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Yagio Shigaraki is the 55-year-old president of the Shigaraki Brewery. Despite looking like a giant tanuki, he has built the company into one of the leading breweries in the industry and is competing with a rival for supplies to a major department store. Yagio has vowed never to marry again after losing his beloved wife to illness, but one of his office workers, Fusako, is in love with him. Meanwhile, the president of a rival brewing company also happens to have feelings for Fusako, and when several other employees decide to get involved, the situation begins to get out of hand. [Source: Far East Films]

A comedy directed by Minoru Kawasaki (Planet Prince 2021) with voice actor Tomokazu Seki and other cast members including Akari MacHi, Hiroyuki Taniguchi as well as Japanese comedy duo Rainbow members, Takao Jumbo and Naoto Ikeda.

Theatrical release in Japan: May 20, 2022...

Tokyo 2020 is here!

Celebrating all things Japan, Terracotta has some July recommendations for you to enjoy:

Ten Years Japan – a dystopian future awaits, in these ‘Black Mirror-esque’ short films by renowned Japanese directors.

Fish Story – how can a punk rock song save the world from a meteorite? Find out more in this multi-stranded film that’s so clever, it will leave you astounded.

Kaiju Mono – it’s man vs monster in this comical take on the Kaiju genre from Minoru Kawasaki, starring wrestler Kota Ibushi.

Tag – a surreal Japanese high-school splatter movie from maverick director Sion Sono (Love Exposure, Himizu)

“Fish Story”

New titles on physical media

1) Funuke: Show Some Love You Losers (blu ray release) Quirky black comedy released by Third Window films. Directed by Daihachi Yoshida (The Kirishima Thing), a wannabe idol returns to her rural village for her parents funeral and renews her feud with her younger sister.

"Let them... eat!" Get ready for the giant "Monster Seafood Wars" fight to begin!! A new trailer has debuted for this goofy, low-budget Japanese body-suit-kaiju creation from filmmaker Minoru Kawasaki. It recently premiered at last year's Fantasia Film Festival and already opened in Japan last summer, but there's still no US release set yet. Monster Seafood Wars (also stylized Monster SeaFood Wars) is a goofy comedy film about a "gigantic mutated squid monster" that attacks Tokyo. So they create the "Seafood Monster Attack Team (Smat)" to fight the monster, but then even more giant seafood monsters show up, "plunging the world into culinary chaos." Sounds fun, doesn't it? Starring Keisuke Ueda and Ayano Christie Yoshida. This looks as crazy ridiculous as it sounds, which is part of the fun. Fantasia describes it as "a love letter to classic kaiju cinema, and a delicious homage to Japanese seafood cuisine on top of that!

Yuta, a young master at the Tsukiji Fish Market, accidentally drops his meal of mixed seafood into the Sumida River. Some time afterwards a gigantic mutated squid monster arises from the depths and begins to wreak havoc upon an awe-stricken Tokyo. Attempts by the Japan Self-Defense Forces to stop the creature prove futile. As it …

The post Kaiju All-Out War In – Minoru Kawasaki’s Monster Seafood Wars – Limited Edition VHS + BluRay Now On Sale!! appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

Minoru Kawasaki’s films have always been silly as much as entertaining, with his tendency to portray various professional humans in animal form, having drawn joyous laughter by all audience that enjoy cult parody. This time his approach deals with the kaiju-tokusatsu theme, in a film that parodies “Godzilla” (Resurgence) as much as Kawasaki’s own films.

Kaiju Mono will be available from Terracotta Distribution

The story starts with a film crew from SpiritSpots.com entering Specter Pass in Mount Myojin, where strange lights have been reported to appear recently. During their search, they are warned by the mysterious Professor Nindo Izumi not to proceed. However, they pay no attention to him and soon end up dead by a gigantic creature that emerges from the ground. All the while, reports for abnormal weather around the globe, earthquakes in Mount Myojin and the reemergence of ancient plants are all over the news,...

Minoru Kawasaki is best known for his low-budget films featuring animals with human characteristics, with Calamari Wrestler and Executive Koala being two of the most famous. Before that however, he also worked on Tsuburaya Productions’s Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Dyna. His latest films, “Monster Seafood Wars” follows on the footsteps of the first two.

On the occasion of Monster Seafood Wars screening at Fantasia 2020, we speak with him about animals instead of human characters, using comedy and parody to communicate a message working with Tsuburaya Pro, and many other topics.

Where did the idea of using an animal hero instead of a human originally come from? Where do you typically get your inspiration?

There are many Japanese stories about humans and animals getting along, such as “Momotaro” or “Kintaro”. Aside from that, there is also a manga series everyone in Japan know from their childhood “Norakuro”, a story in...

