RIC MEYERS: Tokyo Shock
It’s that time again. I’m back on my annual summer filmfest tour. My first, and favorite, stop is FanimeCon in San Jose (“By Fans, For Fans”) California, where my friends at Media Blasters showcased riches aplenty – some recent, one brand spanking new.
Now, I’ve been fans of M.B. for awhile, since they’re the only (legal) place to get such classic Japanese samurai (a.k.a. chambara) films as Hideo Gosha’s Goyokin, such fine “old school” kung-fu films as 7 Grandmasters, and such rare, treasured Japanese action TV series as Baian the Assassin and Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman. But this time they’ve outdone themselves … at least in terms of this column’s raison d’etre.
Let’s start with their recent output. They’re repacked and repackaged two cult favorites in ways both wild and weird. First, topping anyone’s list of “you may regret it but you’ll never forget it” movies is renegade firebrand director Takashi Miike’s graphic (is there any word stronger than graphic I can use?) live-action adaptation of the landmark manga Ichi the Killer. Once seen, you’ll know why “graphic” or even “explicit” don’t cut it (“cut’ it … get it? Anyone seeing the film will).
This tale of a repressed, demented, vigilante going after the worst yakuza sado-masochist ever put on film is a work of extreme “so-excessive-it’s-funny” art (art using mostly the color red). So it makes sick sense that Media Blaster’s “Tokyo Shock” division would package their new Double-Disc Special Edition in a Collector’s Blood Bag.
First, the good news: the mass of extras do nothing to lessen the impact of this literally unforgettable entertainment (although I almost hoped it would, given the intensity of the flick). They include a new 16×9 transfer, audio commentary with both the director and the manga artist/writer (Hideo Yamamoto), interviews with the actors and producer, and an illuminating on-the-set making-of doc.
The only place the frills falter is with “The Cult of Ichi” and Eli Roth interview featurettes in which horror writers and “torture chic” filmmakers heap bloody praise on the film. What they have to say is pretty much what anyone would probably say, but it you like their work, it might be fun to see them give voice to what you would probably think after seeing the movie.
Now, the bad news. While the packaging is “clever,” it is also wildly impractical. It took me more than two minutes to extract just one of the two discs from its sticky plastic prison, and it was nigh impossible not to get my grubby paw prints all over the wrong side of the DVD. (more…)
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One of the most hard-charging bloggers around, 
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Once upon a time, mystery writer Max Allan Collins (Road To Perdition, CSI, Dick Tracy) teamed up with his pal Terry Beatty to create one of the longest-running independently-owned hardboiled crime comics, Ms. Tree. It enjoyed a long and healthy life, outlasting several of its publishers.
