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Japanese

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From The Director Of Ju-On Comes ‘Howling Village’

Director Takashi Shimizu, best known as the greater of the Ju-on/The Grudge franchise, returns to the horror genre with his new Japanese urban legend-inspired film Howling Village. In the film, “After her brother goes missing, Kanade, a young psychologist visits his last known location, an infamous haunted and cursed site known as ‘Howling Village’ to investigate his disappearance. Her investigation reveals that the village’s mysteries are connected to her family and works to uncover her family’s dark history.” Ayaka Miyoshi, Ryota Bando, Megumi Okina, and Renji Ishibashi star in the film written by Takashi Shimizu and Daisuke Hosaka. Howling Village will arrive in select theaters on August 13, 2021, followed by its release On Demand on August 17th, and on Blu-ray on September 14th, from Dread. Check out the trailer.

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Jul 17, 2021

ForeignIndieMoviesNewsTrailers

Japanese Horror Comedy ‘Ghost Master’ Is Out Now On Demand

Director Paul Young (Flashback) tests the limits of how far someone will go to bring their artistic vision to life in Ghost Master (originally titled Gôsuto masutâ), the Japanese horror-comedy arriving On Demand today from Indican Pictures. Winner of “Best Film” at the 2020 International Fantasy Film Awards, the gruesome film follows a nerdy assistant director whose own script comes to life, possessing the on-set actors and causing bloody and terminal chaos for the cast and crew. “Inspired by film legends like Tobe Hooper and George A. Romero, assistant director Akira Kurosawa (Takahiro Miura, Attack on Titan Part 1) dreams of becoming the ultimate horror master. As tensions rise between the director and the film’s star Yuya (Mizuki Itagaki, First Love Loss Time). Akira decides to seize the opportunity to shift the rom-com into something much darker. Unfortunately, his now evil screenplay Ghost Master, possesses Yuya, causing a violent killing spree. As the body count rises, Akira must band together

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Jul 14, 2021

MoviesNewsTrailers

Creator Of ‘The Grudge’ Is Taking Us Into The Suicide Forest In New Movie

Following last year’s release of Howling Village, Takashi Shimizu, creator of both The Grudge franchise and Ju-on, is back with a new Japanese horror film that takes us to Aokigahara, in Suicide Forest Village. The new trailer is here, and it teases a dark, terrifying, supernatural tale. The film draws inspiration from the legends and rumors surrounding Japan’s infamous forest located at the base of Mt. Fuji where many go to commit suicide. It is rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of those who died. In the film, written by Shimizu and Daisuke Hoska, “a mysterious box arrived and a curse began to spread all over. The source of the box is ‘Jukai Village’, hidden in a see of trees in the Jukai Forest. It’s said that the land holds a grudge against trespassers and anyone that enters the land. Once you enter , you have no hope of escaping there with your life. The cast includes Yumi Adachi,

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Kelli Marchman McNeely

Feb 10, 2021

ForeignMoviesReviews

Blu-ray Review: Warning From Space (1956)

Flying saucers from the planet Paira, which lies on the opposite side of our sun, appear in the skies over Tokyo. The occupants of these craft, a race of human-sized cyclopean starfish, are hellbent on warning mankind about their eminent destruction at the hands of a runaway celestial body, Planet R by name. The big problem with all of this is that humans will doubtless be up to their tits in fear over giant starfish from space and won’t listen to their apocalyptic info, so our friendly buddies from beyond the stars transform one off their own into the likeness of a comely nightclub singer. To that end they attempt to contact a Japanese egghead that’s developed a potent new energy source which they hope to use to construct a big ass bomb that will blow that pesky planet to pieces thus saving Earth and Paira… but before any of that can happen, the scientist is kidnapped by enemy agents

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DanXIII

Oct 1, 2020

ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller

Blu-ray Review: Black Test Car (1962)/The Black Report (1963)

Our putrid pals over at Arrow Video and MVD Entertainment have got a couple of flicks from Japanese maverick director Yasuzo Masumura that they are set to release on one lil’ ol’ Blu-ray; 1962’s Black Test Car, which deals with corporate espionage in the auto industry, and 1963’s The Black Report, which is a murder mystery affair. In Black Test Car we meet Asahina (Jiro Tamiya), who works at Tiger Motors, a company which is tryin’ like unholy hell to get a new car constructed and on the road before those sons of bitches at rival company Yamamoto Motors are any the wiser. Of course that’s going to be near impossible as their is a spy in Tiger’s outfit, and the company will go to great lengths to sniff ’em out! For a pic about rival auto companies, Black Test Car certainly is filled with a cast of cuthroat bastards, willing to do anything to get their company over. Honestly,

