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2LDK
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Our Price: $14.98
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Two actresses become locked in a duel to the death within the confines of their apartment in this blend of black comedy and Japanese-style ultra-violence.
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9 SOULS
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Our Price: $24.95
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Toshiaki Toyoda's existential jaibreak film has a comic elegance woven into its action and mayhem. A bomber, a patricide, a biker, a pornographer, and five other misfits spring themselves from jail and begin roaming the land with a vague sense of despair. In search of an existential purpose that an absent tenth convict told them about, they encounter strange manifestations of comedy and violence. In Japanese with English subtitles. Toshiaki Toyoda---Japan---2003---120 mins.
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ADRENALINE DRIVE
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Our Price: $24.99
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"Equal parts Takeshi Kitano-inspired gangster comedy, lovers-on-the-lam road movie, and fairy-tale romance, Adrenaline Drive is a triumph of low-key whimsy" (Scott Tobias, The Onion A.V. Club). After accidentally hitting a yakuza member's vehicle, a meek rental car clerk is taken to the criminal's lair for payback. An unexpected explosion kills the thug's entire gang but leaves the clerk unharmed. He finds a trunk full of cash and hits the road with an equally timid young nurse who stopped to help. The contrast of this convincingly shy couple and the movie-made gangsters pursuing them gives the film a charming absurdity. In Japanese with English subtitles. Shinobu Yaguchi---Japan---1999---111 mins.
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AFTER LIFE
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Our Price: $29.95
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This profound and moving feature uses a novel premise to explore what memories truly mean to us. The recently departed find themselves at something like a spiritual processing office, where the main function is to find the single memory that the dead will take with them into the afterlife. Writer-director Kore-eda Hirokazu incorporated the recorded memories of real-life interview subjects into this fictional investigation of what our time in this world really means. "Beautifully shot in crisp, dark, wintry tones with snowy backdrops, and filled with soft humor and deeply moving moments..." (Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly). In Japanese with English subtitles. Kore-eda Hirokazu---Japan---1998---118 mins.
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AIR DOLL
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Our Price: $59.95
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The latest from Hirokazu Kore-eda (Nobody Knows) is a blend of hopeless romance and allegorical fairy tale. A lonely Tokyo man (Itsuji Itao) comes home nightly to his inflatable sex doll, Nozomi. When he's at work, though, Nozomi comes to life in the form of The Host's Bae Doo-na. By day, she ventures into the world, finds a job at a video store, falls in love with the clerk (Arata), experiences R-Rated pleasures of the flesh, yet comes to realize she is not a "real person"--increasingly isolated from human contact and retreating to fantasy worlds. "[Air Doll] is lovely and expressive, and it's one of those films that can haunt viewers long after they've left the theater" (NPR). With cinematography by Mark Lee, In the Mood for Love). Based on a manga by Yoshiie Gouda. Nominated for the Asian Film Award for Best Actress. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Hirokazu Kore-eda---Japan---2009---117 mins.
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ALIVE (UNRATED)
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Our Price: $29.95
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This sci-fi thriller directed by Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus and Azumi, Godzilla: Final Wars) combines the tension of Vincenzo Natali's Cube and Kitamura's own Versus. For the brutal murder of his girlfriend's rapists, Tenshu is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Miraculously surviving the chair, he is given a choice to burn in the chair once again or take part in a vicious experiment pitting him against another prisoner and a destructive alien life force. Ryuhei Kitamura---Japan---2002---119 mins.
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ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU
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Our Price: $29.95
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A delicate and startling look at teenage alienation, violence and pop music from Shunji Iwai (April Story). Yuichi, a lonely boy with a rough home life who suffers daily at the hands of a school bully, finds solace in the music of Lily Chou-Chou, a melancholy pop singer. Through a website devoted to the singer, Yuichi escapes from his life with other obsessive fans, where he meets another lonely soul like himself. "One of the most haunting, viciously honest coming-of-age films in recent memory" (Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly). In Japanese with English subtitles. Shunji Iwai---Japan---2001---140 mins.
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ALL NIGHT LONG VOL. 1
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Our Price: $29.95
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The first film in Katsuya Matsumura's All Night Long trilogy is a graphic look at three teenagers' descent into violence after witnessing a murder. Their disturbing ways reach an apex when a female friend is beaten and raped and the trio exacts a bloody revenge on the perpetrator. In Japanese with English subtitles. Katsuya Matsumura---Japan---1992---90 mins.
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ALL NIGHT LONG VOL. 2
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Our Price: $29.95
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Katsuya Matsumura continues his examination of raw, pressured teenage violence in the second installment in his All Night Long trilogy. After daily traumatization by a high school bully, a meek, gentle student snaps and becomes a vicious killer. Very graphic. In Japanese with English subtitles. Katsuya Matsumura---Japan---1994---77 mins.
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ALL NIGHT LONG VOL. 3
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Our Price: $29.95
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Easily the most disturbing and graphic of film in Katsuya Matsumura's All Night Long trilogy, the third installation follows a lonely teen's unhealthy obsession with a girl. He begins collecting her trash and eating her leftover food, but soon moves on to more gruesome means of expressing his love. In Japanese with English subtitles. Katsuya Matsumura---Japan---1996---90 mins.
