Japan – Stream On Demand

Yakusho Koji and Iseya Yusuke star in Miike Takashi's '13 Assassins'

‘13 Assassins’ – Samurai outlaws on Prime Video and Kanopy

!Featured, Action, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, DVD, Free, International Cinema, Kanopy, SVOD 06/21/2022 Sean Axmaker

Miike Takashi’s remake of the 1963 classic samurai thriller is a kind of outlaw ‘The Seven Samurai’ by way of ‘The Dirty Dozen.’

The original ‘Godzilla’ on HBO Max and Criterion Channel

!Featured, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, DVD, Essential Viewing, giant monsters, HBO Max, International Classics, Science Fiction, SVOD 06/09/2022 Sean Axmaker

The greatest atomic age giant monster rises from the radioactive depths and descends upon Tokyo in the 1954 classic, now restored to its original Japanese cut.

Toshiro Mifune is ‘Red Beard’ on HBO Max and Criterion Channel

!Featured, Criterion Channel, drama, DVD, HBO Max, historical, International Classics, SVOD 06/05/2022 Sean Axmaker

Akira Kurosawa’s ambitious drama stars Mifune as a gruff doctor in the slums of 17th century Edo. It was their final collaboration.

Takuya Kimura stars in Miike Takashi 's extreme samurai violence epic from Japan

Miike Takashi’s samurai Armageddon ‘Blade of the Immortal’ on Hulu and MUBI

!Featured, Blu-ray, Cult Movies, DVD, Free, Hulu, International Cinema, Kanopy, martial arts, MUBI, SVOD 05/25/2022 Sean Axmaker

A samurai cursed with immortality goes on a mission of vengeance in this blood-spattered thriller with operatic action and flamboyant violence.

Toshiro Mifune stars in ‘The Samurai Trilogy’ on HBO Max and Criterion Channel

!Featured, Academy Award, adventure, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Criterion Channel, DVD, HBO Max, historical, International Classics, martial arts, samurai, SVOD 04/19/2022 Sean Axmaker

Hiroshi Inagake’s three-film adaptation of Eiji Yoshikawa’s epic novel embraces the mythic dimensions with a removed, distant style that elevates the character to tragic hero.

Takeshi Kitano in 'Battle Royale,' directed by Kinji Fukasaku.

‘Battle Royale’ – The original ‘Hunger Games’ on MUBI and free on Kanopy

!Featured, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Cult Movies, DVD, Free, high school, horror, International Cinema, Kanopy, MUBI, SVOD 04/02/2022 Sean Axmaker

Kinji Fukasaku, the madman of Japanese yakuza cinema, directs this gleefully gruesome splatter satire of teenage nihilism, adult paranoia, and social sadism.

‘Gate of Hell’ – Japan’s first color masterwork on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Academy Award, adventure, Blu-ray, Cannes winner, Criterion, Criterion Channel, drama, DVD, historical, International Classics, SVOD 03/24/2022 Sean Axmaker

Teinosuke Kinugasa’s samurai tragedy won the the Grand Prix at Cannes and a special Academy Award.

The Belladonna of Sadness from Japan, directed by Eiichi Yamamoto

‘The Belladonna of Sadness’ on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Animation, Blu-ray, Criterion Channel, Cult Movies, fantasy 07/07/2021 Sean Axmaker

The Belladonna of Sadness (Japan, 1973), a lost classic of Japanese animation, is an erotic drama by definition, but it is quite a sophisticated one that is part subversive folk tale, part rock ballad musical, and part experimental filmmaking. Set in an unnamed kingdom in an abstracted medieval Europe, it’s a provocative film about female […]

‘Uzumaki’ – Spiraling into madness on Amazon Prime

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, based on a comic book, Blu-ray, Cult Movies, DVD, fantasy, horror, International Cinema, supernatural, SVOD, thriller 06/17/2021 Sean Axmaker

Equal parts David Cronenberg biological mutation and supernatural curse, outré horror film Uzumaki (Japan, 2000) about a town gripped in an obsession with spirals—shells, snails, pottery, even the workings of a washing machine–is the most gonzo horror to twist onto celluloid in years. Bubbly Japanese schoolgirl Kirie (Eriko Hatsune) is our tour guide through a […]

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 horror film from Japan is one of his greatest

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s haunting horror film ‘Pulse’ on Amazon Prime

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, Arrow, Blu-ray, Cult Movies, DVD, horror, International Cinema, supernatural, suspense, SVOD 04/07/2021 Sean Axmaker

“Do you want to meet a ghost?” The meditative and metaphysical horror cinema of Kiyoshi Kurosawa made him one of the masters of Japanese horror during its amazing cycle of surreal and nightmarish horror films of the 1990s and 2000s, but his films never really crossed over to the general audience in the U.S. His […]