"Actor: Yumiko Nogawa"

• Hokuriku Proxy War (Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (24/02/2025) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Loose-cannon gangster Kawada rebels when his two-timing boss forms an alliance with a major crime syndicate. The syndicate's main rivals see Kawada as their perfect proxy, but his furious temper quickly rubs them the wrong way, leaving Kawada to face overwhelming forces. Fukasaku's final yakuza film features some of the strongest women's roles in his career, plus a raucous central performance from Hiroki Matsukata (Cops vs Thugs) and support from the legendary Sonny Chiba. LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURESHigh-Definition digital transferUncompressed mono PCM audioNew interview with actress Yoko Takahashi (2024, 15 mins)New interview with screenwriter Koji Takada (2024, 19 mins)Yakuza film historian Akihiko Ito on the real-life Hokuriku Proxy War murder case (2024, 15 mins)TrailerNewly improved English subtitle translationReversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time TomorrowLimited edition booklet featuring newly translated archival writings on the filmLimited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

• A Certain Killer / A Killer's Key Limited Edition Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (10/02/2025) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Anticipating the cool aesthetic of Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill and based on a crime novel by Shinji Fujiwara, the author of the original material for the same year's A Colt is My Passport, A Certain Killer and A Killer's Key are similarly stylish contemporary hitman thrillers directed by Daiei's top director of jidai-geki, Kazuo Mori (The Tale of Zatoichi Continues) and starring the studio's top actor Raizō Ichikawa (Shinobi: Band of Assassins, Sleepy Eyes of Death). In A Certain Killer, Shiozaki's low-profile existence as a chef at a local sushi restaurant serves as a front for his true job as a professional assassin whose modus operandi is poisoned needles. He's approached by Maeda, a low-ranking member of a local yakuza group, to take out a rival gang boss. But the sudden arrival into his life of a spirited young woman, Keiko (Yumiko Nogawa, Gate of Flesh), has dramatic ramifications on his relationship with his new employer. Ichikawa's lone wolf assassin is back in A Killer's Key, this time masquerading as a traditional dance instructor named Nitta who is called in to avert a potential financial scandal that threatens to engulf a powerful yakuza group with ties to powerful figures in the political establishment. Co-scripted by the director Yasuzō Masumura (Giants and Toys, Blind Beast) and featuring masterful scope cinematography with an expressionistic eye for colour by one of Japan's most esteemed cinematographers, Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu), these Japanese crime drama essentials are presented for the very first time to the English-language home video market. LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS ¢ High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of both films ¢ Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio for both films ¢ Optional newly translated English subtitles ¢ Brand new audio commentary for both films by critic and Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns ¢ The Definite Murderer, a brand new 30-minute introduction to the films by Japanese film scholar Mark Roberts ¢ Original theatrical trailers for both films ¢ Image gallery ¢ Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork for both films by Tony Stella ¢ Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the films by Jasper Sharp and Earl Jackson

• Pleasures Of The Flesh | DVD | (08/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Katsuo Nakamura stars as a man blackmailed by a thief who makes him hold on to some stolen loot while the thief serves a jail sentence. Nakamura is led into temptation by all that money sitting around so he decides to spend it on wild partying and sex before killing himself to avoid retribution.

• The Sea Is Watching | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £7.79   |  Saving you £12.20 (156.61%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Period drama based on a script from legendary director Akira Kurosawa which focuses on the lives of a group of geisha women gathered together in a poor city district. A beautiful young geisha O-Shin (Nagiko Tohno) who harbors a samurai (Hidetaka Yoshioka) seeking refuge. Falling in love with O-Shin the samurai hopes to cleanse her of the sins of her profession. But fate and fortune conspire to keep the lovers apart and when another young man (Masatoshi Nagase) appears a thund

• Gate Of Flesh | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Set in Tokyo just after the war 'Gate of Flesh' is the story of a group of prostitutes who live and work in a derelict building. Now recognised as a classic of Japanese cinema the film is a shocking sometimes brutal yet always compelling experience.

• The Geisha House | DVD | (11/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A moving and entrancing exploration of a culture that has fascinated the Western world for centuries, Kinji Fukasaki's Geisha House was released in 1998, presaging a flurry of literature and memoirs that have helped to broaden our understanding of the geisha's role in Japanese society. Set in the late 1950s, when geisha culture was threatened by moral crusades, it tells the story of Omacha (Miyamoto Maki), a young girl who sees the geisha life as a way to lift her poverty-stricken family from their hand-to-mouth existence. Through her eyes, we see the protocols and complex financial relationships which dictate the running of the geisha house. Fukusaki's film is a work of great delicacy with moments of hypnotic beauty, and his tender direction, often touched with a sense of wonder, fills the screen with lovingly constructed scenes. At its heart is the poignant situation of the women who must sacrifice their normal relationships to live an ambiguous life in which they are a key part of society while being kept, for the most part, on its periphery, like perpetual mistresses. On the DVD: Geisha House is presented with subtitles in widescreen anamorphic format. The string-laden Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack is occasionally overpowering. The only extra is a short, text biography of Fukusaki. --Piers Ford

• Yakuza Box Set | DVD | (17/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Three tough thrillers from the acclaimed director of 'Battle Royale'. Graveyard Of Honour: Rikio Ishikawa is a brutal street thug who is drawn into the powerful Kawada gang in 1946 Tokyo. His insubordination and rebelliousness encourage him to start his own Yakuza family but he decides the easiest way would be to challenge his own Godfather whom he brutally attacks. This disrespect to his boss brings the ultimate form of disgrace upon himself and his 'family'. For his own