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ANGEL OF DARKNESS
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Our Price: $29.95
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The first of five explicit live-action features based on the X-rated anime series that descended to the depths of sexual depravity. College girls are stalked by a demon with tentacles and beastly appetites whose very presence also unleashes the carnal desires of their professors. In Japanese with English subtitles. ADULTS ONLY. Japan---2002---70 mins.
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ANOTHER LONELY HITMAN
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Our Price: $24.99
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A moody, mysterious assassin attempts to go straight after his release from prison, but he's drawn back into the criminal fray after being introduced to a young prostitute who's been abused by pimps and drug pushers. Rokuro Mochizuki's moody neo-noir maintains a strong focus on its complex characters, though it also boasts plenty of kinetic action sequences and stylish visuals. In Japanese with English subtitles. Rokuro Mochizuki---Japan---1995---125 mins.
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ARAGAMI: RAGING GOD OF BATTLE
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Our Price: $29.95
In Stock
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Ryuhei Kitamura, the director of Versus and Godzilla: Final Wars! , directs an intimate action film about a wounded samurai fighter who collapses at a remote mountain temple, only to discover that he must defeat a magical Japanese goblin, Aragami, in order to leave. Filmed in seven days on a sparse set with just three actors, this is taut, hyper-kinetic action on a shoestring budget. In Japanese with English subtitles. Ryuhei Kitamura---Japan---2003---80 mins.
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ASHURA-JO HITOMI
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Our Price: $149.95
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As evil spirits run rampant through 19th Century Japan, a one-time demon vanquisher (Ichikawa Somegoro) passes time as a kabuki actor. Though he swore never to draw his sword again, the situation has reached a boiling point. Based on a hit kabuki stage play, Yojiro Takita's film utilizes spectacular CGI effects and convincing performances from Somegoro, Miyazawa Rie, and more. In Japanese with English subtitles. Yojiro Takita---Japan---2005---119 mins.
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AZUMI (2DISC COLLECTOR'S ED)
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Our Price: $24.95
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From the director of the kung fu/zombie/mafia cult hit Versus comes this sword fighting action flick about a young, quite tiny, female ronin, played by the striking Japanese pop star Aya Ueto, and her samurai master, Gessai (Yoshio Harada), who must trek across the terrain of feudal Japan cutting down warlords in order to prevent future violent conflicts. A baffling concept, yes, but if you're looking for narrative coherence, you're in the wrong dojo. Based on a manga, the film's main concerns are bloodletting, Ueto's miniskirt, spectacular CGI feats, extravagant camerawork, and more blood for good measure. "If it wasn't for the gore, it could've been an ad for Claritin. As it is, Azumi is the world seen through the bloodshot eyes of Xbox zombies" (Village Voice). In Japanese with English subtitles. Ryuhei Kitamura---Japan---2003---128 mins.
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BAIAN ASSASSIN VOL 2 OF 4
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Our Price: $29.95
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Famed Oscar-nominated actor Ken Watanabe returns as the acupuncturist-turned-trained-assassin who offs the seedier, greedier and evil elements of Japanese society with his extra long needle. In Japanese with Yasuo Furuhata---Japan---1991---90 mins.
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BAIAN ASSASSIN VOL 3 OF 4
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Our Price: $29.95
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Famed Oscar-nominated actor Ken Watanabe returns as the acupuncturist-turned-trained-assassin who offs the seedier, greedier and evil elements of Japanese society with his extra long needle. In Japanese with Yasuo Furuhata---Japan---1996---90 mins.
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BAIAN ASSASSIN VOL 4 OF 4
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Our Price: $29.95
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Famed Oscar-nominated actor Ken Watanabe returns as the acupuncturist-turned-trained-assassin who offs the seedier, greedier and evil elements of Japanese society with his extra long needle. In this final chapter, Baian is offered the largest sum of money yet for a hit, but realizes his latest target is one with whom he's had a history. In Japanese with Yasuo Furuhata---Japan---1992---90 mins.
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BASHING
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Our Price: $29.95
In Stock
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In this traumatic film based on real events, a Japanese aid worker volunteers to go to wartorn Iraq, gets kidnapped, and is shunned by her country upon release.
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BASTONI: STICK HANDLERS
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Our Price: $9.99
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Director Kazuhiko Nakamura's debut is one of the few films to depict the porn industry with humanity and tenderness. Nakamura, who worked as an assistant director in Japan's adult video industry for over a decade, brings a keen eye to this erotic comedy about a porn actor, Yamaguchi (Shunsuke Matsuoka), who is married to another porn star, Natsuki (Yuka Kokima). Natsuki is soon to retire to bear the couple's child, but Yamaguchi stills pines for his ex-love Miyuki, who left him over his choice of profession. Things change when Miyuki joins the adult entertainment industry to prove a point to her ex. In Japanese with English subtitles. Kazuhiko Nakamura---Japan---2002---95 mins.
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