Based on the celebrated horror manga, I Am a Hero, comes a live-action film adaptation that’s bound to get your blood flowing! Thirty-five-year-old assistant manga artist Hideo Suzuki leads an unsatisfying, tedious life. But when a virus outbreak hits Japan turning the infected into mindless cannibals, it’s his chance to become the hero he’s always daydreamed he could be, even if it kills him.
I Am a Hero stars Yo Oizumi (Tokyo Ghoul), Kasumi Arimura (Narratage), Masami Nagasawa (Gintama), Hisashi Yoshizawa (The Blue Hearts), and Yoshinori Okada (Oba: The Last Samurai).
The yakuza movie is my favorite of all the Japanese genres, and while its heyday of the 1970’s has long since passed, they are still being made, albeit in more of a trickle than the constant stream of a bygone era. With this in mind, Osaka Badass: Snake of Violence is a unique entry in the genre, as it combines the yakuza genre with one of the last Japanese tough guys – Tak Sakaguchi. Wedged in the middle of the Sushi Typhoon silliness that saw him starring in Yakuza Weapon and Deadball during 2011, and what he declared to be his final action movie Re:Born in 2016, OB:SOV (as I’ll refer to it from now on) is perhaps Sakaguchi’s most poker faced role.
OB:SOV is the third production from writer and director Takahiro Ishihara. Following on from his 2011 debut Violence PM and 2012 sophomore feature Osaka Violence (you may notice a theme developing), OB:SOV can easily be considered his most ambitious tale, compared to the small-scale settings of his first 2 features. With a name like Sakaguchi on-board to utilize as a selling point, surprisingly the first 20 minutes of OB:SOV don’t contain a single glimpse of him. This isn’t a bad thing though, and instead we spend this time with the 3 main characters when they were still kids.
As ill-advised as it may sound to spend the first 20 minutes of a yakuza movie with a trio of elementary school age kids, surprisingly it works. The child version of Sakaguchi is a heavily scarred mute, who after losing his family in a fire is taken in by a sadistic child trafficker, one who delivers frequent beatings. He finds solace though through 2 friends, a scruffy boy and girl, who would rather spend their days hurling abuse at an elderly baker (while also asking for leftover crusts) and pretending to drink in a bar, than go to school. Despite being mute, the boy and girl treat their introverted friend as an equal, as they play together in overgrown fields and muse on what the future will bring. Their time together comes to an end though, when mini-Sakaguchi is sold to a yakuza gang.
One title card later, and we skip forward 25 years to the now grown up Sakaguchi, who has become a branch of the Osaka yakuza’s trusted enforcer. He’s never seen his 2 friends since, but we also follow their lives as well. The boy, now played by Takashi Nishina (Dead Sushi) has grown up to become an incompetent low level yakuza, responsible for such menial tasks as cleaning the toilets, while his illiteracy also makes him the joke of the gang. Despite his failings, we learn he married his childhood friend, now played by Tomoko Tabata (Blood and Bones), and they have 3 daughters together. When Sakaguchi unknowingly assassinates the son of a Tokyo yakuza head, the stage is set for a confrontation between the regional gangs, which will bring the departed friends together again after so many years.
While the plot description may sound like a thrilling tale of yakuza honour and emotional reunions, onscreen it plays out much more low-key. There’s an almost ‘slice of life’ feel to the way OB:SOV plays out, with the plot feeling as if it progresses in spite of our observations into the trio’s daily lives, rather than because of them. Despite director Ishihara’s seeming preoccupation with violence, he frequently subverts expectations. Being the type of gritty low budget production that it is, I felt sure watching Tabata’s frequent slaps over the head to her lowly yakuza husband was going to result in a violent retaliation, but instead he accepts them as a form of affection. Indeed, the more we see them together, the more we learn that despite the hardships and moral ambiguities of the world they’ve grown into, their relationship is still very much as it was when they were kids.
