Movie Review: The Big Tits Zombie (2010)

Directed by Takao Nakano

Starring Sora Aoi, Mari Sakurai and Risa Sakurai

In the mood for some low-budget, D-movie Asian schlock? Well, step right up my friend. As long as your expectations don't run too high you may get a kick out of the Big Tit Zombies.

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The story surrounds a group of strippers who look as if they spend their time locked in a dressing room and only allowed out when its time to go on stage. During a cat-fight in their room they inadvertently knock over some box's and discover a hidden door which leads them to a basement where they find some type of necronomicon book. Which of coarse one of the girls reads from and releases a horde of zombies which always seem to appear from nowhere. One of the girls learns how to control the zombies from reading passages from the book and decides to become a villain, a couple of the girls are killed and we are left with the last 2 strippers who become zombie slayers. Pretty standard stuff as far as non-existent plots go.

Movie Review: Sadako 3D (2012, Blu-ray)

Review By: Rob Sibley

If I learned anything over the years of watching dozens of J-horror films, it's that you can't keep a good ghost girl down. The most interesting thing about Sadako 3D is it's not a sequel to Ring 2. This is actually the “official” sequel to “Rasen”. If Rasen doesn't sound familiar let's do a quick history lessen shall we?

Rasen was originally intended to be the sequel to Ring 2, it was based of the novel “Spiral” by Koji Suzuki. A very prolific J-horror author who also penned the original novels for Ring, Spiral and Dark Water. His short story “Dream Cruise” was adapted into an excellent episode of the short lived Masters of horror series on showtime. Now The Ring & Rasen were both released in Japan at the same time but the thing is The Ring did box office bank. But Rasen bombed, so producers pretty much ignored the film and made The Ring 2. So the film became forgotten. 

Movie Review: Dead Ball (2012, Blu-ray)

Well Go USA has given admirers of Asian cult cinema a myriad of films with the always growing variety of interesting flicks in their library. The films produced by Sushi Taiphoon are a personal favorite of mine because, well, most are just bat-shit crazy and usually fun to watch because they are so out there.  Director Yudai Yamaguchi has made a few films (Battlefield Baseball, Meatball Machine and Yakuza Weapon) that could very well be in the "bat-shit" variety. He takes a lot of what made his previous films enjoyable and rolled them into his own tasty, blood-drenched comedy/action/ horror flick in Dead Ball.

Baseball is without a doubt America’s number one pastime. It’s also right up there for the Japanese. Jubei is one of the many youths who love the sport. His father and him go out often to play – that is until Jubei cracks open his pop’s cranium with a devastating fast-ball that would make Randy Johnson quiver in his size 16 cleats. Jubei has a special gift in his 200 mph flaming pitches, he also has some anger issues that arise as he grows into a teen, but it isn't against the innocent - he takes it out on the slime of city.

Movie Review: Onna Harakiri Sakuhinshu (1990)

Written by Yuuri Sunohara

Starring Yuuri Sunohara

This was my first personal foray into the seedy underbelly of Japanese fetish cinema, aside from a vomit-fetish porn I stumbled across while looking for Harry Potter books online once. And I must confess, before viewing it I had no idea there was a whole and distinct sub-genre of horror dealing exclusively with ritualistic suicide, otherwise known as Harakiri. Just another reason why I love Japanese cinema, those crazy bastards just have no boundaries when it comes to inappropriate shit. I'll simply refer to it as “art house snuff”, that has a nice ring to it and gives it an air of integrity.

Movie Review: Battle Royale (2000, Anchor Bay)

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

Starring Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda and Taro Yamamoto

With the impending release of the much anticipated “Hunger Games” looming near, Anchor Bay Entertainment has thrown its hat into the ring with the strategic release on DVD of the Japanese cult classic from 2000, the movie that started it all, Battle Royale.

Set in the Japan of the future, the country is crumbling from within, under-age rebellion and crime is at an all time high. In a desperate attempt to curtail and discourage youth violence, the government passes into law the “Battle Royale” act. Once every year, a single 9th grade class of 40 students is chosen at random, taken against their will and transported to a remote island where they are fitted with monitoring collar's equipped with an explosive charge. Each student is given a survival bag equipped with a randomly selected weapon, which can beanything from a machine-gun, to an ax, to the lid of a cooking pot. The collars are pre-set to explode in 72 hours, with the only way of
stopping this being if there is a single collar transmitting a signal when time is up. In other words, if there is more then one person still alive at the end of the Battle Royale, then all survivors are
blown up. They soon realize they are the victims of a sick government conspiracy, and the only way to survive is to kill their fellow classmates.

Movie Review: Gurozuka (2005)

Directed by Yoichi Nishiyama

Starring Nozomi Ando, Yukari Fukui and Yuko Ito

The story revolves around a group of Japanese high school girls who have formed a film club. They head to a remote house deep in the woods to work on a film project. While driving to the house in the woods the girls are discussing a rumor that 2 other girls from the same club had been murdered or ended up in an asylum after visiting the same house years before. One of the girls, Yoko, who was a member at the time, denies the rumors. However, once at the house, one of the girls finds a video tape that appears to show a girl being murdered by someone in a traditional Noh mask and its not long before they realize that the rumors of the murder were based in fact. Their food is mysteriously stolen, girls begin to disappear, some of them randomly show back up out of nowhere but some are found dead. When we get to the end of the movie, the person in the Noh mask is revealed and this movie is mercifully over.

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"Battle Royale" Makes Its Debut In The U.S!!!

