May
11
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Swordplay
Director: Hiroshi Inagaki
Year: 1967
Rating:
NOT WORTH YOUR TIME
Sasaki Kojiro tells the story of the title character’s quest to become acknowledged as the best swordsman in Japan.
The movie has beautiful vistas, fluid camerawork, and decent martial arts choreography, but that pretty much exhausts my praise.
The huge problem at the center is […]
Feb
9
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Martial Arts/ Swordplay
Director: Satsuo Yamamoto
Year: 1963
Rating:
NOT WORTH YOUR TIME
At the end of Shinobi No Mono, the dastardly premier of Japan, Oda Nobunaga (the great Tomisaburô Wakayama) had wiped out the Iga Ninja clan almost completely. Not content with that, his minions have been picking off the stragglers and executing them […]
Feb
5
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Swordplay
Director: Kenji Misumi
Year: 1965
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Sword of Fire has a great opening scene. Nemuri Kyoshiro (Raizô Ichikawa) is walking along the road, minding his own business, when a man and woman stumble across his path. The man is doing his best to cut the woman in two with a […]
Jan
22
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Swordplay
Director: Kazuo Ikehiro
Year: 1964
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
With Sword of Seduction, the Sleepy Eyes Of Death series continues to be a delight.
The inner circle of the court is run by Princess Kiku (Michiko Ai), the former shogun’s daughter. No men are allowed in the inner circle, which leads to boredom and […]
Dec
5
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 […]
Sep
17
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 […]
Sep
7
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Swordplay/ Drama
Director: Yamashita Kousaku
Year: 1970
Rating:
WORTH A LOOK
One of the truly impressive things about popular Japanese cinema from the late 60s and early 70s is the absurdly high quality control producers had over their series. The champ in terms of consistent quality is of course Zatoichi, but Red Peony Gambler is no […]
Aug
30
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Swordplay/ Drama
Director: Nobuo Nakagawa
Year: 1969
Rating:
NOT WORTH YOUR TIME
I suppose it had to happen eventually–a lousy Okatsu movie.
The problem isn’t the acting, or the cinematography, or the swordplay, the characters, the dialog or even the setup. The problem is the terrible plotting from screenwriters Kôji Takada and Hideaki Yamamoto.
Okatsu’s origin story […]
Aug
4
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Swordplay
Director: Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Year: 1964
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Here in the United States, we are fast developing an underclass of throwaway people. They do not consume in adequate quantities and they have no marketable skills, so they are deemed worthless, discarded, and left to fend for themselves.
Remarkably, that is the situation in […]
Jul
17
Country: Japan
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Swordplay
Director: Kiyoshi Saeki
Year: 1966
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
If the second installment of Brutal Tales Of Chivalry has a flaw, it’s that most of the way through, it moves very slowly.
As the movie begins, Sokichi is preparing to elope with his fiancee, Okuni because she is being claimed by Shuhei, the […]
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