Ishihara’s treatment of Sakaguchi’s enforcer often recalls Miike Takashi’s early DTV days, back when the likes of Bodyguard Kiba and Fudoh: The New Generation threw left of field elements at the audience. and expected them to be accepted as the norm. Mute (he doesn’t have a single line) and frequently behind sunglasses, Sakaguchi is presumably the Osaka Badass the slightly ridiculous English re-title refers to, and spends the duration strutting around in a sharp black suit. His partner in crime, played by frequent collaborator Arata Yamanaka, shares what appears to be a psychic connection with the mute enforcer, able to explain to waitresses exactly what he wants off the menu and engage in humorous banter, despite it seeming one-way. Sakaguchi and Yamanaka are usually onscreen together, and make for a likeable pair of rogues in the Osaka underworld.
Of course the violence in question is for the most part given to Sakaguchi to dish out. From bathroom strangulations, to putting the beatdown on a group of cowardly white collar yakuza with a selection of wooden planks and a baseball bat. For those hoping to see the type of action found in the likes of Versus and Death Trance though, this is definitely not the right place to be. The action is intended to be realistic and brutal, however it’s also were the budgetary constraints show through. When Sakaguchi is breaking yakuza’s heads by assaulting them with the planks of wood, it’s fairly clear that the wood is so flimsy that even a slight impact would break it in two. That being said, the actors sell the hits well, and OB:SOV is the type of movie where it’s the emotion which is more important, rather than the physical delivery of the action itself.
Proceedings get interesting when the Tokyo yakuza branch send an equally silent psychotic killer to Osaka, with the sole purpose of wiping out as many local yakuza as possible. Played by Lee Sung-lee, again the Miike Takashi influence is prominent, with a character that likes to roam around naked and clothes himself with the threads of those he kills (even if that happens to be a pink apron). It’s quickly established that Sung-lee is near indestructible, kind of like a yakuza terminator (I should really copyright that), and it’s Nishina’s lowly toilet cleaning yakuza that finally gets a chance to leave the office, when he’s tasked with killing him. His sudden responsibility for offing the psychotic yakuza are what sets him up for a chance meeting with his old childhood friend, and like everything else in OB:SOV, the eventual meeting is a low-key affair, but one which still manages to resonate.
The introduction of Sung-lee does allow for Sakaguchi to let loose in a one-on-one fight, which is always a pleasure to watch. A mute yakuza enforcer against an indestructible yakuza killer is a match up any movie could be sold on, and both lay down some pretty heavy punishment on each other in a brief but satisfyingly brutal bout, that ultimately ends up incorporating a forklift truck. Despite the welcome inclusion of some Sakaguchi infused violence, the lasting impression that OB:SOV leaves is that of the friendship between the trio of main characters. The decision to spend the initial 20 minutes of the movie with them as kids was a wise one, as opposed to using flashbacks throughout, as it firmly establishes their relationship, and allows us as the audience to relate to them in later life. The fact that the 3 child actors really nail their performances is a bonus.
As Sakaguchi’s most straight laced (and silent) role, his performance here is enough to make you wish he’d played more serious roles during his active years, however the success of OB:SOV doesn’t rest only on his shoulders. As a relatively new director on the block, Ishihara marks himself as an auteur with a gritty eye for realism, and has already made another feature with 2015’s Control of Violence. While the yakuza genre may not be what it once was, gritty low-key productions such as this are enough to give me hope for what it could be.
On August 28, 2018, Gravitas Ventures is releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for Ivan Sen’s contemporary western thriller Goldstone.
Indigenous Detective Jay Swan arrives in the frontier town of Goldstone on a missing persons enquiry. What seems like a simple light duties investigation opens a web of crime and corruption. Jay must pull his life together and bury his differences with young local cop Josh, so together they can bring justice to Goldstone.
Goldstone stars Aaron Pedersen, Alex Russell, Jacki Weaver, David Gulpilil, David Wenham, Aaron Fa’Aoso and Tom E. Lewis
The film also stars veteran martial arts actress, Cheng Pei-pei. Dubbed “The Queen of Martial Arts,” Cheng is widely known for her villainess role as Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), but to Chinese film enthusiasts, she’s known as the female warrior who headlined Shaw Bros. classics such King Hu’s Come Drink with Me(1966) and Chang Cheh’s Golden Swallow (1967).
On July 10, 2018, The Criterion Collection will be releasing the Blu-ray & DVD for Dragon Inn, a 1967 wuxia classic from director King Hu (A Touch of Zen).