Minoru Kawasaki, the connoisseur behind such Japanese absurdism as The Calamari Wrestler and Executive Koala, is resurrecting Kaiju cinema with his new culinary invention called “Monster Gourmet.” Monster SeaFood Wars dares to dream of a world where skyscraper-tall mollusks can eradicate world hunger, but when unleashed, cause havoc with Toho-inspired dangers. What looks like Godzilla’s […]

The post ‘Monster SeaFood Wars’ is a Wild Kaiju Comedy That Delivers the Delicious Goods [Fantasia Film Festival] appeared first on /Film.

Released in Japan in June 2020 and getting its international premiere at Fantasia Film Fest, “Monster Seafood Wars” is Minoru Kawasaki’s first film in four years. The film is loosely based on one of the earliest ideas by the SFX legend Eiji Tsuburaya about a giant octopus attacking Tokyo, getting killed with vinegar, and eaten by Tokyoites.

Monster Seafood Wars is Screening at Fantasia Festival

Yuta Tanuma (Keisuke Ueda) is a disgraced scientist-turned-sushi-assistant. One day, while on delivery to the nearby Shinto shrine, Yuta gets into a small bicycle accident and loses his mixed seafood box. Its contents soon turn up in the form of a monster squid and octopus who start wreaking havoc over Tokyo. The two are soon joined by a mutated crab. Realizing the Self-Defence Forces are powerless against the three seafood monsters, nicknamed Ikara, Takora, and Kanira, the government creates a Seafood Monster Attack Team which...

Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream and Tran Thanh Huy’s Rom are among the wealth of final titles announced for Fantasia’s 24th edition.

The Fantasia Film Festival announces today a massive new assortment of feature films for its 24th edition, and here are all the Asian titles that are announced:

The Incredible Johnnie To Make Our Dream Come True

When Tiger and Cuckoo meet, it’s a match made in heaven. Both involved with moneylenders, one is an over-enthusiastic rising star in the Mma world; the other a resourceful, aspiring singer on-the-run who will stop at nothing for a spot on ‘Perfect Diva’! Following Three (Fantasia 2016), master filmmaker Johnnie To is back with Chasing Dream: an unexpected blend of mixed-martial-arts drama and high-stakes musical comedy, taking the viewers back to the madcap energy of his mid-2000s collaborations with Wai Ka-Fai and the themes of his sports-and-destiny masterpiece Throw Down.

The Canadian virtual festival will include more than 100 features and 200 shorts.

Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival has announced a third and final wave of feature films, as well as details of its panels, talks, tributes and special events.

This year’s virtual edition of the Montreal-based festival, running from August 20 to September 2, will include more than 100 features and more than 200 shorts.

Among the latest titles added to the line-up are Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, getting its world premiere, Jorge Michel Grau’s Perdida, getting its international premiere, and Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’A, which will be the closing night film.

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs August 20-September 2 and is being held digitally this year due to the pandemic, has unveiled its final lineup.

The fest has also announced that revered genre filmmaker John Carpenter will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award and will host an online masterclass as part of its virtual events.

New pics selected include Kiel McNaughton’s Indigenous action-comedy The Legend Of Baron To’a, which closes the fest, the world premiere of Persepolis co-director Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream, and Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut short Night Shifts.

Further events will include talks with Mike Flanagan and Mick Garris, Simon Barrett, and Dennison Ramalho with José Mojica Marins aka Coffin Joe.

As reported previously, this year’s fest will open with Neil Marshall’s horror The Reckoning. The online screenings, which will run via Festival Scope and Shift72’s virtual screening platform,...

Cat person or not, there’s something we can all agree on: Universal Pictures’ live-action (or is it more CGI?) adaptation Cats was definitely… not what we wanted to see. We at Amp believe, however, that there are plenty of great cat-related movies out there — Asian ones, specifically — that can represent our feline friends in a less grotesque light. We’ve compiled below a list of comedies and horror, of the trippy and documentary, of the adorable and the heartwarming, all in honor of the original homebody champs. Get cozy, because these films will definitely warrant some snuggle-time with our favorite furballs.

1. Take Care of My Cat

Jeong’s themes are universal and not just the anxieties of young women in South Korea: they can be applied to many countries in the world and to many people. “Take Care of my Cat”, therefore, is relatively gimmick-free for a coming-of-age drama...

One of the latest trends in world cinema is the “Greek Weird Wave”, with films like “Dogtooth” and “Attenberg,” that take reality and push it to its borders, occasionally surpassing the lines of surrealism. Regarding weirdness however, if Greece has a wave, Japan has a tsunami, and has been having one for decades now. With films like “Robo Geisha” and “Dead Sushi”, Noboru Iguchi is a definite member of the genre, and his latest movie, “Slavemen” is a testament to the fact, as it takes the concept of the “masked hero” to its most extreme, despite the fact that gore is totally absent from this film.

