"Actor: Ken Mitsuishi"

• Audition | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £13.79   |  Saving you £1.20 (8.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  'Audition' is an eerie tale of a man (Ryo Ishibashi) who in his search for a new wife at the insistence of his son holds an audition for potential mates. He disguises his actual intentions by saying that the audition is for an actress to star in a new movie that he is making. When at last he finds the perfect woman (the model Eihi Shiina) she disappears leaving a bizarre trail of gruesome murders in her path... This collector's edition of 'Audition' features specially prepared

• Audition | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Much of the controversy surrounding Takashi Miike's Audition centres on the disturbing nature of the later part of the film--understandable when you consider the imprint these admittedly horrific images leave on the viewer--but fails to note the intricate social satire of the rest. This is a film that offers insight into the changing culture of Japan and the generation gap between young and old. Shigeharu Aoyama is looking for an obedient and virtuous woman to love and asks, "Where are all the good girls?"--a comment that seals his fate. A fake audition is organised to find Aoyama a wife. Asami Yamazaki is introduced as the virtuous woman he is looking for, dressing for the majority of the film in white and behaving with the courtesy of an angel, especially when juxtaposed against the brash stupidity of the other girls at the audition. Although his friend takes an immediate "chemical" dislike to her, Aoyama begins a love affair to end all love affairs. But as Asami's history unfolds we see her pain and torture and slowly understand that the tortured in this instance holds the power to become the torturer. Aoyama is slowly drawn away from his white, metallic and homely environment into the vivid- red and dirty-dark environment of Asami's sadistic world. Audition can be viewed on a number of levels, with important feminist, social and human rights issues to be drawn from the story. However, the real power of this film is its descent into the subconscious, to a point where reality is blurred and the audience is unable to decide whether the disturbing images on screen are real or surreal. This refined, hard-hitting and essentially Japanese style of horror is ultimately much more powerful than anything offered by Hollywood. This is a film that will get under your skin and infect your consciousness with a blend of fearless gore and unimaginable torture. It is not for the faint-hearted. --Nikki Disney

• The Pillow Book | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £10.48   |  Saving you £-0.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Drowning by Numbers) continues to delight and disturb us with his talent for combining storytelling with optic artistry. The Pillow Book is divided into 10 chapters (consistent with Greenaway's love of numbers and lists) and is shot to be viewed like a book, complete with tantalising illustrations and footnotes (subtitles) and using television's "screen-in-screen" technology. As a child in Japan, Nagiko's father celebrates her birthday retelling the Japanese creation myth and writing on her flesh in beautiful calligraphy, while her aunt reads a list of "beautiful things" from a 10th-century pillow book. As she gets older, Nagiko (Vivian Wu) looks for a lover with calligraphy skills to continue the annual ritual. She is initially thrilled when she encounters Jerome (Ewan McGregor), a bisexual translator who can speak and write several languages, but soon realises that although he is a magnificent lover, his penmanship is less than acceptable. When Nagiko dismisses the enamoured Jerome, he suggests she use his flesh as the pages which to present her own pillow book. The film, complete with a musical score as international as the languages used in the narration, is visually hypnotic and truly an immense "work of art". --Michele Goodson

• Chaos / Curse, Death And Spirit | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  After the success of Ring Ring 2 and Dark Water this latest DVD release from Hideo Nakata consolidates his growing reputation as one of the best directors currently working in Japan. 'Chaos' begins as a couple - Takayuki (Ken Mitsuishi) and Satomi (Nakata favourite Miki Nakatani) - go out for lunch. Afterwards Satomi disappears and it's not long before Takayuki a businessman begins receiving strange ransom demands. As the relationship between Satomi and her captor Goro (Masat

• Eureka | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This 220 minute beautifully composed black & white film explores a transcendent story of redemption. On what seemed to be a normal morning in southwest Japan a crazed killer apparently without motive hijacks a city bus. In the ensuing carnage only three people survive - the driver a schoolgirl and her older brother. After a long period away the traumatized bus driver returns to his family only to find his wife has left him. The two students have withdrawn further into silence si

• Hiruko The Goblin | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Hordes of demons wait behind the Gates of Hell where a school has been built. Hiruko is sent to Earth to behead students and reassemble their heads on the demon's spider-like bodies.... The Hiruko goblin has escaped and no one is safe as the monster claws it's way into the depths of hell! Humanity's only hope is the archeologist Heida and his nephew Masao as they struggle to find a way to slam the door shut on the hideous beast before it can set free the countless other Hirukos bay

• Black Kiss | DVD | (21/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Several producers and models from the entertainment industry are being killed one after another. The methods of murder are extremely atrocious and the dead bodies are decorated in an almost artistic manner. At the scene of each crime the perpetrator leaves a black lip print: who will be the next victim of the slayer in the deep darkness of Shinjuku?