The art of martial arts filmmaking took a leap into bold new territory with this action-packed tale of Ming-dynasty intrigue. After having the emperor’s minister of defense executed, a power-grabbing eunuch sends assassins to trail the victim’s children to a remote point on the northern Chinese border. But that bloodthirsty mission is confounded by a mysterious group of fighters who arrive on the scene, intent on delivering justice and defending the innocent.
The first film King Hu made after moving to Taiwan from Hong Kong in search of more creative freedom, Dragon Inn (or Dragon Gate Inn) combines rhythmic editing, meticulous choreography, and gorgeous widescreen compositions with a refinement that was new to the wuxia genre. Its blockbuster success breathed new life into a classic formula and established Hu as one of Chinese cinema’s most audacious innovators.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
New 4K Restoration, supervised by cinematographer Hua Hui-ying, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New interview with actor Shangkuan Ling-fung
Interview from 2016 with actor Shih Chun
Scene analysis by author and New York Asian Film Festival cofounder Grady Hendrix
Newsreel footage of the film’s 1967 premiere in Taipei, Taiwan
Horror fans like to convince themselves that they’ve seen it all. ‘That new horror film everyone loves is actually a more mainstream take on a similar horror movie made 20 years ago that nobody paid attention to at the time, don’tchaknow?’ But then something like Vampire Clay comes along and the jaded horror fan realizes that no, there are still tons of brand new terrors to discover. In the first act of Vampire Clay, a clay tongue slithers across the floor and eats a hamster. And it only gets stranger from there.
Vampire Clay is written and directed by master makeup artist Soichi Umezawa. As a makeup artist, Umezawa worked on a wide range of films, from Dr. Akagi to Alien vs. Ninja. He’d previously directed a segment for the horror anthology ABCs of Death 2, but Vampire Clay is his feature film directorial effort. Much of Vampire Clay feels like a showcase for Umezawa’s practical effects, with a healthy helping of body horror and monster effects on display.
90% of the film takes place within the walls of a cramped art prep school in the country. The prep school used to be the home of a failed sculptor in the area and has since fallen into disrepair. The tutor fixes the place up, including digging through the garden outside, which is where she finds some art supplies which were (mysteriously) buried there. When the students arrive—each of them are desperately hoping to hone their skills at the prep school before applying to a prestigious art school in Tokyo—they are tasked with a sculpture subject of the day. One student finds the dry clay that was dug up in the yard, adds water to it to make it pliable and hold a form, and notes that there is something peculiar about this clay.
That night, the clay sculpture moves. It reaches out for a razor, which it then hides within its form for an unsuspecting student to cut themselves on. And when the cut is made, the blood seeps into the clay unnaturally fast. Liquid is needed to make the clay pliable but it seems blood is what makes it hungry. One night, when a student stays late to work on her project alone, the clay attacks and bites into her with its mushy clay teeth. A strange fight unfolds, by turns disgusting and humorous, as the clay makes food out of the student.
If this all sounds absurd, that’s because it is. Despite the fairly grotesque visuals and a screenplay with no humorous dialogue, I am convinced that director Umezawa intended the movie as part comedy. The monster is a nasty piece of work that infects its victims and makes their flesh moldable and clay-like. The creature’s true form is a bit like the Eraserhead baby. Most of the movie is the student’s slow realization that there is a monster in their midst as the clay turns them one by one.
The movie plays like someone got high in art class while watching The Thing and I absolutely mean that as a compliment. There are moments where I loudly exclaimed stunned profanities while watching the movie because holy shit it’s insane. I don’t wish to ruin the best creature moments—because they are the real reason to see the movie—but I would suggest that fans of monster movies and body horror will find a few memorable moments to enjoy here.
I do think Umezawa has a ways to go as a storyteller, however. The film is poorly plotted and, despite the madness on screen, somehow not as exciting as you’d think. The characters are fairly bland and the film makes strange choices about who to kill off when. For example, one character with actual backstory exits the film before the final act, but someone else who was mostly a background player sticks around until the end. Normally I’d give points for an unexpected kill in a horror movie, but not if it comes at the expense of losing one of the few characters we can latch onto. The film’s score is also lacking and doesn’t back up the crazy visuals with the oomph they deserve.
