Within the vast landscape of Asian cinema, the works by Takeshi Kitano, as director and actor, have always been highly anticipated by many. However, when news spread he would retire from filmmaking after making one more feature, fans already thought this one might be the samurai epic he had been developing ever since “Sonatine”. Based on the infamous Honno-ji incident, the story portrays a time of political and social upheaval in Japan and is following the footsteps of directors such as Akira Kurosawa who made countless classics and established the historical samurai movie. “Kubi”, which translates to “neck”, also features a cast of many renowned actors, for example, Ryo Kase, Tadanobu Asano, Susumu Terajima and Kitano himself in one of the leading roles.
Kubi is screening at Nippon Connection
The story begins in 1582 after the uprising by lord Araki Murashige (Kenichi Endo) has been brutally beaten down by the forces...
Kubi is screening at Nippon Connection
The story begins in 1582 after the uprising by lord Araki Murashige (Kenichi Endo) has been brutally beaten down by the forces...
- 5/29/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
From the opening of Yamamoto Satsuo’s first entry in the Shinobi series, Band of Assassins, we’re thrust into a tangled web of battling clans, all vying to be the first to kill bloodthirsty warlord Oda Nobunaga (Wakayama Tomisaburô). Even within individual factions, duplicity reigns supreme, with all the double crosses and dual identities obfuscating and complicating the motives of every virtually every major character. The film tends toward convolution through the flurry of personal and clan names constantly being introduced, but this tactic of disorientation is ultimately a deliberate and effective one that’s very much in line with the tactics deployed by its ninjas.
Among all these embittered and embattled clans is Ishikawa Goemon (Raizo Ichikawa), a highly skilled young ninja looking to quickly rise through the ranks. Like many of the lower-level ninjas and samurai in Band of Assassins, he, too, falls victim to the Machiavellian...
Among all these embittered and embattled clans is Ishikawa Goemon (Raizo Ichikawa), a highly skilled young ninja looking to quickly rise through the ranks. Like many of the lower-level ninjas and samurai in Band of Assassins, he, too, falls victim to the Machiavellian...
- 5/26/2024
- by Derek Smith
- Slant Magazine
From Star Wars Outlaws to the latest Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft seems to be following a pattern that is catching a lot of flak.
After a user on X/Twitter uploaded a screenshot showcasing a monetization strategy the company has leveraged for Shadows, fans of the franchise are quickly piling on the company for being greedy and hurting itself with its decisions.
Star Wars Outlaws Day One Pass Controversy Hits Shadows
First Star Wars Outlaws, now Shadows; Ubisoft isn’t letting fans’ wallets breathe
When Outlaws was out for preorder, controversy erupted. There are three editions; Standard, Gold, and Ultimate, selling for $69.99, $109.99, and $129.99. The latter two come with a day-one season pass, which is where a major issue was spotted.
Suggested“This franchise makes a massive hypocrite outta me…”: Assassin’s Creed Shadows Fans React to Explosive First Trailer
The Jabba’s Gambit mission was one of the...
After a user on X/Twitter uploaded a screenshot showcasing a monetization strategy the company has leveraged for Shadows, fans of the franchise are quickly piling on the company for being greedy and hurting itself with its decisions.
Star Wars Outlaws Day One Pass Controversy Hits Shadows
First Star Wars Outlaws, now Shadows; Ubisoft isn’t letting fans’ wallets breathe
When Outlaws was out for preorder, controversy erupted. There are three editions; Standard, Gold, and Ultimate, selling for $69.99, $109.99, and $129.99. The latter two come with a day-one season pass, which is where a major issue was spotted.
Suggested“This franchise makes a massive hypocrite outta me…”: Assassin’s Creed Shadows Fans React to Explosive First Trailer
The Jabba’s Gambit mission was one of the...
- 5/16/2024
- by Vibha Hegde
- FandomWire
Assassin’s Creed Shadows looks poised to be a departure from the tone and tenor of its franchise, especially as of late. While last year’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage was always intended to be a throwback to earlier games in the series, that installment was also marketed as something of a side story—a smaller contained adventure versus the sprawling open world RPGs which compose Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Valhalla. But Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the series’ long-requested foray into the history of feudal Japan? This title is being developed by the same team at Ubisoft Québec that gave us Odyssey. So players very well might have expected more of the same.
If so, the first trailer and press releases of Shadows appear to be a warning and a promise: the next AC game will be going its own way, right down to the fact that for the first time,...
If so, the first trailer and press releases of Shadows appear to be a warning and a promise: the next AC game will be going its own way, right down to the fact that for the first time,...
