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Last month the world saw the last episode of FX’s Shōgun, the massively successful historical drama about powerful samurai’s battle for power. It has clearly rekindled people’s interest in the Japanese traditional samurai movies of the 20th century.

Here are 6 of the most worth-watching genre’s staples for all fans of Shōgun.

Seven Samurai (1954)

Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece is probably the first film that comes to mind to all cinephiles in this respect. The tale of a ronin tasked with gathering a group of samurai to defend a village from criminals, perfectly balancing between action and character development, was the one that paved the way for other samurai movies.

The Throne of Blood (1957)

Here comes another Kurosawa’s work, appearing to be an Asian twist on the Shakespearen story of Macbeth. Following a warrior who assassinates his sovereign at the urging of his wife, it has become...

Alexandre Koberidze's What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? is showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries starting January 7, 2022 in the series The New Auteurs.Inspiration #1“Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” by Sinead O'ConnorListening and watching Sinéad O'Connor singing” Don't Cry for Me Argentina” is one of the most beautiful experiences I ever had. While writing the script, while preparing the film, I was often watching it. I think a wish to make a film as gentle, careful, and at the same time as overwhelming as this performance will follow me for many years. Inspiration #2A scene Three Days of Hot Summer (1981)by Merab Kokochashvili The character played by Kakhi Kavsadze is an archeologist. Late at night during a heavy rainstorm he wants to go to his worksite because it might be raining there too and he wants to cover it up."You're crazy," his wife says,...

A special two-part episode. From the movie Werewolves Within, director Josh Ruben discusses a few of his favorite movies. Then, Werewolves Within writer Mishna Wolff plays a game of “find the woman” in some of her favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode Josh Ruben:

Werewolves Within (2021)

Werewolves On Wheels (1971) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Wrath of Man (2021)

Trapped Ashes (2006)

The ’Burbs (1989) – Ti West’s trailer commentary

The Fly (1986)

To My Great Chagrin: The Unbelievable Story of Brother Theodore (2007)

Road To Perdition (2002)

Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye (1985)

Nightmare On Elm Street Part III: Dream Warriors (1987)

Flight of the Navigator (1986)

Grease (1978)

Honey I Blew Up The Kid (1992)

Big Top Pee-Wee (1988)

A History of Violence (2005)

The Dead (1987)

The Peanut Butter Solution (1985)

Irreversible (2002)

Hunter Hunter (2020)

Man Bites Dog (1992)

The Human Centipede: The First Sequence (2009)

A Serbian Film (2010)

Planes Trains And Automobiles (1987)

Lost In Translation (2003)

JFK (1991)

Home Alone (1990)

The Second Civil War (1997) – Glenn...

by Jack Ford

“Shogun Assassin” is a somewhat notorious title and one frowned upon by some purists. While Japanese in origin, this film is an amalgamation of the first two films in Toho Studios’ “Lone Wolf and Cub” series, assembled by American filmmaker Robert Houston, who also created new English dialogue and a new title for his version. It is not certain why the decision was made to introduce the Lone Wolf and Cub series – themselves adaptations of the manga series of the same name written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Goseki Kojima – to western markets this way. There existed an in-built audience for chambara films overseas and others in the genre had been released in the same territories untampered with.

Nevertheless, It turns out that these films were in safe hands. Despite not having much of a good reason to exist, “Shogun Assassin” not only...

Blood-spattered amalgam of two different samurai entries in the 6-part “Lone Wolf/Baby Cart” series, cobbled together with an ’80s techno-music score by American producers for the drive-in trade. Voice dubbers include Sandra Bernhardt and Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Has a remarkably avid following considering the superiority of the originals.

Craig Lines Apr 5, 2017

Marvel? DC? They have their moments, but how about Shogun Assassin, and in turn, the Lone Wolf & Cub movies?

Like most western viewers, I came to the Lone Wolf & Cub series via Shogun Assassin – a recut/mash-up of the first two movies, trimmed to 90 minutes and dubbed into English by a pair of enterprising Andy Warhol acolytes. It was one of the original 'video nasties' in the UK, banned for years, so highly desirable to a kid like me. And it didn’t disappoint. In fact, it was probably the goriest movie on the list.