There comes a point halfway through the film when we get some origin story about the clay monster. Sadly, it’s not as crazy as the creature probably deserves. The failed sculpture who used to own the building literally put his own blood into his final work and a need for vengeance brought it to life. The film also shows some indecision in its final moments. Vampire Clay has four endings, by my count; something operatic, something obvious, something gross, and something epic. The film did not earn its more tragic first ending, so I’m glad they expanded from there. And the ‘epic’ finale that plays before the credits is a pretty spectacular ‘WTF wow’ moment, so Umezawa at least knew to end on the right note. But this strange extended epilogue makes Vampire Clay feel like it doesn’t know when to take a bow and get off stage.
Vampire Clay has a pretty great new monster but it is not a great movie. Just the same, I’d happily recommend it to curious viewers, especially those who are horror fans looking for something different. It’s not a scary horror film, but it should have the audience squirming and laughing in disbelief. One thinks that the movie is probably best enjoyed with friends and maybe a drink or two. Or maybe some cannabis? Hey, it’s being released on iTunes on 4/20 in the US, so you can’t tell me I’m the only one who thought of that.
I’m curious to see what director Umezawa does next. Vampire Clay features moments that are so startlingly bizarre that one hopes the director continues to refine his craft, because we need more weirdo originality in cinema.
On July 10th, 2018, Cinedigm Entertainment will be releasing the DVD to Zhang Xianfeng’s sci-fi actioner Kung Fu Traveler 2, the sequel Kung Fu Traveler, which was also recently released by Cinedigm. The film stars Tiger Chen (Monk Comes Down the Mountain) and Wang Zhi (Drug War).
Southern Style kung fu was unsuccessful in defeating the invading enemy aliens. General Chen has no choice but to be go back in time again to the late Qing Dynasty to find the master of Northern Style kung fu and transfer his training back to the future. Unfortunately, the time travel causes Chen to lose his memory and he ends up working for the emperor Yuan Shikai and lost in time. Meanwhile in the future, the aliens army and strength grows by the day…
In addition to Kung Fu Traveler and Kung Fu Traveler 2, Tiger Chen, who made his starring debut in Keanu Reeves’ Man of Tai Chi, also stars in the upcoming Triple Threat, an Expendables-type actioner also starring Tony Jaa (Skin Trade) and Iko Uwais (The Raid 2).
Now this is more like it. I enjoyed watching Seijun Rising, the first Arrow Video box set showcasing five of Seijun Suzuki’s earlier films. As a big fan of the director, I loved getting the chance to see these obscure movies. However, they were youth movies and, with only a couple exceptions, did not represent Suzuki’s bold style or inspired chaos on film. Well, now we come to a second helping of early Suzuki films, this time focused on crime and action movies. And if the oldest film in the collection is any indication, I’m going to enjoy this collection considerably more. Released more than 60 years ago, Eight Hours of Terror is a fun spirited, tightly wound thriller with absolutely no fat in its lean 78 minute running time.
A storm causes a landslide, cancelling the scheduled train that would take civilians from the country on an overnight trip to Tokyo. A collection increasingly testy customers hang out in the train station, desperately looking for any way to make it into Tokyo before morning. It’s a roundup of archetypes; the detective and his handcuffed fugitive, the business president and his holier-than-thou wife, the students who think communism is the way forward, the wannabe actress, the sex worker, and the annoying salesman. A solution presents itself when a rickety old bus shows up to take the travelers to Tokyo. Right before they take off, though, the police let them know to be on the lookout for a couple of bank robbers who may be hiding in the mountains.
We get to learn a little bit about each passenger as the bus careens over the high mountain roads (the film screen of the road speeding past the windows makes the driver look like a maniac). Almost everybody is freaking out, jumping at shadows, apparently thinking the bank robbers could just show up at the window and let themselves in. The threat becomes more immediate when someone reads in the newspaper about the military doctor who returned home and murdered his wife and her new lover. The man in the story’s photo is the same man cuffed to the detective’s wrist in the front row of the bus.
