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The Primetime Emmys are not necessarily known for honoring projects featuring casts that are primarily minority/people of color. The TV academy has never, for instance, given the Best Drama Series trophy to such a show. The statuette for Best Comedy Series has been won by a series featuring a largely minority cast precisely once: “The Cosby Show” in 1985. But the category of top limited/anthology/miniseries has paid golden tribute to programs with mostly minority casts a handful of times before, helping give Netflix’s “Beef” with its predominantly Asian American lineup a genuine shot to take home the biggest prize.

“Beef” tied with “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” for the most nominations among all non-regular series programs with 13. It’s presently in the lead among Gold Derby voters in the limited series race with 16/5 combined odds. Its star Ali Wong is also in first place among limited lead actresses,...

What a discovery . . . I’m glad this was recommended to me. Kôsaku Yamashita’s powerful 1968 drama belongs to the semi-chivalrous ‘honor and code’ yakuza tradition. Crime clan blood brothers Kôji Tsuruta and Tomisaburô Wakayama are good men caught between conflicting loyalties to family, friends, and the yakuza credo. Clashes of honor lead to unavoidable ‘knives out’ confrontations. It’s as intense as the Japanese classics. The extras offer a refresher in yakuza customs and protocol, with expert guidance from Chris D. and Mark Schilling.

Big Time Gambling Boss

Region A + B Blu-ray

Radiance (UK)

1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 95 min. / Bakuchiuci: Sôchô Tobaku; Gambling Den: Gambling Boss; The Great Casino; Presidential Gambling Street Date February 1, 2023 / Available from Radiance (UK) / £16.99

Starring: Kôji Tsuruta, Tomisaburô Wakayama, Hiroshi Nawa, Nobuo Kaneko, Hiroko Sakuramachi, Hideto Kagawa, Michiyo Hattori,Shin’ichirô Mikami.

Cinematography: Nagaki Yamagishi

Production Designer/ Art Director: Jirô Tomita

Film Editor: Miyamoto Shinjirô

Original Music: Toshiaki Tsushima...

My thoughts and admiration for Mark Schilling’s work have already been shared in the review of “Art, Cult and Commerce“. In that regard, continuing with his bibliography was inevitable, and the fact that the present book deals with the oldest Japanese motion picture studio, and particularly its Action Cinema period, made its appeal even more intense. Even more so, since, during the latest years, there seems to be a renewal of interest regarding the genre, especially through the home video releases of companies like Arrow and Eureka.

The book begins with the history of Nikkatsu, focusing on the period from the late 50s until the early 60s, when the Nikkatsu Action genre started, flourished and declined. The second part deals with the main male protagonists of those movies, presenting detailed biographies of Yujiro Ishihara, Akira Kobayashi, Keiichiro Akagi and Tetsuya Watari, highlighting the concept of the...

With the fifth and, as the title says, final episode in the “Battles Without Honor and Humanity” series, there was a major chance in the production. Whereas the former episodes had been scripted by Kazuo Kasahara based on the articles about the yakuza by writer Koichi Iboshi, Koji Takada took over the project. In an interview feature titled “Last Days of the Boss”, which can be found on the release of the film by Arrow Video, Takada reflects on how he convinced Fukasaku and the producers of his vision for the fifth film, which would not only continue the story of Shozo Hirono played by Bunta Sugawara, but which would also change the dynamics within the series, making it a legitimate sequel as well as a refreshing deviation from the formula of the series.

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After the events of the previous film, “Police Tactics”, Hirono (Sugawara) serves a...

The last film of the series written by Kasahara, who almost became mad in his effort to record all that was happening in the yakuza underworld and come up with a script based on them, “Police Tactics” was supposed to be the last episode of the series, until its phenomenal success led to one additional entry.

Continuing the story directly from where the third episode finished, “Police Tactics” continue to deal with the feud between Yamamori and Uchimoto which has escalated to one between the Akashi family and the Shinwa group, the two largest crime syndicates of west Japan, who move their feud into Hiroshima and Kure. As violence escalates, however, the yakuza has to face the wrath of society, which, having experienced unprecedented financial prosperity, will no longer tolerate the ways of the unlawful. The result is that police forces begin a major crackdown that takes...

After the continued success of the previous entries into the Battles Without Honor and Humanity-franchise, distributor Toei understandably called for more movies utilizing the distinct narrative and visual approach which director Kinji Fukasaku had introduced in his first film. Given the plethora of fact-based accounts of yakuza crimes and gang wars, screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara focused on a war between rivaling factions in Hiroshima and the surrounding area. In order to continue the idea of the wars of the yakuza mirroring social and political developments in Japan and the rest of the world, Fukasaku and Kasahara employed the concept the proxy war, a large variety of smaller conflicts symbolizing a chasm of power within yakuza hierarchy, a war of ideologies and, of course, for power and money.

At the beginning of the film, we find Hirono in the middle of a tumultuous time within the yakuza. Having...

