"Actor: Ken Watanabe"

• Karate Warrior | Blu Ray | (07/10/2019) from £15.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Anthony Scott (Kim Rossi Stuart, Romanzo Criminale) heads to Manilla for a chance to re-connect with his Father (Jared Martin, Aenigma), but as soon as he lands in the sweltering heat of the Philippines, Anthony swiftly finds himself on the wrong side of Quino (Enrico Toralba), a local gangster... who also happens to be a badass Karate champion. After a royal smack-down, Anthony vows to get his revenge and seeks the help of the mysterious Master Kimura (Kensaku Watanabe), the man responsible for teaching Quino his formidable fighting skills before he turned to a life of crime, Anthony is soon under Kimura's tutorage and en route to mastering the art of the Dragon Blow! From Fabrizio De Angelis (Killer Crocodile) comes Karate Warrior (A.K.A The Boy in the Golden Kimono), a very Italian take on The Karate Kid. Featuring an early lead role for future Italian megastar, Kim Rossi Stuart, Karate Warrior features a host of cult cinema talent, including the lovely Janet Agren (Hands of Steel) and sports a pulsating soundtrack from BAFTA-nominee, Simon Boswell (The Crying Game). 88 Films are proud to unveil this gorgeous 2k restoration of a cult classic beat'em up that spawned 5 sequels! Extras: Brand New 2K Remaster from The Original 35 mm Negative in 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio Extensive Cleanup and Colour Correction Carried out in the UK Remastered Uncompressed English Audio Optional English SDH Subtitles Alternative Longer Italian Version featuring Remastered Uncompressed Italian Audio with Newly Translated Subtitles

• 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.

• Freezing Complete Series Collection | DVD | (17/12/2012) from £37.78   |  Saving you £-7.79 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The dress code is about to be violated! Set in a slightly futuristic world where Earth has been invaded and is at war with aliens from another dimension called the Nova, the story follows the adventures of a Japanese boy named Kazuya Aoi who enrolls for training at a special school for genetically modified girls called Pandoras who battle the aliens, and their male partners, called Limiters, who use a special power called 'freezing' to limit their opponent's mobility. The protagonist makes t...

• Earth | Blu Ray | (17/03/2008) from £7.49   |  Saving you £17.50 (70.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Earth is a feature length version of the amazing television series Planet Earth. The documentary follows the migratory paths of four animal families classicly narrated by Patrick Stewart!

• Tekken: Blood Vengeance | DVD | (06/02/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Following hot on the heels of Tekken, the live-action movie and Tekken Tag for Playstation3 comes Tekken: Blood Vengeance, the hugely anticipated CG animated feature film. Produced by the studio behind Resident Evil: Degeneration and based on an original story by the creators of Ghost In The Shell.Set in the Tekken universe with its rich characters and history, the story focuses on the hunt for the missing student, Shin Kamiya, the sole survivor of a twisted experiment to unlock the secrets of eternal youth. Join Ling Xiaoyu and her friends as they race to find Shin before anyone else from the Iron Fist Tournament.

• Shanghai | DVD | (23/07/2012) from £6.75   |  Saving you £13.24 (196.15%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From director Mikael Hafstrom (1408) comes the epic espionage thriller Shanghai staring John Cusack (1408) and international superstars Gong Li (Miami Vice Memoirs of a Geisha) and Ken Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Jima The Last Samurai.) Nothing is what it seems in this Casablanca-style international thriller set in the ancient Chinese city a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S. secret agent Paul Soames (Cusack) has just arrived to investigate the murder of his best friend only to become quickly immersed in a web of conspiracy and lies that beset the city. Shadowed by a Japanese intelligence officer Tanaka (Watanabe) Soames’ investigation quickly centers on a charismatic local gangster Anthony Lanting – and Lanting’s beautiful wife Anna (Li). Before long Soames and Anna are involved in an affair that will put everything they have at stake. As national loyalties are traded fastand- loose for those of the heart Soames and Annamust race to solve the mystery and make it out of occupied China before the city’s collapse.

• Letters From Iwo Jima | Blu Ray | (09/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The companion film to "Flags Of Our Fathers", "Letters from Iwo Jima" tells the story of the infamous WW2 battle from the Japanese perspective.

• The Last Samurai - Premium Collection Steelbook (Blu-ray + UV Copy | Blu Ray | (12/11/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Decorated Civil War veteran Nathan Algren (Cruise) is sent to Japan to train and lead the Emperor's troops in modern Western, gunpowder intensive, warfare to eliminate the country's remaining rebelling samurai. Captured and imprisoned by the outlawed warriors, Algren is slowly swayed by their strict adherence to the honourable code of Bushido and, when the Emperor's forces mass once again, Algren offers to join his former captors in an effort to preserve their way of life...