- 5/16/2024
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
For years, the samurai and ninja of Japanese video games have been portrayed in an almost-binary, black and white fashion – stoic warriors who follow an unwavering code of honor throughout their lives, making them poster representations of virtue that command respect.
While these portrayals can be riveting, they often lack nuance. Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the next mainline entry in Ubisoft’s blockbuster series, has a great opportunity to break this mold with a cast of characters never seen before in a samurai game.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Features An Obscure Japanese Era
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will feature protagonists Naoe and popular Japanese historical figure Yasuke | Ubisoft
Shadows takes place during the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1603), a time of great upheaval and conflict in feudal Japan. However, the more interesting facet about the game is its protagonists: Naoe and Yasuke, two individuals on opposite sides of a brewing war.
Naoe,...
While these portrayals can be riveting, they often lack nuance. Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the next mainline entry in Ubisoft’s blockbuster series, has a great opportunity to break this mold with a cast of characters never seen before in a samurai game.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Features An Obscure Japanese Era
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will feature protagonists Naoe and popular Japanese historical figure Yasuke | Ubisoft
Shadows takes place during the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1603), a time of great upheaval and conflict in feudal Japan. However, the more interesting facet about the game is its protagonists: Naoe and Yasuke, two individuals on opposite sides of a brewing war.
Naoe,...
- 5/15/2024
- by Viraaj Bhatnagar
- FandomWire
“Why is it that only those who have never fought in a battle are so eager to be in one?” Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) asks at one point in FX’s Shōgun. It’s a question that resonates not only with the show’s characters but may strike at the heart of our long-standing fascination with samurai.
Its resonance is all the more profound because Shōgun is loosely — very loosely — based on real events from the end of Japan’s Warring States period that pushed the nation into a new era. Taking historical events and crafting drama from them is something the show has in common with many Chanbara or samurai films. The riveting and often bloody history has provided fodder for countless films, including Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai trilogy, Sekigahara, Samurai Assassin, and The 47 Ronin.
However, these narrative films can obscure the complex history behind the events. Fortunately,...
Its resonance is all the more profound because Shōgun is loosely — very loosely — based on real events from the end of Japan’s Warring States period that pushed the nation into a new era. Taking historical events and crafting drama from them is something the show has in common with many Chanbara or samurai films. The riveting and often bloody history has provided fodder for countless films, including Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai trilogy, Sekigahara, Samurai Assassin, and The 47 Ronin.
However, these narrative films can obscure the complex history behind the events. Fortunately,...
- 4/23/2024
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
This article contains spoilers through Shogun episode 6.
Halfway through its 10-episode run, FX’s Shōgun was not hurting for compelling antagonists. From the fierce Ishido Kazunari (Takehiro Hira) and his council regents to the scheming Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) to even the god damned Portuguese, there are no shortage of threats to our heroes’ safety.
At the end of episode 5, however, Shōgun properly introduced the individual who might be the real big bad in all of this: Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido). The mother of the late Taikō’s only heir (himself too young to rule), Lady Ochiba has been mentioned several times throughout Shōgun‘s first half. As an honored guest (re: hostage) in Edo, Ochiba ensured that that Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) would be safe in the lion’s den that is Osaka. But now both Toranaga and Ochiba are back where they belong and Ochiba is ready to...
Halfway through its 10-episode run, FX’s Shōgun was not hurting for compelling antagonists. From the fierce Ishido Kazunari (Takehiro Hira) and his council regents to the scheming Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) to even the god damned Portuguese, there are no shortage of threats to our heroes’ safety.
At the end of episode 5, however, Shōgun properly introduced the individual who might be the real big bad in all of this: Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido). The mother of the late Taikō’s only heir (himself too young to rule), Lady Ochiba has been mentioned several times throughout Shōgun‘s first half. As an honored guest (re: hostage) in Edo, Ochiba ensured that that Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) would be safe in the lion’s den that is Osaka. But now both Toranaga and Ochiba are back where they belong and Ochiba is ready to...
- 3/27/2024
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
“Kagemusha” is one of the best films Akira Kurosawa ever shot and is considered one of the definite masterpieces of world cinema. However, its production was one of the most difficult accomplishments in the master's filmography. Initially, the film was not considered financially viable, and it took the influence of both George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola to get additional funds for it to be completed, since Toho, the initial production company, had given up on the film. However, the problems continued during the shooting, with probably the most significant being that Kurosawa had to replace Shintaro Katsu, who was originally cast as Takeda Shingen, with Tatsuya Nakadai, after the two of them had a falling out. The production faced many additional problems, but Kurosawa eventually managed to complete the movie, with its premiere taking place in Tokyo. His struggles, however, paid off, since “Kagemusha” was a huge hit both critically and financially.
