This is based on the Japanese urban legend known as Kuchisake-onna. She was a woman who missed her samurai husband while he was away at war and began to sleep with other men. When he returned and learned of how she was stepping beyond the bounds of their marriage, he sliced her face. She came back from the dead as an onryo who covered her face and appeared to people, asking if she was beautiful. If they answered no, they died. If they said yes, she removed her mask and asked again. Now, if they say no, they will die. If they say yes? They will be given a face like hers.

This legend dates back to Japan’s Edo period but came back in the late 1970s, when rumors of her reappearance led to children needing to be walked home by parents from school.

In this movie, rumors of Kuchisake-onna have spread through a small town. School teacher Noboru Matsuzaki (Haruhiko Kato) hears a voice asking “Am I pretty?” while students begin to disappear. One of the students, Mika (Rie Kuwana) doesn’t want to go home to her abusive mother (Chiharu Kawai). The teacher she tells this to, Kyoko Yamashita (Eriko Sato) has lost her daughter to her ex-husband. She hesitates in dealing with Mika and the girls runs away, meeting Kuchisake-onna.

Noboru and Kyoko start to look for the missing children and learn that Kuchisake-onna can possess other women. That’s when Noboru reveals that a woman in a photograph who may be the evil demon is actually his mother Taeko Matsuzaki. She used to abuse him until one day she disappeared. Later, she came to him and asked him to kill her. He slit his mother’s mouth and stabbed her, then dressed her body up in a coat and mask, and hid it in the closet. He thought that would stop the demon but it has only led to decades of possession and torment for women and children.

Directed by Kōji Shiraishi, who wrote the movie with Naoyuki Yokota, this followed his movie Noroi: The Curse.

Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman is one of the films on Arrow’s new J-Horror Rising set. It has extras including commentary by Japanese folklore expert Zack Davisson, a new interview with director Koji Shiraishi, a video essay by Japanese horror specialist Lindsay Nelson and an image gallery.

You can buy it from MVD.

Hinako Myoujin (Yui Natsukawa) has come back to her island home of Shikoku from Tokyo. There, she discovers that her friend Sayori Hiura (Chiaki Kuriyama, Gogo Yubari!) has died and that the girl’s mother, Shinto priestess Teruko (Toshie Negishi), has become lost in her grief.

Sayori’s high school boyfriend Fumiya (Michitaka Tsutsui) has always felt her near him ever since she drowned in a lake. As Fumiya and Hinako find they have a connection, a series of desecrations of the Shinto shrines starts to happen.

It turns out that Sayori’s mother is making the pilgrimage of the 88 Shinto shrines in reverse order, which will weaken the barrier between the living and the dead. This is more of a Japanese folk horror than J-Horror, however, and several mention that not much happens in this movie. I kind of liked its look and pace myself.

Shikoku is one of the films on Arrow’s new J-Horror Rising set. It has extras including commentary by Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes, an interview with director Shunichi Nagasaki and actors Chiaki Kuriyama and Yui Natsukawa, making of footage, original trailers, TV ads and an image gallery.

You can buy it from MVD.

Directed by Toshiyuki Mizutani, who wrote it with Mugita Kinosita, this takes place after the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, which saw at least 5,000 deaths. Yukari (Yoshino Kimura) has come to the city of Kobe to help with the rescue efforts.

As a psychic, Yukari can feel the thoughts of others. This isn’t always good, as the violent urges of people disturb her. She meets Chiharo (Yû Kurosawa), who has thirteen different personalities, and who is a loner after her classmates bullied her, blaming her for the drowning — in a toilet! — of a fellow student. When a gym teacher throws her down the steps, putting her in the hospital, Chiharo is still to blame when that man kills himself.

Why does Chiharo have these voices fighting inside her? Is it the abuse of her uncle Tatsurô (Kazuhiro Yamaji)? Or is the out of body experiences that she was forced to undertake from scientist Yayoi Takano (Makiko Watanabe)? Maybe both?

There is a thirteenth personality no one has seen yet, one behind the pain that Chiharo unleashes. That is Isola and she is starting to break through. I’ve always wanted to get into a sensory deprivation tank but after this, maybe I should reconsider.

Isola: Multiple Personality Girl is one of the films on Arrow’s new J-Horror Rising set. It has extras including commentary by critics and Japanese cinema experts Jasper Sharp and Amber T., interviews with Yoshino Kimura and Yu Kurosawa, original trailers, TV ads and an image gallery.

You can buy it from MVD.

Luo Yihu (Hwang Jang-Lee), the master of the Northern Legs Clan, has killed the master — Mr. Zhang (Yen Shi-Kwan) — of two young students — He Jiayu (Wong Yu) and Wu Dezhi (Chiang Kam) before letting them know that they’re next. They’re also idiots who would rather argue and prank one another than get better at fighter, so this will not be easy.

