News

Around 1976, Toei Studios showed the money to two of its star directors, Kinji Fukasaku and Sadao Nakajima, to direct their own versions of vehicular mayhem action features, both starring one of their key leading men Tsunehiko Watase. Nakajima’s effort was released in May, 1976 in the form of the stylish “A Savage Beast Goes Mad”, but it was Fukasaku’s output that came earlier, with “Violent Panic: The Big Crash” hitting theatres in February, 1976.

“Violent Panic: The Big Crash” is released by Film Movement

Bank robbers Yamanaka Takashi and Seki Mitsuo have been plaguing Japan, doing smash-and-grab jobs in banks across the country. The young and rebellious Midorikawa Michi, who Takashi has a soft spot for, keeps throwing a spanner in his plans but Takashi is determined to pull one last big job and retire to Brazil with the loot. The two robbers finalise on Kobe as that job, but...

Sadao Nakajima passed away from pneumonia on 11th June, 2023. He was 88 years old. Active as a director until just four years before his passing, Nakajima left behind legacy of work that most directors would dream of. Alongside Kinji Fukasaku and Junya Sato, he is credited as being one of the main names to define the Yakuza genre, with some of his greatest works coming within that genre, showcasing a range of styles and narrative complexities while at it. Having joined Toei Studio in 1959, he worked primarily at Toei's Kyoto studio, despite running his contract out and going independent in 1967. In fact, the majority of the titles we list here are productions from after he left Toei as a contracted director and yet continued to work for the Studio as a freelancer, likely because of the freedom it provided him and his relationship with their existing roster of actors and crew,...

Today sees the hi-def release of two of the most controversial and sexually explicit films of the 1970s, both of which came courtesy of Japanese New Wave auteur Nagisa Oshima – later the director of the more widely seen David Bowie-starring WWII movie Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (incidentally itself coming to Blu-ray next week… we are giving copies away Here).

In two tastefully presented “double play” Blu-ray/DVD sets from StudioCanal come 1976′s In the Realm of the Senses and 1978′s more restrained thematic follow-up Empire of Passion. Both films share the same leading man, Tatsuya Fuji, but whilst the former was either banned or heavily censored upon released due to its many graphic scenes of “unsimulated sex”, the latter (less explicit) work earned Oshima a well deserved Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

In the Realm of the Senses

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Oshima’s most critically significant text,...