"Actor: Ayako Wakao"

• Irezumi | Blu Ray | (21/06/2021) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Drawn from the pen of one of Japan's foremost writers of the 20th century, Junichiro Tanizaki (A Fool's Love, The Makioka Sisters), Irezumi is a stylish tale of lust, betrayal and revenge directed by Yasuzo Masumura (Giants and Toys, Blind Beast). Masumura's muse Ayako Wakao (The Blue Sky Maiden, Red Angel) stars as Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, who is tempted by her lover, Shinsuke, a lowly employee of her father's, to elope. During their flight, Otsuya's beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her pristine white skin as the perfect canvas for his art. The image of the large demonic spider that he emblazons across Otsuya's back marks her as the property of another man, radically altering her relationships with all around her as her personality transforms under its influence. Available for the first time outside of Japan in a new 4K restoration, Irezumi sports some of Japanese cinema's most respected talent of its day both in front of and behind the camera. The bewitching cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu) captures the sensual atmosphere of the period setting, while the script by Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba, Kuroneko) lends a modern twist to this feverish meditation on obsession and the act of creation. Special Features High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation from a new 4K scan Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio Optional English subtitles Brand new audio commentary by Japanese cinema scholar David Desser Newly filmed introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns Out of the Darkness, a brand new visual essay by Asian cinema scholar Daisuke Miyao Original Trailer Image Gallery Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing by Thomas Lamarre and Daisuke Miyao

• Elegant Beast | Blu Ray | (18/12/2023) from £17.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In their humble two-room apartment, the Maeda family seem ever so self-effacing - but their modest facade hides another truth. Product Features Coming Soon

• An Actor's Revenge (DVD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (26/03/2018) from £14.92   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This wildy melodramatic tale of a kabuki female impersonator who exacts a long-delayed revenge on the men who drove his parents to suicide is played out against a backdrop of comic rivalries between thieves in the Tokyo underworld. Kazuo Hasegawa (Gate of Hell) plays the dual role of the actor and the thief in a film which celebrates his 300th screen appearance. A heady mixture of swooning romanticism and stylised action, with a soundtrack that ranges from traditional Japanese music to lush Hollywood strings and cocktail jazz, An Actor's Revenge is a cinematic tour de force. Extras: New 4K restoration presented in High Definition and Standard Definition Fully illustrated booklet with new writing on the film and full film credits

• Red Angel | Blu Ray | (17/01/2022) from £9.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Directed by Yasuzo Masumura (Giants and Toys, Blind Beast), Red Angel takes an unflinching look at the horror and futility of war through the eyes of a dedicated and selfless young military nurse. When Sakura Nishi is dispatched in 1939 to a ramshackle field hospital in Tientsin, the frontline of Japan's war with China, she and her colleagues find themselves fighting a losing battle tending to the war-wounded and emotionally shellshocked soldiers while assisting head surgeon Dr Okabe conduct an unending series of amputations. As the Chinese troops close in, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Okabe who, impotent to stall the mounting piles of cadavers, has retreated into his own private hell of morphine addiction. Adapted from the novel by Yorichika Arima, Masumura's harrowing portrait of women and war is considered the finest of his collaborations with Ayako Wakao (A Wife Confesses, Irezumi) and features startling monochrome scope cinematography by Setsuo Kobayashi (Fires on the Plain, An Actor's Revenge). Special Features High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio Optional English subtitles Brand new audio commentary by Japanese cinema scholar David Desser Newly filmed introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns Not All Angels Have Wings, a new visual essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum Original Trailer Image Gallery Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Irene González-López

• Elegant Beast | Blu Ray | (24/03/2025) from £16.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In their humble two-room apartment, the Maeda family seem ever so self-effacing - but their modest façade hides another truth. Daughter Tomoko is the mistress of a bestselling author with well-lined pockets. Son Minoru embezzles funds with his lover Yukie (Ayako Wakao, Red Angel), who has her own hidden agenda. And father Tokizo (Yunosuke Ito, Ikiru, Lone Wolf and Cub) is a former military man who swears he will never return to the poverty he knew during the war, no matter what the cost. One after another, those affected by the Maedas' schemes show up on their doorstep. But these visitors all have their own duplicitous agendas. With each knock on the door, the gamesmanship reaches a whole new level. Elegant Beast was adapted by Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba, Naked Island) from his own stage play. Director Yuzo Kawashima, mentor of Shohei Imamura and a major influence on the Japanese New Wave, makes magnificent widescreen use of the single apartment setting to deliver a ferocious satire on Japan's post-war economic miracle.

