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• Gozu | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £8.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (66.74%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Minami a member of the Azamawari crew highly respects his Aniki (brother) Ozaki who has saved his life in the past. However lately Ozaki's eccentricities have been making everyone wonder about his sanity... A typically skewed take on the Japanese Yakuza lifestyle from maverick director Takashi Miike.

• Naked Desire | DVD | (11/02/2019) from £9.45   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Akane is a chaste and conservative nun who is charged with caring for an elderly man who is severely ill and barely conscious. The two live alone in the man s beach house after his family abandon him. One day their ordered life is thrown into turmoil by the arrival of Kayoko, a sexually crazed woman who is mentally unstable, and a female school teacher and a young male student who have run away together in order to have sex before they are caught by the police who are in hot pursuit. As the atmosphere in the house becomes increasingly depraved and sexual so Akane must decide if she can remain true to her faith or give into her desires. UK Premiere. Extras: Stills gallery, Original trailer, Salvation trailers

• Excel Saga - Vol. 5 - And | DVD | (19/01/2004) from £14.98   |  Saving you £5.01 (33.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Just when you thought it couldn't get any stranger Excel and her associates encounter the most horrifying of all devices...a sub-plot! You won't believe who's been plotting against whom as the writers double cross the author the director takes a new direction and the supporting cast comes back with a vengeance but absolutely no clue whatsoever! There's total Pedro-monium with Menchi-mania and Pedro-philia galore as everybody involved takes the fifth in Excel Saga volume 5!

• Operation Condor | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £6.81   |  Saving you £6.18 (90.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Jackie Chan appears as Condor an adventurer hired to track down a lost hoard of gold buried in the North African desert during the Second World War. Our hero is joined by three women in a race to get to the gold and outwit their evil pursuers.

• To End All Wars | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Based on the book by Captain Ernest Gordon a phenomenal piece of work this is an unforgettable true-life story of extreme endurance survival and redemption set amid the brutal terror of a Japanese POW camp. A story of triumph faith courage and untimely forgiveness. The Times

• All About Lily Chou-Chou | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Shunji Iwai's rites of passage movie focuses on the growing pains of a group of schoolchildren whose sole solace in the Japan's pervasive pop cyber culture is in the faceless celebrity singer known only as Lily...

• Gonin | DVD | (27/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Takashi Ishii's visually sumptuous gangster movie Gonin ("The Five") is fascinating in its violence, its perversity and its quirkiness, even though its basic plot premise is fairly standard. Disco owner Bandai (Kouichi Sato) owes money to the yakuza boss Ogoshi and decides to rob him rather than pay him--the first part of the film shows him recruiting a crew of the damaged and despairing to help with the job, and disaster follows. Ogoshi hires the more or less unstoppable one-eyed hit man Kyoya ("Beat" Takeshi) and everyone ends up dead--robbers, gangsters and assassins--in an escalating sequence of reprisals. What is different about the film is the odd tangents the plot shoots off at--the sudden sexual attraction between Bandai and the con-man Mitsuya, the truth about the phone calls the desperate sacked salary man Ogiwara keeps making to his family--and its strong visual style. Crucial events take place in the background of shots, the sudden shift from neon-lit back al! leys to sunlight in the last sequence hits you like a blow in the face. Terrifying in its casual violence and impressive in its bleak nihilism, Gonin is one of the most interesting genre films of the 1990s.--Roz Kaveney

• Basalisk Complete Collection | DVD | (06/12/2010) from £39.95   |  Saving you £0.04 (0.10%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The Kouga and the Iga two ninja clans with four hundred years of hostilities between them meet at the request of Lord Ieyasu. There they learn that the peace forced upon them is to be broken by the whim of royalty and that the outcome of this battle will determine the next Shogun. The passions of the past quickly reignite as two scrolls are sent out into the night. Ill-fated is this event indeed for lovers stand with hands entwined as travesty approaches on the wings of a hawk. Reared from birth as sworn enemies Gennosuke and Oboro each the heir of these rival clans seek lasting peace between their peoples. But the terms have been set and two lists seal their destinies. Two lists from which a name can only be crossed out in blood. No mercy will be spared to the enemy.

