"Actor: Yoshiko Kuga"

• Cruel Story of Youth (1960) | Blu Ray | (17/08/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Eureka Entertainment to release Japanese Director Nagisa Oshima’s landmark film CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH a shocking tale of youthful delinquency in post-Hiroshima Japan on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK in a Dual Format edition available from 17 August 2015. This second feature by the Japanese cinema-insurgent Nagisa Ôshima (In the Realm of the Senses Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) galvanised its home-turf with its topsy-turvy directorial dexterity and stinging castigation of an indolent self-indulgent youth culture reposing on the eve of the turbulent 1960s. When high-schooler Makoto is saved from the advances of a lecherous middle-aged man by uni student Kiyoshi the pair embark on a fits-and-starts affair that finally settles into a sexually extortionary mutually exploitative dependency that promises to spell their relationship’s doom. Ôshima’s breakthrough portrait of alienated youth comes courtesy of the 2014 Shochiku 4K scan that resurrected the film’s glorious colour palette recently described by critic and programmer James Quandt as “running riot with retro: pulsing neon turquoise telephones hair teased into shellacked grandeur.” The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Cruel Story of Youth in a Dual Format edition for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK. Feature: Gorgeous 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray from the 2014 4K Shochiku restoration Optional English subtitles New video interview with film critic Tony Rayns Original theatrical trailer 36-page booklet containing an essay interview material and rare archival imagery

• Drunken Angel | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £10.35   |  Saving you £9.64 (93.14%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Post-war Japan anatomised in the combative relationship between an alcoholic doctor (Takeshi Shimura) and his patient (Toshiro Mifune) a wounded young gangster. This is the film that was considered to be Kurosawa's breakthrough movie illuminating themes that would go on to dominate his succeeding work. 'Drunken Angel' also marked his first - of many - collaborations with Toshiro Mifune here playing the tubercular Yakuza hoodlum.

• The Idiot | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Akira Kurosawa's The Idiot is his only adaptation of a Fyodor Dostoevsky novel and was a cherished project on which it is claimed he expended more effort than on any other film. A darkly ambitious exploration of the depths of human emotion it combines the talents of two of the greatest Japanese actors of their generation - Toshiro Mifune and Setsuko Hara. The Idiot is perhaps the most comprehensive of all of Kurosawa's works a tone which is heightened b

• Naked Youth | DVD | (25/02/2008) from £11.48   |  Saving you £10.50 (110.64%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Oshima's second feature is a shocking tale of youthful delinquency in post Hiroshima japan. Conveying the pent up sexuality and disillusionment among Japan's post war generation it tells the story of teenage lovers Makato and Kiyoshi. She's a good girl gone bad dropping out of school and out of home; he's a violent hoodlum gambler and hustler. Making a living by performing shakedowns and attempting blackmail on unsuspecting middle aged men the film affords a bleak nihilistic take to the 'taiyo-zako' (Japanese cinema's 'delinquent youth' films). Often billed as Japan's Rebel Without A Cause but whereas Jame Dean's Jim Stark had the proverbial heart of gold Kawazu's Kiyoshi is filled only with rage and disgust. All of life's harsh realities await Makoto and Kiyoshi - this is no morality lesson or cautionary tale just a window into a terrible vision of humanity.

• Chikamatsu Monogatari/ Uwasa no Onna | DVD | (25/02/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Based on a centuries old tale with roots in real events Chikamatsu Monogatari tells the hauntingly tragic story of a forbidden love affair between a merchant's wife Osan (Kyoko Kagawa) and her husband's employee Mohei (Kazuo Hasegawa) in an era when the punishment for adultery was crucifixion. When a series of innocent events lead to the false accusation of an affair between Osan and Mohei the accused pair are forced to flee an almost certain death sentence. On the run the outlaw couple grow closer together drawn inexorably towards the romantic crime of which they are accused. Released the same year Uwasa No Onna offers a contrasting portrait of attitudes concerning love and relationships. Set in a modern Kyoto geisha house the film revolves around Hatsuko (Kinuyo Tanaka) madame of her own geisha house. When Hatsuko ends up pursuing the same man as her daughter Yukiko (Yoshiko Kuga) both women are forced to confront their attitudes towards each other and the family business.

• Ozu - Tokyo Twilight / Equinox Flower / Good Morning | DVD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  A collection of classic movies from lauded Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. Regarded by many as the world's finest director and renowned for his formalist style Yasujiro Ozu made his first film in 1927 and went on to direct 55 films before his death in 1963. It was only during his final years however that his genius as a film-maker was recognized in the West alongside such contemporaries as Buuel Bergman and fellow countryman Akira Kurosawa. This box set features three works