Amazon.com

The bloody story of an assassin who silently weeps for his victims, CryingFreeman began as a 1986 manga by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami.In addition to this six-part OVA, the story has been filmed twice in liveaction. The leaders of the Chinese Mafia known as the 108 Dragons brainwashceramicist Yoh Hinamura and transform him into the ultimate assassin. Virginal artistEmu Hino witnesses a killing by Yoh, but when he comes to murder her, sheseduces him and wins his heart. Defying the syndicate, he refuses to give her up.Emu and Yoh subsequently become the bosses of the 108 Dragons. They run theorganization--whose illegal activities are tactfully glossed over--on theprinciples of honor and absolute loyalty extolled in live-action Yakuza movies.

Like true love, the course of mob business seldom runs smoothly, and the bodycount for the entire series runs into the thousands. Hit men and women aredispatched with knives, throwing knives, swords, karate chops, pistols, machineguns, grenades, missiles, and electricity. As the plot grows more baroque, theanimation grows more limited. After a certain point, the images of knivespenetrating skulls, full-body tattoos, bare breasts, and awkwardly animated sexualencounters become monotonous, but Crying Freeman is definitely not forthe squeamish or prudish. (Rated 17 and older, but more appropriate for 18 andolder: graphic violence, violence against women, rape, torture, ethnicstereotypes, extensive nudity, explicit sexual situations) --Charles Solomon ... Read more

Description

From the acclaimed director, Takashi Miike, comes a Yakuza/horror film to shock and amaze audiences everywhere! When Minami is sent to kill his mentor, Ozaki, who is in the midst of a nervous breakdown, he embarks on a journey of unexplained natural phenomenon that only the director of such films as Audition, Dead or Alive and Ichi the Killer can provide in this surreal Lynchian/Cronenberg-like odyssey! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

GOZU
How can I describe this movie? Let's just say that the most screwed up images that you can think of don't even come close to the reality that is GOZU. Gozu (which stands for Cow-head) is a messed up love story of a man in the mafia who fights his way from one boss to the other to help rescue his soul mate. Sounds lame?!? I can't do it justice...Just watch this movie!!!

For my final words, I'd like to leave you with this...ladle up the ass.

Thank you ... Read more

Amazon.com

It's hard to describe the hypnotic authority of director and actor Takeshi Kitano. In his first American venture, Brother, Kitano plays a yakuza who's been exiled from Japan after the death of his boss. In Los Angeles, he discovers that his half-brother has become a small-time hood. Kitano quickly takes over, casually setting in motion gang wars and killing sprees. But a basketball game gets as much emphasis as an assassination; Kitano's camera watches a dead body lit up by the flash of gunshots, completely ignoring the shootout that's causing the light. Yet his movies don't seem arty, just efficient--and effective: you may not know whether to laugh or flinch, but you will not stop watching. As an actor, Kitano slouches, twitches, and stares blankly--but you won't stop watching him either. If you like Brother, check out Fireworks and Sonatine; gangsters will never seem the same. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Description

By taking the Chinese names "Ron Tayan" (Dragon Sun) and "FuChing-Ran" (Tiger Orchid), Hinomura and his wife Emu Hino show their commitment tothe venerable Hong Kong cartel The 108 Dragons. Now they face both betrayal fromwithin their own group and a hostile take-over attempt by a new terrorist gang trying tomuscle in on the international crime scene.

Later, master Naiji-a powerful and driven fanatic-schemes to use the 108 Dragons'influence to spread his "Great Bear God" religion throughout the world. Forming anunlikely aliance with two of Freeman's past enemies, Naiji plans to replace the reluctantleader of Hong Kong's pre-eminent crime cartel with a perfect double capable of foolingeveryone, even his wife! ... Read more

Description

A bold kidnapping foreshadows a desperate plan by the lusty female leader of a deadly army of mercenaries. It is simple: transform Freeman - the enigmatic leader of the powerful crime syndicate The 108 Dragons - into a mindless "killing machine" fueled by desire and self-indulgence. Once again Freeman is forced to fight for his life, this time against combat-hardened "gladiators."Later, Freeman must ferret out a traitor bent on destroying The 108 Dragons. Freeman's final pulse-pounding battle is bracketed by a bittersweet journey of enlightenment punctuated by vice, violence and vengeance.Contains 2 complete episodes! ... Read more

