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Arrow continues its commitment to cult cinema with an exceptional February slate, led by two meticulously crafted Japanese crime thrillers, A Certain Killer and A Killer’s Key. Streaming exclusively from February 10, these films mark a rare opportunity for audiences to experience the work of director Kazuo Mori, best known for Zatoichi at Large and a celebrated master of jidai-geki.

Both films feature Raiz? Ichikawa, a legendary figure in Japanese cinema, known for his work in Shinobi: Band of Assassins and the Sleepy Eyes of Death series. A Certain Killer follows a quiet sushi chef who moonlights as an assassin, eliminating targets with poison-tipped needles. When his latest contract entangles him in a yakuza turf war, his carefully managed existence begins to unravel. Meanwhile, A Killer’s Key sees Ichikawa return as a lone wolf assassin posing as a dance instructor, drawn into a high-stakes cover-up that threatens to collapse a major crime syndicate.

The Daimajin Trilogy

Blu ray – All Region

Arrow Films

1966

Starring Miwa Takada, Kojiro Hongo, Hideki Ninomiya

Cinematography by Fujio Morita, Shozo Tanaka, Hiroshi Imai

Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, Kenji Misumi, Kazuo Mori

Japanese monsters seem to bring out the best in home video companies—Arrow Films’ The Daimajin Trilogy is the most beautifully wrought Blu ray release since Criterion’s momentous Godzilla set. Though the films themselves don’t match the kaleidoscopic allure of Matt Frank’s cover illustrations, the Daimajin movies remain rousing entertainment for both monster-crazy kids and seasoned movie fans who should appreciate the sky-scraping samurai’s exciting if utterly predictable adventures.

Predictable, because each film in the trilogy is essentially the same movie—same beginning, same middle, same end. Utterly predictable but then so are the Bond films—the lack of any real surprises is fundamental to their comfort food aesthetic. Produced one after another in...

Hello, everyone! To kick off this month’s horror and sci-fi home media releases, we have an eclectic array of titles coming out this week. In terms of recent genre films, Rlje Films is releasing both Lucky by Natasha Kermani and Simon Barrett’s Seance on Tuesday, and if you’re a fan of the original Transformers movie (like this writer is), Shout! Factory has put together an incredible-looking Steelbook to celebrate the film’s 35th anniversary as well.

Arrow Video is keeping busy with two different sets of genre classics with their Sergio Martino Collection and The Daimajin Trilogy, and Code Red is showing some love to Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker this Tuesday with a special edition Blu-ray release.

Other titles headed home on August 3rd include Night Feeder, Dead Again, It Wants Blood, and Tailgate.

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker Aka Night Warning: Special Edition

Terror begins when a...

After two successful entries in the series, Daiei Studios closed out the year 1966 with the third and final in the Daimajin saga, with Kazuo Mori taking on the adventures of the stone statue guardian of the oppressed. Initially never released in America until a VHS release in the 1990s when the series was first introduced on the format, this slightly underwhelming but still fun venture comes to home media courtesy of a box set from Arrow Video.

In a mountainous region of Japan, evil warlord Lord Arakawa (Toru Abe) kidnaps the men of nearby villages to use for slave labor, producing gunpowder from his sulfur pits. After learning one of his prisoners has escaped, he invades a peaceful lakeside village during one of their annual festivals. In the course of burning down buildings, executing helpless civilians, and generally looting and pillaging, the warlord’s men blow up...

The Daimajin Trilogy will be available on Blu-ray July 27th from Arrow Video

The Daimajin Trilogy saw Daieis Kyoto studios bringing its own iconic movie monster to life in a unique but short-lived series that transplants the Golem legend to Japans Warring States period of the late-16th century.

In Daimajin, directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, the young son and daughter of the benevolent feudal lord Hanabusa flee to the mountains when their parents are slain by the treacherous usurper Odate. Ten years later, when the elderly priestess who has harbored them is also murdered, the rage of the slumbering ancient god that lies beneath the crumbling giant stone idol hidden deep in the forests in the mountains is invoked. In Return of Daimajin, Kenji Misumi brings his usual stylistic flourish, as the wrathful deity is roused from his new home on an island in the middle of a lake by...

After his interesting but rushed second entry into the popular “Zatoichi”-franchise, Japanese director Kazuo Mori would return to the tales of the blind swordsman with the eleventh feature “Zatoichi and the Doomed Man”. With the studio obviously treating the subject matter quite differently than when Mori was assigned to do “The Tale of Zatoichi Continues” and the support of an experienced cast and crew, his second venture into the world of Zatoichi feels richer and takes its time, following a familiar structure while also exploring issues of fate, determination and, as the title already indicates, doom.

During a brief time in jail for illegal gambling, Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) meets another prisoner named Shimazo (Keichi Mizuhara), who is about to be executed for a murder which he did not commit, according to his own account. In his desperation, he begs Zatoichi to meet his family and find...