Search

Release: May 9, 2023

$7.99

Description

When Japanese New Wave bad boy Seijun Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece to the executives at his studio, he was promptly fired. Branded to Kill tells the ecstatically bent story of a yakuza assassin with a fetish for sniffing steamed rice (the chipmunk-cheeked superstar Joe Shishido) who botches a job and ends up a target himself. This is Suzuki at his most extreme—the flabbergasting pinnacle of his sixties pop-art aesthetic. 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Interviews with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu Interview with Suzuki from 1997 Interview with actor Joe Shishido Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic and historian Tony Rayns

Release: July 10, 2018

$7.99

Description

Starring original Diamond Guy, Jo Shishido, Seijun Suzuki's Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! is a hard hitting, rapid-fire yakuza film that redefined the Japanese crime drama. Detective Tajima (Shishido) is tasked with tracking down a consignment of stolen firearms, as the investigation progresses things take an anarchic, blood-drenched grudge match. Rapidly paced, darkly funny, and extremely stylish, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! is unlike anything seen before and rightly deserves its cult status. Suzuki's send up of post-war greed would go on to cement his domestic and international status as one of the leading directors to come out of Japan. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Newly translated optional English subtitles Interview with historian and Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns Gallery of original production stills Theatrical trailer Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin

Release: January 26, 2016

$6.99

Description

Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan, inaugurated a star system in the late 1950s, finding talent and contracting to their Diamond Line for a series of wild genre pictures. This collection celebrates these Diamond Guys with three classic films from directors Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill), Toshio Masuda (Rusty Knife) and Buichi Saito (Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril). An old hand at tough guy action roles, Hideaki Nitani (Tokyo Drifter, Massacre Gun) stars in Suzuki's Voice Without a Shadow. Asako, a former telephone operator once heard the voice of a murder suspect which has continued to haunt her. Years later her husband invites his boss, Hamazaki, over for dinner and she realises his voice is suspiciously like that of the killer. Before she can investigate further, Hamazaki is found dead and her husband becomes the prime suspect... Next, 50s subculture icon Yujiro Ishihara (Crazed Fruit) stars in Masuda s Red Pier as Jiro the Lefty , a killer with a natural talent. Shortly after arriving in Kobe, he witnesses a man die in a crane accident which turns out to be a cover-up for a murder. Jiro soon finds himself on the run, tailed by a determined cop... Finally, in Saito s The Rambling Guitarist, mega star Akira Koabyashi (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) stars as wandering street musician Shinji, who falls in with mob boss Akitsu after saving one of his henchmen in a bar fight. Tasked by Akitsu with evicting an offshore fishery, Shinji finds himself in the middle of a very unusual domestic dispute... Presented on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time in the West, these thrilling genre films feature Nikkatsu s leading talent at their best. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: Limited Edition Blu-ray collection (3000 copies) High Definition digital transfers of all three films, from original film elements by Nikkatsu Corporation High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation Original uncompressed mono audio Newly translated English subtitles Specially recorded video discussions with Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp on Diamond Guys Hideaki Nitani and Yujiro Ishihara Original trailers for all three films and trailer preview for Diamond Guys Vol. 2 Extensive promotional image galleries for all three films Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys Booklet featuring new essays on all three films and director profiles by Stuart Galbraith, Tom Mes and Mark Schilling

Release: August 8, 2017

$6.99

Description

''HAUNTING, HYPNOTIC, FLAMBOYANT, EROTIC, BIZARRE... SUZUKI!'' After over a decade in the wilderness following his firing from Nikkatsu for Branded to Kill (1967), maverick director Seijun Suzuki returned with a vengeance with his critically-praised tryptic of cryptic supernatural dramas set during the liberal enlightenment of Japan s Taisho Era (1912-26). In the multiple Japanese Academy Award-winning Zigeunerweisen (1980), two intellectuals and former colleagues from military academy involve their wives in a series of dangerous sexual games. In Kageroza (1981), a playwright is drawn like a moth to a flame to a mysterious beauty who might be a ghost, while Yumeji (1991) imagines the real-life painter-poet Takehisa Yumeji s encounter with a beautiful widow with a dark past. Presented together on Blu-ray for the first time outside of Japan, the films in the Taisho Trilogy are considered Suzuki s masterpieces in his homeland. Presenting a dramatic turn from more his familiar tales of cops, gangsters and unruly youth, these surrealistic psychological puzzles drip with a lush exoticism, distinctively capturing the pandemonium of a bygone age of decadence and excess, when Western ideas, fashions, technologies and art fused into everyday aspect of Japanese life. LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations Original stereo audio (uncompressed on the Blu-ray) Optional English subtitles New introductions to each film by critic Tony Rayns Making-of featurette Vintage interview with Seijun Suzuki More to be announced... FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Booklet featuring writing on the films by critic Jasper Sharp and more.