Yasuyuki is a true loser. He aspires to become a filmmaker, but is only a cleaner, spending his days mopping floors, and living with his somewhat abusive sister. Nothing seems to improve his life, and things become even worse when, one day at work,...

September 18th is definitely a phan-tastic day to be a genre lover, as we’re finally getting individual Blu-ray releases for both Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead and Phantasm IV: Oblivion this week, courtesy of Well Go USA. Scream Factory has given two classic horrors an HD overhaul—Scream for Help and The Evil—that cult film enthusiasts should definitely check out, and there is a pair of Special Edition Blu-rays arriving on Tuesday from Arrow Video to boot: Horrors of Malformed Men and The Pyjama Girl Case.

Other notable Blu-ray and DVD releases for September 18th include Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The X-Files: Season 11, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, Impulse, and 666: Seance Hour.

The Evil

A psychologist (Richard Crenna) and his wife (Joanna Pettet) buy a dilapidated historical mansion with a dark past in this terrifying chiller. Hoping to restore the estate and turn it into a drug rehabilitation clinic,...

Cult director Teruo Ishii presents a nightmarish, hallucinogenic tale drawn from the fevered imagination of Japan’s celebrated pioneer ofero-guro (“erotic grotesque”) literature, Edogawa Rampo.

Medical student Hirosuke Hitomi slips out of the asylum in which he has been wrongfully confined and stealthily assumes the identity of a recently deceased nobleman with whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. Hirosuke eases his way into the nobleman’s household and his dead double’s marital bed. But as long-repressed memories begin to bubble to the surface, he soon finds himself drawn to a remote isle where he is confronted by a mad scientist and his malformed men, and discovers the key that will unlock some long-suppressed mysteries of his own.

A dark labyrinth of the monstrous and perverse that fuses mystery and horror while incorporating motifs from a myriad of Rampo’s tales, Horrors of Malformed Men boasts astonishing...

Time for one last crazy ass movie trailer before we get 2014 underway? Don't mind if we do. Mitsu Dan takes centre stage in the new erotic monster movie, Chikyu Bouei Miboujin (Earth Defence Widow). A Japanese release date is pencilled in for February 8th 2014, with director Minoru Kawasaki bringing this looney tune to life. He hasn't really done much since 2008's Pussy Soup but we'll let that go for now. It's safe to say we can expect dodgy effects, attractive female leads and juvenile humour on this one, and while there are no English subtitles as of yet, we're pretty sure you'll figure out what's going on. Enjoy the trailer and Happy New Year from everybody at 24Fps. Synopsis: Dan (Mitsu Dan) is a former geisha, now working as an ace pilot for the Earth Defence Troops. Her fiancé was killed by the space monster Bemurasu, which consumes nuclear waste.

Time for one last crazy ass movie trailer before we get 2014 underway? Don't mind if we do. Mitsu Dan takes centre stage in the new erotic monster movie, Chikyu Bouei Miboujin (Earth Defence Widow). A Japanese release date is pencilled in for February 8th 2014, with director Minoru Kawasaki bringing this looney tune to life. He hasn't really done much since 2008's Pussy Soup but we'll let that go for now. It's safe to say we can expect dodgy effects, attractive female leads and juvenile humour on this one, and while there are no English subtitles as of yet, we're pretty sure you'll figure out what's going on. Enjoy the trailer and Happy New Year from everybody at 24Fps. Synopsis: Dan (Mitsu Dan) is a former geisha, now working as an ace pilot for the Earth Defence Troops. Her fiancé was killed by the space monster Bemurasu, which consumes nuclear waste.

The always eclectic Minoru Kawasaki is back with a preview of his latest slice of cult movie lunacy, Earth Defense Widow. Japan is once again attack by giant monsters, and only one thing seems capable of stopping them...

Actually, make that two things. You won’t see anything like this in that Godzilla trailer released yesterday!

Crunchyroll brings news that the unhinged mind who gave us a dramatic film about a pro wrestling squid (The Calamari Wrestler), a police comedy about a cop that fights crime with his toupee (The Rug Cop), and a disaster movie in which the world sinks except Japan (The World Sinks Except Japan) is back with a daikaiju flick about an Earth Defense Force pilot vowing revenge against a giant monster that killed her fiance but can’t help but be sexually aroused by the attacking behemoth.

The sexy widow is played by Japanese model/actress Dan Mitsu.

The latest film from director Ben West and Australian special effects guru, Robot, comes Fugu & Tako, the story of two Japanese salarymen who get more than they bargain for when one of them demands ultra fresh "fugu" (pufferfish) at a sushi bar. I'm getting a strong Hitoshi Matsumoto vibe from the mock-documentary style of this, reminiscent of his classic Big Man Japan, together with something like Minoru Kawasaki's Executive Koala. The effects work looks absolutely sensational - the expressiveness of the "puffer face" is incredibly emotive - and quite frankly I cannot wait to see the full film.Check out the trailer below and there's also a link to Robot's website so you can check out their back catalogue of excellent videos....