• Red Angel | DVD | (24/07/2006) from £9.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (50.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of Japan's most notorious and internationally criminally under-exposed films. Shocking beautiful and moving in equal measure this is one of Masumura's very finest achievements. Set against the Sino-Japanese war in 1939 a young angelic military nurse is raped by her patients and sent to the front line for daring to register a complaint. Posted to a rag-tag demoralised unit she falls in love with an impotent morphine-addicted surgeon. Together the pair seek solace in each othe

• Manji | DVD | (23/04/2007) from £19.75   |  Saving you £0.24 (1.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Practically unclassifiable Manji moves from lesbian love to adultery to multiple sexual relationships tangled in webs of deceit blackmail and maybe even murder. Sonoko (Kyoko Kishida Woman of the Dunes) having grown bored with her pampered life as the wife of an impotent lawyer enrolls in art class where she scandalizes the school with her lusty paintings of fellow art student Mitsuko (Ayako Wakao Red Angel). A torrid affair erupts between Sonoko and Mitsuko fuelling jealousy among their male lovers. Soon their lives are entrenched in desire deception blackmail blood oaths and suicide pacts in this controversial and visually stunning film from director Yasuzo Masumura. A dazzling tale of love lust and the extremes of desire this controversial and groundbreaking drama boasts a screenplay by Onibaba/Kureneko director Kaneto Shindo. Another twisted masterpiece from the director of Blind Beast and Red Angel Manji is as shocking today as when it was first shown in Japan in the mid-1960s.

• Irezumi | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When a young girl is seduced and has a spider tattooed on her back; she herself becomes a predatory monster taking revenge on every man who has shared her bed.

• An Actor's Revenge | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This wildly melodramatic tale of a kabuki female impersonator who exacts a long-delayed revenge on the men who drove his parents to suicide is played out against a backdrop of comic rivalries between thieves in the Tokyo underworld. Kazuo Hasegawa plays the dual role of the actor and the thief in a film which celebrates his 300th screen appearance. A heady mixture of swooning romanticism and stylised action with a soundtrack that ranges from traditional Japanese music to lush Hollywo

• Princess From The Moon | DVD | (13/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Toshiro Mifune stars in this enchanting film based on the traditional Japanese fairytale 'Kaguya' as the male half of a country couple who find a baby girl in the bamboo and raise her as their own until the truth is revealed when she is taken back...

• The Samurai Collection | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Three features: 'Red Lion' 'Ambush At Blood Pass' and 'Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo'. Red Lion: With the winds of change sweeping through Japan overthrowing three centuries of Shogunate rule Gonzo (Toshiro Mifune) a peasant enlists in the Imperial Restoration Force which promises to reform the oppression of the past. Gonzo persuades his commander to lend him his Red Lion Mane a symbol of authority and rides into his old home town where he receives a hero's welcome. This tale both touching and hilarious traces the difficulties of a simple boastful humane man caught in the web of political intrigue. Casting a cold eye on politicians of all hues at its climax it achieves true tragic intensity. Ambush At Blood Pass: Yojimbo a ronin (Mifune) is secretly commissioned to travel to Sanshu Pass. This once crucial thoroughfare in the time of the warlords is now just a backroad used by outcasts. There he is to wait until an undisclosed event occurs. On his journey he rescues a woman from her violent husband and takes her away with him. They arrive at an inn run by an old man and his granddaughter. This place has become home to a bunch of misfits including a one-time physician (Katsu) a wandering gambler and an officer of the law together with his prisoner. A dramatic chain of events unfolds forcing the once hostile and untrusting characters to unite in a common cause: their own survival. Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo: The gentle breeze the murmur of a babbling brook the scent of plums. These memories call Zatoichi the blind swordsman back to a once-loved village. But memories are deceptive and he arrives to find things much changed. The former boss Hyoroku has been reduced to a carver of statues of Jizo the Buddha of Healing and his daughter Umeno has become a hostess and as she describes herself one of the bad ones. Control of the village is split between a former travelling merchant Eboshiya and his son Masagoro. Eboshiya befriends Zatoichi and seeks his aid against Masagoro's minder the drunken samurai Yojimbo the crooked crook. When a masseur is killed amidst rumours that a large amount of gold has been secreted in the village the two factions begin to size each other up. It is at this point that Masagoro's younger son suddenly decides his father needs more protection and calls on the services of the contract killer Kuzuryu.