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DanXIII

Aug 25, 2020

ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller

Blu-ray Review: Solid Metal Nightmares: The Films of Shinya Tsukamoto

Shinya Tsukamoto is one of cinema’s most daring auteurs, willing to tackle any number of dark subjects through a multitude of genres, and Arrow Video’s new box set; Solid Metal Nightmares: The Films of Shinya Tsukamoto will surely show you that in spades! Starting things off, Disc 1 (of 4 total) contains Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992), and The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo (1987). Tetsuo: The Iron Man features Tomorô Taguchi as a businessman that has the misfortune of committing vehicular homicide on the metal fetishist (Tsukamoto, who as you will see acts in nearly all of his films), a strange vagrant that is slowly becoming more machine than man… a condition he can spread like a disease as our hero soon comes to realize, as not only is he becoming a cyborg (complete with a whirling drill for a cock) but those around him are too… and they are out for his blood… or oil…

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DanXIII

Jul 2, 2020

ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller

Blu-ray Review: Inferno of Torture (1969)

In nineteenth century Japan, Yumi (Yumika Katayama) is balls deep in trouble with a capital “T” and that stands for “loan shark”. Okay, it doesn’t, but a loan shark is on her ass for debts owed. To that end she accepts a job as a geisha… or so she thinks, as it soon becomes obvious she’s workin’ the ass trade. Yumi ain’t exactly wild about that fact, but in her position she doesn’t have much of a choice. Another thing she has no say in is the tattooing her madam, Otatsu (Mieko Fujimoto), forces the women in her employ to get to appear more exotic to the high paying Caucasian clientele. Said tattooing is administered by Horihide (Teruo Yoshida), whom Yumi develops a relationship with much to Otatsu’s chagrin. This makes Yumi’s life even more of a living hell, as does the arrival of a rival tattooist that wants to make her body his canvas! Directed by Teruo Ishii, Inferno

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DanXIII

Jun 26, 2020

ForeignMoviesParanormalReviews

Blu-ray Review: The Mad Fox (1962)

Down Medieval Kyoto way, the skies are ablaze with a fucked-up, ill-omen, phenomenon… a phenomenon that sets the royal palace on it’s collective, superstitious, arse. To that end, the Court Astrologer, Yasunori, is summoned to the palace, but as he journeys forth, he gets himself an incurable case of the murders. Come to find out, Yasunori’s wife is a bit of a black widow, and now that her hubby is tits up, she can focus on her paramour Doman (Shinji Amano). And since the deadly duo seem to have a knack for bumpin’ folks off, they also kill Yasunori’s adopted daughter for shits n’ grins. Fortunately, her main-squeeze Yasuna (Hashizô Ôkawa) escapes their evil clutches… but he’s half-way to Crazy Town when he’s waylayed by bandits. Naturally he’s rescued by masked fox spirits, as is so often the case, and his destiny will never be the same! The Mad Fox is a delirious hodge-podge of kabuki theater, stagey sets, period

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DanXIII

Jun 26, 2020

ForeignMoviesParanormalReviews

Blu-ray Review: One Missed Call Trilogy (2003 – 2006)

Those rascally rascals over at Arrow Video have gone and collected some choice cuts of J-horror and put them in one handy dandy creepy collection with the new One Missed Call Trilogy set and your’s cruelly is going to go through that shizz step by step! In 2003’s One Missed Call, Yumi (Ko Shibasaki) and her gal pal Yoko (Anna Nagata) experience a phone call from the future featuring Yoko herself sounding like she’s in some dire fuckin’ straits! to make matters worse, ol’ Yoko finds out she can’t fly when she takes a flying leap off an overpass on the date the call originated from, and more of Yumi’s pals fall victim to a similar fearsome fate! It’s soon up to Yumi to try and end this evil business while dealing with her traumatic past… but can she do it before the curse catches up to her? Directed by that madman maestro Takshi Miike (Audition, Gozu, Ichi The Killer),

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DanXIII

Feb 22, 2020

ForeignReviewsStreaming TV

Blu-ray Review: Ultra Seven (1967 – 1968)

Continuing on with their presentation of the original Ultraman television episodes (the first two volumes of which I reviewed here), Mill Creek Entertainment brings us 1967’s Ultra Seven (which coincidentally is the Ultra series I’ve seen the most of thanks to TNT broadcasting dubbed episodes of the series in the mid-’90s). The long and the short of UltraSeven goes as follows: like a hot second from now, Earth finds itself balls deep in alien monsters… monsters that are hell bent on rippin’ our home turf a brand-new asshole. Not one to just sit on their collective asses, the Terrestrial Defense Force establishes the Ultra Garrison, a gaggle of folks that use the ultimate in technology to mix things up with those space bastards right quick! Now that’s all well and good, but the real ace-in-the-hole of the Garrison is the addition of Dan Moroboshi, a mystery man that isn’t really a “man” at all, but is in truth an alien

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DanXIII

Dec 21, 2019

Japanese

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