If you have a chance to see any of the “Tokyo Secret Police” breed of period-set ensemble cop shows, do it! I believe these stills are from one of the long-running Onmitsu Doushin line-ups, wherein the team of secret police … Continued
The domestic release of the 2005 Japanese fantasy horror flick Ashura didn’t get a whole lot of fanfare in the states, but it deserves a watch for sure. I found it reminiscent of Kadokawa’s 80’s neo-chambara epics like Legend of … Continued
Hand-tinted stills from the 1961 Toei four-part FX fantasy epic Golden Peacock Castle (Ogon Kujaku-Jo). Great yokai-masked villain with an army of tengu-masked henchmen to boot.
I don’t believe all remakes suck. The ’78 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Hammer’s 60’s reimaginings of the Universal monster films of 30 years previous, the Soderberg version of Solaris… all brought something new to the table and were worthy … Continued
CASTLE OF OWLS WEEK continues with some miscellaneous awesomeness centered on the the conflict between Juzo (Ryutaro Otomo) and Gohei (Minoru Ohki). As I’ve mentioned previously, this initially plays out like the old Sam the Sheepdog vs. Ralph the Wolf … Continued
While the overt conflict of Castle of Owls may be the wolf-vs-sheepdog of Juzo and Gohei, there is a deeper interior conflict in both men played out by their relationships to women, all of whom are deadly female ninja themselves. … Continued
The Japanese DVD of Castle of Owls has a modest gallery of B&W set-shot publicity stills: CASTLE OF OWLS WEEK continues with an in depth look at the ninja women of the film, and a side-by-side comparison of the photography of … Continued
Here’s the original Toei trailer: And a related promotional short hosted by the film’s young kunoichi Chiyoko Honma featuring Masaaki Hatsumi:
Hey, that’s the rest of the image from the home-page header! Yep, yer right. It’s also perhaps the most striking image of Ryutaro Otomo from Toho’s publicity shoots. Those spike shuriken are just awesome. Otomo’s stern, strong eyes lend a … Continued
Inspired by Gobi’s awesome sketch from this post, I’ve declared this CASTLE OF OWLS WEEK at Vintage Ninja! I’m not saying the 1963 Ryutaro Otomo action-drama is the best ninja movie ever made, but damn if it isn’t my absolute … Continued