The killer doctor is just one of the many scandalous figures on the bus. However, the film has a way of making us feel a little more for the pitiful passengers than it does the more upstanding higher class characters, which I think goes some way to tell us Suzuki’s feelings on things. The wannabe actress is smirked at, the sex worker is shunned, the driver is constantly shouted at, the prisoner scares people, and the students are considered fools… but these are our heroes. The higher class folks are assholes, always looking down their noses at people, rarely ever showing any sympathy. On the long journey, a depressed new mother takes a leap from a bridge, and at least half the passengers are annoyed that any rescue attempt could further delay the trip. Eight Hours of Terror is as much a satire looking at classism in Japan as it is a thriller. It packs a group of Japanese into a tight space and puts them at each other’s throats. And then, when we’ve just about forgotten about them, the bank robbers show up and force their way onto the bus. Now the passengers, who’ve found one reason or another to turn on each other up until this point, must work together to survive the hijacking.
Eight Hours of Terror is like Wages of Fear meets Mr. Thank You. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is like Suzuki’s bus-based take on Stagecoach, the John Ford/John Wayne classic. The tone of the movie is all over the place, from cartoonishly comical to shockingly violent (somebody gets thrown into a bear trap and a gun is repeatedly aimed at a baby’s head). And it works? It works really well. The bank robbers are less interesting to me than the bitter social satire at works within the bus but the crooks are ultimately there to further splinter the group, so it adds something nice to the mix.
It’s a shame, however, that the bank robbers are the two least convincing performances in the bunch. Hiroshi Kondo (Wolf Guy) is so over the top that it’s grating. And the older of the two crooks played by Kenjiro Uemura (I Am Waiting) is so calm that he becomes uninteresting. It appears to be a purposeful contrast between the two villains, one hot one cold, but I think the actors took it too far to the extremes.
Most interesting among the cast is Nobuo Kaneko (Battles Without Honor and Humanity) as the military doctor turned murderer turned prisoner turned hero. It’s an early example of the man in cuffs who might be our best hope when things go south. At first I first thought Kaneko was playing the squirmy business executive in the film (actually that’s Taizo Fukami, I think), because that’s a part more in tune with what the actor would frequently play in later years. But here, in his mid-30s, Kaneko plays the leading man and it’s a nice change. He’s very good in the part, even if frequent revisits to such a character in cinema over the years have made the prisoner-turned-hero role something of a cliché. Other notable standouts in the cast include the young Hideaki Nitani (Tokyo Drifter) as the communist student in one of the actor’s earliest roles, Zenji Yamada (Danger Pays) as the bus driver, and the brave, confident prostitute who I believe is played by Sumiko Minami but I may have incorrectly identified the actress.
Seijun Suzuki does a great job of keeping the good times rolling, especially considering much of the film is stuck inside of a bus. He does cheat, however, in the filming of the bus interiors, by plainly moving the camera through a space where there should be a wall, repeatedly drawing attention to the set. Honestly, though, I don’t really care. The movie is fun and brisk, fitting a whole lot of character into its short runtime. And just when you feel like maybe the director is going to allow us to get off the bus, he throws more threats at the characters and keeps the story going just a little while longer. It’s a thriller that has something to say but never takes itself too seriously and I had a hell of a good time watching it.
With a handful of projects currently under his belt, martial arts sensation Scott Adkins (Accident Man, Eliminators) is without doubt, one of the most active action stars in the business. And now, a new project, titled Incoming (read our review), is just around the corner.
This one puts the Savage Dog star in somewhat of a Die Hard-in-space scenario. According to Deadline, Incoming revolves around an International Space Station that now serves as a prison. When the imprisoned terrorists take over the Station and turn it into a missile aimed at Moscow, only a shuttle pilot and a rookie doctor can stop them. Adkins plays a rogue CIA agent who has his own plans for the station and the terrorists within.
Incomingis being helmed by first-time director Eric Zaragoza. The film is written by Jorge Saralegui (Showtime) and based on a story by producer Rick Benattar (producer of Shoot ‘Em Up).
“We’re thrilled to be working with Scott on this exciting new project. It’s a science fiction film but rooted in the realities of our world today. It explores familiar themes and looks at what could be our world in the not-too-distant future,” said producer Benattar (via KWPR).
