Cyclops (1987) Japan made a good number of direct-to-video horror shorts in the ’80s, and Cyclops is one of the better ones, even though the story is almost incomprehensible. Takamori (Kazuhiro Sano) is obsessed with birth defects, specifically “cyclopia,” where the two eyes fuse together in the womb […]
One afternoon, I was out listening to music on a walk. A guy stopped me on the sidewalk in front of a church to inform me that walking around outside with both earbuds in isn’t safe. He thought I didn’t realize it’s important to be able to hear […]
A dilapidated mansion. An eerie, mist-shrouded forest. A lone samurai making his way home late at night meets a seemingly defenseless beautiful and refined young woman. So begins Kuroneko–Kaneto Shindo’s tale of cats, vengeance, and the wrongs visited upon women (and powerless men) by entitled men. Kuroneko is […]
This week Trailers from Hell celebrates the films of Akira Kurosawa. First up, director Brian Trenchard-Smith discusses Rashomon (1950) in just over the time it takes to play the trailer.
In chanbara, Japanese sword-fighting movies, actor Seizo Fukumoto is a master of the art of dying. Anthony Kuhn interviews him about his life dying on screen. “In a trademark move, Fukumoto is dealt a fatal blow, then bends over backward, seemingly suspended in midair for a moment of […]
Kyoto University of Art and Design’s newest teacher is none other than JJ Sonny Chiba. Prof. Chiba will be teaching film acting and swordfighting. And I bet ninjitsu, but secretly. (via Kaiju Shakedown)