Release: August 8, 2017

$6.99

Description

''HAUNTING, HYPNOTIC, FLAMBOYANT, EROTIC, BIZARRE... SUZUKI!'' After over a decade in the wilderness following his firing from Nikkatsu for Branded to Kill (1967), maverick director Seijun Suzuki returned with a vengeance with his critically-praised tryptic of cryptic supernatural dramas set during the liberal enlightenment of Japan s Taisho Era (1912-26). In the multiple Japanese Academy Award-winning Zigeunerweisen (1980), two intellectuals and former colleagues from military academy involve their wives in a series of dangerous sexual games. In Kageroza (1981), a playwright is drawn like a moth to a flame to a mysterious beauty who might be a ghost, while Yumeji (1991) imagines the real-life painter-poet Takehisa Yumeji s encounter with a beautiful widow with a dark past. Presented together on Blu-ray for the first time outside of Japan, the films in the Taisho Trilogy are considered Suzuki s masterpieces in his homeland. Presenting a dramatic turn from more his familiar tales of cops, gangsters and unruly youth, these surrealistic psychological puzzles drip with a lush exoticism, distinctively capturing the pandemonium of a bygone age of decadence and excess, when Western ideas, fashions, technologies and art fused into everyday aspect of Japanese life. LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations Original stereo audio (uncompressed on the Blu-ray) Optional English subtitles New introductions to each film by critic Tony Rayns Making-of featurette Vintage interview with Seijun Suzuki More to be announced... FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Booklet featuring writing on the films by critic Jasper Sharp and more. Top About this item From the Brand Reviews Seijun Suzuki's The Taisho Trilogy (Zigeunerweisen, Kagero-za and Yumeji) (6-Disc Limtied Edition) [Blu-ray + DVD]

Release: January 12, 2018

$6.99

Description

A professor becomes entangled in uncanny events tied to a vanished colleague, exploring desire, death, and the supernatural in a feverish narrative.

Release: April 29, 2025

$7.99

Description

An in-demand golfer and model is manipulated and controlled by the men in her life, following a hit and run accident she is blackmailed by a stalker. The editor of a sports magazine grooms fashion model Reiko to become a pro golfer, while retaining exclusive rights to her likeness. Reiko's popularity soars after she wins her first tournament and she becomes a media sensation, but when she and her manager (Yoshio Harada, Zigeunerweisen) cause a hit-and-run accident, the victim begins to blackmail Reiko, intruding further and further into her personal life. This was Seijun Suzuki's comeback film after being blacklisted by the film industry for ten years. Though adapted from a popular manga, the bold visuals and absurdist plot twists are vintage Suzuki. Bonus Materials High-Definition digital transfer Uncompressed mono PCM audio Audio commentary by critic and author Samm Deighan (2025) New interview with editor Kunihiko Ukai (2025) Trailer Newly improved English subtitle translation Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Smith Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Jasper Sharp and an archival review of the film Cast & Crew Actors: Kunihiko Ashihara Kyoko Enami Chieko Harada Joe Shishido Director: Seijun Suzuki

Release: September 24, 2024

$7.99

Description

Tetsuo (Hideki Takahashi, Fighting Elegy), a low-level yakuza is double-crossed by his boss and attacked. His younger brother Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto, This Transient Life), an aspiring artist with no connections to crime, comes to his aid and kills Tetsuo's assailant. Fearing repercussions from the yakuza they flee to Manchuria where they risk coming under suspicion of rival gangs. Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill) remains loyal to the conventions of the yakuza film, but Tattooed Life contains flashes of his later creative genius, including a final act of explosive visual excess that has become one of the director's all-time classic scenes. SPECIAL FEATURES: High-Definition digital transfer Uncompressed mono PCM audio Audio commentary by William Carroll, author of Seijun Suzuki and Postwar Cinema (2024) Newly edited archival interview with director Seijun Suzuki Newly edited archival interview with art director Takeo Kimura Trailer Newly improved English subtitle translation Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Tom Vick and a newly translated archival review of the film Top About this item Similar From the Brand Reviews Tattooed Life (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray]

Release: December 13, 2011

$6.99

Description

In this jazzy gangster film, reformed killer Phoenix Tetsu’s attempt to go straight is squashed when his former cohorts call him back to Tokyo to help battle a rival gang. This onslaught of stylized violence and trippy colors got director Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill) in trouble with Nikkatsu studio heads, who were put off by his anything-goes, in-your-face aesthetic, equal parts Russ Meyer, Samuel Fuller, and Nagisa Oshima. Tokyo Drifter is a delirious highlight of the brilliantly excessive Japanese cinema of the sixties.

Release: January 28, 2025

$7.99

Description

Retrieving the diamonds he stashed before his arrest, thief Miyamoto hopes to help his old partner Mihara, crippled during the heist. Their former boss, crime lord Oyane, offers to mediate with a foreign buyer, but secretly wants the stones for himself. The deal goes awry when gunmen appear on the scene. Mihara swallows the diamonds but dies in the chase, leaving a valuable corpse in the police morgue. Miyamoto forms an uneasy alliance with Mihara's wildcat sister Akiko to keep the gems away from gangsters, cops and even Akiko's greedy boyfriend. This wildly inventive early noir sees Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill, Tattooed Life) infectiously playing with genre rules and gender stereotypes. SPECIAL FEATURES New 4K restoration of the film by Nikkatsu Corporation Uncompressed mono PCM audio New interview with critic Mizuki Kodama (2024, 15 mins) Bonus feature: Seijun Suzuki’s Love Letter (1959, 40 mins) Audio commentary on Love Letter by Suzuki biographer William Carroll (2024) Trailers Newly improved English subtitle translation Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Claudia Siefen-Leitich and an archival review of the film