"Actor: Akira Emoto"

• Unforgiven (Yurusarezaru mono) | DVD | (28/07/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  For the first time in Japanese cinematic history an American Academy Award is coming to life. Released worldwide in 1992 Unforgiven starring and directed by Clint Eastwood was hailed by critics as a cinematic masterpiece. It was nominated for nine Oscars and bought home four including Best Picture and Best Director. Inspired by the film Korean-Japanese filmmaker Lee Sang-il presents Yurusarezarumono a story set in Japan during the same period as the original film with globally renowned Japanese actor Ken Watanabe in the lead role Jubei Kamata a relix of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The story takes place at the dawn of the Meiji Era in 1880 set in Ezo (now Hokkaido) the northernmost island of Japan. After the fall of the Shogunate Jubei fought in a series of battles then vanished. More than ten years have passed. Poverty leads Jubei to abandon his resolve to bury his sword. Once again he finds himself ensnared in a life of violence. With his former comrade-in-arms he confronts hypocrites who profess to represent justice.

• Unforgiven (Yurusarezaru mono) Steelbook | Blu Ray | (28/07/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  For the first time in Japanese cinematic history an American Academy Award is coming to life. Released worldwide in 1992 Unforgiven starring and directed by Clint Eastwood was hailed by critics as a cinematic masterpiece. It was nominated for nine Oscars and bought home four including Best Picture and Best Director. Inspired by the film Korean-Japanese filmmaker Lee Sang-il presents Yurusarezarumono a story set in Japan during the same period as the original film with globally renowned Japanese actor Ken Watanabe in the lead role Jubei Kamata a relix of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The story takes place at the dawn of the Meiji Era in 1880 set in Ezo (now Hokkaido) the northernmost island of Japan. After the fall of the Shogunate Jubei fought in a series of battles then vanished. More than ten years have passed. Poverty leads Jubei to abandon his resolve to bury his sword. Once again he finds himself ensnared in a life of violence. With his former comrade-in-arms he confronts hypocrites who profess to represent justice.

• The Go Master | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A Chinese man becomes an expert player of the traditional game of Go.

• City Of Lost Souls | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £12.67   |  Saving you £5.31 (54.86%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A stylised and violent thriller, prolific director Miike Takashi's The City Of Lost Souls (2000) is set in the ganglands of Tokyo and pays homage to Sergio Leone, Quentin Tarantino and, in a daft, animated cockfighting sequence, The Matrix. Mario (Teah) is the Japanese-Brazilian gunslinger fresh out jail who, in a hilariously audacious action sequence, hijacks a helicopter to save his Chinese girlfriend Kei (Michelle Reis) from deportation. He must then secure 18 million yen to secure fake passports for both of them to make a new life for themselves in Australia. In a misconceived operation, Mario arrives at the lair of the intriguing Ko, Kei's ex-boyfriend--a self-assured, effeminate young exchange student--who is somehow head of a vicious gang of Triads. He is on the point of buying a consignment of cocaine from decadent, cold-blooded Yakuza gangster Fushimi when Mario's arrival triggers a shootout, with Mario escaping with the wrong suitcase. Now, in time-honoured True Romancefashion, Mario and Kei are on the run from the mob. Although visually tricksy with some strong set-pieces, The City of Lost Souls is rather hazy when it comes to story and characterisation. We get little sense of the runaway couple as people. A young blind girl is introduced into the tale and there are romantic moments between Mario and Kei but these feel like sugary palliatives to the bloodshed rather than touching moments. Better perhaps to check out Takashi's Audition, a brilliantly gruesome satire on male Japanese attitudes towards womanhood. This is a flashier, faster but less artistically satisfying affair. On the DVD: The City of Lost Souls is presented in video aspect ratio 1.85:1, with reasonable clarity and sharpness. However, the English subtitles are a little pidgin and slapdash in places, none of which improves the main special feature, a rather dull and vague interview with director Takashi. --David Stubbs

• Starfish Hotel | DVD | (27/10/2008) from £13.15   |  Saving you £-6.16 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Strange things always happen in Jo Kuroda's mystery novels. There is always a sinister rabbit called Mr Trickster; and someone always ends up dead. A man's wife disappears and he finds her working in a brothel deep in the heart of the city. There is a universe called the Darkland that can only be entered through a hidden tunnel. There is a young girl that the man had an affair with in the dead of winter two years ago. She would only meet him in the eerie crumbling Starfish Hotel. Now she's disappeared too. If you meet Jo Kuroda one night don't tell him your dreams.

• Death Notice - Ikigami | DVD | (07/03/2011) from £9.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (60.06%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Based on the million selling series of books and reminiscent of 'Logan's Run' this dark and disturbing film explores an all too possible future.

• Battle Heater | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the acclaimed director of 'Another Heaven' and 'Spiral' Joji Iida comes an electrifying tale of love death and heating equipment! Life isn't too good for Furuchi. At home he has to deal with his rock n roll neighbours from hell and at work he has to contend with the massive shocks administered to him by his eccentric boss Hama. His bad luck continues when the Kotatsu heater he finds on a rubbish dump turns out to be demonic! Learning that the seal he removed to repair the