Rodan (ラドン Radon)
I've got quite the soft spot for Rodan. Invasion of the Astro Monster the first Godzilla sequel I ever watched and helped spawn my obsession with kaijū cinema.
Crazy Thunder Road (1980)
Crazy Thunder Road is pure punk energy with an authenticity that could never be replicated on a big budget.
Abortion (1966)
Abortion, as you might guess from its title, is a parodic take on the exploitative birth film genre. Adachi was not the only filmmaker to parody the genre. A slew of abortion films appeared in the late 60s and early 70s essentially becoming a sub-genre of its own.
Jiraiya (自雷也)
The Magic Serpent is a tasty mixed grill of 60s Japanese cinema. At its core, it's a tale of revenge. Mix magic-fueled martial arts and a handful of kaijū into that pot of vengeance and you've got yourself something fabulously out of control.
Vampire Doll (1970)
Vampire Doll is brilliant stuff, and it's made all the more fascinating with the handful of cues it appropriates from western horror. But don't expect a traditional, bloodsucking tale. This is a kind of gloomy and spooky cinema unique to Japan.
Midori’s animated deformation nightmare
Midori is a shocking and hypnotic slice of animation. As unsettling as it may be and as raw as its animation is, it is a strangely beautiful film filled with many gloriously disturbing sequences like the clip below demonstrates.
Red Room (1999) & Red Room 2 (2000)
The flat out absurdity and unabashed goofiness of the Red Room films mean that they sit outside the world of truly soul-destroying Japanese films like the Guinea Pig series. Yamanouchi just can't play things straight. In the past this has worked against him. Here, it works.
Best worst line reading ever
I don't think I've ever pressed rewind so many times, and all to hear a mangled line of dialogue over and over again. I'd imagine the Japanese director of Gappa had no clue how horrifically this poor gaijin actor, clearly not a native speaker, was delivering his line.
The Gappa Family (ガッパ)
It's a shame Nikkatsu only made this single kaijū film. Gappa, while no masterpiece, has a lot more energy and passion than some of the Godzilla and Gamera efforts that appeared towards the end of the Shōwa era.
Absurd tongue torture in Japanese Hell
Jigoku is two unfinished films mashed awkwardly into one, and the results are as messy as you'd expect. The absurdity hits its peak towards the end of the film where we watch a bunch of evil assholes get tongue tortured.
Weird porny Japanese trailer I found on a sticky old tape
I totally forgot about Clip of the Week today. I'm in the middle of shooting a feature, so you'll have to forgive me. Anyway, I dug through my piles of garbage and pulled out this confusing porny trailer.
Milk the Maid (2013)
If you're in the mood for a light and fluffy pinku eiga, free from nihilism and weeping, then Milk the Maid may be for you.