Only one year before he paved the way for the frenetic cool of the Japanese New Wave with his unabashedly sexual and violent taiyo zoku film ‘The Warped Ones’, Koreyoshi Kurahara took a huge breath before this plunge with a slightly more conservatively executed picture. Taking place a year before the Anti-Anpo demonstrations against the signing of the Security Treaty between the United States and Japan, ‘The Age of Our Own’ condenses the frustrations and anxieties of the country’s youth into an at times beguiling cinematic venture which loses its mind by its conclusion – both in good and bad ways.

“The Age of Our Own” is screening as part of Japan Society:

By following the parallel stories of two brother until their violent confluence in the third act, ‘The Age of Our Own’ explores the conflicting attitudes of the country’s youth. Minami (Hiroyuki Nagato) is largely indifferent...

Inflato-faced Jô Shishido is at it again, here in a typically precocious, spoofy crime adventure by Japan’s playful Seijun Suzuki. If the eccentric color scheme doesn’t do the trick, the antic comic relief and wild musical numbers will. Shishido dances the Charleston, and the nightclub rocks with a terrific twist number. The music under Nikkatsu’s logo is more progressive than that in a Hollywood picture of 1963.

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards!

Blu-ray

Arrow Video USA

1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Nikkatsuscope) / 89 min. / Kutabare akutô-domo – Tantei jimusho 23 / Street Date July 10, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Jô Shishido, Tamio Kawaji, Reiko Sassamori, Nobuo Kaneko, Kinzô Shin, Naomi Hoshi,Asao Sano.

Cinematography: Shigeyoshi Mine

Film Editor: Akira Suzuki

Original Music: Harumi Ibe

Written by Iwao Yamazaki from a book by Haruhiko Ôyabu

Produced by Shôzô Ashida

Directed by Seijun Suzuki

One can always count on Seijun Suzuki for something different, and even in...

In celebration of Japan’s oldest film studio, Nikkatsu, Arrow Video assembles its first collection of titles reflecting the late 1950s inauguration of a star system contracted for their ‘Diamond Line.’ This trio of features reflects the rising popularity of extravagant genre narratives in the evolving system, and includes obscure titles from master auteurs such as Seijun Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, and Buichi Saito (early titles from Suzuki and Masuda were also part of a notable 2009 Eclipse series set, Nikkatsu Noir).

The pearl of the collection is Suzuki’s Voice without a Shadow, a rare gem from the master director’s early period. One of four films he made in 1958 (another being the early classic Underworld Beauty), it feels rather heavily modeled after various American film noir tropes, but in true Suzuki fashion, much more complicated. If “Beauty” felt like a generous Sam Fuller riff, then “Voice” seems a recalibration of something like Sorry,...

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...

In six decades of filmmaking and thirty plus titles in his filmography, it’s nearly impossible to determine the weighted importance concerning a number of the influential works from Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa, considered by many to be among the most notable directors from Japan, alongside peers such as Mizoguchi and Ozu. Instead, it’s easier to discuss his work in strategic measures regarding theme or motif, such as his famed Shakespearean adaptations or epic Samurai classics, pillaged endlessly by Western filmmakers in proceeding generations. But certainly a definite standout is his 1952 title, Ikiru, which roughly translates as “to live.” A powerfully humanistic title examining the significance of life as something only to be rightly cherished when seen through the lens of death, it stands at the slender end of a filmography generally examining human tendency for apathy, revenge, and other plateaus of self-destructive forces. Moving without being sentimental, Kurosawa...

The Twitch curated Tokyo Drifters: 100 Years Of Nikkatsu screening series continues this Saturday with a rare screening of Kurahara Koreyoshi's Intimidation. Kurahara's film is one of the purest examples of a Japanese take on American film noir and has seldom been seen on screens on this side of the ocean.A lean, efficient crime thriller from prolific Nikkatsu vet Koreyoshi Kurahara, Intimidation focuses on Takita (Nobuo Kaneko), an ambitious, rising bank manager at a regional branch clawing his way to the top of his firm by any means necessary -- most often by walking all over his meek underling and childhood friend Nakaike (Akira Nishimura). On the verge of his promotion to head office, Takita has his world upended when a mysterious blackmailer appears with...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV

Ratings (out of five):

Intimidation: ****

The Warped Ones: ***½

I Hate But Love: ***½

Black Sun: ****½

Thirst for Love: ***½

Set: ****

Koreyoshi Kurahara is most well-known for the 1983 ”sled dogs overcome cruel nature” piece Antarctica (Nankyoku Monogatari) which was Japan’s number one box office smash for over a decade. Diving into the five early Kurahara features featured in this set, however, it’s hard to imagine him being picked for such a Disneyesque enterprise.

The set begins simply enough with Intimidation (1960), a tamped-down caper that twists and turns right up to the last of its scant 65 minutes. Just as bank manager Mr. Takita (Nobuo Kaneko) is enjoying his ascension to the upper echelon of society, his past sins return to haunt him whilst compelling him to embezzle three million yen from his bank’s vault. Takita enlists his long-suffering “friend,” a pathetic underling named Nakaike (a heartbreaking,...