• Enter The Ninja | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-14.01 (-233.90%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Ninja: highest honour given to the dedicated followers of Ninjitsu the deadliest of all martial arts. Because this particular Ninja happens to be an American he is hated for his superiority by his Japanese rivals. Feet fists and the full range of death-dealing weapons fly in a multi-pronged plot to destroy him. 'Enter the Ninja' is a martial arts extravaganza which will grip you with its non-stop action and thrills!

• Bubblegum Crisis - Vol. 2 | DVD | (08/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The second instalment of the popular Japanese anime, Bubblegum Crisis 2 contains the fourth, fifth and sixth episodes of the eight original videos. In a devastated high-tech Tokyo of a Blade Runner-ish future, four beautiful women disguised by their heavily armed exoskeletons protect society from killer androids and from an ambitious corporation that tries to take over the world, while also having complicated personal lives. The cute teenager NeNe always has a crush on someone or other; flighty Linna has to fit her superhero life into a busy social schedule; and Priss has her career as a rock singer as well as a habit of feeling emotional. Only the austere Sylia is entirely in control of her life--so much so that she needs the others for a bit of productive chaos. In the episodes included they deal with a mysterious car that is riding down motorcyclists, help a tragic android who is vampirising citizens to feed a damaged friend and cope with attempts by an evil conspirator to frame them for mass mayhem. The stories rely rather too heavily on extended sequences of fast bikes and car racing, or mechanised bodysuits and big robots tearing each other apart, but the plotting can be subtle and the emotional scenes tense and fraught. Someone trying to get a sense of anime's strengths and weaknesses could do a lot worse than start here. On the DVD: the disc is presented in a visual aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and has a very loud Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack which presents every screech of tortured metal vehemently and every pounding anthem in the slightly pompous score. There are no extras apart from a very extended documentation of the credits. --Roz Kaveney

• Black Eagle | DVD | (17/06/2002) from £9.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  After an F-11 gets shot down over the Mediterranean Sea the U.S. government cannot afford to lose the top-secret laser tracking device that was on board. But unfortunately the KGB team lead by the infamous Andrei (Jean-Claude Van Damme) are beating the CIA in the race to find it. The CIA has no choice but to call in their best man master martial-artist Ken Tani (Sho Kosugi) code name Black Eagle. In response the KGB resorts to an all-out war with the powerful Andrei matching Ken blow for blow.

• Shinjuku Triad Society | DVD | (26/05/2003) from £9.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (50.05%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The first of three films linked by theme rather than by character or story which form Takashi Miike's acclaimed Triad Society trilogy (followed by 'Rainy Dog' and 'Ley Lines') 'Shinjuku Triad Society' charts the bloody gangland battle for control over Tokyo's seedy Sinjuku district. When the Dragon's Claw gang from Taiwan attempts a take-over of the dope extortion and gay prostitution rackets run by the ruling Japanese Yakuza a lone cop predicts carnage. In a crusade against t

• 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.

• The Black Angel | DVD | (25/02/2002) from £12.90   |  Saving you £-2.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Takashi Ishi's visually stylish The Black Angel is a fascinating cross between Japanese gangster film and Jacobean revenge tragedy. Sent away to the US after the slaughter of her parents by rivals led by her half-sister Chaiko, Ikko (Riona Hazuki) returns determined to reclaim her yakuza kingdom. Ikko is obsessed with childish memories of Mayo the hitwoman, the original Black Angel, entrusted with getting her out of the country. The intervening 14 years have been hard on Mayo--being the Black Angel is tough on the nerves--and she is hired to kill Ikko, not realising they have met before. This is a tragic film in which three strong women are destined to destroy each other through the trickery of male betrayal; from the beginning, as a child is smuggled away and a mother told the infant is dead, it is clear that we are in a land of myth, with no happy endings. A night time Tokyo of bright lights and dark shadows, of dead-end corridors and escalators that lead you only to your death, is provided as a moody backdrop. Takashi's inventive set pieces of mood and action include a shootout in a strip club set to Verdi's Requiem. On the DVD: The Black Angel is presented on disc in widescreen, while the moody, atmospheric score is done full justice by the Dolby Digital soundtrack. The only special features are filmographies and biographies, production stills and the theatrical trailer. --Roz Kaveney