[Doman Seman screens July 5th and 7th at the Lincoln Center with director Go Shibata in attendance.]

For fans of out-there cinema, especially of the anything-goes Asian variety, Gô Shibata's new film presents something of a conundrum:  it's wild, wacky, subversive-minded, undeniably experimental, and often innovative... yet feels, paradoxically, excruciatingly conventional. In short, I've rarely seen a film with such radical aesthetics, not to mention politics, that's nonetheless so humdrum. How did this happen?

Expectations run high for Doman Seman largely on the strength of Shibata's stunning alt-serial killer film Late Bloomer, which featured a disabled protagonist but managed to be anything but gimmicky. Walking a fine line between chilly objectivity and intimate subjectivity, Late Bloomer used a wide range of filmmaking devices opportunistically in order to underscore its central question: can we ever really understand what drives someone like this?

Doman Seman takes a similar kitchen-sink approach to the stylistic tropes it's willing to employ but the results never provide a sense of the form-follows-function elegance of the earlier film.

I’m sure it’s full of metaphors all about Japanese society, work ethic, and morality but if you’re a big dumb American, like me, Minoru Kawasaki’s Executive Koala is just a fun furry slasher flick. Young hardworking executive Tamura is your average Japanese office worker. He spends his days conjuring up money-making ideas for the pickle company he happily works for, while devoting his nights to his girlfriend Yoko who he happily hopes to be one day marrying. It’s just an ordinary happy little life for a six-foot-tall suit-wearing koala bear. Yup, our main character is a koala.

Tamura’s happiness is short lived when after a particularly successful pitch to his boss (a six-foot-tall suit wearing rabbit), he is confronted by two investigators who inform him that his beloved fiancée, Yoko, was found murdered. Naturally, the lovable koala becomes the prime suspect. Certain of his innocence,...

This is the first dvd release post we've done in a while because there's been quite a dry spell over the last month or so. Well not this week! There a few Quiet Earth faves hitting the shops this week so lets go through them.

First up is the short film comp, Tokyo!, (review here) featuring vignettes from Michele Gondry, Bong Joon-ho, and Leos Carax. I've heard mixed things about the film so I'm looking forward to checking it out for myself.

Next up is Fred Durst's The Education of Charlie Banks which comes to us from Anchor Bay. We've been eying this indie throwback for a while now.

Also out this week are three sweet Asian titles, Hideo Nakata's Kaidan , Minoru Kawasaki's Kaiju extravaganza Monster X Strikes Back, and Elliott Hong's 1982 classic They Call me Bruce?.

And how could we forget, The Asylum's Transmorphers: Fall of Man DVD!

No sooner had we posted the news about the U.S. date for Park Chan-wook’s Thirst than we found out about a bunch more Asian titles coming to the big screen this summer—in Manhattan, at least. Yes, the New York Asian Film Festival is gearing up to unleash what it calls “our biggest, most ridiculous [event] yet!”

The fest will present its 2009 lineup June 19-July 2 at the IFC Center (323 6th Avenue) and July 1-5 at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street). The opening-night and closing-night films, centerpiece presentations and Hong Kong New Action titles have yet to be announced, but among the many titles already confirmed are several of special interest to Fangorians.

One must-see event will be Tokyo Gore Night, with filmmaker/FX artist Yoshihiro Nishimura (pictured above) presenting several of his insane short movies set in the universes of his feature Tokyo Gore Police as well as Machine...

• The new Micro Werks DVD outfit gave Fango the scoop on cover art and details for new special-edition discs (coming June 23) of Rick Sloane’s notorious Gremlins knockoff Hobgoblins (a Mystery Science Theater 3000 favorite) and his new sequel Hobgoblins 2. The first flick has been digitally remastered in widescreen, and the follow-up “shot in 35mm and made to look painstakingly identical to the original,” per the company.

Extras on Hobgoblins include:

• Audio commentary by writer/director Sloane

• Hobgoblins: The Making of a Disasterpiece documentary

• Interviews with the original cast

• Still gallery

• Remastered 35mm trailer

Hobgoblins 2 comes with:

• Audio commentary by Sloane

• Making-of featurette with cast interviews

• Deleted scenes

• Still gallery

• 35mm theatrical trailer

Retail price is $14.98 each. Micro Werks (which has yet to set up an official website) also has five discs in Johnny Legend’s The Vampire Chronicles series streeting on the 23rd for $9.98 each. The contents are...

While The Tribeca Film Festival draws to a close, we bid farewell to the onslaught of indie film makers and fans of such things who flew in for the event. While the show was spectacular as always, you don't exactly attend it to see things that will freak you out ... on purpose.

