Jigoku Hanazono (地獄の花園) is absolute trash, hilarious and unforgivable, and probably puzzling to anyone who isn’t deeply interested in girl-gang lore. It’s a movie tailored almost …
Oct 17, 2021 • Subscribe
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Jigoku-no-Hanazono: Office Royale (地獄の花園, Kazuaki Seki, 2021) [Fantasia 2021]
Office ladies go to war in Kazuaki Seki’s anarchic, Bakarhythm-scripted transposition of the yankee manga to the world of the OL
Jigoku no Hanazono: Office Royale 地獄の花園 Director: Kazuaki Seki (2021) [New York Asian Film Festival 2021]
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The Inferno (地獄, Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1979)
No one can escape from their sins according to the ominous voiceover that opens Tatsumi Kumashiro’s loose reimagining of Nobuo Nakagawa’s Jigoku, The Inferno (地獄, Jigoku). Then again,…
The Guard From Underground 地獄の警備員 (1992) Remaster Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Guard From Underground 地獄の警備員 (1992) Remaster, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is a solid slasher film that features a psychotic sumo wrestler smashing the world of corporate Japan.…
Jigoku-no-hanazono ~Office Royale~ (2021) review [Fantasia Film Festival]
“An absurd and crazy cocktail full of violence and funny twists and unexpected turns.”
Portrait of Hell (地獄変, Shiro Toyoda, 1969)
An artist finds himself in conflict with a cruel feudal lord when asked to paint a picture of heaven in Shiro Toyoda’s haunting adaptation of the Akutagawa story.
The Last Dance (破·地獄, Anselm Chan, 2024)
A wedding-planner turned undertaker finds himself in conflict with an irascible Taoist priest in Anselm Chan’s touching dramedy.
High and Low (天国と地獄, Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
A self-made millionaire faces a moral dilemma when his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped in place of his own in Kurosawa’s post-war crime film.
Kalanchoe (カランコエの花, Shun Nakagawa, 2017)
The truth is, most people genuinely mean well but they often make mistakes. They make them because they don’t think things through, fail to consider perspectives outside of…
KALANCHOE カランコエの花 (2017) Dir: Shun Nakagawa
Shun Nakagawa’s coming-of-age drama Kalanchoe (2017) uses a class as a microcosm for society to explore difficulties in sincerely dealing with people who are different. It will be…
Casting Blossoms to the Sky (この空の花 長岡花火物語, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 2012)
An emotionally arrested journalist begins to reconnect with the past through wartime stories of Nagaoka in Obayashi’s compassionate plea for a kinder future
Prison Boss (獄中の顔役, Yasuo Furuhata, 1968)
A noble-hearted gangster finds himself at odds with an increasingly corrupt society in Furuhata’s manly yakuza drama
Jigoku Koushien
The journey to the high school baseball championship takes a curve ball into the absurd, in this drama of a struggling team and their dastardly monstrous foes, chock…
Apart from Life (地の群れ, Kei Kumai, 1970)
Marginalised communities turn against each other while locked out of an increasingly prosperous society in Kei Kumai’s uncompromising post-war drama
Rampo Noir 乱歩地獄 (2005) Dirs: Suguru Takeuchi, Akio Jissoji, Hisyasu Sato, Atsushi Kaneko
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Samurai Wolf 2: Hell Cut (牙狼之介 地獄斬り, Hideo Gosha, 1967)
Kiba is again confronted with the duplicities of late Meiji society after being pulled into intrigue at a disused mine in Hideo Gosha’s striking chanbara.
Somebody’s Flowers 誰かの花 (2022) Director: Yusuke Okada
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Hanazono-san Chi no Futago-chan (Oh, Those Hanazono Twins)
The begins with the protagonist, Tatara, having a photo taken of him hanging out at an amusement park with his childhood friend Yuriko. This is a problem because…
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Jungle Block (地図のない町, Ko Nakahira, 1960)
A jaded doctor finds himself fixating on vengeance when the slum he lives in is targeted for redevelopment in Ko Nakahira’s searing noir.
