A narcissistic conman takes ironic revenge on the post-war society in Toru Murakawa’s nihilistic crime drama.
Feb 22, 2023 • Subscribe
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Target (薔薇の標的, Toru Murakawa, 1980)
A young man seeks justice for a fallen friend in Toru Murakawa’s grimy neo-noir.
The Shootout (凶弾, Toru Murakawa, 1982)
A trio of teenage boys end up on the run after an altercation with a needlessly authoritarian police officer in Toru Murakawa’s empathetic social drama.
Break Out (行き止まりの挽歌 ブレイクアウト, Toru Murakawa, 1988)
A maverick cop realises he can only enforce the law by breaking it in Toru Murakawa’s hardboiled ’80s noir.
Over My Dead Body (死屍死時四十四, Ho Cheuk-Tin, 2023)
Residents of a swanky apartment block must band together to get rid of a random corpse and protect their property values in Ho Cheuk-Tin’s dark-hearted farce.
Crossroad (死の十字路, Umetsugu Inoue, 1956)
An adulterous industrialist’s life unravels after he accidentally kills his wife and tries to cover up the crime in Umetsugu Inoue’s gothic noir.
Golden Partners (黄金のパートナー, Kiyoshi Nishimura, 1979)
Two aimless best friends team up with a young woman looking for her missing father to find long lost wartime gold in Kiyoshi Nishimura’s breezy adventure.
告白
Confessions and Rejections - How to Japanese - September 2022
Junpaku no yoru / 純白の夜/ (‘Pure White Nights’, 1951)
Obscure Japanese Film #161 Michiyo Kogure Ikuko (Michiyo Kogure) is a young woman happily married to Tsunehiko (Seizaburo Kawazu), a banke...
The Faceless Dead (行旅死亡人, Kishu Izuchi, 2009)
If you suddenly got a phone call one day to tell you that someone with your name living at your address had been taken ill, how would you…
Like a Savage (野蛮人のように, Toru Kawashima, 1985)
A blocked writer is dragged into intrigue while searching for “adventure in the night” in Toru Kawashima zeitgeisty drama.
Illusion Acts Like Magic / 幻惑の死と使途
Illusion Acts Like Magic begins with Moe meeting her friend Tomoe Minosawa and going to a magic show. Saikawa was supposed to come as well ...
Michio Murakawa Interview, October 2022
From the Star Blazers/Yamato Premium Fan Club magazine, Vol. 15 Celebrating the resumption of the comicalized version of Yamato 2199! The comicalize version aims for the summit of…
The House of Hanging (病院坂の首縊りの家, Kon Ichikawa, 1979)
A legacy of familial trauma engulfs a once noble house in Kindaichi’s final and most complicated case
Enjoying Drinks With the Dead & Aimlessly Wandering Around Town — The World of Seino Toru
I have never read a manga by Seino Toru. But just by living in Tokyo, you kind of know who he is. Seino has many works under his…
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Two women struggle to free themselves from the abuses of a patriarchal and conservative society in Toru Kamei’s tragic lesbian romance
The Heart of Hiroshima (愛と死の記録, Koreyoshi Kurahara, 1966)
Sayuri Yoshinaga was the top female star at Nikkatsu in the mid-1960s. Together with her regular co-star Mitsuo Hamada, she starred in a series of hit youth romances…
Special - Alien (1979)
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Goukaku Tame no! Yasashi Sankaku Kakei Nyuumon ( 合格のための！ やさしい三角関係入門)
Mayuki is determined to get into the school of her choice to be close to the girl she likes, her old sempai on the basketball team, Akira. But…
The Nineteen-Year-Old’s Map (十九歳の地図, Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1979)
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1979 Voice Actor interviews
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While we don’t know what Hagakure looks like, she claims that she looks like a cross between Yang Guifei and Francis Xavier.Toru’s favourite food is caramel, her favourite…
Intolerance (空白, Keisuke Yoshida, 2021)
A angry old man struggling to accept his daughter’s death is forced to reassess his relationships in Keisuke Yoshida’s intense social drama.
