Live Action - Japanese

Filmed entirely in Japan, Budo: The Art of Killing is a highly acclaimed docu-drama and a favorite of martial arts practitioners and fans alike. Highlighting the various techniques of "Budo" (Karate, Judo, Aikido, etc.), this action packed film is a visual feast exploring the spiritual and historical traditions, training and techniques of this specialized form of martial arts.

Goda, a successful director of commercials, has his life taken apart by the suicide of his girlfriend, who has shot herself with a gun that she was holding for a friend. Becoming obsessed by the need to possess a Smith and Wesson Chief's Special, Goda begins his willfull downward descent into a whirlpool of violence. The film traces his efforts to access the Special and his dawning realization of the use he is to make of it.

Minako is diagnosed with a brain tumor and doesn't have long to live. She wants to see her twin sister once again, but there are consequences. The twins bring out the worst in each other. Together, they are psycho-pyromaniacs and can be very destructive. There's a reason why they've been separated for 13 years: to protect themselves and those around them. Now, they'll be together again.

Set in a barren, futuristic Tokyo of highways and wastelands, a rowdy group of punk bands and their fans gather to protest the construction of a nuclear power plant. Riot police and the factory owner's yakuza friends soon move in to break it up. However, the arrival of a pair of mysterious, metal-clad bikers and a revolt among the disgruntled construction crew makes for a situation that spirals dangerously out of control...

For 350 years, seven generations of the Iikura family have honored Bushido, the stern code of the samurai, above all other considerations. Susumu, a modern-day Japanese professional and member of the seventh generation of the family, chronicles the shocking stories of his forefathers as he decides whether to break free from the bonds of an ancient code of honor or take up the role that tradition has ordained for him.

Mix motorcycles, drugs and yakuza under pressure and the result is bosozoku, the brutal motorized street gangs that terrorize Japan armed with swords and baseball bats. Kyosuke Jinnai was the leader of the "Buyusenki," the largest group of its kind in the Kanto region, but sick of the violence, he planned to give it all up to make a family with his pregnant girlfriend. Instead, all of that was stolen from him in a moment of savage betrayal, and the man who dreamed of a life of peace has instead been transformed into an angel of death!

This tentacled tackler is the hottest story in the Japanese sports press. The president of the Cho-Nippon wrestling team proposes a fixed match as a publicity stunt, but the honorable Calamari Wrestler will hear nothing of it. Wrongfully banned from the sport, he retreats to the Monhonji Temple to train and meditate. There, a young reporter tracks him down and begins to unravel his enigma. But the squid's problems are just beginning - treacherous businessmen, unrequited love, and the wrestling-ring menace of the Octopus Wrestler and the insectoid Squilla Boxer await!

It looks like any other prison, but this specialized penitentiary was designed from the ground up to hold Japan's most ruthless female inmates. That makes it doubly deadly, because while the guards may be brutal and sadistic, the inmates outnumber them by a hundred to one! At any second the final, fatal riot may erupt, stoking the flames into an all-consuming inferno where it's every woman for herself!

A series of mad experiments by a deranged scientist have left a chaotic and desolate future world. The streets are filled with weapon-wielding zombies who are trained to form an undead army. Luckily for the few remaining human survivors, there is also a pair of dangerous, scantily clad women roaming the land who are dedicated to destroying all zombies.

An astronaut dies on a mission, but never fear - he's got a clone, which has been imprinted with his memories. Unfortunately, the clone malfunctions, and fixates on a tragic memory from the dead astronaut's youth. The clone runs away to find answers and solace from his burdensome memories, much to the dismay of his wife and the clone company.

Kidnapped in childhood. Raised as an assassin. Shiori's spent her entire life following the orders of her mysterious masters, never questioning the commands that have sentenced hundreds to die at her hands. But when a childhood memory suddenly resurfaces, the programming in her head is short circuited and her entire world is turned upside down! But to escape means she must kill again... even the ones who are close to her!

Two brothers compete for the amorous favors of a young woman during a seaside summer of gambling, boating, and drinking in this seminal "sun tribe" (taiyozoku) film from director Ko Nakahira. Adapted from the controversial novel by Shintaro Ishihara - and critically savaged for its lurid portrayal of the postwar sexual revolution among Japan's young and privileged.