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Sadao Nakajima passed away from pneumonia on 11th June, 2023. He was 88 years old. Active as a director until just four years before his passing, Nakajima left behind legacy of work that most directors would dream of. Alongside Kinji Fukasaku and Junya Sato, he is credited as being one of the main names to define the Yakuza genre, with some of his greatest works coming within that genre for Toei Studios, showcasing a range of styles and narrative complexities while at it. Outside of the yakuza genre as well though, Nakajima made a number of terrific features, mixing a range of genres and filmmaking styles effectively over an illustrious career that lasted a little under 60 years, starting from his debut in 1964 all the way until his swansong in 2019.

Without further ado, we list 12 essential films by Sadao Nakajima that are not in the Yakuza genre, in chronological order.

1. Female Ninja Magic...

Sadao Nakajima passed away from pneumonia on 11th June, 2023. He was 88 years old. Active as a director until just four years before his passing, Nakajima left behind legacy of work that most directors would dream of. Alongside Kinji Fukasaku and Junya Sato, he is credited as being one of the main names to define the Yakuza genre, with some of his greatest works coming within that genre, showcasing a range of styles and narrative complexities while at it. Having joined Toei Studio in 1959, he worked primarily at Toei's Kyoto studio, despite running his contract out and going independent in 1967. In fact, the majority of the titles we list here are productions from after he left Toei as a contracted director and yet continued to work for the Studio as a freelancer, likely because of the freedom it provided him and his relationship with their existing roster of actors and crew,...

Over the course of 45 years and counting, "Star Wars" has evolved and branched into various shades of storytelling, from the gritty, grounded feel of "Andor" to the lore-heavy, adventure-of-the-week style narrative of "The Bad Batch." At its core, the franchise has always been heavily influenced by samurai films and space westerns, with George Lucas paying homage to the genres that shaped his artistic sensibilities. Although Lucas might not be directly involved with the acclaimed Disney+ series "The Mandalorian" — created and executive produced by Jon Favreau — the series proudly wears its samurai and spaghetti western influences on its sleeve. Playing out as a modern sci-fi with futuristic fantasy worldbuilding, "The Mandalorian" embraces its genre influences and subverts them to good measure, where bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) plays the dual roles of a lone ranger and doting father figure, which situates him in the crossroads of questioning "the way."

The...

What a discovery . . . I’m glad this was recommended to me. Kôsaku Yamashita’s powerful 1968 drama belongs to the semi-chivalrous ‘honor and code’ yakuza tradition. Crime clan blood brothers Kôji Tsuruta and Tomisaburô Wakayama are good men caught between conflicting loyalties to family, friends, and the yakuza credo. Clashes of honor lead to unavoidable ‘knives out’ confrontations. It’s as intense as the Japanese classics. The extras offer a refresher in yakuza customs and protocol, with expert guidance from Chris D. and Mark Schilling.

Big Time Gambling Boss

Region A + B Blu-ray

Radiance (UK)

1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 95 min. / Bakuchiuci: Sôchô Tobaku; Gambling Den: Gambling Boss; The Great Casino; Presidential Gambling Street Date February 1, 2023 / Available from Radiance (UK) / £16.99

Starring: Kôji Tsuruta, Tomisaburô Wakayama, Hiroshi Nawa, Nobuo Kaneko, Hiroko Sakuramachi, Hideto Kagawa, Michiyo Hattori,Shin’ichirô Mikami.

Cinematography: Nagaki Yamagishi

Production Designer/ Art Director: Jirô Tomita

Film Editor: Miyamoto Shinjirô

Original Music: Toshiaki Tsushima...

To mark the Blu-ray release of Big Time Gambling Boss and The Working Class Goes to Heaven, both out on 2nd January, we’ve been given a Blu-ray bundle of both movies to give away to 2 winners.

Big Time Gambling Boss

Tokyo, 1934. Gang boss Arakawa is too ill and a successor must be named. The choice falls on Nakai, but being an outsider he refuses and suggests senior clansman Matsuda instead. But Matsuda is in jail and the elders won’t wait for his release, so they appoint the younger and more malleable Ishido to take the reins. Clan honour and loyalties are severely tested when Matsuda is released, resulting in an increasingly violent internal strife. An atmospheric tale of gangland intrigue written by Kazuo Kasahara (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) and starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, and genre legend Koji Tsuruta, Big Time Gambling Boss is one of the all-time classics of the yakuza genre.

By Spencer Lloyd Peet (www.slpeet.com)

Eureka! Entertainment Ltd has released a Blu-ray and DVD combined two-disc limited edition dual format steelbook of the cult classic blood-spurting Japanese/American film Shogun Assassin. Hailed in the West as one of the most popular samurai films ever, it is a spectacular representation of violence in film as an art form.

The film depicts the story of ronin Itto Ogami (Tomisaburo Wakayama) and his son Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa). After the deranged Shogun has Ogami’s wife murdered in an exercise to test the samurai’s loyalty, Ogami abandons his role as official decapitator and, with son in tow who now travels in a wooden cart affixed with hidden lethal weapons, takes up the life of a paid assassin. Lone Wolf and Cub now wander among the wilderness of ancient Japan constantly fending off attacks by ninja spies hired by the Shogun. The...

The production concept behind Shogun Assassin is one that would often immediately put film fan’s noses out of joint but Shogun Assassin is a much loved film and with good reason. Essentially a re-edit and re-dubbing of the first two feature film instalments in the Lone Wolf & Cub series Shogun Assassin was produced as a ‘brand new’ feature for the Us market in 1980.

The film contains approximately twelve minutes of the first Lone Wolf film, Sword of Vengeance, and approximately seventy-five minutes from the second film, Baby Cart at the River Styx (both directed by Kenji Misumi). Director Robert Houston splices various sequences from these films together to create one film that obviously bears a lot of similarities but simplifies and removes plot points in places and drastically alters dialogue. Hiring deaf people to guess at what the characters could be saying Houston then took these approximations and rewrote the script,...

Internet TV network Joost which recently dumped its software application in favour of 100% browser based viewing carries a varied range of programming. In amoust the channels tagged retro tv, is a channel carries episodes from the classic Japanese TV series Zatoichi The Blind Swordsman which stars Shintarô Katsu as teh titular hero. Katsu played Zatoichi in over 20 movies and 100 tv outings. His real life brother Tomisaburo Wakayama, starred in the nearly as legendary Babycart / Lone Wolf and Cub / Shogun Assassin series of movies.

There are around 26 episodes available over at Joost running around 45 minutes each. I am not sure however which regions they are available in, as licensing restrictions continue to dog legal internet TV's abilty to really take advantage of the webs inherent world wide nature.

Watch the episodes of classic Japanese series Zatoichi The Blind Swordsman on joost.com

Via: Zatoichi The Blind Swordsman On Joost Read More

tags: cult tv,...