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The Execution Game (1979) review
A satisfying and stylish conclusion full of captivating action-sequences.
Vintage Report 18: February 1979
As Yamato 2 moved into its post-Telezart phase with four very compelling episodes, development continued on The New Voyage, media coverage intensified, and new books kept the world…
Kanada and Tomonaga, 1978-1979
This article is an annex to this piece 1979 was no doubt a busy year in the anime industry, and especially so in the careers of Yoshinori Kanada…
Vintage Report 17: January 1979
At the dawn of 1979, Yoshinobu Nishizaki’s Office Academy studio was on the highest trajectory ever seen in the TV anime industry, which at the time was just…
Office Academy brochure, May 1979
Anticipating the character of the times: ACADEMY ’79-’80 This is the front and back cover of a unique time capsule of anime history, the 16-page company brochure for…
白と黒~Black & White~, Volume 1
Content warning: The plot here is 100% manipulation, violence and sexual violence. Shirakawa Junko is beloved in her office. The younger employees look up to her with deep…
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In Volume 1 we met Shirakawa, top of her department in her office and Kuroda, a promising up-and-comer who threatens to take everything Shirakawa has built. They briefly…
The Idiot (白痴, Akira Kurosawa, 1951)
A pure soul is destroyed by the selfishness and duplicity of the post-war society in Kurosawa’s snowbound adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novel.
白と黒~Black & White~, Volume 2
In Volume 1, we met Shirakawa Junko and Kuroda Kayo two high-spec, elites in an international sales department, who are natural enemies. They don’t just fight…in fact, they…
Between the White Key and the Black Key (白鍵と黒鍵の間に, Masanori Tominaga, 2023)
A jaded bar musician is confronted by his younger, more idealistic self in 1980s Ginza in Masanori Tominaga’s surrealistic adaptation of the memoirs of jazz musician Hiroshi Minami.
Vintage Report 21: July/August 1979
For a two-month period that didn’t actually see a large amount of activity, this was a huge moment for Yamato fans. July in particular delivered a big one-two…
Vintage Report 22: September/October 1979
As summer merged into fall, the world of Yamato was only getting bigger in the wake of The New Voyage, and Office Academy studio was only getting busier.…
One Shots / “From 1979 to 2025…”
Whenever I take photos for the One Shots gallery, I usually set up my photobooth, or go somewhere with a suitable outside backdrop. For this one though, I…
Vintage Report 20, May/June 1979
This stretch of time can be described as a gap, since it marked the period between the Yamato 2 finale and the broadcast premiere of The New Voyage.…
Vintage Report 23: November/December 1979
The fan community didn’t know it yet, but the end of 1979 tipped them just past the halfway point between The New Voyage and the next big adventure,…
The New Voyage Time Machine, 1979
Contained here is a complete record of media coverage for The New Voyage from the first teaser to the last lookback, spanning all of 1979. April 9: Middle…
Vintage Report 19, March/April 1979
The spring months of 1979 saw the first slowdown in Yamato activity since the previous summer, which was inevitable given that the intervening period was the busiest in…
正チャンの冒険 – Sho-chan Adventures Ep. 6 – The Dead City
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暁Records – 酔生夢死 -Hedonism-
The song this time is 酔生夢死 -Hedonism-. 酔生夢死 basically means something along the lines of drinking until you die, or drinking your life away. The dictionary definition is…
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Condensed Anime Take 2 - Hashire Melos 1979
Just like Cello Hiki no Gauche , Hashire Melos is a beloved Japanese story. Written in 1940 by Dazai Osamu, known for the novels No Longer ...
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Farewell to Yamato panel book, January 1979
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The Inferno (地獄, Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1979)
No one can escape from their sins according to the ominous voiceover that opens Tatsumi Kumashiro’s loose reimagining of Nobuo Nakagawa’s Jigoku, The Inferno (地獄, Jigoku). Then again,…
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One Nite in Mongkok 旺角黑夜 (2004), by writer/director Derek Yee, proves to be an enthralling experience due to the well-written and performed characters and the atmospheric direction that…