While it may seem criminal now to butcher a pair of bona fide Japanese classics and completely change their meaning and tone, Shogun Assassin got away with it by being so vibrant and hyperactive. The inappropriate score is a joyful synthesiser meltdown and the spirited dub goes full-pelt, even if what they...

Stars: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Yunosuke Ito, Go Kato | Written by Kazuo Koike, Tsutomu Nakamura | Directed by Kenji Misumi, Buichi Saito, Yoshiyuki Kuroda

Producing six films across two years (1972-1974) is no mean feat, especially when you consider that they mostly retain their quality throughout. Based on the 28-volume manga series by Kazuo Koike (writer, who adapts for screen) and Goseki Kojima (illustrator), Lone Wolf and Cub is a set of brisk, ultraviolent action-adventure movies, packed with clever ideas, beautiful scenery, and weird characters, set in the Edo period (17th to 19th centuries) of Japan.

Martial arts star Tomisaburo Wakayama plays Itto Ogami (meaning “wolf”), an ex-Shogunate Executioner whose wife is murdered by the fearful Yagyu clan, led by the cruel Retsudo (Yunosuke Ito). Framed and shamed into exile, Ogami takes his son, Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa), and hits the road. Not just any road, but the “Demon Way in Hell...

If I have another son, I'm going to name him Daigoro. In 1972, producer Katsu Shintaro (Zatoichi, Hanzo the Razor), director Misumi Kenji (also a veteran of the Zatoichi and Hanzo series), manga artist Koike Kazuo, and lead actor Wakayama Tomisaburo (brother of Katsu and period drama veteran) began a journey that would last six films, but have an impact on Japanese and international filmmakers for decades to come. Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance is the first in a series of incredibly violent, almost unbearably stylish, and unexpectedly tender films about a boy and his father on the run from a clan of assassins intent upon their demise. The Lone Wolf and Cub series is the story of Ogami Itto (Wakayama), the former...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

You'll always be careful with knives after seeing the outrageous, impossibly gory violence of this brain-warping samurai series from the early 1970s. Tomisaburo Wakabayashi rolls his tiny tot Daigoro through feudal Japan, looking for trouble. There's simply been nothing like it: breathtakingly beautiful images aestheticize bloodletting as never before or since. Lone Wolf and Cub Sword of Vengeance, Baby Cart at the River Styx, Baby Cart to Hades, Baby Cart in Peril, Baby Cart in the Land of Demons, White Heaven in Hell + Shogun Assassin Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 841 1972-1974 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 630 + min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 8, 2016 / 99.95 Starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa. Written by Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima Produced by Shintaro Katsu, Hisaharu Matsubara, Tomisaburo Wakayama Directed by Kenji Misumi, Buichi Saito, Yoshiyuki Kuroda

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In an unexpected move, Criterion has released one of the most influential Japanese film series of the 1970s,...

You want radical? Look no further. Nagisa Oshima's near-legendary issue drama makes a wickedly frightening protest against the death penalty, but then proceeds into formal abstraction and the endorsement of a violent radical position. You can't find a political 'gauntlet picture' as jarring or as potent as this one. Death by Hanging Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 798 1968 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 118 min. / Kôshikei / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 16, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Do-yun Yu, Kei Sato, Fumio Watanabe, Toshiro Ishido, Masao Adachi, Rokko Toura, Hosei Komatsu, Masao Matsuda, Akiko Koyama. Cinematography Yasuhiro Yoshioka Film Editor Sueko Shiraishi Original Music Hikaru Hayashi Written by Michinori Fukao. Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura, Nagisa Oshima Produced by Masayuki Nakajima, Takuji Yamaguchi, Nagisa Oshima Directed by Nagisa Oshima

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Believe me, you ain't seen nothing yet. Nagisa Oshima is a radical's radical, a cinema stylist completely committed to his politics -- which...

