A Brazilian-Japanese criminal plays yakuza gangs against each other, but bites off much more than he can chew. Inspired by a story that director Kazuhiro Kiuchi read about a Taiwanese gangster going to Japan to escape arrest, this is the story of Carlos (Takenaka Naoto), who finds himself in the middle of a gang war between the Yamashiro and Harakawa families.
As the old man of the Yamashiro gang (Minoru Oki) tries to find his successor, he finds that everyone he wanted for the job is dead. It may have been Hayakawa (Yuzo Hayakawa), whom Katayama (Ryuji Katagiri) wants dead, so he can be first in line. And then there’s Sato (Goichi Yamada), who has brought in an American monster of a hitman (Chuck Wilson) to do his dirty work.
Blood, guns and neon are the order of the day. Ah, V-Cinema. Short, sweet and full of violence!
Carlos is just one of the movies in the Arrow Video V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal set. The set includes a newly filmed introduction by Japanese film critic Masak Tanioka, an interview with director Kazuhiro Kiuchi and a video essay by critic and Japanese cinema expert Jonathan Clements. You can get this from MVD.
The law in this one, Inspector Henry Kyle, is Ron Moody from Oliver!
Antonio is Pepe Hern and Rosa is Alma Beltran.
What happens?
Diego Santana is about to turn sixty, but he has a young wife, a friendly ex-wife and a great family. And oh yeah, he’s friends with Jessica, so he’s about to die. Also, Romero was 78 when this was made, but he looks great.
Diego thinks he’s about to be killed, and he warns Jessica, but yeah, he dies. Are you surprised? Well, it could be anyone: his son Miguel, who is stealing his paintings; his ex-wife Bella and pal Stefan, who is trying to get with Margo, Diego’s young wife.
Whoever did it really did it — with a crossbow! And they also try to set a shed on fire and kill Margo!
Who did it?
Sir John, who needs money, thinks that his paintings will be worth more if Diego dies.
Who made it?
TV movie king John Llewellyn Moxey directed this episode, which was written by series creator Peter S. Fischer.
Does Jessica get some?
Not now, but soon. When Jessica leaves, she tells Inspector Kyle that she plans to stop in England to see a cousin and that she could perhaps find time to see him. He tells her he’ll be waiting at the gate with a bouquet of flowers: “I shall be at the airport to greet you. Flowers in hand, heart on sleeve, and perhaps a murder to solve?”
Does Jessica dress up and act stupid?
No.
Was it any good?
Yes. This has another great cast and a good whodunnit.
Any trivia?
This was filmed at Arden Villa, the Dynasty Mansion, in Pasadena, California. It also appears in four more episodes.
Give me a reasonable quote:
Diego Santana: Bravo, Pedro. Ohh. The finest donkey I’ve ever seen. I think, perhaps, uh, the legs are a bit short, huh?
What’s next?
A private detective, hired by Jessica to research an old case, is suddenly murdered.
After doing a jail bid for embezzlement, Kiriko (Yuko Natori) leads a quiet life, driving a cab overnight. The problem is that someone is stalking her in a gigantic Land Cruiser. Yes, it’s Duel, but in a Japan that is falling to pieces and in the middle of an economic collapse.
Directed and written by Shunichi Nagasaki, this is a V-Cinema movie committed to keeping your eyes on the screen. There’s never time to get bored and Kiriko, despite her checkered past, is a heroine who you can get behind. Every man in her life is horrible and when that gigantic truck keeps coming near — Nagasaki was inspired by the story of a female taxi driver who told him during a ride just how dangerous her job is — it’s thrilling.
Is the driver someone she hurt before? Or has man’s inhumanity to man kept that from even being possible? Maybe someone just like to frighten women. You’ll find out.
Stranger is just one of the movies in the Arrow Video V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal set. The set includes a newly filmed introduction by Japanese film critic Masak Tanioka and an interview with director Shunichi Nagasaki. You can get this from MVD.
Junko (Sho Aikawa), a young yakuza in the service of Yoshikawa (Toru Minegishi), just wants to look cool. Then he meets Yumeko (Chikako Aoyama), a runaway sex machine slash narcoleptic who loves guns and stealing cars. They meet when she steals Yoshikawa’s car and soon moves in with him.
Yet duty soon calls. When a member of his crime family is killed by a high-ranking member of the Kazama Family, he’s called on to get revenge. Can he handle it? Well, he always dreamed of being a gangster. Actually being one is an entirely different thing.
This was such a success that Neo Chinpira 2: Zoom Goes the Bullet came out a year later. Director Banmei Takahashi also made Door, and writer Takuya Nishioka wrote Mermaid Legend. They bring to you a world where young people who grew up idolizing cool-looking gangsters in Yakuza films suddenly discover that they have to fill unfillable shoes and do impossible things. A winner.
Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet is just one of the movies in the Arrow Video V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal set. The set includes a newly filmed introduction by Japanese film critic Masak Tanioka, an interview with writer-director Banmei Takahashi and a trailer. You can get this from MVD.