For that reaction, we've got the New York Asian Film Festival, June 19 - July 2, the show takes over the IFC center and July 1 - 5, they raid Japan Society. The first movies have been announced for the fest and we'd be bad, bad horror fiends if we didn't single out the bloody best of the bunch.

Start your check list with these...

The Forbidden Door (Indonesia, 2009, Joko Anwar) – the director of last year’s festival favorite, Kala, is back and boy is this one twisted. Like a 19th century gothic novel adapted by Alfred Hitchcock and directed by David Lynch,...

I've been anxiously following the progress of Minoru Kawasaki's revival of The X From Outer Space mon-star Guilala entitled Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit. Now the geopolitical giant Japanese monster comedy is set to attack American shores on June 30th.

Media Blasters sub-label Tokyo Shock will be releasing this latest oddity from the director of The Calamari Wrestler this summer in both English subbed and English dubbed format. The low budget kaiju comedy sees the G8 Summit of world leaders being interrupted by the return of Guilala, the wacky looking giant monster that original appeared in its own 1968 movie.

I was a lot more enthused about Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit until the universally bad reviews began pouring in describing a film with more emphasis on puerile political jokes than monster action, and what monster action there is consists mostly of stock footage...

From April 15th to 19th, Frankfurt transforms into the center of the Japanese film world when the Nippon Connection 2009 opens its doors once again. After giving us a first look at the highlights of the largest festival for Japanese film worldwide, the official site has now been updated with the full program that includes more than 150 feature and short films.

Nippon Cinema 20th Century Boys (Niju seiki shonen), R: Yukihiko Tsutsumi, J 2008

www.20thboys.com All Around Us (Gururi no koto), R: Ryosuke Hashiguchi, J 2008

www.gururinokoto.jp Detroit Metal City, R: Toshio Lee, J 2008

www.go-to-dmc.jp Genius Party Beyond, R: Masahiro Maeda, Koji Morimoto, Kazuto Nakazawa, Shinya Ohira, Tatsuyuki Tanaka, J 2008

www.genius-party.jp/beyond Genius Party, R: Atsuko Fukushima, Shoji Kawamori, Shinji Kimura, Yoji Fukuyama, Hideki Futamura, Masaaki Yuasa, Shinichiro Watanabe, J 2007

www.genius-party.jp/genius01 Gs Wonderland, R: Ryuichi Honda, J 2008

www.gs-w.jp Hells Angels,...

Funny how Guilala went from being a giant Japanese monster that only appeared in a lone movie that's mostly unknown to today's audiences yet nearly 40-years later The X From Outer Space has not only returned in a new movie, he's even become a spokesmonster for a jobs' website. Think that Ladders commercial will be a DVD extra when Media Blasters releases Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit in North America later this year?

The website Sci-Fi Japan reports that Media Blasters has just inked a deal with Japanese studio Shochiku for an American DVD release of Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit, the new giant monster comedy from surreal schlockmeister Minoru Kawasaki (The Calamari Wrestler, Executive Koala) that brings back Guilala, the title monster of 1967's The X From Outer Space, to once again reek havoc on Japan. This time Guilala returns to Earth just...

That Minoru Kawasaki’s Guilala revival film Monster X Strikes Back would find a Us home comes as no surprise at all. The man is, after all, a minor cult sensation in these parts with a good variety of his films already available on DVD. What did come as a surprise, however, is that the film didn’t end up with one of the companies that have already released Kawasaki titles, instead going to Media Blasters. It’s a good fit, no doubt about it, but given the push Synapse just put behind their trio of Kawasaki releases I would’ve expected them to capitalize on the name recognition they worked hard to earn by picking up more. But enough of that ... the film is good trashy fun and it’ll be arriving on these shores soon enough. For your viewing pleasure I’m including both the trailer for Kawasaki...

Yay! U.S distributor Media Blasters have just picked up the rights to writer director Minoru Kawasaki’s (Calamari Wrestler, The World Sinks Except Japan) Monster Movie The Monster X Strikes Back/Attack the G8 Summit. Now word yet if its will be hitting any theatres, but a DVD is expected later in the year! In the summer of 2008, the G8 summit is being held at Lake Toya, a beautiful resort near the volcano in Hokkaido. At the same time, the Chinese rocket falls into Japan, causing the monster to be born from the spore attached to the rocket. The monster, Guilala, moves toward the summit conference site for the pursuit of volcanic energy. Now the world leaders have to terminate Guilala to show their country's prestige. First mission is missile attack by Japan, then Italy, Germany and... Deadly combat between human beings and the monster from outer space continues,...

By Michael Atkinson

Our official "B-movie" distribution stream -- straight-to-dvd releases -- grows in number and variety every year, as fewer films can be, or at least are, affordably shown theatrically than ever before. And these titles still can't qualify for awards or polls of any kind, or often even reviews, as the number of theatrical screens continues to drop. Does this make any sense? Here're my favorites from this year, the movies that first saw American screens (big or small) on digital video in 2008, be they brand new or decades old.

