I take any chance I can get to turn folks on to the ninja / kaiju genre-bender Magic Serpent (Kairyu Daikessen, aka Dragon Showdown and many other retitles), so when the invite came from Paxton and Jeeg to co-chair the … Continued
We lost Japanese screen legend Hiroki Matsukata this week. The son of jidai-geki’s first Jubei Yagyu icon Jushiro Konoe, he was pretty much born to play a ninja on screen, with starring roles under the black hood in such … Continued
SEVENTEEN NINJA (JUSHICHININ NO NINJA, 1963) is the typical 60’s Japanese boom film in that: 1.) It’s GREAT. 2.) It’s noir-as-hell — painted in gorgeous chiaroscuro cinematography. 3.) It’s also noir-as-hell because (from the gospel of James Ellroy) pretty much everybody in it is fucked. And… … Continued
Surely the apex of shinobi-kaiju cinema, Magic Serpent (for the Sandy Frank/AIP-exposed) or Kairyu Dai-Kessen, is a no brainer to start of Monsters and Masks 2010! This is a staged publicity shot, you rarely if ever get that clear a … Continued
Additional images from the inserts of the laserdisc of the 1963 “Kagaemaru of Iga” live action film: See more at Black Sun. Visit the creator’s official website (Japanese) here, with some great manga cover galleries under the “Published” link. Buy … Continued
Inspired by Shonen King‘s excellent work over at Black Sun, here’s some of the stills from the inserts of Toho’s Iga no Kagemaru laserdisc: More coming tomorrow. In the meantime, buy the really fun 1963 film at Kurotokagi.
Last time we set things up for the Yagyu’s apocalyptic assault on a impregnable fortress. Yagyu Bugeicho: Katame no Ninja is an all too rare shinobi WAR movie. Unleash the dogs… Not exactly your feel-good action-comedy buddy pic here… Katame … Continued
Spent a lot of time on American and Chinese posters and packaging lately, so let’s take things back to where it really all starts with this site – 60’s Japanese films. This will be the first of several posts on … Continued
The main-event of Kairyu Daikessen is an extended kaiju beatdown between dragon and toad, with a castle destroyed in the process. Kairyu Daikessen is actually more available now than it ever was back in the day. Beautiful widescreen subtitled editions … Continued
Kairyu Daikessen was a 1966 Toei fusion of ninja revenge and giant monster magic. It delivered in spades on both fronts and was a fantastic movie. Then it was picked up by American International Pictures for English-language distribution, and has … Continued