Description

Set in the 1930s during the opium wars between China and Japan, a Japanese soldier falls in love with the leader (Diane Lane) of the rebel movement. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Pure Galic Gold
One of the more surprising critical hits of 2003, Sylvain Chomet's Belleville Rendezvous is a French animation that combines occasional beauty and charm with sardonic grotesquerie. People have commented about its bitchy portrait of a USA where everyone is overweight and over-helpful; it is equally nasty about a provincial France, where everything is grey and nothing is convenient. A grandmother and her dog set out to rescue a cyclist who has been kidnapped by the French Mafia and is forced to race endlessly into a receding projected landscape; she is helped by a superannuated trio of female close-harmony chansonniers marooned in American poverty.
Nothing in this film is mere chance--almost everything we see turns out to be relevant. There is also little dialogue--most of the time, sound effects and music take its place, from the irritating squeak of a mechanic's breathing to the sublimity of Mozart's "Kyrie" as a storm rages at sea. Belleville Rendezvous uses the best of traditional animation techniques and modern technology to produce something sharply funny and beautifully composed; it is not quite like anything you have seen before. --Roz Kaveney

Synopsis
An animated comedy set in France during the 1960s, this is the story about a boy called Champion. His grandmother, Madame Souza, encourages Champion to take part in the Tour de France. Unfortunately Champion is kidnapped by gangsters and so Madame Souza and a jazz trio called the Triplets Of Belleville set out to rescue him...

nice light movie with more thought than expected
This movie is basically about a huge tangeld social web involving stolen money, a gangster, his ex-gf, a cop, his gf, two criminals, a shop owner, etc etc.... it's got faye wong and tony leung ka fai in it as well as leslie cheung... as far as these light hk movies go, this is definitely a better one - it's more thoughtful in the way it handles a lot of the material, and isn't all that predictable... worth seeing if you're a fan of any of the actors or the genre. ... Read more

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ULTRA-COOL SPOOKFEST FOR ANY ANIME FAN
THIS MOVIE IS BASED ON THE ANIME SERIES "DOOMED MEGALOPOLIS". THE STORY IS ABOUT A MAN NAMED KATO WHO COMMUNICATES WITH THE DEAD. HE IS HELL-BENT ON REVENGE TO DESTROY TOKYO FOR REASONS THAT I WILL NOT GIVE AWAY. A LONE FAMILY HAS MANY STRUGGLES AGAINST HIM THROUGH SUICIDE, INCEST, DEMONIC POSSESSION, AND DEITY INCARNATIONS. THOUGH SLOW AT FIRST, IF YOU GIVE IT A CHANCE YOU WILL SEE THAT IT IS A MUST-HAVE! ... Read more

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Superb
non ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The Avengers visit Tokyo
Four stars for movie concept, two for DVD presentation. An excellent plot summary is given in the other reviews and I'll weave my comments around their remarks.

If you accept the premise that a barroom tiff over a Rolex and a Zippo can result in an extended hunt-and-be-hunted romp through the land of the rising sun, then you can probably get a kick (no pun intended) out of Shundo Ohkawa's thriller. I must confess that this premise kept me out of this movie's groove for the first half hour, but I settled into things once these western eyes of mine realized that I'm basically watching an Averngers-like plotline, complete with mysterious motives, hunt-and-kill creatively done, and a wink at the audience at the end. I'm not sure of director Shundo Ohkawa's direct influences, but the film is analogous to the Avengers' "Superlative Seven" episode, or the old film classic "The Most Dangerous Game", this time in an urban jungle.

Certain things are missing, mostly in the character department, as we never learn about these guys in any great detail, and there are no charming John Steed or Emma Peel types to round things out. Certainly this is not a film to watch for its human interest elements. On the plus side, the film cleverly avoids the black and white 'good guy, bad guy' situation which might have prevailed in an American film setting. What we have here are six guys who flip flop between hunted and hunter roles, none of whom are completely innocent.

The DVD itself is bare-bones (no trailer, bio or commentary)and the transfer appears to be direct-from-video with occasional minor artifacts that would have been cleaned up in a remastering. I am collecting Asian cinema, so I bought the disk, and I'll keep it. Unless the genre is one that you're hooked on, I'd suggest a rental prior to purchase.

Fine idea, muddled by a lousy script and bad direction.
In this modern Japanese, urban thriller, a minor set of words between two groups of business men leads to one of them getting beat up. They try find the other group to get revenge, but come up empty handed until late one night when they come across one of the rival men in a subway. The three friends beat him severely, so much that they run away, and begin checking the papers to see if they killed him. Soon they begin to get phone calls from the men saying that they have killed the man (though there is no evidence), panic sets in, and slowly they begin to get picked off.

Were these men just crazy business men? Bloodthirsty Yakuza? Crooked Cops? Unfortunately these questions and the I Know What You Did Last Summer-like plotline, dont hold up very well, and are executed in clumsy fashion. The deaths, the suspicion, and the finale, fall too far into b-movie territory. The script, direction, and cinematography, likewise, are poor. Its the kind of movie you watch and end up being entertained by seeing all the flaws and figuring out how the film could have been better.

The DVD is not good. It looks very low budget anyway, but the muddy, scratchy transfer doesnt help.