1. "Sophie's Place"

Lawrence Jordan, U.S., 1986

The renowned yet all-but-forgotten avant-garde filmmaker's grand animated masterpiece, a Victorian-styled dream-collage-painting-fever-feature brimming with hundreds of inexplicable epiphanies and a sense of visual magic that is all but utterly unique to Jordan. This honey was ensconced in Facets' lavish, under-celebrated set "The Lawrence Jordan Album," which in itself is more of an...

The World Sinks Except Japan (Nihon Igai Zenbu Chinbotsu ) (2006) Director - Minoru Kawasaki Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini. The last movie contained in the Minoru Kawasaki collection is a disaster movie of epic proportions. Or so we're told. The World Sinks is about exactly what it sounds like. Due to tectonic plate activity under the Earth's crust, the continents all over the world begin to sink back into the ocean, forcing the inhabitants to flee to one of the other areas that are still above water. It begins with the USA, forcing the President to flee to the naval bases of Japan. China sinks next, and then the rest of the world in no particular order until the entire world's population is living in Japan. At first the government there is accepting, trying to help out their fellow man. As the film plays out though, we see that Japan begins to exhibit totalitarian rule,...

The World Sinks Except Japan (Nihon Igai Zenbu Chinbotsu ) (2006) Director - Minoru Kawasaki Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini. The last movie contained in the Minoru Kawasaki collection is a disaster movie of epic proportions. Or so we're told. The World Sinks is about exactly what it sounds like. Due to tectonic plate activity under the Earth's crust, the continents all over the world begin to sink back into the ocean, forcing the inhabitants to flee to one of the other areas that are still above water. It begins with the USA, forcing the President to flee to the naval bases of Japan. China sinks next, and then the rest of the world in no particular order until the entire world's population is living in Japan. At first the government there is accepting, trying to help out their fellow man. As the film plays out though, we see that Japan begins to exhibit totalitarian rule,...

The Rug Cop (Zura Deka) (2006) Director - Minoru Kawasaki Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini The Minoru Kawasaki collection continues. Next up -The Rug Cop, which I'll be honest, I had the lowest hopes for of the three films. Detective films always amuse me because they're so ranged, being genuinely meaningful and deep (Suicide Circle) and sometimes they're so campy and far fetched that you can't help but smile. The Rug Cop though is a third category all in its own, and I can't quite accurately describe it. It's a trouble with identity, super hero rejects, Cop drama with yet again some musical numbers. I guess this is a trend in Kawasaki's films. So does Rug Cop work? Or is it as flat and cringe worthy as a really bad toupee....

The Rug Cop (Zura Deka) (2006) Director - Minoru Kawasaki Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini The Minoru Kawasaki collection continues. Next up -The Rug Cop, which I'll be honest, I had the lowest hopes for of the three films. Detective films always amuse me because they're so ranged, being genuinely meaningful and deep (Suicide Circle) and sometimes they're so campy and far fetched that you can't help but smile. The Rug Cop though is a third category all in its own, and I can't quite accurately describe it. It's a trouble with identity, super hero rejects, Cop drama with yet again some musical numbers. I guess this is a trend in Kawasaki's films. So does Rug Cop work? Or is it as flat and cringe worthy as a really bad toupee....

Up-and-coming pickle-factory executive Mr. Tamura is sweating out a deal to package kimchi for a South Korean company when he gets some terrible news: his girlfriend has been murdered, and he's the prime suspect. For Tamura, who's obsessed with fitting in, this accusation is disastrous. Still, he does have a tendency to fly into blind rages. Also, he's a giant koala. Over the last four years, Japanese director Minoru Kawasaki has directed more than a dozen films: some short, some feature-length, and a sizable percentage of them fantastical comedies about human-sized animals co-existing with the general population. Executive Koala is the most highly regarded of the bunch, and with good reason. While funny in the "boy, that's odd" sense more than the "laugh 'til you ache" sense, the film is fast-paced and freewheeling, mixing in martial arts, a musical interlude, plot twists galore, and a few pointed comments on...

Executive Koala (Koara Kacho) (2005) Director - Minoru Kawasaki. Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini. While mainstream Asian cinema has been getting its fair share of exposure these days, I often forget that there's always the low budget films being produced there as well, like any country. While I have seen films such as the now legendary Tetsuo: The Iron Man, the notorious Kichiku Dai Enkai and even the infamous Guinea Pig films, there are many I would never happen across unless I was told specifically what they were and how to get them. Synapse Films has picked up the rights to some of low budget King Minoru Kawasaki's films, films that stretch the very fabric of logic to its maximum in hopes of making an entertaining film. First up in the collection was Executive Koala....

