Cinematic language can be universal. Visual images and styles can be reused and interpreted for different audiences quite easily with film fans quick to pick up on the influences. Take for example the Western. John Ford influenced Akira Kurosawa; Kurosawa influenced Sergio Leone who in turn inspired a number of Italian filmmakers in creating the whole Spaghetti Western genre. This visual language then proceeded to be imported across the globe. “Yakuza Wolf” is one such beneficiary of this transnational use of cinematic language. A blending of Yakuza action with a western flourish it's now available through “Eureka Entertainment” on Blu-ray. With its lead Sonny Chiba being rediscovered we have an opportunity to look back at a role that set him on course for bigger stardom.
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Gosuke Himuro (Sonny Chiba) is out for revenge. His father is dead and his sister Kyoko (Yayoi Watanabe) kidnapped.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Gosuke Himuro (Sonny Chiba) is out for revenge. His father is dead and his sister Kyoko (Yayoi Watanabe) kidnapped.
- 3/15/2024
- by Ben Stykuc
- AsianMoviePulse
Over the course of two features, “Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion” and “Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41”, director Shunya Ito had made two of the most beloved entries within the exploitation genre, in Japan and worldwide. Indeed, the character of Nami Matsushima, nickmamed “Sasori” (“Scorpion”), played by Meiko Kaji, would continue to become something of a pop-culture phenomenon given her looks, her sense of style, but most importantly of all as an icon of womanhood within the genre. In “Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable” Ito and his main actress explored more facets of Nami’s world in which she again is the one being hunted, the person whose mere existence poses a threat and some kind of rebellion to the status quo. As the former entry had emphasized Nami’s status as a representative of women being exploited, abused and violated, in this third entry she becomes a much stronger presence,...
- 3/25/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
“To be deceived is a woman’s crime.”
When you listen to the magnificent soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill, Vol.1” you will notice that one track called “The Flower of Carnage” sung by Meiko Kaji. Even though you might not understand the lyrics the voice of the singer, the bittersweet melody hints at the character being deeply emotional, full of tenderness, but at the same time carrying something with her, something dark and vicious. It seems to conjure a certain image, feeling or memory of a past and a present of a certain somebody who is addressed in this film, so strong is the voice it wants you to almost take a mental picture of the person, see her pain but also her beauty. To Tarantino this was the perfect sound for The Bride, a character played by Uma Thurman, a woman who has been continuously betrayed and declared dead,...
When you listen to the magnificent soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill, Vol.1” you will notice that one track called “The Flower of Carnage” sung by Meiko Kaji. Even though you might not understand the lyrics the voice of the singer, the bittersweet melody hints at the character being deeply emotional, full of tenderness, but at the same time carrying something with her, something dark and vicious. It seems to conjure a certain image, feeling or memory of a past and a present of a certain somebody who is addressed in this film, so strong is the voice it wants you to almost take a mental picture of the person, see her pain but also her beauty. To Tarantino this was the perfect sound for The Bride, a character played by Uma Thurman, a woman who has been continuously betrayed and declared dead,...
- 12/2/2019
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned in first-time director Shunya Itô's superior Women In Prison film. Attempting a daring break in broad daylight, Matsu (Meiko Kaji) and Yuki (Yayoi Watanabe) are brutally captured and sent right back to prison to endure such punishment as cold, wet blanket torture and hot miso soup to the breast torture. Whilst held captive in the leaky depths of the prison, Matsu has time to reflect on the wrongdoing which took her freedom away. In a nightmarishly creative flashback we see she was set up by the man she loved, betrayed and left to be raped by a gang of yakuza's. It is at this point that Matsu turns into the 'scorpion' of the title, a deadly lone assassin fuelled only by hate and on a mission to gain vengeance. Back in the present, Matsu’s fellow inmates are also being punished for...
- 4/8/2009
- by Fiona
- Latemag.com/film
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