The Human-Faced Dog (1990)
This video is the definition of nothing. It's a worthless waste of a good puppet and certainly a worthless waste of tape.
Biotherapy (1986)
Biotherapy made me wish that more splattery horror films were 35 minutes. Gone are long-winded scenes of padding used to reach the usual 90 minute mark. The film is left with its bare essentials: death and shouting.
Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (1968)
Like all things, the yōkai have been stripped of their edge over the years, becoming more kid friendly with the ex-rapist kappa being a popular choice for gentle comic relief. Happily, Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters takes a darker approach.
Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay (1991)
Kazuo ‘Gaira’ Komizu a one of the first of the wave of Japanese directors to make graphic and shocking cinema in a sterile mainstream sea of mediocrity. Getting his nickname Gaira from a character in a kaijū movie he is a figurative monster in the film industry with experience spanning over 35 years. He is...
Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead (2011)
Noboru Iguchi is a prominent cult SPLATTER director from Japan. He has directed many great gorefest shenanigans including; The Machine Girl (2008), Mutant Girls Squad (2010), Robo Geisha (2009), The Ancient Doogoo Girl (201) and the nostalgic Karate-Robo Zaborgar (2011). Before doing “legitimate” movies, Iguchi started his caREAR as a AV (Adult Video) director. During...
Pinku triple bill at Ueno’s Okura Theater
When I interviewed Jasper Sharp, author of Behind the Pink Curtain, last year, I mentioned that I was visiting Tokyo soon and whether there were any pinku theatres still in operation that I could visit. Sharp mentioned Ueno’s Okura Theater; an OP Eiga owned theatre recently reopened and refurbished with a steady stream of clientele....
Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
Eiichi Yamamoto is probably most famous for his child friendly Battleship Yamamoto series as well as a very successful Astro Boy movie. However between the two in 1973 he directed and co-wrote the movie Belladonna of Sadness. Based on “The Witch” by Jules Michelet and considered to be one of the earliest animated pinku films,...
Semen Demon (2005)
Only last Friday I was talking about my love of ludicrous film titles, especially Japanese ones, and here I am now reviewing a film titled Semen Demon. To be fair, Semen Demon is a retitling courtesy of its international distributor. Still, credit must be given to Pink Eiga Inc. for such a hilarious re-branding –...
A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn (2003)
Last week, I interviewed Nadav Rechov, president of Pink Eiga Inc.; as far as I know, the only US DVD company releasing pinku eiga. I’ve already sunk my teeth into a handful of their releases (the first ones I went for were entries from the ridiculous Groper Train series!), and I’m already very impressed. Their...
Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers (2005)
One of my favourite distributors is Third Window Films. I have them to thank for introducing me to Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers! (2007) and the films of Tetsuya Nakashima (Confessions and Memories of Matsuko, to name a few). I recently picked up their collection of films by Satoshi Miki – a director who...
A Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007)
When I first mentioned A Slit-Mouthed Woman (or Carved, as its also known) to my Japanese-born partner, she pointed out that it was based on a famous Japanese legend. This 2000s version of the Slit-Mouthed Woman – the Kuchisake-onna in Japanese – is a melding of two versions of the legend. In Japanese mythology, the...
School in the Crosshairs (1981)
It was love at first sight. Oh Hausu (1977) – what a film! Not often do I feel that a film has physically changed me, but that was the case when the end credits of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s most famous work rolled. As far as I can tell, Hausu is the only work by Obayashi made...
