Category — Japanese

BATTLE ROYALE up on the big screen where it belongs! In Austin!

Austinites rejoice! Spearheaded by our very own IsleOfCinemite Rockie [@RockieWarAntz], IOC is proud to present a very special treat for fans of fantastic film in Central Texas! April 25th, 2013 – MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

As many of you already know, Kinji Fukasaku‘s Battle Royale (2000) - the GREATEST movie of the 21st Century – was never shown theatrically in the U.S. of A. This travesty is now being corrected, and here’s your chance to see this masterpiece as it was intended – with a crowd of fans in a packed freakin’ theater!

I’ll spare you more superlatives because there is simply nothing I can say to do this movie justice. All you need know is that it is the culmination of one of the finest directorial careers of all time, that rare cinematic beast that satisfies heart, mind, soul – and hunger for action! I’m serious – if Luis Buñuel, Seijun Suzuki, Jack Hill, Peter Jackson, Samuel Fuller, Steven Spielberg, Álex de la Iglesia, Quentin Tarantino, Joe Dante, Brian DePalma and several more of your favorite filmmakers (and some you never heard of) had a celluloid baby this would be it. THIS WOULD BE IT! Or forget all those names and just know that it’s a goddamm Kinji Fukasaku film!

So gather all ye Austinites! If you’re a fan of J.J. Abrams‘ Lost, if you’re a fan of The Hunger Games (nobody’s judging), of The Running Man (1987), if you’re a fan of Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Flies, Lord of Illusions, Lord of the Dance, Traci Lords - hell if you possess a set of eyes in your skull -

YOU MUST SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

And check out a great scene from the movie, previously featured here !

We need your asses in the seats to make this happen! So go sign up to see it now! April 25th, 2013 – but you have until the 18th to purchase tickets!

[here, press here!]

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Sometimes a movie comes along that single-handedly raises the bar on WTF?ness. The 2005 quasi-omnibus Funky Forest (directed by Katsuhito Ishii, Hajime Ishimine & Shunichiro Miki) is that movie. Those experienced with Japanese cinema will have an easier time tolerating the seemingly unconnected vignettes that make up this movie, whose plot loosely involves a group of aliens making first contact with a group of equally alien humans. This one’s  weird even by Japan standards – and plays like an unholy marriage between Luis Buñuel‘s Phantom of Liberty and David Cronenberg‘s Naked Lunch. If that sounds good to you you’re apt to enjoy today’s great scene. All others should probably stay away. Warning: the following scene contains bodily fluids, overwhelming weirdness, and mind-boggling logic that may be detrimental to your mental health.

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Fist of the North Star (1995) director Tony Randel is an interesting figure – a Roger Corman disciple who specializes in delivering intriguing special effects on the cheap, he somehow found his way into directing Hellraiser II (1988) – a guilty pleasure packed with high-value/low-cost spectacle – and somehow also found his way into directing this low-budget adaptation of the popular manga. And while it’s by no means a good movie, FOTNS is an interesting relic from a year when Japanese film company TOEI was promoting itself with a rash of B-movies aimed at American home video – films which include 1995′s No Way Back (starring a young Russell Crowe) and 1995′s Crying Freeman (directed by Brotherhood of the Wolf director Christophe Gans). It’s an otherwise awful flick which pairs an anti-charismatic unknown (Gary Daniels) with an overabundance of hammy actors (Malcolm McDowell, Chris Penn and Clint Howard), but this is a fun scene, enhanced by clever prosthetics and laughable kung-fu. And of course it fits snugly into our exploding head series. Enjoy – and please resist seeking out the full feature – unless you’re a ciné-masochist.

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• Glittery Crotch Is Not Already Dead. Somebody Purchased It. [Fist Of The North Star] (kotaku.com)
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• Discotek: Soon to Be Everyone’s Favorite Company (reversethieves.com)

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I’m super stoked – with The Hunger Games exploding across our nation’s screens (and merchandise available everywhere) I get a chance to once again revisit Battle Royale – one of the finest films ever made, period. The last film by maestro Kinji Fukasaku (see our previous review here), it’s a risky, thought-provoking action film full of no-good kids who need a comeuppance and bitter adults putting them through a heaviness that’s missing in their too-easy lives. This movie does what all great satires do – it entertains while being SCARY – with Takeshi Kitano’s blank-faced disregard for human life embodying all that we fear in our authority figures – namely a personally motivated sadism! BR is loaded with fantastic scenes but this is one of the best – and by the end of these 8 minutes you know for certain the game is on for reals. Moshi moshi!!!

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• Battle Royale Finally Getting a Proper U.S. Release on DVD and Blu-ray in March (filmjunk.com)
• An Inside Look at the Making of Battle Royale and a Bloody New Blu-ray Clip (dreadcentral.com)
• Before There Was The Hunger Games, Japan Had This Brutal, Bloody Opus [Culture Smash] (kotaku.com)
• Before ‘Hunger Games,’ there was ‘Battle Royale’ (mercurynews.com)

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