Cleopatra Entertainment, a semi-new film division of long time L.A.-based indie label Cleopatra Records, will give Tan Bing’s China Salesman a limited theatrical release on April 20th and on VOD platforms on May 1st, followed by a Blu-ray & DVD release on June 26th, 2018.
China Salesman is set in Africa where a Chinese engineer/salesman comes face-to-face with a corrupt competitor over the contract for the first African mobile telecom technology (via Variety). The film stars Ethan Li (Brotherhood of Blades) and Li Ai (Unexpectedness).
China Salesman is getting heavy notoriety because it co-stars former heavyweight champ, Mike Tyson (Ip Man 3) and Aikido sensation Steven Seagal (Exit Wounds) – two Hollywood figures that are heavily featured in the film’s posters and trailers.
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray for Daniel Lee’s Dragon Blade (read our review), an action/adventure period flick starring Jackie Chan (Police Story 2013), Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and John Cusack (Love & Mercy).
When corrupt Roman leader Tiberius arrives with a giant army to claim the Silk Road, Huo An teams up his army with an elite Legion of defected Roman soldiers led by General Lucius to protect his country and his new friends.
Dragon Blade also stars Choi Siwon (Helios), Lin Peng (Viral Factor) and Wang Tai Li (East Meets West).
CJ Entertainment is releasing Confidential Assignment (read our review), a South Korean detective film, on Google Play and iTunes today. It was released in the U.S. in January 2017 and recorded the third highest numbers at the Korean Box Office last year.
In Confidential Assignment, a North Korean investigator, Lim Cheol-ryeong, teams up with a South Korean detective, Gang Jin-tae, to find the man that stole North Korea’s ‘superdollar,’ a notorious, counterfeit American dollar printed by North Korea. The plates used to make the ‘superdollar’ are stolen by North Korean official, Cha Gi-seong, who fled to South Korea. In desperate need of help, North Korean officials contact the South Korean government and – without disclosing why they are looking for him – ask for help in locating Cha. South Korean officials agree to help, but they have their own agenda. Everyone wants to get their hands on Cha and maybe even those ‘superdollars’.
Confidential Assignment is directed by Kim Sung-hoon (A Wonderful Moment) and stars Hyun Bin (The Swindlers), Yoo Hai-jin (Veteran), the late Kim Joo-hyuck (Like for Likes), and Lim Yoon-a (The K2).
On April 20th, Monument Releasing will be unleashing the Japanese horror film Vampire Clay (read our review) in theaters and VOD (iTunes pre-order). Theatrical showings will be available in the following cities: Brooklyn (Nitehawk), Los Angeles (Arena Cinelounge), San Francisco (The Roxie), Baltimore (Parkway Theater), TBD.
Vampire Clay is directed by Soichi Umezawa, who is perhaps best known for his segment “Y is for Youth” in ABCs of Death 2, as well as his effects work in Alien vs. Ninja.
After studying in Tokyo, Kaori returns to Aina Academy to finish her prep classes for art school. Quickly outshining her jealous classmates, she soon becomes the star of the class when she discovers a bag of old, mysterious clay and uses it for sculpting assignments. Things begin to get strange, however, when students’ projects are destroyed and one of Kaori’s classroom rivals disappears. As the students uncover that the clay is possessed by a starving artist who died tragically in the building years ago, the school finds itself attacked by a gang of murderous, bloodthirsty clay “vampires.” The monsters begin to impersonate – and subsequently devour – the students, thus answering the age-old question: can art be so bad that it kills?
Vampire Clay stars Kyoka Takeda, Momoka Sugimoto, Ena Fujita and Yuyu Makihara. Don’t miss the film’s Trailer below:
On April 30, 2018, Garagehouse Pictures will be releasing the Blu-ray for Ninja Busters, a 1984 martial arts-comedy directed by Paul Kyriazi (Death Machines) and starring Eric Lee (The Shinobi Ninja) and Sid Campbell (The Master Demon).
