**Disclaimer: The following home release review was written before additional allegations came out regarding a larger issue with lead actor Tak Sakaguchi, detailed in a March 3rd thread by Tom Mes. We feel it’s important to note that this is… Read More ›
Tak Sakaguchi
“One-Percent Warrior” Blu-ray Giveaway
One of the best action films of 2023 is headed to home video and you’ve got a shot to win a copy. Originally released as 1%er, writer/director Yūdai Yamaguchi’s One-Percent Warrior starring Tak Sakaguchi is a meta-martial arts action crime film… Read More ›
Writer/director Yūdai Yamaguchi brings his martial arts actioner “One-Percenter” to whoop ass at Fantastic Fest 2023. [Fantastic Fest]
Who doesn’t love a little meta-angle in their entertainment, something that’s willing to poke fun at itself all while telling its own version of the very thing it’s potentially satirizing? We’re talking movies like Hollywood Shuffle (1987), The Player (1992),… Read More ›
Kensuke Sonomura’s crime drama “Bad City” comes available to own on home video.
At the 2022 Fantastic Fest, actor/stunt choreographer/director Kensuke Sonomura unveiled his second feature film Bad City, the follow-up to the 2019 release HYDRA. His sophomore crime drama packed in as much intrigue and even more blood-letting, all aided by stellar… Read More ›
“Bad City” Blu-ray Giveaway
It’s been nearly a year since its screening at Fantastic Fest 2022 and Kensuke Sonomura’s bloody crime drama Bad City is finally releasing on physical formats in the United States in September 2023 after a brief digital-only period which started… Read More ›
Kensuke Sonomura’s sophomore film “Bad City” includes the action you expect and subtext you won’t. [Fantastic Fest]
Over the last few years, much of the best stunt work has been coming out of Asia. Preman: Silent Fury (2022) from Indonesia, Aliennoid (2022) from Korea, Baby Assassins (2021) and HYDRA (2020) from Japan, and Raging Fire (2021) from… Read More ›
Sion Sono’s odd and beautiful “Prisoners of the Ghostland” arrives in four flavors: 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it countless times: revisiting a film is always bound to reveal something new. We have to be willing — correction — open to that newness because, whether a film is a longtime favorite… Read More ›
“Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1” Blu-ray Giveaway
Tak Sakaguchi was a street fighter when writer/director Ryûhei Kitamura hired him to play Prisoner KSC2-303 in Versus (2000). Since then, Sakaguchi developed quite the resume as a live actor, voice actor, and stunt coordinator in films large and small. Now… Read More ›
“Prisoners of the Ghostland” brings new meaning to the phrase “balls out” in its post-apocalyptic action/adventure tale. [Sundance Film Festival]
A nameless stranger. A damsel in distress. A suicide mission that no one but the best can handle. These three requirements appear in countless stories, from gunslinger westerns of the East to the samurai tales of the West, each possessing… Read More ›
Experience director Ryûhei Kitamura’s newly restored exercise in controlled escalation, “Versus,” in a brand new way.
By director Ryûhei Kitamura’s own admission, labels are reductive and restrictive. Though they may help audiences to know where to look on the shelf for something or programmers to know where to schedule, labels imply as much the absence of… Read More ›
“Crazy Samurai Musashi” eschews bombast in favor of quiet restraint. [Fantasia Film Festival]
Long takes have become the new major flex a filmmaker can make in their films these days, from Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), to Sam Mendes’s 1917, even making its way into video games like… Read More ›
Funimation’s live-action manga adaptation “Kingdom” is available on home video now.
Prior to hearing about the 2019 limited theatrical release of director Shinsuke Sato’s (Inuyashiki) Kingdom, I had no awareness of the 2012 anime or the 2006 manga. Coming into the film blind, I only knew that the story involved treachery,… Read More ›
Manga adaptation “Kingdom” is not just for the fans, but for adventure-seekers everywhere.
For the uninitiated, watching the trailer for director Shinsuke Sato’s (Inuyashiki) Kingdom will be confusing and potentially befuddling. Frankly, it’s just a whirlwind of content as text lays out the plot amid rapid images from the film all while “Wasted… Read More ›