Song of the Flower Basket (花籠の歌, Heinosuke Gosho, 1937)
The daughter of a tonkatsu shop finds herself with an overabundance of suitors in Heinosuke Gosho’s generally cheerful yet occasionally dark melodrama.
Yakuza Graveyard (やくざの墓場 くちなしの花, Kinji Fukasaku, 1976)
A maverick cop finds himself sympathising with noble yakuza when confronted by entrenched corruption in Kinji Fukasaku’s jitsuroku-esque gangster drama.
Girls in the Orchard / 花の中の娘たち / Hana no naka no musumetachi (1953)
Obscure Japanese Film #109 Mariko Okada Toho’s first feature film in full colour concerns the Ishii family, who live in the rural area of ...
Green Jail 緑の牢獄 Dir: Huang Yin-yu [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
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The Nineteen-Year-Old’s Map (十九歳の地図, Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1979)
An alienated young man maps out moral failure and eases his sense of futility through empty threats of violence in Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s dark youth drama.
Jigoku no Girlfriend: Torikai Akane
A whole year since I’ve wandered the narrow aisles of my favourite Tokyo bookstores! Twelve whole months since I’ve picked up a book I’ve never heard of because…
[Cosplay] Jigoku Sensei Nu~be~
It’ so hot everyday, and it tires me a lot. To much worse, I got a wisdom tooth pulled out, that hurts a little. Well, how are you doing?…
Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity, Volume 8 (花のあすか組 ∞インフィニティ )
A few weeks ago, I reviewed HabuCore F, the 10-years-later epilogue to a series Hayate x Blade (はやて×ブレード), which I described as “a gonzo battle/school manga series.” I…
Hana no Asuka-gumi! ∞Infinity, Volume 9 (花のあすか組! ∞インフィニティ)
Once again, we come to the end of the longest-running girl-gang manga series. I say “again,” because this series has ended several times before. This first time when…
Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity, Volume 7 (花のあすか組 ∞インフィニティ)
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Bi-Weekly Booty: Hakari Hanazono from 100 Girlfriends!
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Shoujo Jigoku no Doku Musume (Poison Control)
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The dark heart of small-town Japan comes to the fore in Takahisa Zeze’s tale of social prejudice and feudalistic mores
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Xu’s largely observational doc follows an unlikely streaming star as she overcomes her sense of futility through boundless optimism.
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What if you entered a school that had a fabled old tradition and it sounded so beautiful and romantic that you couldn’t wait to be part of it…but…
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Bara no ki ni bara no hana saku / 薔薇の木にバラの花咲く / (‘Roses Bloom on the Rose Bush’, 1959)
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A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing a book on Yuri history in Taiwan by Baihe novelist 楊雙子 Yáng Shuāngzǐ. Today I am reviewing the…
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Nanami: The Inferno of First Love [Hatsukoi: Jigoku-hen]
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Hell Girl: Two Mirrors/Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori Review Archive
Episode 1: The Girl in the Dark Episode 2: Bubbles Episode 3: Beloved Kei Episode 4: Secret Episode 5: Barreling Towards Hell Episode 6: Where the Sun Shines…
A Town Not on the Map / 地図のない町 / Chizu no mai machi (aka ‘The Jungle Block’, 1960)
Obscure Japanese Film #127 Yoko Minamida Ryoji Hayama Shinsuke (Ryoji Hayama) is a young doctor who has had to resign from his post at a...
Breakout Brothers (逃獄兄弟, Mak Ho-Pong, 2020)
A trio of inmates decide to break out of prison but discover that it’s friendship that sets them free in Mak Ho-Pong’s cartoonish crime caper
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Equinox Flower (彼岸花, Yasujiro Ozu, 1958)
An ageing patriarch struggles to accept his declining authority in Ozu’s first colour film
Hanasaku Iroha 花咲くいろは
Ohana, a Tokyo high school girl, who had been living alone with her single mom has no choice but to relocate to her grandmother’s inn when her mom…