Filmed in 1984 but never released, Ninja Busters was a lost movie, never screened for audiences and doomed to obscurity—until now! Thirty years later, the sole 35mm film print of Ninja Busters has been unearthed, allowing this completely insane kung fu comedy to finally be unleashed!
Bernie and Chic (martial artists Eric Lee and Sid Campbell, who also wrote the film) are two loveable goofballs just looking for easy work, sexy ladies, and a good slice of pizza. But a beating from a gang of thugs convinces the buddies to train in the martial arts in the hopes of meeting girls… and maybe learning self-defense. After stumbling across the operations of some illegal weapons dealers and their army of paid ninja assassins, Chic and Bernie must team up with their kung fu comrades to contend with sleazy gangsters, ruthless ninjas, underwear-throwing bikers, militant revolutionaries, and bitchin’ breakdancers. Will our heroes be able to defeat the mob and bust the ninjas? And more importantly, will they ever score with the chicks?
Presented for the first time from a 4K digital restoration, Ninja Busters is action packed, absolutely ridiculous, and guaranteed to become a cult film favorite.
Ninja Busters also stars Gerald Okamura (Samurai Cop 2), Nancy Lee (Weapons of Death), Harry Mok (Tiger Claws II) and Carlos Navarro (Weapons of Death).
Feature Specifications and Extras:
Transferred and Digitally Mastered in 4K from the only existing Fine Grain Answer Print
Sound Digitally Remastered from the Original Optical Soundtrack
Fully Restored and Presented in the Original Panavision 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio
Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray for Steven Seagal’s 1990 action flick, Marked for Death.
Hatcher (Seagal) returns to his hometown and quickly discovers that drugs have infiltrated his old neighborhood. Determined to drive the dealers out, Hatcher crosses paths with a ferocious Jamaican druglord who vows that hatcher and his family are now marked for death.
Directed by Dwight H. Little (Rapid Fire), Marked for Death was made during Seagal’s glory days. Back then, the idea of a “straight-to-video Seagal flick” was unthinkable. How the mighty have fallen…
Takashi Miike is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable names in Japanese cinema, having garnered a dedicated cult following ever since he gained international recognition/notoriety with the 1999 horror Audition. As a director he’s come a long way since the crazy DTV days that defined his early career, with much of his fan base citing the 2010 remake of the chanbara classic, 13 Assassins, as the point that Miike became mainstream. It’s a fair point of view, as indeed the post-2010 Miike output has been populated with kid’s movies, video-game adaptations, and the daunting task of converting manga for the big screen.
However during the period of 2012 – 2014, Miike seemed to revert back to his love of horror, and the bloody mess that often comes with it. Lesson of the Evil turned its attention to a high school teacher, who decides the best way to deal with his unruly students is to blow their heads off, quite often literally (understandably, the movie has never been released in the US), while Over Your Dead Body explored the blurred lines between fantasy and reality. As the Gods Will was the last to be released of the three, and was based on a manga which ran from 2011 – 2012.
I confess to having no familiarity with the source material, so this review won’t be offering up any comparisons to how faithful (or not) it stays to it. If anything, Miike’s manga adaptations have often been criticised for staying too close to their comic book origins, as opposed to the usual complaints of how many liberties they take, with his latest Blade of the Immortal being a good example. The plot of As the Gods Will revolves around a high school student, played by Sota Fukushi (the lead in the live-action Bleach), who prays to God for some excitement to liven up his dull life. With no explanation, his wish is granted when he’s abruptly forced to play in a number of life and death games with his classmates, presided over by various dolls and over-sized figurines that have come to life.
If the above plot description sounds somewhat baffling, then watching it onscreen is no less so. As the Gods Will is one of those tales that would, if it hadn’t been made into a movie already, be called un-filmable. Indeed if anyone other than Miike was behind it, I’d be one of those voices. Dispensing with any kind of lead in or build-up of tension, Miike throws us straight into it, with a classroom overseen by an angry, blood-shot eyed Daruma doll, who makes the heads explode of any student that moves. It’s a dizzying opening, one splattered in blood and, bizarrely, red marbles, but also one that sets the tone for the next 115 minutes. In As the Gods Will we join when the roller-coaster is already at the top of the peak, so you either take a deep breath and enjoy the ride, or close your eyes and wait for it to be over.
