“Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters”
Pink Tentacle has a gallery of Gōjin Ishihara’s illustrations for The Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters (1972).
“Godzilla’s Conscience: The Monstrous Humanism of Ishiro Honda”
At Criterion, Steven Ryfle writes about director Ishiro Honda and Godzilla. “Ishiro Honda gathered his crew and gave them an ultimatum. He was about to put his career at risk, and he would only work with those who approached his current project—a movie about a radiation-spewing prehistoric reptile […]
Sci-Fi, Shochiku Style
In the 1960s, Japan’s venerable Shochiku Studio, struggling to stay relevant amid changing times, threw up its arms and said, “Fine. Whatever!” and rapidly produced four profoundly weird science fiction and horror films: The Living Skeleton, Genocide, The X from Outer Space, and the oddest of all, Goke: Bodysnatcher from Hell.
Triple-decker Metafictional Zombie Sandwich
As a general rule, you can tell me what happens at the end. In fact, if I’m finding a book or tv show stressful, I often flip ahead or look at recaps to find out what happens so I can just relax and enjoy it. That said, every […]
Cover of “Tank!” (aka, Cowboy Bebop’s Theme Song)
Jazz ensemble covering Yoko Kanno’s “Tank!”–aka, the theme from Cowboy Bebop–off-sheet and unrehearsed.
Podcast on Fire: When Taekwondo Strikes and Heroes Of The East!
“Continuing the Versus Series, lined up for review is Golden Harvest’s 1973 Angela Mao movie When Taekwondo Strikes. She might take your head off, fighting on the side of the Korean people against the Japanese. Also, in Heroes Of The East, Lau Kar-Leung depicts Chinese versus Japanese martial […]
The Cultural Gutter 