- 2/27/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Mubi’s retrospective Takeshi Kitano: Destroy All Yakuza—featuring Violent Cop, Boiling Point, and Outrage Coda—is now showing in the United States, Canada, and select countries.Kubi.The presidential suite of the Grand Hotel Yerevan sits at the end of an amber-lit, carpeted corridor. The door comes fitted with its own CCTV camera, the concierge proudly gloats as an elevator slingshots us several floors above the ground, “so guests can feel safer.” Not that the current occupant has much to worry about. Guarding the suite on this exceptionally hot July afternoon is a small platoon of suit-clad Japanese men, looking equally stern and jet-lagged. The lucky few who get to pad in and out of the room do so in reverential silence, and even those outside speak in hushed voices, lest he should be disturbed. "He" is somewhere in the suite right now, and his name is Takeshi Kitano.
- 1/11/2024
- MUBI
Director Keishi Ohtomo returns to feudal Japan with his newest picture, “The Legend and Butterfly.” Having concluded the live-action “Rurouni Kenshin” film series, Ohtomo shifts gears for his latest feature, focusing more on real Japanese history, albeit with a heavily fictitious spin in a screenplay by Ryota Kosawa. The story deals with the rise and fall of Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga and explores his relationship with his wife, Nohime. This feature wouldn't be the first time Lord Nobunaga has been depicted in film or television. Still, with a big budget and an all-star cast, this epic was set to sweep away audiences and the box office while commemorating the 70th-anniversary celebration of Toei Company. Yet, despite a strong opening, it quickly dwindled in popularity and was met with mixed reception.
The Legend and Butterfly is screening at Japan Cuts
The story takes place over 30 years, beginning with a politically driven...
The Legend and Butterfly is screening at Japan Cuts
The story takes place over 30 years, beginning with a politically driven...
- 8/2/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
The Legend and Butterfly, directed by Japanese director Keishi Otomo and written by Ryota Kosawa, is an epic story set in the Warring States Period in Japan, where a man and a woman come together under special circumstances to become husband and wife. Their relationship undergoes monumental stages as the history of Japan takes shape in the background. Starring Takuya Kimura and Haruka Ayase, The Legend and Butterfly marks their third collaboration together. The performances are worthy of praise as they helm this period drama and elevate it into a grand love story.
Spoilers Ahead
Viper Meets Tiger
Lord Owari’s son Nobunaga prepares for his first night after Owari and the nearby state’s lord Mino agree to marry their children together. The wedding was actually a ploy by Lord Owari to ensure his domain’s safety against the attacks by Lord Mino. If his daughter was married right in the Owari domain,...
Spoilers Ahead
Viper Meets Tiger
Lord Owari’s son Nobunaga prepares for his first night after Owari and the nearby state’s lord Mino agree to marry their children together. The wedding was actually a ploy by Lord Owari to ensure his domain’s safety against the attacks by Lord Mino. If his daughter was married right in the Owari domain,...
- 6/5/2023
- by Ayush Awasthi
- Film Fugitives
A project that’s reportedly been in gestation for 30 years, so long that Akira Kurosawa once expressed huge hopes for its success before he died, Kubi is a labor of love.
Billed in its press materials as “the latest film by Takeshi Kitano” but hopefully not the veteran director’s last, it marks Kitano’s return to the samurai genre for the first time since 2003’s Zatoichi (a.k.a. The Blind Swordsman). The latter did modestly solid business in its day for an international film, and it will be interesting to see if Kitano, practically a national treasure in Japan, still has the same pull across Asian territories as he used to, let alone across the Pacific and beyond.
But regardless of any box-office performance, this challenging, extremely violent, ravishing-looking, intricately plotted adaptation by Kitano of his novel is of interest for its fresh take on a musty genre.
Billed in its press materials as “the latest film by Takeshi Kitano” but hopefully not the veteran director’s last, it marks Kitano’s return to the samurai genre for the first time since 2003’s Zatoichi (a.k.a. The Blind Swordsman). The latter did modestly solid business in its day for an international film, and it will be interesting to see if Kitano, practically a national treasure in Japan, still has the same pull across Asian territories as he used to, let alone across the Pacific and beyond.
But regardless of any box-office performance, this challenging, extremely violent, ravishing-looking, intricately plotted adaptation by Kitano of his novel is of interest for its fresh take on a musty genre.