Fukushi’s mind is as scrambled as the audiences, as he’s barrelled from one game to another with a rapidly dwindling number of classmates, including his crush (played by Hirona Yamazaki), and a murderous psycho (Rurouni Kenshin’s Ryunosuke Kamiki, clearly channelling Masanobu Ando’s unhinged killer from Battle Royale). In many ways the structure of As the Gods Will would be recreated just a year later with Sono Sion’s Tag. Both involve high school students being killed off by a murderous force, one which remains ambiguous throughout, leaving the audience wondering what’s going on as much as the characters themselves. As the Gods Will is ultimately the more satisfying of the two though, despite it being over half an hour longer, and displaying an equal lack of characterisation of its key players.
This is mainly due to Miike’s handling of the material. One of the most common criticisms against his movies, dating as far back as Agitator, is that they can be overlong. With a runtime just short of 2 hours, As the Gods Will feels like it should be a likely candidate for such comments, however the time passes remarkably quickly. Yes the concept is somewhat of a one-trick pony, but Miike uses each game to reinvent what can be done with the concept, almost making each one like its own standalone segment. While this could have easily led to proceedings feeling disjointed and unevenly paced, here he makes it work in the movies favour.
From taunting Daruma dolls, to over-sized maneki-neko’s, to snowboarding polar bears – they’re all here. What’s particularly interesting is the use of CGI. While I’m almost 100% sure all of the effects are done with CG, Miike uses it to emulate more traditional practical effects work. From animation, to stop motion, the concept of using modern technology to replicate the very techniques it was intended to replace is somewhat of a stroke of genius. As a result, the effects of the various God-like incarnations remain entertaining throughout, as it becomes a thrill to look forward to whatever we’re going to be confronted with next rather than a chore.
In many ways As the Gods Will is a good example of when Miike’s tendency to stay true to the source material was the right one. You can imagine the producers sitting in a room discussing how to convert a sequence into cinematic language, which involves a gigantic maneki-neko eating a bunch of students dressed as mice via its spring loaded head, all the while complaining that it needs its back scratched. Then Miike strolling in and declaring that he plans to film it exactly as it appears in the manga. He applied much the same principle to 2009’s Yatterman, and seems to be of the firm belief that half the fun of adapting a manga into a movie is converting the page to the screen as closely as possible. If it was Miike in the director’s chair for an X-Men movie, I have no doubt we’d be watching Hugh Jackman run around in yellow spandex and crescent shaped shoulder pads.
With that being said, As the Gods Will also falls victim to Miike’s erratic tendency to jump between genres with what he chooses to direct. If a Miike movie needs a sequel, the question of when we’ll get it is always an open one. While Crows Zero received a follow-up just a couple of years later, in the case of Zebraman it was a whole 6 years before a sequel arrived. Both Lesson of the Evil and As the Gods Will throw in cliff-hanger endings, however with a schedule that strongly indicates more instalments of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (and maybe more Terra Formers and Mole Song tales?), then quite when we can expect more God induced madness is open to debate.
It’s unfortunate, as the story drops a number of hints at the bigger picture that’s unfolding outside of the games. Large white cubes have appeared in the sky around the world causing mass panic, and there’s a grown man locked up in his bedroom manically researching the Children of God, who seems to have some answers. The man is, interestingly, played by Nao Ohmori, of R100 and Miike’s own Ichi the Killer fame, indicating that he has a significant role to play later on. Then you have who appears to be God himself, played as an anonymous wanderer of Tokyo’s streets by Lily Franky (also in Miike’s Yakuza Apocalypse). While their screentime clocks in at less than 5 minutes between them, their presence is clearly an important one, and personally I hope we’ll see more of them to explain how they fit into the puzzle.
While As the Gods Will doesn’t plunge too deep into the graphically violent depths of some of Miike’s earlier works, there’s no mistake that it’s the work of Japan’s busiest director. With enough head-shaking moments, laugh out loud bursts of black humor, and the playful tone of an auteur working with a budget he likely spent most of his career dreaming of, As the Gods Will won’t answer every Miike fans prayers, but it should leave them thoroughly entertained.
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