Is This Your Foot or My Knee? A Japanese Body Horror Special

     We bring another Japanuary to a close with four doses of Japanese Body Horror. 

     Yoji is a lonely factory worker with is eye on co-worker Sachiko. When he intervenes in a potential attack, little does he suspect that soon both their lives will take an unexpected turn. Necromorphs everywhere in a bloody confrontation, does anyone survive a trip through Meatball Machine?

     Five teenagers are on a drive when their car breaks down. For no real reason they decide to hole up in a way too suspicious looking bunker. Booze flows, nudity abounds, and before too long someone will become host to Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy!

     Yoshiaki is suddenly having seizures, which mutates his extremities for a moment. Because that's not worrying on levels that would require extreme hospitalization, he and his wife instead turn to their psychiatrist friend and shock therapy enthusiast. Before you know it, bodies are dropping and a marriage is tested, everything could swing out like a Henge (aka Metamorphosis).

     Finally, the third theatrical entry and fourth overall in the long running Juni Ito created Tomie series. When a young artist suddenly murders his girlfriend, he will learn that getting rid of her isn't that easy because she has a habit of Tomie: Re-Birth.

     All that and Kevin has some explaining to do, Tyler questions how he was beaten in the perversion department, and Dave suffers loudly. Join us, won't you?

Episode 138- Is This Your Foot or My Knee? A Japanese Body Horror Special 

Courtly Expectations of Homicide

     This week we get our Yakuza flicks on as Japanuary rolls full tilt into it's third week.
     First up, Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer. A psychotic man is used as a pawn in a Yakuza gang war while he is hunted by a sadomasochistic enforcer. Violence and  insanity explode on the screen in a grizzly and giggling way.
     Then we take a look at the first in a massive nine entry series and a stone cold classic in its own right- Brutal Tales of Chivalry (aka Chivalrous Tales of the Showa Era). Ken Takakura is Seiji Terajima, a man just returned home from the war and immediately thrust into the leadership of his gang. Seiji is determined to not go into a war with their local rivals but he might not have much choice. How far can you push an honorable man?

     All that and Dave forgets where he is, Tyler finds himself in a rap battle to the death, and Kevin finally opens a box set. Join us, won't you?

Episode 137- Courtly Expectations of Homicide

Vengeance of the Fireflies

     Japanuary continues with a pair of stone cold classics!

     Shohei Imamura's 1979 portrait of a killer that won Best Picture at the 1979 Japanese Academy Awards inspired by the true crimes of serial killer and scam artist Akira Nishiguchi. Take a look at the life of Iwao Enokizu, a man who is so ashamed of his father as a child in the run up to World War 2 that he grows up to be a petty confidence man and eventual killer. Does Enokizu's unusual story and overview of lives outside of civilized Japanese society keep Vengeance is Mine a compelling watch 41 years later?
     Then the first Studio Ghibli film on RotP, based on Akiyuki Nosaka's semi-autobiographical story. It is the waning months of the Second World War, Seita and Setsuko find themselves suddenly orphaned, homeless, and desperately struggling to survive. Possibly one of the only true anti-war films ever made, regardless of authorial intent, and one that is guaranteed to make you ugly cry. Beautiful acts of love, the bitterest loss, and pain of pretty much everything is found at the Grave of the Fireflies.
     All that and Kevin climbs a mountain, Tyler goes deep into STV comedy sequels, and Dave might have survived a plague. Join us, won't you?

Episode 136- Vengeance of the Fireflies

Got Milk?

     This week we kick off 2020 with the return of Japanuary! We waste no time trying to remove the stink on 2019 by sliding right into the warm embrace of two of our favorites.

     First up, Takashi Miike's 2001 black comedy and part of the Love Cinema series designed to test and exhibit the virtues of new digital filmmaking. The Yamazki family needs serious help, dad is a failure and mom is an addict turning tricks for meth and sonny is a violent little shit being rightfully bullied to keep him in place outside of the home. When Kiyoshi gets randomly smashed in the head with a rock, it might be the best thing to ever happen to him. His mysterious assailant insinuates himself with the family and helps them embrace what they were missing. That makes it sound far more family friendly than it is... they were missing necrophilia, extreme violence, and several hundred gallons of milk. Thanks for fixing them, Visitor Q!

     Then we make our fourth and final trip with a wandering samurai, his son, and their cart full of enough gadgets that even James Bond would get a little jealous. With all the male heirs of the Yagyü clan dead at the hands of Ogami Itto and Daigoro, Retsudo has no choice but to turn to his only daughter and an illegitimate offspring long ago left to die on a mountain. That's just where all the blood fountains and dismemberments start. Before you know it, you are in the middle of one of  film's bloodiest scenes ever made in a snow capped orgy of violence. It is awesome. All the slicing, dicing, and murder your heart can handle in Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell OR Wolf with Cub in Tow: Let's Go to Hell, Daigoro!

     All that and Kevin has a busy week, Dave takes a Polar Bear Plunge with disastrously embarrassing results, and Tyler has dreams about the greatest print ads of the 1990s. Join us, won't you?

Episode 135- Got Milk?