• Dance In The Vampire Bund | DVD | (24/10/2011) from £11.89   |  Saving you £13.10 (110.18%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The World's Not Ready For Her Reign!When Mina Tepes - queen of the vampires - suddenly appears in Japan to establish a colony for her blood-sucking brethren, Akira Kaburagi's world will never be the same. As a boy, Akira vowed to serve the ruler of the night, and now he must fulfill his destiny by protecting Mina from those who would dethrone her!

• Samurai Girls | Blu Ray | (30/01/2012) from £41.83   |  Saving you £3.16 (7.55%)   |  RRP £44.99

  Beautifully animated, hi-octane samurai action with a twist!The story takes place in Japan in the early 21st century, in an alternate reality where the Tokugawa Shogunate has remained in power. In this reality, student councils are tasked with oppressing schools. Yagyuu Muneakira is a high school student who rebels against his student council with the help of girls who've had the names of famous samurai heroes passed on to them.

• Phantom: Requiem Complete Series | DVD | (03/12/2012) from £7.19   |  Saving you £32.80 (456.19%)   |  RRP £39.99

  A young man with no memories fights to salvage his humanity when he’s forced into a life of murder by a dangerous crime syndicate called Inferno. The organization gives him a new name, Zwei, and molds him into a perfect killing machine, a meticulous instrument of death created to obey his masters' every deadly command. Zwei's not the only puppet controlled by Inferno; Ein is a girl as beautiful as she is brutal, as lethal as she is lost. While mafia violence escalates around them, the two assassins grow closer, and Zwei begins the struggle to reclaim his past and save Ein from a blood-soaked future. Collecting all 26 episodes across 4 discs. The Complete Series Collection.

• Letters from Iwo Jima (2 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (09/07/2007) from £6.97   |  Saving you £17.02 (244.19%)   |  RRP £23.99

  The companion film to "Flags Of Our Fathers", "Letters from Iwo Jima" tells the story of the infamous WW2 battle from the Japanese perspective.

• Shanghai | Blu Ray | (23/07/2012) from £10.75   |  Saving you £14.24 (132.47%)   |  RRP £24.99

  From director Mikael Hafstrom (1408) comes the epic espionage thriller Shanghai staring John Cusack (1408) and international superstars Gong Li (Miami Vice, Memoirs of a Geisha) and Ken Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Jima, The Last Samurai.) Nothing is what it seems in this Casablanca-style international thriller set in the ancient Chinese city a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S. secret agent Paul Soames (Cusack) has just arrived to investigate the murder of his best friend, only to become quickly immersed in a web of conspiracy and lies that beset the city. Shadowed by a Japanese intelligence officer, Tanaka (Watanabe), Soames' investigation quickly centers on a charismatic local gangster, Anthony Lanting and Lanting's beautiful wife, Anna (Li). Before long, Soames and Anna are involved in an affair that will put everything they have at stake. As national loyalties are traded fast-and-loose for those of the heart, Soames and Annamust race to solve the mystery and make it out of occupied China before the city's collapse.

• The Last Samurai | HD DVD | (20/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Decorated Civil War veteran Nathan Algren (Cruise) is sent to Japan to train and lead the Emperor's troops in modern Western gunpowder intensive warfare to eliminate the country's remaining rebelling samurai. Captured and imprisoned by the outlawed warriors Algren is slowly swayed by their strict adherence to the honourable code of Bushido and when the Emperor's forces mass once again Algren offers to join his former captors in an effort to preserve their way of life...

• Flags of our Fathers & Letters from Iwo Jima (4 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (09/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £40.99