Executive Koala (Koara Kacho) (2005) Director - Minoru Kawasaki. Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini. While mainstream Asian cinema has been getting its fair share of exposure these days, I often forget that there's always the low budget films being produced there as well, like any country. While I have seen films such as the now legendary Tetsuo: The Iron Man, the notorious Kichiku Dai Enkai and even the infamous Guinea Pig films, there are many I would never happen across unless I was told specifically what they were and how to get them. Synapse Films has picked up the rights to some of low budget King Minoru Kawasaki's films, films that stretch the very fabric of logic to its maximum in hopes of making an entertaining film. First up in the collection was Executive Koala....

By Michael Atkinson

I have to be honest: Japanese pop culture terrifies me. While American pop culture, with its adolescence fetish, prideful ignorance, superhero love and submergent video game fantasias, can merely make me queasy, what I see flowing out of Japan triggers a flight response: the cute cult, the schoolgirl obsession, the giant-penis-monster animated porn, the apocalyptic visions, the oceans of twisted-fairy-tale manga, the deification of inexplicable toys, the combinations of all of the above, and so on. It's as if, by Western junk-culture standards in the last three or so decades, Japan is going joyfully, helplessly insane.

Which accounts, obviously, for the stuff's worldwide popularity. I just can't often get my head around it, or see the opportunity to try, or track what kind of creative idea spawned something like Pokémon or Sailor Moon or the tentacle-rape epic "Urotsukidoji" or Satoshi Kon's "Paprika" or gold-plated poop-shaped cell-phone trinkets,...

Again, the Zombie Diaries dvd cover has nothing to do with the film, it seems Dimension Extreme has issues with truth in marketing, but regardless, it's a great film made by our friend Michael Bartlett (who we'll have an interview posted with soon) and Kevin Gates. Next is a documentary on my favorite rap group, Wu-Tang called Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan which may not be normal Quiet Earth fare but I'm excited to see. Last off is a trifecta of Minoru Kawasaki weirdness: Executive Koala, The Rug Cop, and The World Sinks Except Japan. Check after the break for trailers, amazon links, and the works.

Zombie Diaries

Purchase at Amazon

In the early part of the 21st Century, an unknown virus began spreading among the populous. Within weeks it had engulfed the entire planet, from the smallest rural communities to the greatest cities. Upon the death of its host,...

Minoru Kawasaki’s The Rug Cop (Zura Deka), which is now available on English-subtitled DVD from Synapse Films, is a seriously fun homage to Japanese cop shows from the 70s. Officer Genda (Fuyuki Moto) is a rebellious police man with a somber heart and a secret weapon: a flying toupee. Bounced from station to station by the upper brass, he ends up with a group of abnormal detectives with names such as as Shorty, Fatty, Big Dick, the Old Man, and Mr. Handsome. Genda, known as “Rug Cop,” leads the group in the investigation of a nuclear terrorist ring. As the team digs deeper into the criminal enterprise, Genda is forced to confront painful (and occasionally humorous) elements of his past.

It’s the year 2011. Massive earthquakes cause the United States to sink into the ocean. The president escapes as do millions of other U.S. citizens. Some fly to China while others find refuge in Russia. Millions find their way to Japan who, as an U.S. ally, feels obligated to assist. As the world crisis worsens, continent after continent sinks until Japan becomes the last land mass on Earth. This is the world presented in Minoru Kawasaki’s The World Sinks Except Japan (English subtitled DVD from Synapse). Kawasaki’s film is a disaster satire that explores some interesting ideas with varying degrees of success.

Year: 2005

DVD Release date: November 18 2008

Director: Minoru Kawasaki

Writers: Minoru Kawasaki / Masakazu Migita

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Amazon: Link

Review by: Ulises

Rating: 10 out of 10 (if 10 = The Most Absurd Thing I’ve Ever Seen)

The Bottom Line: A cult film all the way, Executive Koala never pretends to be anything other than an absurd, off-the-wall, whacked-out comedy-drama about a giant koala being accused of murder. Take it (and this review) seriously at your own risk.

There’s a line in the middle of Executive Koala that’s funny not just because of what it says, but because of how it’s said. As a concerned psychiatrist grabs his sobbing, self-doubting patient, he declares with a perfectly straight face, “You’re as normal as the next koala.” The patient just happens to be a six-foot tall Japanese salaryman named Mr. Tamura. Oh, and a giant koala.

Welcome to the world of Japanese cult cinema,...

We begin with the wackiness that is Minoru Kawasaki, the filmmaker responsible for The Calamari Wrestler and Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit, and the DVD release of his silly and surreal 2005 animal costume slasher/thriller/comedy Executive Koala.