- 5/25/2023
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In the early ’90s, Japan’s Takeshi “Beat” Kitano was on a roll, with a superb string of nuanced crime movies that stood in stark contrast to the good-vs.-evil bullet operas that were coming out of Hong Kong at the time. Kitano’s darkly funny cynicism (who else could have made Violent Cop?) made him stand out by miles, but it soon became his weakness, as became evident in the lean period after the success of Zatoichi in 2013. The experimental, semi-autobiographical trilogy that followed — Takeshis’, Glory to the Filmmaker and Achilles and the Tortoise — seemed to offer little more than self-sabotage, the work of a frustrated artist trying to take a blowtorch to his populist image without much thought for the future.
The collateral damage was his international reputation, which took a hit to the extent that his next trilogy, the Outrage series, generally was received as the half-hearted work of a bored auteur.
The collateral damage was his international reputation, which took a hit to the extent that his next trilogy, the Outrage series, generally was received as the half-hearted work of a bored auteur.
- 5/24/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
For all their grisly mayhem, the earliest films by Takeshi Kitano all demonstrated a keen grasp of negation. Violence was an omnipresent fixture of his first crime capers––from Violent Cop (1989) to Fireworks (1997)––but it unfolded in hiccups. The director enjoyed trading in tantalizing elisions, and his most gruesome scenes would often leave the action offscreen, offering a set-up and aftermath while cutting the most dramatic moments––an approach that would become more frequent after A Scene at the Sea (1991), the first feature he’d edit himself. It was as if Kitano had realized the most visceral shots were those left on the cutting room floor and proceeded to fashion those early projects on an iceberg principle: prodding one to imagine the bloodletting without ever displaying it in full. It was a style predicated on absence; it made the violence all the more vivid, the films all the more original.
- 5/23/2023
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Two Japanese films by internationally renowned auteurs — “Monster” by Koreeda Hirokazu and “Kubi” by Kitano Takeshi — are in the Cannes lineup this year, and both carry with them big box office expectations in Japan.
“Monster,” which is screening in competition, will be released on June 2 by Gaga and Toho, the latter Japan’s largest distributor and theater chain operator. Koreeda’s two previous films — “The Truth” (2019), shot in France, and “Broker” (2022), filmed South Korea — were both box office disappointments in his home market. “Monster,” however, promises a return to the earnings form of his 2018 Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters,” whose $34 million cumulative total was the fourth-highest among Japanese releases that year.
One reason: The screenplay is by Sakamoto Yuji, a veteran writer of hit TV dramas and films, including the 2021 smash romantic drama “We Made a Beautiful Bouquet.” The story of “Monster,” about a quarrel between elementary school children...
“Monster,” which is screening in competition, will be released on June 2 by Gaga and Toho, the latter Japan’s largest distributor and theater chain operator. Koreeda’s two previous films — “The Truth” (2019), shot in France, and “Broker” (2022), filmed South Korea — were both box office disappointments in his home market. “Monster,” however, promises a return to the earnings form of his 2018 Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters,” whose $34 million cumulative total was the fourth-highest among Japanese releases that year.
One reason: The screenplay is by Sakamoto Yuji, a veteran writer of hit TV dramas and films, including the 2021 smash romantic drama “We Made a Beautiful Bouquet.” The story of “Monster,” about a quarrel between elementary school children...
- 5/19/2023
- by Mark Schilling
- Variety Film + TV
Released in 2021, "Yasuke" is an anime miniseries created by LeSean Thomas for Netflix. Based on a legendary figure from Japanese history, the titular Yasuke is an African man who comes to Japan with some Jesuit missionaries and eventually becomes a samurai in the service of Lord Oda Nobunaga. When Nobunaga and his forces are destroyed by another warlord, Yasuke flees and finds a quiet retirement as a boatman outside a small village. When he's asked to help a sick little girl get to a doctor, he soon finds himself called on to fight once again.
With only six episodes, it's entirely likely that "Yasuke" will leave you wanting more. Fortunately, there are lots of other anime series out there for you to watch, and quite a few of them have similar settings and themes. We've put together a list of anime you should check out once you've watched Yasuke, and...
With only six episodes, it's entirely likely that "Yasuke" will leave you wanting more. Fortunately, there are lots of other anime series out there for you to watch, and quite a few of them have similar settings and themes. We've put together a list of anime you should check out once you've watched Yasuke, and...
- 4/13/2023
- by Elle Collins
- Slash Film
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