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BLACKMAIL IS MY LIFE
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Our Price: $29.95
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Japanese auteur Kinji Fukasaku offers a glimpse into the life of yakuza youth in this exciting slice of pulp cinema. A group of small-time punks, led by a rags-to-riches upstart (Hiroki Matsukata), take on Japan's corrupt establishment using blackmail as their main weapon. "A pop-art-influenced exercise in manic storytelling" (Chicago Reader). In Japanese with Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1968---89 mins.
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COPS VS. THUGS/ KENKEI TAI
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Our Price: $14.95
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Veteran director Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale) is at his punishing best in a yakuza thriller that treats crime and punishment in 1960s Japan without a trace of sentimentality. When the boss of a Kurashima City clan executes a bold land-grab, he upsets the tenuous alliance between gangsters, crooked cops, and bought politicians. At the center of the storm is a squad detective unafraid to ratchet up the body count. "A bleak piece of social commentary under the guise of a brutal and violent action thriller" (DVD Times). With Bunta Sugaware (The Yakuza Papers) and Ken Takakura. In Japanese Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1975---100 mins.
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DOUBLE CROSS
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Our Price: $39.95
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Three aging gangsters come together for a daring heist, each for a different reason: Imura (Renji Ishibashi) has run up crippling debts, Shiba (legendary martial artist Sonny Chiba) has a young girlfriend to keep happy, and the ruthless leader Kanzaki (Kenichi Hagiwara) is just looking for some action. They are joined by Kadomachi (Kazuya Kimura), a young up-and-coming criminal punk. Things turn sour when their heist pulls in less money than they expected and the gangsters begin to turn on one another. The criminal generation gap widens as the older gangsters pit their expertise against the hotheaded young Kadomachi. With Keiko Oginome. In Japanese with English subtitles. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1992---110 mins.
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FALL GUY
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Our Price: $24.95
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Kinji Fukasaku's 1982 comedy is a far cry from his better-known Yakuza films. Fall Guy stars Morio Kazama as Ginshiro, a hammy film actor who cooks up an elaborate scheme to knock rival star Tachibana (Daijiro Harada) down a few pegs. Soon Tachibana is forced to compete with a member of Ginshiro's entourage in a series of increasingly dangerous stunts. The action culminates in a death-defying trick that will either make or (literally) break Ginshiro. A wonderfully self-reflexive peek behind the scenes of samurai movie making, Fall Guy was the winner of five awards from the Japanese Academy, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress. With Keiko Matsuzaka and Keizo Kanie. In Japanese with English subtitles. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1982---108 mins.
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GEISHA HOUSE
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Our Price: $69.95
Out of Stock
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Japan, 1958. The Japanese Government is about to introduce and enforce the Anti-Prostitution Act, effectively outlawing prostitution. But the new laws do not have any effect on the Fujinoya Geisha House, still run in the traditional centuries-old manner. The Geisha treat their wealthy patrons with honor and respect and in return they are handsomely rewarded with companionship, and in some cases, even love. Helping out behind the scenes is the wide-eyes Tokiko. She has dreamt of transforming herself into a Geisha to help her poor family, and now her time has come. In Japanese with English subtitles. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1999---113 mins.
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GRAVEYARD OF HONOR (FUKASAKU)
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Our Price: $29.95
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Kinji Fukasaku presents one of his most bleak and violent depictions of Japan's yakuza underworld in this highly stylized character study, based on a true story. In one brutal scene after another, Fukasaku charts the downward spiral of a sociopathic loser, played by Tetsuya Watari, who desperately tries to succeed as a yakuza gangster. With each destructive action, he not only subverts the norms of traditional society, but also trangresses the codes of the yakuza with a nihilistic zeal. In Japanese with English subtitles. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1975---93 mins.
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HOUSE ON FIRE
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Our Price: $39.99
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Adapted from the autobiographical story by Kazuo Dan, which was published a few months before his death, House of Fire tells the story of a popular writer sharing his complicated life with his family, his numerous mistresses and his work. Directed by cult filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku. In Japanese with English subtitles. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1986---113 mins.
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IF YOU WERE YOUNG: RAGE
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Our Price: $29.95
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Kinji Fukasaku (The Yakuza Papers) examines teenage life in post-WWII Japan in this riveting story of five kids who leave their small provincial towns to work in Tokyo. With his trademark kinetic energy, he follows the trails of broken dreams that form as the idealistic youths succumb to the chaos of their ever-expanding culture and lives. "One of Fukasaku's grittiest and most hard-hitting" (American Cinematheque). In Japanese with English Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1970---89 mins.
