An undercover cop’s mission to crack a trafficking is disrupted when he runs into an an old flame in Teruo Ishii’s early B-movie noir
Feb 2, 2022 • Subscribe
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An Outlaw (ならず者, Teruo Ishii, 1964)
Ken Takakura stars as a China-based hitman dragged into local intrigue when a job goes awry in an early crime thriller from Teruo Ishii.
Female Yakuza Tale (やさぐれ姐御伝 総括リンチ, Teruo Ishii, 1973)
Revenge completed, Ochi finds herself swept into conspiracy in the sequel to Nofumi Suzuki’s Sex and Fury
Wind, Woman and Road (風と女と旅鴉, Tai Kato, 1958)
A wanderer returns home and finds himself torn between a desire for acceptance and revenge in an early Tai Kato jidaigeki.
Conflagration (1958) review
A narrative that serenely depicts the possible outcome of a subject’s failure to find, in a post-war landscape, someone to carry the Name-Of-The-Father.
Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight (ポルノ時代劇 忘八武士道, Teruo Ishii, 1973)
A nihilistic ronin falls into the hellish trap of the Yoshiwara in Teruo Ishii’s dazzlingly psychedelic period drama, Bohachi Bushido
Giants and Toys (1958) review
A classic that, as a critique of capitalism and materialism, has not lost any of its relevance.
Katsuhito Ishii as Animator
By Tom Wilmot. For those clued up on modern Japanese cinema, the name Katsuhito Ishii is sure to ring a bell. Renowned for his surreal imagery and off-kilter…
Malevolent Spirits #20 — Flesh Wounds
Sure, I guess losing a chunk of your abdomen doesn't count for much. Impressions: This episode is pretty similar to the other 'big' action one this season…
The Precipice / 氷壁 / Hyoheki (1958)
Obscure Japanese Film #119 Kenji Sugawara When salaryman Uoza (Kenji Sugawara) returns from a mountaineering trip and encounters his frien...
Party 7 (Katsuhito Ishii, 2000)
A series of strange events bring a collection of lonely souls to Hotel New Mexico in Katsuhito Ishii’s zany crime comedy.
肉体派ガチ!/ Nikutaiha Gachi! (volume 1)
I will be at in-person convention (Minicon) this weekend. On Sunday, I’ll be on a panel about anime and manga. Since I will be suggesting that people check…
The Moon (月, Yuya Ishii, 2023)
A writer overwhelmed with grief takes a job at a care home, but it is shocked by what she finds in Yuya Ishii’s hard-hitting drama.
Idaten Deities #01 — Just a Flesh Wound
Whatever the dude who did the OP is smoking, the show needs way more of that. Impressions: It's really hard to state how weird the OP sequence is.…
Holiday Review #12: TO STRIP THE FLESH
Yet again, if you want trans (particularly transmasc) representation in comics, manga remains the best place to find it and this year brough...
Magical Revolution #09 — Just a Flesh Wound
At least they animated this episode. Impressions: Well, at least unlike Iceblade, this actually shovels some money into its big arc-ending fight scenes. I do appreciate that,…
Holiday Review #12: TO STRIP THE FLESH
Yet again, if you want trans (particularly transmasc) representation in comics, manga remains the best place to find it and this year brough...
THE LOYAL 47 RONIN (1958) – A Samurai Masterpiece
I’ve seen five Japanese films about the story of the 47 Ronin, made from 1941 to 1994. There were dozens more films about this famous incident from the…
Equinox Flower (彼岸花, Yasujiro Ozu, 1958)
An ageing patriarch struggles to accept his declining authority in Ozu’s first colour film
The Black Umbrella Mystery / 体育館の殺人
The Black Umbrella Mystery is a story with the soul of Ellery Queen and the body of an anime protagonist. There are a few Japanese…
Pick of the Week: Let’s Eat Mermaid Flesh!
MICHELLE: Most of the stuff that interests me this week is a reminder of how far behind I’ve fallen in various series. There’s one, though, that I waited…
The Box Man (箱男, Gakuryu Ishii, 2024)
Those who obsess over the Box Man, become the Box Man, in Gakuryu Ishii’s adaptation of the Kobo Abe novel.
Katsuhito Ishii Collection (Limited Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing
After releasing Funky Forest and The Taste of Tea, Third Window Films have now released a new box set consisting of six more films from Katsuhito Ishii including…
The Creators of FGO Babylonia #04: Toshimasa Ishii
As explained in an earlier post, it’s not that uncommon to find production-related people climbing to a higher position such as episode director or even series director. Even…
To Strip the Flesh - A Powerful Story About Identity
"I don't want to die having given up. I don't want to drown in a puddle. I don't want to die looking like this. I want to die…
Wolves of the Night (夜の狼, Yoichi Ushihara, 1958)
A heartless yakuza becomes conflicted on being confronted with the consequences of his actions in Yoichi Ushihara’s slice of Nikkatsu Noir.
