When it comes to the cinematic phenomenon that was pinky violence, one of the key attractions was its stars: Reiko Ike, Miki Sugimoto, Reiko Oshida, and Meiko Kaji to name a few. Rocketing to the heights of pop culture icons, the media couldn’t get enough of these glamorous women, with at least one of them

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Despite being one of Japan’s biggest film studios throughout the late 40s and 50s during the golden age of Japanese cinema, Daiei were struggling by the mid-60s and had to slash budgets for their productions. This eventually led to a merger with Nikkatsu in 1970, followed by bankruptcy in 1971. Somewhat overlooked is Daiei’s 1968-1969

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Day Zero is a 2022 Filipino zombie action horror, written by Ays De Guzman and directed by Joey De Guzman. Both are fairly active in Filipino cinema, Ays has spent a decade writing for long-running TV shows such as May bukas pa as well as screenwriting a number of feature-length films, on the other hand,

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Bad City Review

V-cinema icon Hitoshi Ozawa, who has been a regular fixture in the films of Takashi Miike, plays grizzled detective Torada who has just been released from prison in order to head an investigation into a corrupt businessman turned politician, Gojo. With his small team,  Torada cracks down on Gojo and the Korean gang executing the

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Whilst Wong is a very common name in Singapore and China, Cleopatra certainly isn’t! The name actually reveals the main inspiration for this film: the blaxploitation heroine – CIA agent Cleopatra Jones. In a glut of murky blaxploitation films, where, despite their roles as the heroines, female characters were often victimised and objectified, Cleopatra Jones

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Cyclops 1987

While the 1980s were a fairly lacklustre era for Japanese genre cinema on the major studio front, it was quite an exciting time on the independent scene. A whole new generation of filmmakers — emboldened by the availability of 16mm cameras (the novel home video distribution format) and a robust economy — burst onto the

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Guzoo: The Thing Forsaken by God - Part 1

Guzoo: The Thing Forsaken by God – Part 1 is a 1986 Japanese monster horror film written and directed by Kazuo Komizu with additional writing from Hitoshi Matsuyama and Junzô Takagi. Kazuo is most notable for directing the gore films Entrails of a Virgin (1986), Entrails of a Beautiful Woman (1986), and Rusted Body: Guts

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Ceroboh The Screaming Sky 2022

Ceroboh (aka The Screaming Sky) is a 2022 Malaysian sci-fi thriller, directed by Feisal Azizuddin. Mostly known for directing shorts, Feisal made his move into feature-length directing the drama thriller Kabus as well as Ceroboh in the same year. Written by Chong Keng Fatt, the script was the winning entry out of hundreds entered in

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New Religion 2022 FrightFest

New Religion is a 2022 Japanese surrealist horror, written and directed by Keishi Kondo in his feature-length debut. Kenshi is also known as the writer/director/cinematographer behind the drama short See You Again (2020). “After her daughter’s death, divorced Miyabi works as a call-girl. One day, she meets a strange customer who wants to photograph her

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Whilst manga in Japan was certainly nothing new by the 1950s, the efforts of artists such as Osamu Tezuka led to the medium becoming more popular than ever, especially with children. With the extreme popularity of this childrens’ manga only ever growing, the term “manga” itself was quickly becoming synonymous purely with childrens’ manga. Artists

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