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LOVERS LOST
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Our Price: $29.95
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Directed by Japanese "maestro of violence" Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale, The Yazuka Papers), this poignant love story is adapted from the last installment of The River Trilogy by novelist Miyamoto Teru. Sexy Matsuzaka Keiko stars as 29-year-old Machiko, a former geisha who owns a restaurant and is the mistress of a wealthy jewelry merchant. When she falls for 19-year-old art student Kunihiko, she dumps her patron and makes the teen her common-law husband. Kunihiko works at The River, a tea room owned by former pool shark Takeuchi. When his 19-year-old son Masao is determined to become an even bigger hustler than the old man, Takeuchi, not wanting his son to become a gambler, challenges him to a high stakes pool game: if Takeuchi wins, Masao must quit pool forever; if Masao wins, Takeuchi will surrender Th e River to him. With Hiroyuki Sanada, Tsutomu Yamazaki, and Koichi Sato. In Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1982---123 mins.
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MAKAI TENSHO: SAMURAI REINCARN
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Our Price: $19.95
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Samurai action and black magic mix in this fantasy from Japanese legend Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale). Shiro Amakusa (Ken Sawada), a 17th century warrior executed for his role in a revolt where 18,000 Christians were slaughtered, denounces God and is reborn a demon during a thunderstorm. Joined by his executed mistress (Akiko Kana), he recruits an indestructible army of the damned for another bloody uprising. To stop the killings, Jubei Yagu (Sonny Chiba), the son of one of Shiro's resurrected soldiers, must find a sword that can kill the undead. In Japanese with English subtitles. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1981---122 mins.
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RAGE OF LOVE
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Our Price: $39.95
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Set during the Taisho era of Japan. Akiko Yosano is a poor woman with many children whom composes Tanka poems while doing housework. Her passions flow toward noted novelist Takeo Arishima, but is it a romance that was meant to be? A family-oriented period drama from cult director Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale). In Japanese with English subtitles. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1988---139 mins.
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STREET MOBSTER
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Our Price: $29.95
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An unstoppable killer fresh from prison stops at nothing to rise to the top of Japan's criminal underworld in this violent film from the master of the yakuza film, Kinji Fukasaku. Isamu Okita (Bunta Sugawara) and his amoral gang use beatings, stabbings, shootings, prostitution and murder to satisfy their own bloodlusts while fighting their way to the top. In Japanese with English Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1972---87 mins.
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SURE DEATH REVENGE
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Our Price: $24.95
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One of several features based on a popular Japanese TV series, this installment was directed by the notable genre film director Kinji Fukasaku, whose resume includes the controversial Battle Royale and the disaster epic Virus. Series hero Mondo Nakamura is a loyal samurai. The magistrate he serves under is killed and, under the rule of the new master, a wave of mysterious murders begins. Mondo fights to get to the truth. In Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1984---90 mins.
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SYMPATHY FOR THE UNDERDOG
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Our Price: $24.95
Out of Stock
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This 1971 film is one of Kinji Fukasaku's first forays into the Yakuza genre. Stylish and brutal, it stars Koji Tsuruta as Gunji, an aging Yakuza who follows a rigidly defined code of honor - one that creates friction with ruthless corporate gangs in control of modern Tokyo. When the gangs interfere with Gunji's whiskey trade on the island of Okinawa, the Yakuza must make a bloody stand to defend his way of life. In Japanese with English subtitles. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1971---93 mins.
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UNDER THE FLAG OF THE RISING S
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Our Price: $24.95
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Best known for his yakuza films and his ultraviolent parable Battle Royale, maverick Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku made this complex and deeply moving anti-war drama towards the beginning of his career. Sachiko Hidari stars as a war widow determined to clear the name of her husband, who was accused of desertion during WWII. Her search puts her in touch with four men, each of whom tells a dramatically different story about her husband. Like Rashomon, Fukasaku's film explores the subjective nature of "truth", even as it criticizes the brutal absurdity of war. In Japanese with English Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1972---96 mins.
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YAKUZA GRAVEYARD
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Our Price: $14.95
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In this follow-up to Cops vs. Thugs, Kinji Fukasaku weaves a scathing critique of Japanese xenophobia into a searing and action-packed crime thriller. Tetsuya Watari (Tokyo Drifter) stars as a renegade detective who defies orders to keep his hands clean while taking down a violent yakuza gang. As he wades into the bloody fray, the rogue cop falls in love with the half-Korean wife of an underworld boss (Meiko Kaji, Lady Snowblood), and the two forge a Bonnie and Clyde-style partnership. In Japanese with English Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1976---97 mins.
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YAKUZA PAPERS (SET 6 DISCS)
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Our Price: $99.95
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All five films are included in this six-DVD boxed set: Vol. 1: Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973, 100 mins.); Vol. 2: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973, 99 mins.); Vol. 3: Proxy War (1973, 103 mins.); Police Tactics (1974, 101 mins.); and Vol. 5: Final Episode (1974, Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1973-74---500 mins.
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YAKUZA PAPERS V1 BATTLES W/O HONOR & HUMANITY
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Our Price: $19.95
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Volume one of five. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1973---100 mins.
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YAKUZA PAPERS V2 DEADLY FIGHT IN HIROSHIMA
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Our Price: $19.95
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Volume two of five. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1973---99 mins.
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YAKUZA PAPERS V3 PROXY WAR
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Our Price: $19.95
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Volume three of five. Kinji Fukasaku---Japan---1973---103 mins.
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