gonzoisking

April 2010

Tomu Uchida's 5-part Mushashi Miyamoto series with Kinnosuke Nakamura

May 2010

The Blind Menace (Shiranui Kengyo) - starring Shintaro Katsu

June 2010

Sleepy Eyes of Death Volume 2 - Movies 5 thru 8 - starring Raizo Ichikawa

There is More info on the front page of animeigo.com, I'm not allowed to post URL's. Sorry.


I'm very excited because I was really hoping they'd continue with the "Sleepy Eyes of Death" series. I really love those movies. And the Mushashi Miyamoto series from 1961-1965 was one I had been hoping would be released for a long time. I've never even heard of the other title but I'm psyched about it as well, apparently it inspired the Zatoichi movies.

All in all this is a great slate of releases and I am really looking forward to owning them all.

Ash Ketchum

I'm surprised (and glad) to hear AnimEigo's still in business and still licensing new product. I'm eager to see more in the Sleepy Eyes of Death series as well. Now, if only they'd license and release more classic anime.

Regarding the Tomu Uchida series, I saw his last film, SWORDS OF DEATH (1971), also about Musashi Miiyamoto, in a theater back in the day. It's also titled SAMURAI IV, as if it were an unofficial sequel to Hiroshi Inagaki's SAMURAI trilogy.

There's a ninja film from the 1970s that I remember seeing in a theater back then and I think the name was HAUNTED SAMURAI, aka THE HUNTED. But there's no IMDB page for it and I can't find any other reference to it. It was beautifully photographed and I'd love to see it again.

flixtime

The New York Times - Movie Review
The Hunted Samurai (1971)
November 12, 1971
Screen: Violent 'Haunted Samurai'
By HOWARD THOMPSON
Published: November 12, 1971

Zap! Bam! Powie! That's what you'll find in "The Haunted Samurai," the new sword-swinger from Japan at the Bijou Theater.

Severed hands and arms fly upward. A crunching sound of steel into human flesh dominates the sound track. There's one huge close-up of a human eyeball skewered by a knife. Even a poor, squealing mouse gets it, at random.

All this is cited simply to warn the unwary about the traditional chopped-hamburger aspect of many medieval adventures of Old Japan, as served up by the new one. You'd better have a strong stomach if you go to see this one.

A fair-to-medium film such as this, with no particular interest or profundity, is best suited to Japanese audiences or scholars. Equipped with skittish English titles, the story follows a guilt-ridden samurai deserter who does furtive penance as a farmer and then chops up most of the cast by way of further expiation. At least that's what we see, to hi-fi wailing, grunting and yowling on all sides.

Hideki Takahashi is definitely a swinger, Masako Izumi makes a pretty, doe-eyed heroine and Isao Natsuyagi is a murderously limber spy out to nail the deserter.

Our favorite portion came early as the stalwart hero, lured by a cooing beach girl, finds himself on a coral island surrounded by a murderous band of briefly-clad cuties. Zap! Bam! Powie! Like electric eels, they rain death at him, even chasing him underwater. One of them, with a whooshing sound James Bond might have envied, even spits a dagger straight at him a good forty feet or so away. Indeed, the whole sequence suggests good old "Thunderball."

However, Operator 007 has no cause to worry. Score yesterday's adventure at about 002.

The Cast
THE HAUNTED SAMURAI, directed by Kelichi Ozawa; screenplay by Selli Hoshikawa; photographed by Minoru Yokoyama; produced by Nikkatsu Corporation. At the Bilou Cinema, 209 West 45th Street. Running time: 83 minutes. (Not submitted at this time to the Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code and Rating Administration for rating as to audience suitability.)
The Fugitive . . . . . Hideki Takahashi
The Girl . . . . . Masako Izumi
The Warrior . . . . . Isao Natsuyagi

I'm guessing that the following is the corresponding IMDb link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188016/