Japanese Animation, 1937-1958: or, more notes on Akira Daikuhara
The origin and core of this piece is my personal interest in Daikuhara, but it will not be another biographical piece like my previous one. I will rather…
The Young Boss (花笠若衆, Kiyoshi Saeki, 1958)
Hibari Misora stars as a pair of twins separated at birth in Kiyoshi Saeki’s musical jidaigeki adventure
Labyrinth of Dreams (ユメノ銀河, Sogo Ishii, 1997)
“If both held their courses they would collide in nine seconds, and catastrophe would be inevitable” according to the voiceover which opens Sogo Ishii’s ethereal psychodrama Labyrinth of…
Electric Dragon 80000v (エレクトリック·ドラゴン 80000V, Sogo Ishii, 2001)
A supercharged free spirit clashes with an electric Buddha man at war with himself in Sogo Ishii’s cyberpunk fever dream.
A new FanTL work! — Scent of Seductive Flesh out now
A mysterious hole presents itself to Takuya. Who made this hole? What for?
THE BLOB (1958): Criterion Blu-ray of a Sci-Fi Classic
When I was five, I remember standing outside my local movie theater, the Crotona, and seeing a poster for the movie, THE BLOB (1958), with this massive jello-like…
Endless Desire (果しなき欲望, Shohei Imamura, 1958)
A gang returning to dig up the stolen morphine they buried at the end of the war is slowly torn apart by their greed in Shomei Imamura’s darkly…
Mountain Woman (山女, Takeshi Fukunaga, 2022)
A young woman walks into the mountains to die but unexpectedly discovers what it is to feel truly human in Takeshi Fukunaga’s bleak folk tale.
The Asian Angel (アジアの天使, Yuya Ishii, 2021)
The lonely souls of Japan and Korea are brought together by angelic intervention in Yuya Ishii’s wistful drama
PODCAST - Ep. 66: Cross Game vol. 1 & To Strip the Flesh
This week, the crew reads Cross Game by Mitsuru Adachi, a truly memorable and masterfully-told story about baseball, friendship, family and much more
Black Cat Mansion (亡霊怪猫屋敷, Nobuo Nakagawa, 1958)
A rationally minded doctor and his sickly wife find themselves trapped in the haunted house of post-war Japan in Nobuo Nakagawa’s eerie gothic horror
Ghost in the Regiment (憲兵と幽霊, Nobuo Nakagawa, 1958)
A treacherous military police officer comes to embody the evils of war in Nobuo Nakagawa’s eerie psychological horror.
The Thing 遊星からの物体X (1982) Dir: John Carpenter
The Thing 遊星からの物体X (1982) Dir: John Carpenter
Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 1 (作りたい女と食べたい女)
I am so excited to be able to review this particular book as my first review of 2022! Since I first read this on Comic Walker, I’ve been…
Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 2 (作りたい女と食べたい女)
Because I loved Volume 1 so very much, I ran out immediately after reviewing it, and bought Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 2 (作りたい女と食べたい女) as a digital…
Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 4 (作りたい女と食べたい女)
There are so many reasons that Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 4 (作りたい女と食べたい女) is an amazing volume of manga, that I’m hard pressed to pick one thing.…
Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 5 (作りたい女と食べたい女)
With more than two decades of reading, I am still absolutely amazed at the high quality of Yuri manga we have gotten in the last few years –…
Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 3 (作りたい女と食べたい女)
In Volume 1, we met Nomoto Yuki, a contractor in an office. She finds society’s expectations for women confining and stress-cooks to relax. We then met Kasuga-san, her…
Supermarket Woman (スーパーの女, Juzo Itami, 1996)
A veteran housewife uses her long experience to save a failing supermarket while standing up for wholesome small-town values in Itami’s post-Bubble farce
Kohaku no Kijo (琥珀の貴女)
Today, I am conflicted. ^_^ Kohaku no Kijo (琥珀の貴女) is a short story collection by Higashikawa Mizo and, like most short story collections, it has some tropes of…
Himegami no Miko (姫神の巫女)
by Rachel Gruber, Guest Reviewer As a teen growing up in the 2000s, my introduction to yuri anime naturally came in the form of the “big three:” Strawberry…
Luminous Woman (光る女, Shinji Somai, 1987)
A pure-hearted mountain man descends into the hell of the model capital in search of lost love in Shinji Somai’s surrealist fable.
Swallow 喰之女 Director: Mai Nakanishi (2021)
You are what you eat in “Swallow 喰之女”, the latest short from horror auteur Mai Nakanishi. This Taiwan-set story shows how coveting beauty and youth can warp alter…
Crazy Thunder Road (狂い咲きサンダーロード, Sogo Ishii, 1980)
A perpetual outsider seeks direction but discovers only nihilistic despair in Sogo Ishii’s apocalyptic biker movie