After watching his partner Ahiru (Riki Takeuchi) get gunned down, police officer Joe “Joker” Kawamura (Masanori Sera) quits the force to go after his killer, Bruce Sawamura (Seiji Matano). A nun named Lily (Minako Tanaka) — a nun with a gun! — is also after him, as he stole $5 million from her church.
Directed by Toshimichi Okawa (this was his only film; he also wrote the 2008 Golgo 13 TV series), this was Toei’s first direct-to-video movie. It’s less than an hour long, and it’s big on action and short on boredom. Guns, style, tough good guys, degenerate villains, leather jackets, jazz, fast cars and death—what else do you need?
V-Cinema starts here, transgressive movies that didn’t need the theater and instead, turned Japanese VCRs into windows into dark, sexy and even depraved worlds. After this quick burst, the rest of the Arrow set awaits!
Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage is just one of the movies in the Arrow Video V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal set. The set includes a newly filmed introduction by Japanese film critic Masak Tanioka, an interview with director Shudo Okawa, Crime Hunter and the Dawn of V-Cinema, a brand new video essay on Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage by Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes, and a trailer. You can get this from MVD.
A Nikkatsu Roman Porno and Directors Company collaboration between director Toshiharu Ikeda (Mermaid Legend) and writer Takashi Ishii (Evil Dead Trap), Scent of a Spell starts with Tetsuro Esaka (Johnny Okura) walking home from the bar as rain falls. He glances at the bridge just in time, as Akiko Takimura (Mari Amachi) jumps into the water, hoping to escape her life. He saves her and soon discovers the abusive situation that she’s in. But this movie takes cues from film noir, so perhaps our protagonist is in over his head.
Is Akiko just as jealous as her husband? Are men who try to be white knights destined to fail? Why would Tetsuro think she was trying to kill herself when that bridge is just a few feet tall? So many questions and luckily, this gives you the answers.
The Third Window Films Blu-ray release of Scent of a Spell has extras, including an interview with Tokyo Intl. Film Festival programming director Shozo Ichiyama, a feature-length audio commentary by Samm Deighan, a video essay by Matthew Carter, a slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju, and comes in a 2,000-copy Directors Company limited edition with an insert by Jasper Sharp.
Directed by Peter MacDonald (The Extreme Adventures of Super Dave, Legionnaire, The NeverEnding Story III, Rambo III) and written by Gilbert Adler and AL Katz, this story finds a World War II traitor trapped in a prison camp, soon to be discovered by one of the men that he betrayed.
“Fall in! Did you hear me, maggot? I said fall in! I swear, you must be the sorriest bunch of sad sacks I ever did see. You’re a disgrace to the uniform, all of you! And you call yourself a scare force? What’s your problem soldier? You some kind of mummy’s boy?! That it? Hmm. I guess you think you’re like the man in tonight’s tale. He’s not much of a soldier either. It’s a nasty little shriek and destroy mission I call “Escape.””
Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet plays the turncoat, Lt. Luger. Commander Major Nicholson (Roy Dotrice) puts him in with the German soldier to see if he’ll show his true colors. He just may, unless he can kill the soldier who knows all about him, Krupp (Nick Reding).
As you can see, the British episodes are more suspense and less horror.
This is based on “Escape” from Vault of Horror #16. It was written by William Gaines and Al Feldstein, who also drew it. That story has a man named Luger trying to switch places with a dead man to escape prison.
What if they made a budget-friendly version of Hardcore that featured Barbara Crampton as Bonnie, a woman searching for her sister who has been lost in the Los Angeles world of cinema? And what if Dr. Pepper Werewolf David Naughton played tough cop Vince McCarthy, the only man who can help her find her sister, Debbie (Kimberly Evenson, Inga from Porky’s Revenge) escape the clutches of maybe Hugh Hefner but named Victor Nardi (Elvis’ stunt double Lance LeGault), because it’s cool to make Italian stereotypical bad guys even in 2025. And what if Jimmie Walker played a porn store employee? And how about if Charles Napier was the angry cop boss?
This is that movie.
It’s the kind of movie where the cop and the girl sneak onto a porn set and almost have to act in it, with one of the bad guys asking to look at Vince’s cock, who unzips away from Bonnie and then the scumbag replies, “Holy Christ! What do you feed that monster?” Where everyone suddenly knows kung fu. And can we get a role for Robert Dryer, the evil Jake from Savage Streets, please?
The cop has a monkey that lives with him and that monkey straight up walks in on a nearly fully nude Barbara Crampton, who just laughs it off. Oh, what a cute little guy! When he just came in, eating a banana, I didn’t know what was happening. That’s the kind of movie this is.
A film that ends with a victim who should be far away from the bad guy somehow getting a gun and killing him in front of tons of cops, who had to have been rock hard watching her kill a man with no due process.
This is why I don’t get to have film series at local theaters: if I did, I would totally pick Kidnapped and stand before audiences, telling them the mystery of moviemaking and preparing them for it. But I couldn’t. In no way could I get them ready. Additionally, there would be no audience, because who, other than me, wants to watch this?
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