• Floating Weeds | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Floating Weeds is one of the final films directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. A remake of one of his own silent features it tells the story of a travelling Kabuki acting troupe led by Komajuro who arrive in a small coastal town. There Komajuro is reunited with his former lover Oyoshi and their illegitimate son who is unaware that the itinerant actor is his father. But the reunion provokes the jealousy of Sumiko Komanjuro's current mistress who plots a devas

• Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The gentle breeze the murmur of a babbling brook the scent of plums. These memories call Zatoichi the blind swordsman back to a once-loved village. But memories are deceptive and he arrives to find things much changed. The former boss Hyoroku has been reduced to a carver of statues of Jizo the Buddha of Healing and his daughter Umeno has become a hostess and as she describes herself ""one of the bad ones"". Control of the village is split between a former travelling merchan

• Sansho Dayu/Gion Bayashi | DVD | (19/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £23.99

  Based on an ancient legend as recounted by celebrated author Mori Ogai (in his short story of the same name written in 1915) and adapted by Japanese director Mizoguchi Kenji Sansho Dayu is both distinctively Japanese and as deeply affecting as a Greek tragedy. Described in its opening title as ""one of the oldest and most tragic in Japan's history"" Mizoguchi depicts an unforgettably sad story of social injustice family love personal sacrifice and fateful tragedy. Set in Heian era (11th century) Japan it follows an aristocratic woman Tamaki (played by Tanaka Kinuyo who also stars in Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari) and her two children Zushio (Hanayagi Yoshiaki) and Anju (Kagawa Kyoko) who are separated by feudal tyranny from Tamaki's husband.

• Japanese Classics Of Horror And Fantasy | DVD | (30/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A box set containing some of the best horror and fantasy films ever produced in Japan! Portrait Of Hell Created by premier Japanese novelist Ryunosuke Akutagawa (creator of Roshomon) 'Portrait of Hell' is a mesmerising look into humans creating hell on earth in their own unique ways. Must be seen to be believed! Illusion Of Blood From Shiro Toyoda director of the nightmarish 'Portrait Of Hell' comes a chilling story of love betrayal and vengeance. Tatsuya Nakadai stars as the selfish samurai Iyemon who after the loss of his lord has been left impoverished. He become outraged that his father-in-law intends to sell his two daughter's into prostitution. It is not love but respectability that Iyemon desires... Tokyo The Last Megalopolis When Masakado was executed for crimes against humanity over a thousand years ago his malevolent spirit refused to die with him merely becoming dormant and waiting for the chance to rise again. To disturb it is to awaken a terrible vengeance on the city of Tokyo. The demonic psychic Kato attempts to revive the slumbering evil and use its energy to plunge the city into a hell on Earth. It is up to a lone spiritual warrior Keiko a descendant of Masakado to stop the maniacal Kato before the spirit is released and the ancient curse is unleashed upon the world. Princess From The Moon Toshiro Mifune stars in this enchanting film based on the traditional Japanese fairytale 'Kaguya' as the male half of a country couple who find a baby girl in the bamboo and raise her as their own until the truth is revealed when she is taken back...

• Celtic Inheritance | DVD | (08/12/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Superbly photographed and delightfully told by a host of celebrities CELTIC INHERITANCE traces the effect of the great Highland bagpipe and it's music on people both in peace and in war. This special edition DVD contains sequences from the land mark PBS/History Channel series INSTRUMENT OF WAR as well as footage never seen before.