  Thematically ambitious and emotionally complex, Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is an intimate epic with much to say about war and the nature of heroism in America. Based on the non-fiction bestseller by James Bradley (with Ron Powers), and adapted by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis (Jarhead screenwriter William Broyles Jr. wrote an earlier draft that was abandoned when Eastwood signed on to direct), this isn't so much a conventional war movie as it is a thought-provoking meditation on our collective need for heroes, even at the expense of those we deem heroic. In telling the story of the six men (five Marines, one Navy medic) who raised the American flag of victory on the battle-ravaged Japanese island of Iwo Jima on February 23rd, 1945, Eastwood takes us deep into the horror of war (in painstakingly authentic Iwo Jima battle scenes) while emphasizing how three of the surviving flag-raisers (played by Adam Beach, Ryan Phillippe, and Jesse Bradford) became reluctant celebrities - and resentful pawns in a wartime publicity campaign - after their flag-raising was immortalized by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in the most famous photograph in military history. As the surviving flag-raisers reluctantly play their public roles as "the heroes of Iwo Jima" during an exhausting (but clearly necessary) wartime bond rally tour, Flags of Our Fathers evolves into a pointed study of battlefield valor and misplaced idolatry, incorporating subtle comment on the bogus nature of celebrity, the trauma of battle, and the true meaning of heroism in wartime. Wisely avoiding any direct parallels to contemporary history, Eastwood allows us to draw our own conclusions about the Iwo Jima flag-raisers and how their postwar histories (both noble and tragic) simultaneously illustrate the hazards of exploited celebrity and society's genuine need for admirable role models during times of national crisis. Flags of Our Fathers defies the expectations of those seeking a more straightforward war-action drama, but it's richly satisfying, impeccably crafted film that manages to be genuinely patriotic (in celebrating the camaraderie of soldiers in battle) while dramatising the ultimate futility of war. Eastwood's follow-up film, Letters from Iwo Jima, examines the Iwo Jima conflict from the Japanese perspective. Critically hailed as an instant classic, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima is a masterwork of uncommon humanity and a harrowing, unforgettable indictment of the horrors of war. In an unprecedented demonstration of worldly citizenship, Eastwood (from a spare, tightly focused screenplay by first-time screenwriter Iris Yamashita) has crafted a truly Japanese film, with Japanese dialogue (with subtitles) and filmed in a contemplative Japanese style, serving as both complement and counterpoint to Eastwood's previously released companion film Flags of Our Fathers. Where the earlier film employed a complex non-linear structure and epic-scale production values to dramatise one of the bloodiest battles of World War II and its traumatic impact on American soldiers, Letters reveals the battle of Iwo Jima from the tunnel- and cave-dwelling perspective of the Japanese, hopelessly outnumbered, deprived of reinforcements, and doomed to die in inevitable defeat. While maintaining many of the traditions of the conventional war drama, Eastwood extends his sympathetic touch to humanise "the enemy," revealing the internal and external conflicts of soldiers and officers alike, forced by circumstance to sacrifice themselves or defend their honour against insurmountable odds. From the weary reluctance of a young recruit named Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) to the dignified yet desperately anguished strategy of Japanese commander Tadamichi Kuribayashi (played by Oscar-nominated The Last Samurai costar Ken Watanabe), whose letters home inspired the film's title and present-day framing device, Letters from Iwo Jima (which conveys the bleakness of battle through a near-total absence of colour) steadfastly avoids the glorification of war while paying honorable tribute to ill-fated men who can only dream of the comforts of home. --Jeff Shannon

• Witch Hunter Robin Complete - Anime Legends | DVD | (26/04/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Throughout the ages creatures with paranormal powers called 'Witches' have lived alongside us. For years a secret organization called Salomon has been hunting them down and whilst run by priests and based in Italy it does have a Japanese branch; the STN-J... After the death of one of the STN-J's hunters Salomon dispatches a new hunter to help them combat witches in Japan by the name of Robin. Robin is both young being only 15 years old and inexperienced with her powers but after being teamed up with the best hunter the STN-J has Amon she begins to realize just what it takes to be a hunter!

• Godzilla (2014) (Steelbook) (4k+Br) | Blu Ray | (22/04/2021) from £103.74   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Last Samurai (2 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £6.49   |  Saving you £8.50 (56.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When an American military officer is hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country's first army in the 1870s, he is unexpectedly impressed by the Imperial Samurai warriors and their way of life.

• Batman Begins (UHD/ BD) | Blu Ray | (08/01/2024) from £25.32   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  After traveling the world seeking the means to fight injustice, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City and unleashes his alter ego, Batman, who uses strength, intellect and high-tech weaponry to fight evil.On-Disc Special Features BD: The Dark Knight IMAX Prologue Tankman Begins - A Batman Begins spoof Batman - The Journey Begins - Concept, design and development of the film as well as the casting of Batman himself Shaping Mind and Body - Observe Christian Bale's transformation into Batman Gotham City Rises - Witness the creation of Gotham City, the Batcave, Wayne Manor and more Cape and Cowl - The development of the Batsuit Batman - The Tumbler - The reinvention of the Batmobile Path to Discovery - A look at the first week filming on rugged and remote Iceland locations Saving Gotham City - The development of miniatures, CGI and effects for the monorail chase scene Genesis of the Bat - A look at the Dark Knight's incarnation and influences on the film Relections on Writing Batman Begins with David S. Goyer Digital Batman - The effects you may have missed Batman Begins Stunts Theatrical Trailer

• Isola | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £23.99

  Inspired by a short tale from Ugetsu Monogatori an 18th century collection of supernatural stories Isola: Persona 13 is part of the Japanese horror boom of the late 1990s. Yukari is a telepath who takes a break from her psychological study to travel and help survivors of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. In the disaster's aftermath she meets Chihiro (Yu Kurosawa granddaughter of legendary director Akira Kurosawa) but the girl acts differently each time Yukari encounters her. Meanwhile a