Directed by Hsu Hsia, Kid from Kwangtung, this takes its time to get to that fight, as it spends so much of the running time having He Jiayu and Wu Dezhi dress like roosters and a centipede to do costumed battle. You also get incense as a weapon, hopping vampires, an appearance of some of the synth effects from Flash Gordon, lots of blood and more silliness than ultra serious Shaw Brothers lovers may want. As for me, I had a blast, as this movie jumps from scene to scene and is devoted to entertaining you and making you laugh. What else can you ask for?

South Korean martial artist Hwang Jang-Lee was only in two Shaw Brothers movies, this film and Ghosts Galore. He’s also in Drunken Master, Snuff Bottle Connection, Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave, Millionaire’s Express and many more. He was scheduled to direct a film for Shaw Brothers but disagreements with actor Wong Yu led to him ending his contract.

The 88 Films limited edition blu ray of this movie has a slipcase with new artwork by Sam Gilbey, lobby cards, a trailer, an image gallery and a reversible sleeve with the original artwork.

You can order it from MVD.

Based on the novel Tainted Evidence by former NYPD officer Robert Daley, this movie finds director and writer Sidney Lumet (Prince of the City, Serpico, Network, The Wiz) looking into corruption within the police itself.

Detectives Liam Casey (Ian Holm) and Joey Allegretto (James Gandolfini) have been watching Jordan Washington (Shiek Mahmud-Bey) forever and now they have the tip that allows them to knock on his door. He answers with a blast of machine gun fire that wounds Casey. He runs and kills two cops.

In response, Liam’s son Sean Casey (Andy Garcia) is given the case instead of the older Elihu Harrison (Colm Feore). In a case where he goes against Sam Vigoda (Richard Dreyfuss) Sean argues that Washington deserves to go to jail. Vigoda agrees that he’s a killer but claims that the cops were corrupt and coming to murder his client.

Sean becomes the new District Attorney and begins dating one of Vigoda’s clerks, Peggy Lindstrom (Lena Olin). He soon learns that the cop that Washington said was behind everything has been killed. As a former police officer and the son of a cop, all of this corruption puts him in the middle of many agenda and lies.

Dreyfuss’ role is loosely based on attorney William Kunstler, who defended Larry Davis, a drug dealer who shot six cops, claimed that the cops were selling drugs and wanted him dead. The Manhattan District Attorney who opposed him, Robert Morgenthau, may have inspired Ron Leibman’s role of Morgenstern.

I don’t watch many crime dramas, but I know that Lumet is a talent. This is well-made and even had three different endings at one point.

The Arrow Video blu ray of Night Falls On Manhattan has a new 2K remaster from the original negative by Arrow Films; two archive commentaries, one from director Sidney Lumet and one with Andy Garcia and Ron Leibman and producers Josh Kramer and Thom Mount; The Directors: Sidney Lumet; on-set interviews with Lumet, Garcia, Dreyfuss, Olin, Holm and Leibman; behind-the-scenes footage; a trailer; TV commercials; limited edition packaging featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tom Ralston and an illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Nick Clement and original production notes.

You can buy this from MVD.

Nathan (Hugo Dillon) and Daniel (Arben Bajraktaraj) are dead. Nathan’s car hit Daniel’s motorcycle on an icy road and now they’re yelling at one another as two gates appear, a blue and red set. Daniel hears the singing of angels. Nathan, who has recently killed his wife in what he claims is an act of mercy, hears screams.

As Nathan and Daniel enter the red gateway, they finds several souls in the same place as him. And that’s when we realize this is a portmanteau of tales, telling us all about killer child Nina (Manon Maindivide) who works with Tony the Monster (Carl Laforêt) to murder people she doesn’t enjoy and a lawyer who goes by Julia (Ophélia Kolb) who hasn’t paid any attention to her daughter and now tries to keep a relationship after she kills herself. As for what happens to the men we met at the beginning, Norghul (Jean Rouceau) sentences Daniel to 4,000 years of solitude.

Director and writer Quarxx is a visual artist who makes this look gorgeous. As to how much sense it makes and how good of a movie it is, the answer lies in how much story you want versus how much graphic gorgeousness. It’s definitely bold even if you may just want to get back to the story that started this, which is usually not how you want a framing story to work in an anthology film.

The Arrow Video release of this film has interviews with Quarxx and special make-up/FX supervisor Olivier Afonso, an interview conducted with Quarxx while he captures footage of a baby being born, a making of, footage from the premiere, a trailer, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dare Creative, a double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dare Creative and an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anton Bitel, a director’s statement and director Q&A.

You can order this from MVD.

If anything, Nico Mastorakis knows how to put together a cast of actors that I get excited about. In this, he has Shannon Tweed, Norman Fell, Bubba Smith, John Vernon, Zsa Zsa Gabor, M. Emmet Walsh, Lou Ferrigno, Erik Estrada, Ted Lange, Billy Barty, Yvonne De Carlo, Little Richard, David Birney, Dick Gautier, Camilla Sparv (a one-time wife of Robert Evans) and former Miss Yugoslavia Natasha Pavlovich.