The bloody adventures of a swordswoman dedicated to murderous revenge provided Quentin Tarantino with a major inspiration. Director Toshiyo Fujita's impeccable images make the gorgeous Meiko Kaji into an almost abstract superheroine in beautiful cultured dress and hairstyles -- and soaked with sprayed blood. The Complete Lady Snowblood Lady Snowblood & Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 790 & 791 1973/1974 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 97 & 89 min. / "Shurayukime" & "Shurayukihime: Urami Renga" / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 5, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Meiko Kaji, Toshio Kurosawa, Noboru Nakaya, Eiji Okada; Meiko Kaji, Juzo Itami, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Yoshio Harada. Cinematography Masaki Tamura; Tatsuo Suzuki Film Editor Osamu Inoue Original Music MasaaakiHirao; Kenjiro Hirose Written by Norio Osada, Kazuo Kamimura, Kazuo Koike Directed by Toshiya Fujita

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

A worldwide revolution hit the movies in the late '60s, with the relaxing of censorship in the west and the collapse of foreign film industries with the rise of TV.

40. Road to Perdition

One of the more surprising and lesser-known facts about Sam Mendes’ second film, Road to Perdition, is that it’s actually adapted from a graphic novel of the same name by Max Allan Collins. The plot follows Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks), an Irish mob enforcer as he goes on the run with his son Michael Jr. after Jr. witnesses a murder and their family is killed in an effort to cover up any witnesses. There’s many great things in this film that standout, such as Jude Law’s creepy performance as assassin Harlen Maguire, one of Paul Newman’s final and finest performances as mob boss John Rooney, and Hollywood got an early look at the talent of Daniel Craig as the unstable Connor Rooney. However, it’s the climax that remains the most memorable thing in it, featuring some of the most iconic work from...

From the makers of Valhalla Rising comes this brutal and bloody action epic, which sees a young Norman prince take vengeance upon the evil tyrant who murdered his father! Like an almighty clash between Hammer of the Gods and Game of Thrones, this is a must-see movie for fans of swords, Saxons, and medieval savagery!

Sword of Vengeance is in cinemas and available to download 29th May before coming to DVD 1st June and we have one copy of the DVD to give away.

To win a copy of Sword of Vengeance on DVD, just answer the following question:

Sword of Vengeance comes from the makers of Valhalla Rising, but who directed that film? Was it:

a) Nicolas Winding-Refn

b) Nicholas Witchell

c) Nicolas Cage

Email your answer to [email protected], making sure to include your name and address. You can also leave your answer on our Facebook page,...

There is very little to discuss in terms of new releases this week, especially since I haven't seen the two new Costa-Gravas titles or Rainer Werner Fassbinder title from Criterion, which lead off the "Even More" section below. I have, however, updated the upcoming release schedule with several new titles including Ex Machina, the "Rogue Cut" of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Insurgent and Slow West. Hopefully there's something that catches your eye. The Loft I never saw this, but the way Universal treated it pretty much said all I needed to know. Then I talked to someone that did see it and I know to stay away for good.

Seventh Son This one I did see and it is quite the trainwreck.

Even More The Confession (Criterion Collection) The Merchant of Four Seasons (Criterion Collection) State of Siege (Criterion Collection) Da Sweet Blood of Jesus Sword of Vengeance Major Crimes...

We typically think of Vikings as enormous, frightening, pagan beings; mystical, even. In Sword of Vengeance, the hype is real. This clip is all mood; spooky preamble about unstoppable warriors, painted and ready, drinking from horned helmet. It’s pretty metal. In Sword of Vengeance, “a Norman prince, freed from slavery, seeks revenge on his father’s…

The post Exclusive Clip: Viking Revenge Film, Sword of Vengeance appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Is there anything cooler than samurai films?

One of the most beloved cult samurai films is set to get a much longed for high definition release thanks to the folks at AnimEigo, who will be releasing a brand new HD version of the famed film, Shogun Assassin. The film was first released on DVD in 2006 through the company, but this marks a new, restored version of the film, that will be released to mark the film’s 30th anniversary, this July, just in time for the San Diego Comic Con.

Pre-order the Shogun Assassin Blu-ray from Amazon

The new release will feature a collection of new features as well. This edition of the film will feature an over 10 minute long interview with the king of badassery himself, Samuel L. Jackson about his love for the film, and the genre as a whole, as well as a brand new commentary featuring producer David Weisman,...