ONE OF THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL FILMS IN HISTORY FINALLY ARRIVES!

BATTLE ROYALE

Available for the first time in North America on Blu-ray™, DVD and digital download on March 20^th from Anchor Bay Entertainment

Beverly Hills, CA – Battle Royale. A title that has shocked, thrilled and unnerved audiences. A film whose fiendishly simple premise has inspired many imitations, including the upcoming The Hunger Games motion picture. Based on the 1999 global best-seller by Koushun Takami, the futuristic tale first came to the screen in 2000, directed by the legendary Kinju Fukasaku. Authors, filmmakers and film fans the world over consider the film and its 2003 sequel Battle Royale II: Requiem sacred cinematic classics. And now, fans can own them on high-definition Blu-ray™ and DVD! 

Buy Battle Royale Blu-ray  and The Complete Collection Blu-ray

Movie Review: Grotesque (2009)

Directed by Koji Shiraishi

Starring Tsugumi Nagasawa, Hiroiki Kawatsure and Shigeo Osako

Reviewed By Kenny B.

With the success of the Saw & Hostel franchises (for better or worse) it has become quite apparent that there is a niche in the horror genre that needed to be filled. Most of us know it as “torture-porn” or “splatter films”, a movie which focuses on graphic depictions of gore and violence centered around a preoccupation with the vulnerability of the human body and the theatrical portrail of its mutilation. The majority of these films lacking any type of comedic tone, I personally find them for the most part, a bit tough to watch. And in all honesty, most of them are poorly made piles of dog shit in my opinion. Koji Shiraishi's Grotesque has climbed to the top of that pile of dog shit and proudly planted its flag as the king of the mountain for the time being. This film was made for one reason, to disturb and shock even the most hard-core of horror fans, and it succeeds in doing just that.

"Gurozuka" Coming Soon From Synapse Films!

GUROZUKA

A terrifying horror film in the tradition of THE RING and SCREAM!

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A fun getaway turns into a journey to Hell for some unlucky teenage girls visiting an isolated house to rehearse and perform a play for their private movie club. Taking the trip with an adult chaperone, the girls learn that a previous club member supposedly went missing in the house, and another went insane! Shortly after they arrive, a mysterious videotape is found with footage of a violent killer wearing a Japanese 'deigan' mask. Is this footage faked—or real? Soon the girls' food and equipment disappear, and one of the girls is hauned by ghostly visions of the masked demon. Someone–or something–is in the house, and gruesome death awaits those who cannot escape! 

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Synapse Films presents Yôichi Nishiyama's GUROZUKA, a stylized horror film in the J-Horror tradition of the genre-bending Japanese classic,
THE RING, and the frightful ferver of SCREAM.

Buy Gurozuka on DVD
 

Special Features:

• The Making of GUROZUKA – Featurette
• Original Trailer

Disc Info:

Director: Yôichi Nishiyama
Starring: Nozomi Andô, Yukari Fukui, and Yûko Itô
Run Time: 85 minutes
Release Date: January 10, 2012
Language: Japanese Language / 2.0 Stereo
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1)
Format: DVD
Region: Region 1

Price: $24.95

Synapse Films

Movie Review: Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009, MPI/IFC Midnight)

Shinya Tsukamoto's 1989 hit Tetsuo: The Ironman was really an original piece of cinema 21 years ago. It echoed much of David Cronenberg and David Lynch's work and really brought "cyberpunk" full circle. His sequel, Tetsuo: Body Hammer, changed things up a bit but still displayed the eye-candy that made his debut so successful. Tetsuo: The Bullet Man is the third film in the trilogy and possibly the most manic ride of the three, but is it the best?

Buy Tetsuo: The Bullet Man on DVD

Anthony (Eric Bossick) is an American businessman living in Tokyo living with his wife Yuriko (Akika Mono) and young son Tom (Tiger Charlie Gerhardt). Yuriko is a paranoid mess and is on the verge of becoming a complete basket case. One foggy Tokyo day, Anthony decides to take a stroll down a busy city street with Tom. Being the responsible parent he is, he lets Tom dodge cars in oncoming traffic. The inevitable happens and is hit - purposely though. This throws Anthony into a body-changing, metal nightmare filled trip through hell. Soon Anthony becomes a metal bullet shooting machine taking out anyone getting in his way. With this newfound powerful ability, Anthony takes full advantage and attempts to hunt the creep down who rolled over his kid.

Movie Review: Hide and Go Kill 1 & 2 (2008)

I really like Japanese horror films, for the most part. Takishi Miike is a master director in the genre and American producers prove that over and over again by remaking his Japanese films in English. The Japanese horror film, unlike our Western films, is more concerned with atmosphere and mood than logic and plot (and some people can argue that the current state of American horror is evidence that we do not care about story or plot either). Ringu, Ju-On, Death Note, Battle Royale… all of these are fine examples of authentic, mood-driven Japanese horror. Hide and Go Kill, 1 and 2, are not fine examples. These are the Japanese equivalent of our shot on video b-movies. Where we, the American crap filmmakers (myself included), rely on hackneyed story and tired character archetypes, the Japanese schlock filmmaker relies on tired and predictable visuals to set the mood. And, before you ask, whatever story or plot logic the majors have in Japan is completely out the window. So, after sitting through Hide and Go Kill I am officially retitling the English version as Hide and Go Shove a Pencil in Your Ear, ‘cause that’s what it felt like.

Buy Hide & Go Kill and Hide & Go Kill 2 on DVD!