OUT NOW and Coming Soon on DVD!!

[Chris Casey]

Ahh..these are great times for Nikkatsu Action fans!
After a long period of drought, we are finally being blessed with some great Region 1 DVD releases of some truly classic films.

First up are two cool releases from Kino International (Available May 19, 2009): DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3: GO TO HELL BASTARDS! and 3 SECONDS BEFORE EXPLOSION.
Read on for more details!

3 Seconds Before Explosion

Director: Motuma Ida
Starring: Akira Kobayashi
Country: Japan
Genres: Action-Adventure, Nikkatsu Studio
Type: Color
Language: Japanese with optional English subtitles
Length: 84 mins.
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Synopsis: A lightning-paced 60’s crime film from Japan’s Nikkatsu Studios, Three Seconds to Explosion packs enough subterfuge and action into its 84 volatile minutes to fill out a dozen pictures made anywhere else.

“I like shady dealings,” purrs undercover superspy Yabuki (Akira Kobayashi – The Yakuza Papers) en route to infiltrating a sadistic, trigger-happy gang of international jewel thieves. Gone renegade from the shadowy espionage bureau that honed his killer instincts to a razor’s edge, the implacable Yabuki teams up with fellow mercenary crime fighter Yamawaki (Hideki Takahashi – Fighting Elegy). Together, they follow a trail of stolen gems leading from the final days of WWII to a contemporary conspiracy that reaches into the highest corridors of corporate power and nefarious international villainy.

A widescreen whirlwind of sharkskin thread, revenge-crazed assassins, ticking time bombs, deadly booby traps, and triple-crossing lingerie-clad femme fatales, Three Seconds to Explosion connects Nikkatsu’s “mood action” yakuza gangster films of the 50’s and 60’s to the studio’s subsequent kinky 70’s “pink films,” and is a primer in the tough, super-cool world of “no borders” exploitation cinema Nikkatsu style.

1967 Japan 84 min. Color In Japanese with optional English subtitles
Letterboxed (2.35:1) Enhanced for 16x9 TVs

a NIKKATSU production a film by MOTOMU IDA 3 SECONDS BEFORE EXPLOSION
AKIRA KOBAYASHI RYOJI HAYAMA KAZUO KITAMURA KATSUE TAKAISHI HIROSHI NAWA and ASAO UCHIDA
Cinematography by IZUMI HAGIWARA lighting by SABURO MITSUO art direction by KAZUO YAGYU edited by OSAMU INOUE
Music by SEITARO OMORI songs by KATSUE TAKAISHI, SHIRO HIDE screenplay by SHUICHI NAGAHARA based on a novel by HARUHIKO OYABU directed by MOTOMU IDA
© 1967 Nikkatsu Corporation

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards!

Director: Seijun Suzuki
Starring: Jo Shishido
Country: Japan
Genres: Action-Adventure, Nikkatsu Studio
Type: Color
Year: 1963
Language: Japanese with optional English subtitles
Length: 88 mins.
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Synopsis: Assigned a standard Yakuza film in the hardboiled vein pioneered at Japan’s famed Nikkatsu Studios, director Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill) and his frequent leading man Jo Shishido used 1963’s Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! to flip the Japanese gangster film genre on its ear.

A rapid fire gun heist, credits with an infectious jazz pop score, and a wide-screen close-up of a burning car announce Detective Bureau 2-3 as the film that would both lampoon and redefine Asian crime films for an irreverent new decade of garish panache and ultra-violent cool. The story follows police detective Tajima (Shishido), who, tasked with tracking down stolen firearms, turns an underworld grudge into a bloodbath -- while Suzuki transforms a colorful potboiler into an on-target send-up of cultural colonialism and post-war greed. “This isn’t an American TV series,” one of Tajima’s doubting subordinates tells the sharkskin-suited, super suave sleuth.

Anarchic, breakneck paced, darkly comic, and stylish to the extreme, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! was a movie unlike anything audiences had ever seen. It would cement Suzuki’s fervent popularity at home and heralded his imminent cult status worldwide.

1963 Japan 88 min. Color In Japanese with optional English subtitles
Letterboxed (2.35:1) Enhanced for 16x9 TVs

a NIKKATSU production a film by SEIJUN SUZUKI DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3: GO TO HELL BASTARDS!
JO SHISHIDO REIKO SASAMORI TAMIO KAWACHI NOBUO KANEKO ASAO SANO and KINZO SHIN
cinematography by SHIGEYOSHI MINE lighting by KYOSUKE YOSHIDA art direction by TAKEHARU SAKAGUCHI edited by AKIRA SUZUKI
music by HARUMI IBE screenplay by GAN YAMAZAKI based on a novel by HARUHIKO OYABU produced by SHOZO ASHIDA directed by SEIJUN SUZUKI
© 1963 Nikkatsu Corporation

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But, that's not all, folks!! There is even more exciting news for the future!!
Check it out:

Criterion/Eclipse will be releasing an outstanding Nikkatsu Noir Box Set in August of 2009!
This set will contain 5 brilliant films including the excellent A COLT IS MY PASSPORT and CRUEL GUN STORY (both absolute must-haves for any self-respecting Nikkatsu Action fan!).

More details, from the Criterion/Eclipse website, follow!

Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir

Synopsis:

From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, wild, idiosyncratic crime movies were the brutal and boisterous business of Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan. In an effort to attract youthful audiences growing increasingly accustomed to American and French big-screen imports, Nikkatsu began producing action potboilers (mukokuseki akushun, or “borderless action”) modeled on the western, comedy, gangster, and teen-rebel genres. This bruised and bloody collection represents a standout cross section of the nimble nasties Nikkatsu had to offer, from such prominent, stylistically daring directors as Seijun Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, and Takashi Nomura.

Collector's set includes:

I Am Waiting Koreyoshi Kurahara, 1957

In Koreyoshi Kurahara’s directorial debut, rebel matinee idol Yujiro Ishihara stars as a former boxer working as a restaurant manager, who saves a beautiful, suicidal club hostess (Mie Kitahara) trying to escape the clutches of her gangster employer.

Rusty Knife Toshio Masuda, 1958

In Toshio Masuda’s smash Rusty Knife, Yujiro Ishihara and fellow top Nikkatsu star Akira Kobayashi play former hoodlums trying to leave behind a life of crime, but their past comes back to haunt them when the authorities seek them out as murder witnesses.

Take Aim at the Police Van Seijun Suzuki, 1960

At the beginning of Seijun Suzuki’s taut and twisty whodunit, a prison truck is attacked and a convict inside is murdered. The penitentiary warden on duty, Daijiro (Michitaro Mizushima), is accused of negligence and suspended, only to take it upon himself to track down the killers.

Cruel Gun Story Takumi Furukawa, 1964

Fresh out of the slammer, Togawa (Branded to Kill’s Joe Shishido) has no chance to go straight because he is immediately coerced by a wealthy mob boss into organizing the heist of an armored car carrying racetrack receipts.

A Colt Is My Passport Takashi Nomura, 1967

One of Japanese cinema’s supreme emulations of American noir, Takashi Nomura’s A Colt Is My Passport is a down-and-dirty but gorgeously photographed yakuza film starring Joe Shishido as a hard-boiled hit man caught between rival gangs.


This box set is currently available to pre-order on the Criterion/Eclipse website here: http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/655


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SUBARASHII DA!!!!!!!!!!

[Jonathan Courtright]

Sweet!!!!!! Gotta figure out how to get this stuff!!!!!

[Chris Casey]

Yoh!!

The Criterion/Eclipse NIKKATSU NOIR box set is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com for less than 50 bucks!!
What a GREAT deal! Five cooler than cool Nikkatsu Action flicks for less than 10 bucks each! You can't beat that! So don't try..just BUY!!

http://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-17-Nikkatsu-Noir-Kobayashi/dp/B002AFX...

[SPM]

First i heard of the Kino releases. I remember they releases Fukasaku's Cops v Thugs / Yakuza Graveyard as well. Hope they continue releasing quality flicks. let's just pray they sell.

Although, I do believe "digital download" is the currrent and future source for media distribution. but that's another story...

[Goro Hanada]

That Eclipse boxed set is going to ROCK! Only a month away now. Can't wait!
The Kino releases are nice. Like SPM said, I hope they sell so they will release more.
The only problem is that Kino released one really good one (Detective Bureau 2-3) and one really weak one (3 Seconds Before The Explosion). I bet it was a package deal from Nikkatsu. They had to buy the rights to 3 Seconds in order to be able to get the Suzuki film. I don't think they will move as many copies of 3 Seconds as they will of Detective Bureau.
But it is good to see American companies releasing these cool movies.

By the way, Chris, the price for the boxed set on Amazon went up to something like $63. I am glad I preordered mine when it was listed as $49.95. It is still availabe on the Criterion site for somethng like $56, so that is a pretty good deal.

[Mitch Casey]

I ordered my copy of the Eclipse set on Amazon when it was $49. I am glad I did, because now it is over $60. I would have paid 60 for it, no problem. But it's good to get a bargain.

I saw Colt is My Passport during Fantastic Fest 2007 here in Austin and it is one of the best Nikkatsu films I have ever seen. Looking forward to seeing it again and to seeing Cruel Gun Story for the first time.

[Mitch Casey]

Just found out that you can pre-order the Nikkatsu Noir set from DeepDiscount.com for $46.89 and free shipping. That is the best deal I have seen on this set.

http://www.deepdiscount.com/Eclipse-Series-17--Nikkatsu-Noir-Upcomi...

[Chris Casey]

Cool, Mitch!
Looks like DeepDiscount.com is the way to go!
Like I said before, you just can't beat 5 classic, hard-boiled Nikkatsu flicks for less than 50 bucks!!

[Goro Hanada]

That is an excellent price for this set, Mitch. Thank you for posting the link.
I will tell my friends that haven't ordered it yet.

[Mitch Casey]

You're welcome.
I almost wish I had waited and ordered my copy from DeepDiscount. But, the difference between what I paid and what
DD is selling it for is only around $3.00. No big deal, I guess.

Goro Hanada said:

That is an excellent price for this set, Mitch. Thank you for posting the link.
I will tell my friends that haven't ordered it yet.

[Mariko Hirata]

I wish to thank you too, Mitch. Due to your posting that link, I immediately placed a pre-order with Deep Discount.
$46 or $47 is definitely within my budget these days and a superb bargain for five films. I kept looking at the listing for the set on Amazon and thinking: how can I justify spending over $60 for this set?
All thanks to your link, I no longer have to work on any justification.

<3

[Anna Kobayashi]

Only 24 days until the Eclipse set is released!

[D. Evans]

Per Amazon US: This title will be released on August 25, 2009. Available for pre-order now.