never knew they were missing. I have been lucky enough to see this film twice so far at different festivals (read my review here) and cannot wait to see it again when it begins it's limited American release starting on August 12!

Read more on Red band trailer for Álex de la Iglesia’s insane and awesome The Last Circus...

Rating: 4.5/5

Writer/Director: Álex de la Iglesia

Cast: Carlos Areces, Antonio de la Torre, Carolina Bang, Manuel Tallafé

When most people think of midnight programming at film festivals, their mind immediately drifts to horror. This is not without reason. Most of the time the gory and/or scary dominate late-night time slots, but you cannot underestimate the power of a genre-shattering comedy/drama/horror/fantasy film. These midnight films are meant to examine a different side of filmmaking, one that does not always play by the rules and exemplifies way-out-of-the-box thinking. Not that a slasher or ghost film can’t do that, but when you have something like Álex de la Iglesia’s (ACCIÓN Mutante, The Day Of The Beast) ambitious psycho clown tale The Last Circus (Balada Triste De Trompeta), you are in for something truly special – and just a little insane.

Read more on Diff 2011 Review: The Last Circus.