This is his chance to make Some Like It Hot, with Frank (Robert Caso) and Frank (Kevin Schon) having to become Ethel and Mirabelle when they take evidence against a mob boss in a briefcase switcharound. On the run from hitman Bruno (Brian Thompson, The Night Slasher and Shao Khan!), they end up in a beauty contest for a ketchup king named Rupert Hess (Herb Edelman). At some point, this forgets to be a Billy Wilder movie and becomes Casablanca.

Julie Gray is also in this and not only was she in School Spirit, Dr. Alien and Stryker, but she’s the girl in Ozzy’s video for “The Ultimate Sin.” Yes, that’s Spice Williams as Sam. She was also Vixis the female klingon in Star Trek V and Coach Drew in Fatal Games. And Bogart at the end? Robert Sacchi who is the Sam Spade-appearing detecting in The French Sex Murders.

I have a soft spot for this filmmaker. Reading the reviews of this, it seemed like he had punched some of these folks’ moms in the stomach or something. He just makes movies!

This is part of Arrow Video’s The Nico Mastorakis Collection and has an interview with Dan Hirsch looking back on his role in the film and a trailer as extra features.

This set is available from MVD.

Yes, Nico Mastorakis, the same maniac who made Island of Death, Blind Date and The Zero Boys, made a Police Academy ripoff. It also checks off another box with an appearance by Phillip, who is pretty much James Bond. Also, because this is Mastorakis, there’s some full-frontal nudity.

Also, Mastorakis never meant to actually direct the film, but after seeing that some of the dailies, he fired the original director and took over.

Gerald Okamura, the Hard Master from the first G.I. Joe movie and one of the hatchet men in Big Trouble In Little China, is Chiba, a man who owns a ninja academy in Topanga Canyon. His enemy owns Beverly Hills Ninja Academy. And just like Camp North Star and Camp Mohawk, they must battle.

There’s a mime, a klutz, some attractive women, a wiseacre and all the things you expect from this genre. Is Police Academy ripoff a genre? It is now.

Becky LeBeau, whose IMDB resume has Joysticks, multiple David Lee Roth videos, Hollywood Hot Tubs, Back to School, The Under Achievers, Not of This Earth, Rock-A-Die Baby and both Munchie movies, is in this. That alone should give you reason to find a copy of your own.

Also: a band on the soundtrack is called The Piggy Dicks. That is now my favorite band name ever.

This is part of Arrow Video’s The Nico Mastorakis Collection and has a new interview with Gerald Okamura, looking back on his role as Chiba and his career as an actor and martial artist. You also get a trailer for the movie.

This set is available from MVD.

Julius Lazar (Dick Gautier) and his secretary Missy (Amy Lyndon) have finished up planning his next movie Sex and Violence when they decide to get away for the weekend and go to Hawaii. She has no idea what she’s doing, so that allows T.C. (Will Egan) and Bo (Steve Donmyer) to break in at the exact same time as two of Lazar’s disgruntled employees, Paco (Fernando Garzón) and Lee (John Kreng). Luckily, Bo has a second personality named Simon who is super strong — look, you’re watching a Nico Mastorakis movie, these are the plot twists you grow used to — and he’s able to defeat the two of them, setting T.C. up as Lazar and himself up as a director as young and morally unencumbered actresses show up to become famous in the next big movie from Hollywood’s most popular exploitation director.

If you’re looking for a movie just for nubile and often nude women, well, Mastorakis knew what you wanted. There are ninety women in this, including Bunty Bailey (Dolls, a-ha’s “Take On Me), Teri Weigel (one of the few women to be both a Playboy Playmate and Penthouse Pet, as well as an adult movie star), Roxanna Michaels (Caged Fury), Penny Wiggins (who was The Amazing Jonathan’s assistant Psychic Tanya), Marjean Holden (Sheeva from Mortal Kombat Annihilation), Christina Cardan (Chained Heat) as a non-SAG actress, Kahlena Marie (Streets of Death) as a SAG actress, stuntwoman Laura Albert, Heidi Paine (Wizards of the Demon Sword), Debra Lamb (both Stripped to Kill movies), Jesae (who became adult actress Elise di Medici), Becky Mullen (who was Sally the Farmer’s Daughter in GLOW and is also in the Van Halen video “Poundcake”) and Donna Spangler (Amityville Witches).

While all the women are trying to get a part, DuBois (Ted Lange) shows up with several members of the mob to take back the money that Lazar took from them for his new movie Pink Thunder. There’s also Michelle Wong (Julia Nickson, Rambo: First Blood Part II), who comes to audition just to tell Lazar how much she hates his movies and ends up becoming T.C.’s dream woman.

This has so many ridiculous scenes, including gay bodyguard ninja Brucie (Dan Spreaker) beating up an entire collection of bad guys and Bo getting his brains back from a hypnotist (Ji-Tu Cumbuka). None of it is politically correct, much of it is goofy and Mastorakis shot this because he was looking for somewhere fun to live. He stayed in the mansion that this was shot at for three weeks.

This is part of Arrow Video’s The Nico Mastorakis Collection and has an interview with Dan Hirsch looking back on his role in the film and a trailer as extra features.

This set is available from MVD.