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Harakiri [VHS]

Harakiri [VHS]

Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring: Tatsuya Nakadai , Rentarô Mikuni , Shima Iwashita , Akira Ishihama , Shichisaburo Amatsu
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
In this grim yet exquisitely composed film, Kobayashi delves into the world of the 17th-century samurai, examining "the honor in death--and the death of honor" (Time). After an unemployed samurai is forced to commit harakiri before a feudal lord, his father-in-law returns to the scene, seemingly to play out the same agonizing suicide ritual. Tensions grow to excruciating levels, then find thrilling release as the elder warrior strikes out one last time against a cruelly rigid society.
List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $14.69
Wicked City [VHS]

Wicked City [VHS]

Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring: Jacky Cheung , Roy Cheung , Leon Lai , Carman Lee , Tatsuya Nakadai
Director: Tai Kit Mak

List Price: $9.98 Our Price: $3.95
Yojimbo [VHS]

Yojimbo [VHS]

Rated: Unrated
Staring: Toshirô Mifune , Eijirô Tôno , Tatsuya Nakadai , Yôko Tsukasa , Isuzu Yamada
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa's blackly humorous film, executed in the style of the American Western, is a sophisticated satire on greed, violence, paranoia, and human weakness. In a nonchalant manner reminiscent of a Bogart hero, a wandering samurai-for-hire (Mifune) turns the war between two clans fighting for control of a small town to his own advantage. One of the most popular Japanese films ever released in the U.S., Yojimbo inspired the Clint Eastwood film A Fistful of Dollars.
List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $17.95
Kagemusha [VHS]

Kagemusha [VHS]

Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Staring: Tatsuya Nakadai , Tsutomu Yamazaki , Kenichi Hagiwara , Jinpachi Nezu , Hideji Ôtaki
Director: Akira Kurosawa
The 1970s were difficult years for the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Following the box-office failure of his 1970 film Dodes'ka-den and an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Kurosawa was unable to find financial backing in Japan, and he made his acclaimed 1975 film Dersu Uzala in Siberia with Russian financing. With only partial Japanese backing for his epic project Kagemusha, the 70-year-old master then found American support from George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, who served as coexecutive producers (through 20th Century Fox) for this magnificent 1980 production--to that date the most expensive film in Japanese history. Set in the late 16th century, Kagemusha centers on the Takeda clan, one of three warlord clans battling for control of Japan at the end of the feudal period. When Lord Shingen (Tatsuya Nakadai), head of the Takeda clan, is mortally wounded in battle and near death, he orders that his death be kept secret and that his "kagemusha"--or "shadow warrior"--take his place for a period of three years to prevent clan disruption and enemy takeover. The identical double is a petty thief (also played by Nakadai) spared from execution due to his u...
List Price: $19.98 Our Price: $6.34
Kwaidan

Kwaidan

Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring: Rentaro Mikuni , Michiyo Aratama , Misako Watanabe , Tatsuya Nakadai , Keiko Kishi
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Kwaidan is an engrossing masterpiece of four nightmarish tales in which terror thrives and demons lurk. Throughout each tale, director Masaki Kobayashi's handsomely conceived imagery conveys a sensual quality that immerses the viewer deep in the spiritual world. Combining visually stunning effects with beautiful use of color, Kobayashi has created a supernatural experience beyond the imagination.
List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $5.47
Sword of Doom [VHS]

Sword of Doom [VHS]

Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring: Tatsuya Nakadai , Yûzô Kayama , Michiyo Aratama , Yôko Naitô , Tadao Nakamaru
Director: Kihachi Okamoto
One of the most thrilling samurai epics, Sword of Doom boasts unparalleled action and the impassioned performances of Tatsuya Nakadai (Ran) and Toshiro Mifune (Seven Samurai). The riveting story about a bloodthirsty samurai weighs the power of good against the forces of evil. The brilliantly choreographed duels rival the bloodbaths of Sam Peckinpah and John Woo.
List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $3.38
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs [VHS]

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs [VHS]

Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring: Hideko Takamine , Tatsuya Nakadai , Masayuki Mori , Reiko Dan , Daisuke Katô
Director: Mikio Naruse
Although its title is not instantly recognizable in the Great Movies canon, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs qualifies as a modest, graceful masterpiece. This 1959 film by Mikio Naruse has, like the director's reputation in general, slowly gained traction in the decades after Naruse's death in 1969... much like a woman quietly, discreetly walking up a staircase (the film's central and repeated image). The film considers the plight of a hostess in a goodtime-establishment in Tokyo's famous Ginza district; with her youth gone, it is now time to buy a bar of her own or latch onto a husband/benefactor. She is played by Hideko Takamine, a veteran of 17 Naruse films, whose melancholy, indomitable performance is the soul of the movie. The postwar production design is enhanced by the drinks-after-dark jazz music, which really roots in the film in an arena of almost desperate 1950s capitalism. The black-and-white widescreen photography, a jumble of slanting signs and beams and screens, fits Naruse's subtle method, which eschews big melodrama in favor of an incredibly nuanced appreciation for life's quiet disappointments. Naruse can offer no greater triumph than simply placing one's fo...
List Price: $19.98 Our Price: $79.99
Sanjuro [VHS]

Sanjuro [VHS]

Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Staring: Toshirô Mifune , Tatsuya Nakadai , Keiju Kobayashi , Yûnosuke Itô , Yûzô Kayama
Director: Akira Kurosawa
The gruff and arrogant hero of Yojimbo returns to the screen in another offbeat action film from Akira Kurosawa, the playful master of the samurai genre. This time, the slovenly but highly skilled warrior (played by the wonderfully deadpan Toshiro Mifune) helps a group of earnest, young samurai rid their clan of corruption. Amid the comic-book style combat, Sanjuro displays a delightfully cynical disregard for notions of good and evil and a mischievous sense of humor.
List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $28.45
Ran [VHS]

Ran [VHS]

Rated: R (Restricted)
Staring: Tatsuya Nakadai , Akira Terao , Jinpachi Nezu , Daisuke Ryû , Mieko Harada
Director: Akira Kurosawa
As critic Roger Ebert observed in his original review of Ran, this epic tragedy might have been attempted by a younger director, but only the Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, who made the film at age 75, could bring the requisite experience and maturity to this stunning interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear. It's a film for the ages--one of the few genuine screen masterpieces--and arguably serves as an artistic summation of the great director's career. In this version of the Shakespeare tragedy, the king is a 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai as Lord Hidetora) who decides to retire and divide his kingdom evenly among his three sons. When one son defiantly objects out of loyalty to his father and warns of inevitable sibling rivalry, he is banished and the kingdom is awarded to his compliant siblings. The loyal son's fears are valid: a duplicitous power struggle ensues and the aging warlord witnesses a maelstrom of horrifying death and destruction. Although the film is slow to establish its story, it's clear that Kurosawa, who planned and painstakingly designed the production for 10 years before filming began, was charting a meticulous and tightly formalized dram...
List Price: $19.98 Our Price: $2.50
Samurai Rebellion [VHS]

Samurai Rebellion [VHS]

Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Staring: Toshirô Mifune , Yôko Tsukasa , Takeshi Katô , Tatsuyoshi Ehara , Etsuko Ichihara
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
This samurai classic, set in 18th-century Japan, combines great acting and thrilling action with thoughtful writing and direction. The magnificent Toshiro Mifune (Seven Samurai, The Samurai Trilogy) stars as Isaburo, a renowned swordsman who is the essence of samurai loyalty until his overlord demands the return of a former mistress, Isaburo's beloved daughter-in-law. The injustice to his family forces Isaburo to take a heroic stand for individual freedom and moves him toward a revolt he can never win. Written by Shinobu Hashimoto (Rashomon) and directed by Masaki Kobayashi (Harakiri, Kwaidan), Samurai Rebellion is "a clear departure from the norm...a compelling legend stressing one man's opposition to tyranny in an age when such opposition was unthinkable" (The New York Times). The bloody climax rages with power and emotion.
List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $8.95