1st Installment From Okamoto Kido’s Talks On Meiji Era Theatre – Under The Lamp

Part 14 The Scene at the opening of the new Kabukiza!

Kabuza Gossip – ‘Heart Warming Historical Tales of Kōmon’ (Zokusetsu Bidan Kōmon Ki) — Scholar, Amateur Kabuki Dramatist and Journalist Fukuchi Ōchi — The Appearance of Kabukiza Banzuke advertising posters – ‘The Fire Brigade Fight’ (Megumi no Kenka)

DVD/Blu-ray Review: The Woodsman And The Rain – A Film By Shuichi Okita

A gentle story of a local woodsman who forms a friendship with a young director of a zombie film!

In The Woodsman and the Rain (Kitsutsuki to Ame), 60 year-old lumberjack Katsu (Koji Yakusho) is about to undergo a life changing experience, but is at first reluctant to have his run of the mill life interrupted by a film crew that arrives in his hometown to shoot a zombie movie.

Director Shuichi Okita (The Chef of South Polar, City Boys’ Film Noir) shows the normal everyday life of a woodcutter, Katsu and how it changes when he is asked to help out the young withdrawn director, Koichi (Shun Oguri) by assisting with location scouting since he is a local and knows the

Interview: Actor Stephen Boxer – Anjin: The Shogun and the Samurai

“What I love is how their friendship [Anjin and Tokugawa] crossed boundaries and superseded all that and became mates!”  Steve Boxer

Stephen Boxer is an Olivier nominated stage, film and television actor. A veteran of the RSC he has performed widely at, amongst others, the National Theatre, the Barbican, the Duchess Theatre, and the Hammersmith Lyric. He won a London Fringe Award for Best Actor in his role as the Governor in ‘The Clearing’ at the Bush Theatre and his performance with the RSC as

DVD Review: The Foreign Duck, The Native Duck & God in a Coin Locker

 A charming and quirky story with an unexpected twist!

Student Shiina (Gaku Hamada) moves into an apartment in  Sendai. One day while Shiina is outside getting the rubbish ready, Kawasaki (Eita) comes along and asks him in for a drink and a chat.

Shiina thinks this will be a normal chat, but this is when the movie changes into one of strange proportions. After Kawasaki tells him of his younger life at high school, he also decides to ask his help with one of his neighbours, a Bhutanese man who hasn’t left his apartment in a long time. He tells Shiina

Anjin: The Shogun & The English Samurai At Sadler’s Wells London

A magnificent 3-hour stage production set in 17th Century Japan!

Gregory Doran’s production of ANJIN: THE SHOGUN & THE ENGLISH SAMURAI, written by Mike Poulton with Sho Kawai, will play eleven performances at Sadler’s Wells Theatre from 31 January to 9 February 2013, with the press night on Thursday 31 January.

William Adams, the “blue-eyed samurai” known in Japanese as Anjin, was an English maritime pilot. Washed ashore on a strange and exotic land, Anjin soon found himself as the trusted adviser to a powerful

Film Review: Karakara – A Film By Claude Gagnon

Karakara: An onomatopoeic Japanese word meaning rattle!

Pierre a 61 year old retired professor from Montreal played by Gabriel Arcand attends a Qigong retreat in Okinawa intending to make a solitary exploration of Okinawa and its islands after the retreat is over. He has reached a point in his life where the recent death of his best friend and his own advancing years have triggered an existential crisis.

By chance Pierre connects with Junko an English speaking downtrodden abused housewife played by Youki Kudoh and her friend Akemi played by

DVD/Blu-ray Review: Himizu – A Film By Sion Sono

A boy and a girl struggle to survive a harsh and unsympathetic world!

Himizu is an adaptation of a manga by Furuya Minoruset that takes place soon after the earthquake/tsunami that devastated Japan in March 2011. It tells the story of a 14-year-old boy, Yuichi Sumida (Shota Sometani), who wants nothing more than to live a ‘mundane’ life, hence the title of the film which means “mole”. Although his parents have abandon him, his father, whom wishes him dead, returns every so often to give him a beating and take what little money he has. Yuichi’s only friends are a group of destitute survivors and

Love Exposure A Film By Sion Sono On Blu-ray OUT NOW!

Release date: 13th August 2012!

A film by the director of Cold Fish, Guilty of Romance, and Himizu!

One of the most talked-about Japanese cult films of the last decade finally makes its way onto blu-ray featuring a new high definition transfer supervised by director Sion Sono along with brand new extra features!

Having grown up in a devout Christian family, Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) has always been a well-behaved kid. After his mother dies, his priest father is seduced by a woman who breaks his heart, causing him to torment Yu by forcing him to confess his sins on a daily basis. Of course, being a fairly normal kid, Yu has no legitimate sins to confess. To appease his

DVD Review: Crows Zero II – A Sequel By Takashi Miike

A very different beast from its predecessor!

Takashi Miike returns to the Suzuran High School for Boys for a second slice of all-action fighting in this sequel to his 2007 hit Crows Zero. Having fought their way to the top of the tree in the first film, Genji (Shun Oguri) and his GPS alliance struggle to hold the school together in the face of an all-out attack by the students of the Hosen Academy, the ‘Army of Killers’. There is a long-lived hatred between the two schools, but also an uneasy truce.  However, in his desire to rule Suzuran completely, Genji mistakenly breaks the truce and has to prepare for all-out war between the two schools.  Meanwhile,

Toshiyuki Nishida To Lead Cast Of Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage Beyond

Outrage sequel will also star director/writer/editor Kitano.

The cast and release date for actor-director Takeshi Kitano’s sequel to successful yakuza drama Outrage were announced today.

Entitled Outrage Beyond, the lineup of new faces will be led by veteran film actor Toshiyuki Nishida. He is joined by Yutaka Matsushige, Katsunori Takahashi, Hirofumi Arai, Shiomi Sansei, Akira Nakao and