The Cutest in the World
Even among the wild personalities on offer in professional wrestling, Japan’s Maki Itoh is, in all ways, an aberration.
“Crime is like a Magic Box: Black Lizard (1968)”
Friend of the Gutter Michelle Kisner on Kinji Fukasaku’s 1968 film, Black Lizard! “Villains can be alluring and enchanting and, if executed correctly, can hold the audience in the palm of their hands. Kinji Fukasaku’s film Black Lizard (1968) has one such outlaw, Mrs. Midorikawa (Akihiro Miwa), AKA […]
“We Have Monster Trouble!”
Comedian/actor Steven He presents…. Ginormo! “Created in the early 1970’s, Ginormo! follows the Super Protection Force (SPF) as they protect the world from the evil organization, Beast Advanced Artillery Division (BAAD), which seeks to take over the world using the most terrifying monsters ever created. Unfortunately, due to […]
Summer Fun Time Reading ’23
Summer isn’t quite here, but it’s been hot and a chunk of North America is already on fire, so I thought I’d go straight ahead with my Summer Fun Time Reading recommendations. There’s Gilded Age tomfoolery, science fiction, horror, mysterious figures with antlers, UFOs, ghosts, cats with skulls […]
“It’s Not Easy Hating Evil”: The Bad Sleep Well
For this year’s Switcheroo Month, I decided to write about a lesser known film by one of the most reputable directors around—Akira Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well (1960). Set in then contemporary mid-Twentieth Century Japan, The Bad Sleep Well is the story of Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) seeking […]
“Nintendo and the Japanese Software Boom”
BBC Archives shares a 1991 report on “Nintendo and the Japanese Software Boom”: “Gordon Brewer visits Japan, to gauge the state of the Japanese software industry. With Nintendo having already demonstrated that a Japanese corporation can quickly dominate the US video games software market, should the big American […]
The Cultural Gutter 