Tamara is just an average Japanese salaryman working for a pickle company except for the fact that he suffers from periodic memory loss, his vanished years earlier, and he happens to be a six-foot tall koala bear. His latest girlfriend is murdered and he becomes the prime suspect. Tamara joins forces with his boss (a white rabbit) and a friendly convenience store clerk (a frog) to prove his innocence.

Synapse Films will be treating us Americans to Executive Koala on November 18th (pre-order it here!), releasing it as part of what they are calling "The Minoru Kawasaki Collection". The other two in the collection, also being released on the 18th,...

Year: 2006

Release date: DVD (R1) Nov. 18th, 2008

Director: Minoru Kawasaki

Writers: Minoru Kawasaki & Masakazu Migita & Yasutaka Tsutsui (novel)

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Amazon link: link

Review by: Kevin Ouellette

Rating: 6 out of 10

Japan has sort of faded into the background of the world consciousness in the past few years. Aside from the typical “crazy Japan” pop culture stories that seem to never get old for some, the western world seems to ignore the existence of this once larger-than-life nation. Gone is the fear of superior Japanese products killing the Us manufacturing sector—we’ve since come to terms with that as an unfortunate inevitability—and gone are the icy relations that existed when old men that still remembered World War II were running our respective countries. All we really have left is a shared military and a mutual fascination with each other’s entertainment industries. So what would happen if...

[Updated with higher quality version of the trailer.]

Japan’s patron saint of cheap cult comedy seems ready and poised to claim the crown as that nation’s most prolific film maker from Takashi Miike. By my count Neko Rahmen Taisho is the third feature film from Calamari Wrestler director Minoru Kawasaki this year and while how he turns them out so quickly is obvious enough - they’re cheap and the whole attraction is their goofy, slapped together energy - this third one looks likely to claim as much attention from his fans around the globe as did his previous, the loopy Monster X Strikes Back! Attack the G8 Summit!.

Titled Neko Rahmen Taisho the film is based on a manga about a little white cat running a ramen noodle shop and, true to form, the title character is played by a little white cat puppet. Who, at one point in the freshly released trailer, makes out...

Year: 2006

Release date: DVD (R1) Nov. 18th, 2008

Director: Minoru Kawasaki

Writers: Minoru Kawasaki & Takao Nakano

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Amazon link: link

Review by: Kevin Ouellette

Rating: 8 out of 10

Japan has a long history of heroic fictional characters who subdue bad guys by hurling objects at them, such as Zenigata Heiji: the cop who catches criminals by throwing coins and Ultra 7: the henshin hero who temporarily detaches his “Eye Slugger” to hurl at evildoers. To pay homage to that idea, as well as to spoof Japanese detective shows, director Minoru Kawasaki set out to create his own take on the genre. Of course, being the guy that brought us movies like Executive Koala and “Crab Goalkeeper”, plenty of absurdity was in order—but for the first time in his career, he didn’t resort to putting an animal in a typically human a situation.

We’re first introduced to...

Okay, Japanese cult film fans it’s time to strap in: the good folks at Synapse are about to unleash a trio of Minoru Kawasaki films on these shores. Yes, all you fans of Kawasaki’s The Calamari Wrestler, you’re about to get more low budget goofiness with local releases for Kawasaki’s crime noir with great big animals Executive Koala, the surprise hit disaster spoof The World Sinks Except Japan and seldom seen cop parody The Rug Cop in which the hero battles evil with his flying toupee and help from his cohorts Detective Fatty, Detective Big Dick, Detective Shorty and Mr Handsome. All three get anamorphic transfers and making of featurettes while The World Sinks also boasts an audio commentary. The cult’s about to get a bit bigger ...

Check the trailers for all three below the break in the Twitch Player.

It appears as though Germany may have been dropped on its head once or twice in infancy but if a bit of brain damage leads to results like this, well, that’s okay by me. The film is Smash Trash Wrestling Bash and while I’m not entirely eliminating the possibility that this is real I’m assuming that it is a new mock doc about ultra lo-fi, very campy, very goofy masked wrestling in Germany. But it’s not just masks. Oh, no. The giant crab man is a favorite and the guy in the cardboard robot suit with hammer hands? Brilliant! Methinks these people have watched a Minoru Kawasaki film or two ...

Batten down the hatches! Hide your women and children! Cult monster fave Guilala - last (and only previously) seen in 1967’s The X From Outer Space - is back and in cult director Minoru Kawasaki’s hands nobody is safe! Not even the leaders of the western world!

Let’s be clear here: Kawasaki, quite proudly, does not make what anybody would generally term ‘good’ films. He is a master of cheap shlock, gimmicky humor, and rubber monsters. He is the crazy child of Japanese film, the man who simply refuses to grow up and continues to make precisely the sorts of films he would have loved himself when he was ten, and he is an absolute master of his craft. Kawasaki is a trash-auteur of a very particular type and while his films may not be ‘good’ they are always good for at least a handful of very solid laughs and,...