≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Japan, Martial Arts, Recommended, Swordplay | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Swordplay/ Martial Arts/ Comedy
Director: Kazuo Mori
Year: 1965
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
When Zatoichi (Shintarô Katsu) spends the night in jail for illegal gambling, his neighbor in the next cell, Shimazo Kitase (Koichi Mizuhara) regales Zatoichi with a tale of woe. He has been sentenced to death for a series of crimes he […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Japan, Martial Arts, Recommended, Swordplay | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Swordplay/ Martial Arts/ Comedy
Director: Akira Inoue
Year: 1965
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Zatoichi’s Revenge begins with the title character voicing gratitude to the sun for the warmth on his face and the rice ball that he’s eating. The humble gratitude for such small things is touching and emphasizes how little Zatoichi has in […]
≡ Category: Comedy, Essential, Japan | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Comedy
Director: Jûzô Itami
Year: 1987
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE
Imagine a tax investigator as hero. Now, to me, that is an inherently comic premise.
Ryôko Itakura (Nobuko Miyamoto) is a gung ho tax investigator. She goes after small business people who are already struggling. These folks aren’t particularly savvy about avoiding taxes. In fact, they are […]
≡ Category: Art, Comedy, Drama, Highly Recommended, Japan | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Art
Director: Jûzô Itami
Year: 1993
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MOVIE
How on earth do you make a comedy about the last year in the life of a cancer patient?
Well, if anyone on earth could do it, it would have to be writer/director Jûzô Itami, who specializes in comedies about the darker aspects of society, such […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Japan, Martial Arts, Recommended, Swordplay | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Swordplay/ Martial Arts/ Comedy
Director: Kenji Misumi
Year: 1964
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Someone’s always trying to kill Zatoichi (Shintarô Katsu). When he gives up his ride on a palanquin to a woman with a baby, assassins end up killing her by mistake. Zatoichi resolves to return the baby to the child’s father in […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Japan, Martial Arts, Recommended, Swordplay | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Swordplay/ Martial Arts/ Comedy
Director: Kazuo Ikehiro
Year: 1964
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Zatoichi’s Flashing Sword has the best opening sequence yet in the series. Zatoichi (Shintarô Katsu) is trying to get some shuteye while numerous flies are buzzing around. In the meantime, a bunch of punks across the room are trying to get […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Japan, Martial Arts, Swordplay, Worth A Look | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Comedy/ Drama/ Action/ Martial Arts/ Swordplay
Director: Takashi Harada
Year: 1970
Rating:
WORTH A LOOK
I hate to say it, but Wicked Priest 4: The Killer Priest Returns just isn’t a very good movie.
It has all the ingredients: great characters, intriguing story elements, and wonderful actors. But where it fails is execution on the part of […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Essential, Japan, Martial Arts, Swordplay | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Swordplay/ Drama/ Comedy
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa
Year: 1969
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE
One of the ways you can tell that Japanese cinema of the late 60s and early 70s was so fantastic is that these stories are still relevant and engaging 40 years later.
In Red Peony Gambler 4, the filmmakers ask the question “When progress […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Japan, Martial Arts, Not Worth Your Time | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Martial Arts/ Comedy
Director: Yukio Noda
Year: 1970
Rating:
NOT WORTH YOUR TIME
Okay, you’ve got machine gun slaughters, drug wars, boat chases, death by spear gun, explosions galore, car chases, and much more. And yet, Yakuza Deka: The Assassin is pretty darned boring.
How can that be?
Let’s start with the action elements. None of them is […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Martial Arts, Recommended, Swordplay | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Japan
Genre: Comedy/ Drama/ Action/ Martial Arts/ Swordplay
Director: Takashi Harada
Year: 1969
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
By the third installment of the Wicked Priest series, Shikai (Tomisaburo Wakayama) has apparently overcome his aversion to violence. Before the credits even begin, Shikai has slaughtered a room full of people (probably a flashback to Wicked Priest 2, but I […]