• Rainy Dog | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £7.95   |  Saving you £10.03 (202.22%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Poetic hitman film noir from controversial Japanese director Takashi Miike. Yuuji is an outsider. As a Japanese mobster holed up in Taipei working as a hitman for a Triad boss he is far from his roots. Added to this complicated existence is the fact that his ex-wife has just dumped a young boy - probably their child - on his doorstep. A hazardous burden in this world of sly manouvers and quick-fire shoot-outs the boy is neglected and unloved. As Yuuji continues to do business as

• Shogun Warrior | DVD | (28/02/2000) from £9.98   |  Saving you £14.01 (140.38%)   |  RRP £23.99

  In 17th Century Japan the county is divided into two warring clans. The Eastern Army led by the Warlord Tokugawa and the Western Army which fights for the Toyotomis clan. After victory at their last battle things are still not going the Eastern army's way and Toyotomi believes the only way to turn the tide of the war is to obtain firearm's. To this end he sends his most trusted Samurai Mayeda and his son Yourimune to Spain with a small party of soldiers and a Franeisean mo

• Dead Or Alive 2 | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £8.49   |  Saving you £6.50 (43.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  An off-the-cuff Japanese gangster movie with an absurdist streak that shades into surrealism, Dead or Alive 2 isn't thrown by its brief to sequelise a film that ended not only with the deaths of its lead characters but the destruction of Japan. Takashi Miike--the prolific auteur whose best-known film is the atypically considered Audition--brings back his lead actors in different roles and spins off another strange shaggy dog tale. The film starts out with a Yakuza vs Triads gang war in the offing, then sidesteps into "'Beat"' Miike territory as a couple of hit-men who meet when they turn up for the same assassination turn out to be childhood friends and enjoy a nostalgic wallow as they return to the orphanage where they met, re-encounter other old pals and even stand in for some injured actors putting on a play for the children. White-suited and terminally ill Sawada (Riki Takeuchi) and bleached blond and Hawaiian-shirted Otamoko (Sho Aikawa) get back to gunplay, committing contract murders and funnelling the profits into third world charities, which earns them occasional angel-wings or transformations back into innocent children. In constant danger of collapse, the film keeps pulling surprises: txt msg-addicted killers, an animated diagram of bullet trajectories through an unfortunate dwarf's brain. The first film blew up the country because it couldn't think of an ending, and this also has a lot of trouble signing off, with protracted deaths and redemptions for the heroes. Miike alternates clumsiness and confusion with exciting and powerful cinema. --Kim Newman

• Excel Saga - Vol. 1 - Episodes 1-5 | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Contains the chronically over-challenged and understaffed secret ideological organization of ACROSS (total membership: 2) whose goal is to conquer the city of F. Also contains your complete daily requirements of Martian Princesses afro-wearing Action Heroes Mysterious Governmental Agencies Space Butlers deranged Comic Book Authors Androgynous Prisoners in Iron Masks Annoying Roommates Removable Moustaches and a generous supply of Adorably Cute Aliens Bent on Galactic Dominatio

• Fudoh - The New Generation | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When a Yakuza commits a terrible error he must pay a tribute to show loyalty to the other Yakuza families by killing his eldest son. Ten years later his youngest son uncovers the grisly act and organizes his friends to take revenge against his father and all the other Yakuza leaders for practicing outdated customs...

• Excel Saga - Vol. 6 | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (-0.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Yes it's finally happened! Just when you thought the plot would never thicken the whole thing congeals and Excel finds herself in the fight for her life! With the Great Will held hostage the city in ruins the Puchuu running amok and Pedro joining forces with Nabeshin to combat the nefarious That Man the action is fast and hilarious as ACROSS finally makes its move in the final unbelievable volume of Excel Saga!