You're NOBODY 'Til Somebody Loves You--And We Do!
Shundo Ohkawa's NOBODY has its flaws, mainly a finale which explodes over the top and plummets back to earth, but it also has great performances from heartthrob Masaya Kato (DRIVE, CRYING FREEMAN, CRIME BROKER, THE SEVENTH FLOOR, and lots of Japanese films)and tough guy Riki Takeuchi, as well as genuine aura of suspense.

In NOBODY, Ohkawa tells a Hitchcock-like tale of an ordinary guy suddenly plunged in over his head. Set in the regimented world of Japanese business, Ohkawa's story is about a social gaffe which mushrooms into ever escalating violence and terror.

Taki(Masaya Kato)is a junior advertising executive who is always well-groomed and well-spoken; Nanbu (Riki Takeuchi)is a hot-shot and hot-tempered sales rep; Korishi (Hideo Nakano) is a self-effacing accountant. Their friendship is more a product of their coworker status than any deep affinity, and they share drinks rather than confidences. One night, when the three are having afterhour drinks at a bar, they notice three men at an adjoining table. The men, at first glance, are just like them--but further inspection shows something off-kilter. Nanbu makes some comments which are overheard (very bad form in group-conscious Japanese society), and the strangers start a "what are you looking at?" face-off. Taki tries to defuse the situation, and it seems to work in an unspoken effort with the leader of the other group. When Korishi lags behind as the buddies depart, however, the strange trio isolates and savagely attacks him. Several days later, the buddies pass one of the trio in a deserted subway walkway, and with recognition comes retaliation. Nanbu loses all control and beats the stranger viciously, until he is unconscious and possibly dead. The buddies panic and leave. The next day, Taki searches for news reports of a body, but finds none. Are they off the hook? Not once the calls start coming.

Who are those guys? What do they want? Where will it end? How did this happen? These are only some of the questions explored in Ohkawa's taut thriller. For Japanese audiences, the film examined many facets of their lifestyle and social structure. While the cultural subtleties (such as the significance of Taki always wearing his father's expensive designer ties)may not translate to all audiences, the plight of an ordinary (but not innocent) man caught in a maelstrom of circumstances, drowning in terror, is quite compelling in Ohkawa's grand tale of suspense. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Hard Vice - not so hard not so anything
Shannon Tweed, only semi good in her own brand of softer adult films. In this movie she plays a cop trying to catch a killer that goes out at night as a call girl and kills the men who pay her to give them a good time. Don't waste your money on this one, its not worth it! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

THE SEVENTH FLOOR
It's always good to see beautiful Brooke Shields in action and in an excellent thriller too.
The DVD has a bare bones menu of the type I have seen with soft core films

For Steven Bauer fans only
This is the original Simitar DVD release of "Stranger By Night." The picture and sound quality is excellent, though there are no extra features, just the chapter index, which is nice.I don't have the new "collector's edition" on DVD, hopefully someone will review this and let us know if its worth getting.William Katt gives an excellent performance, but the picture belongs to Steven Bauer, who is always great to watch. Fans will be happy to know there's another steamy Bauer nude scene of his along with Jennifer Rubin.

Great Value! 1 Great Movie! All Bad Quality :-(
Stranger By Night - Awful Movie/Good KATT!STRANGER BY NIGHT is an illogical endeavor by all counts, yet it has a spectacular supporting performance by -- of all people -- actor William Katt (who was the title character in the TV series THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO). Playing a libidinous, extroverted detective, Katt gives his scenes some feral kick, and he actually gives the illusion that you're watching a real movie. (It's sort of the effect Mickey Rourke elicited in his brief role in 1981's monotonous BODY HEAT.) However, this movie should be titles "Movie of the week", and be airing weekly on TNT's Dinner and a Movie.

Seventh Floor - This film is very well acted (yes, even the notoriously bad Brooke Shields pulls off an almost flawless performance), well written, and has amazingly well done special effects. The whole movie is centered around Kate (brooke), who recently has become widowed, and is left with the pain of her loss, and the bills. She does own 1/3 of an advertising firm, where the other 2/3 pays her out and forces her to leave. She finds the love of her life, who rents an apartment in the building she was left stuck with. Well....everything turns upside down....THis movie is a must see.

**These 2 DVDs were produced when DVD technology first became available a few years back. The quality of the DVDs is bairly better than VHS tapes, however, if you are interested in seeing the Seventh Floor, you might as well pick up this set for 1.00 more than that film is on its own. ... Read more

Description

Created to help control the population of Jesus Town, Hakaider was abandoned and left for dead once his uncontrollable nature became apparent. Now, his creator Gurjev has a new cyborg-enforcer, Michael. When treasure hunters accidentally awake Hakaider from his long slumber, he decides to bring his own justice to Jesus Town. ... Read more