"Actor: Yusaku Matsuda"

• Yokohama BJ Blues (Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (16/12/2024) from £15.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  When his police detective best friend is killed, down-at-heel private eye and part-time blues singer BJ (Yusaku Matsuda, The Game Trilogy) gets the blame. He must start his own investigation to clear his name, but what he uncovers is a tangled web involving crooked cops, drug-dealing gangsters, the city's underground gay and biker scenes, and even his own past. A loose remake of Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye that also draws from Visconti's Death in Venice, this was Matsuda's break with his action hero image. Samurai movie veteran Eiichi Kudo (The Fort of Death) relishes his chance at directing a neo-noir that captures urban Japan at the height of 1980s decadence. LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES High-Definition digital transfer, world premiere on Blu-ray Uncompressed mono PCM audio Interview with star Mari Hemmi Interview with screenwriter Shoichi Maruyama Interview with writer and Yokohama expert Toru Sano on the film and a look at the locations Trailer Newly translated English subtitles Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Dimitri Ianni on Toei Central Film, a subsidiary of Toei studios famed for releasing Pink Films and independent productions such as Yokohama BJ Blues and an archival review of the film

• Proof of the Man Limited Edition Blu-ray | Unknown | (08/09/2025) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Movie mogul Haruki Kadokawa changed the landscape of Japanese cinema for good when he introduced the concept of the blockbuster to the country with this gripping crime drama featuring an all-star cast. When mixed-raced Johnny Hayward (Flower Travellin' Band vocalist Joe Yamanaka) heads from his Harlem home to Tokyo, he becomes the victim of a brutal stabbing in the elevator of a plush hotel hosting a catwalk show by elite fashion designer Kyoko (Mariko Okada). That same night, Kyoko's son with her powerful politician husband Yohei (Toshiro Mifune) is involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident and flees the country. Suspecting the incidents may be linked, Detective Munesue (Yusaku Matsuda, The Game Trilogy) heads to New York to investigate Johnny's background. Here he is partnered with local detective Ken Shuftan (George Kennedy, Airport), whose own links to Japan dredge up painful memories from Munesue's childhood. Adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name by Seiichi Morimura by director Junya Sato (The Bullet Train, Manhunt) and screenwriter Zenzo Matsuyama (The Human Condition trilogy), and shot on location in Japan and New York by veteran cinematographer Shinsaku Himeda (Pigs and Battleships, Vengeance is Mine), Proof of the Man is a compelling exploration of racial identity and the trauma of the postwar occupation period framed in the form of a whodunnit. Arrow Video is proud to present the film for the very first time outside Japan for the home-video market in a brand new transfer sourced from a new 4K restoration by Kadokawa. LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS ¢ High-Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation ¢ Original lossless mono audio ¢ Optional newly translated English subtitles ¢ Brand new audio commentary with Asian American film scholar Rob Buscher and DJ Skeme Richards ¢ Taking the Big Apple, a brand new video introduction by Asian film scholar Earl Jackson ¢ A Japanese Blockbuster, a brand new filmed discussion with critics and Junya Sato biographers Tatsuya Masuto and Masaaki Nomura ¢ Original theatrical trailers ¢ Image gallery ¢ Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella ¢ Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by film critic Michelle Kisner and scholar Alexander Zahlten

• The Game Trilogy Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (17/02/2025) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Made at the end of the 1970s, Toru Murakawa's Game Trilogy launched actor Yusaku Matsuda as the Toei tough guy for a new generation. Matsuda was the definitive screen icon of 1980s until his career was tragically cut short by cancer at the age of 40, following his Hollywood debut in Ridley Scott's Black Rain. In this career-defining triptych, Matsuda is Shohei Narumi, an ice cool hitman of few words, a steely trigger finger, and a heart of stone, hired in The Most Dangerous Game by a company bidding for a lucrative government air defence contract to take out the competition. In The Killing Game, Narumi finds himself caught in the midst of violent yakuza gang warfare, while his own brutal past catches up with him in the form of two beautiful women still bearing the emotional scars of his past assignments. In The Execution Game, Narumi falls for a mysterious saloon bar chanteuse who may or may not be part of the same, shadowy underworld organisation as the rival hitmen he is employed to rub out. With cool blue cinematography by Nagisa Oshima collaborator Seizo Sengen and a sultry score by jazz legend Yuji Ohno, Murakawa's masterful set of films raised the bar for the Japanese action movie to new heights. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS - High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of all films - Original lossless mono Japanese soundtracks - Optional newly translated English subtitles - Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella DISC 1: THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME - Audio commentary by Chris Poggiali and Marc Walkow - The Action Man, a 30-minute interview with director Toru Murakawa - Original Japanese theatrical trailer - Image gallery DISC 2: THE KILLING GAME & THE EXECUTION GAME - Audio commentary on The Killing Game by Earl Jackson and Jasper Sharp - Audio commentary on The Execution Game by Tom Mes - Remembering Yusaku Matsuda, an interview with Yutaka Oki, film critic and personal friend of Yusaku Matsuda - Game Changer, an interview with The Execution Game screenwriter Shoichi Maruyama - Original Japanese theatrical trailers for both films - Image galleries for both films

• The Resurrection Of The Golden Wolf | DVD | (20/06/2005) from £9.70   |  Saving you £-3.71 (-61.90%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Asakura (Matsuda) is a mild-mannered accountant by day a ruthless killer and thief by night. He rips off millions from a bank only to discover that all the bills are marked. Looking for a way to launder the money Asakura begins a deadly game of seduction blackmail and murder... A classic of Japanese action cinema!