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The Written Face

In Japanese theater, women's roles are traditionally played by men. The man playing the woman's role, the Onnagata, does not imitate the woman, as in the West, but tries to capture her significance. He need not stick close to his model, but draws far more from his own identity - a shift of value takes place, which is nonetheless not a step beyond. THE WRITTEN FACE is an attempt to offer an insight into the Japanese Kabuki star Tamasaburo Bando, one of the last defenders of this ancient and disappearing performing tradition.

The Written Face

8.0 1995
Puru Puru Angelic Holiday

A fantasy comedy in which Fumie Hosokawa and Ai Iijima play angels. The angel Elle arrives on earth completely naked. She had escaped from heaven to fall in love with a human man on earth. Pure and unpredictable, she attempts her first adventures on Earth one after another, taking care of her pure white feathers that rot if she stays on Earth for more than seven days. However, when God notices Elle's escape, he gives Hirolin, another angel, a "space transfer device" and tries to bring her back to heaven.

Puru Puru Angelic Holiday

8.0 1993
Eyes on Me

After the death of his wife, Yukio has become more and more paranoid, believing that he is being followed and watched at all times. Yukio's late wife, before her death, was seeing and sleeping with another man. Not only did Yukio know about the affair, he would watch them have sex. Unbeknownst to his wife, his peeping on her became like a fetish. As the film progresses, Yukio goes to see a counselor to try and figure out his phobia and discover his deep repressed thoughts about his wife. In comes Akemi, Yukio's ex-girlfriend from almost a decade prior. Akemi is unhappy with her marriage and seeks the warm embrace of Yukio, which only furthers his descent into madness.

Eyes on Me

4.7 1999
Japanese Hell

From the king of the Japanese cult movie, Teruo Ishii! A controversial film in which actual cases that rocked modern-day Japan—including the sarin gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo Cult—are dramatized with gruesome detail as their perpetrators stand trial in Hell. An angst-ridden girl, Rika, is carried off to Hell by an old woman she meets in a neighborhood park. There she gets a first-hand look at the excruciating agony of those found guilty—by Lucifer himself—of committing heinous crimes during their time on Earth.

Japanese Hell

4.7 1999
Virgin Sniper

Toranaga is a good-for-nothing loser. However, he also happens to be the last remaining direct descendant of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. When a mysterious ninja threatens Toranaga’s life, the great ninja Hattori Hanzo is hired to protect him. However, it seems that there are a bunch of female ninjas aching to have sex with Toranaga and take his sperm! Now Hanzo must fight for Toranaga’s most precious possession against the leader of the ninjas, Neneko, who bears a centuries-old grudge.

Virgin Sniper

3.0 1997
The Beauty in Mourning

A beautiful widow named Ruriko Omuta visits the Akechi residence and asks Kogoro Akechi to provide her with personal security. Just then, art dealer Yamano is shot dead right before Ruriko’s eyes. Sensing that there is more to the incident than meets the eye, Akechi sets out to investigate on his own. Meanwhile, back in her hometown of Nagasaki, a man named Shigeyuki Satomi—claiming to be a distant relative of Ruriko’s late husband—appears before her. Though Ruriko finds herself drawn to Satomi, she already has a lover named Yoshio Kawamura. What’s more, Kawamura has been involved in a terrible crime alongside Ruriko. Will Akechi be able to uncover their secret? And who is Satomi really?

The Beauty in Mourning

NR 1994
Violence Jack: Hell's Wind

The survivors of Kanto's Hell Earthquake built a new city and christened it "Hope Town". However, this peaceful town becomes a nightmare when it's raided by the motorcycle gang, "Hell's Wind". They abduct the women while the remaining townsfolk are left helpless against them. Meanwhile, a boy, Saburo, meets Jun. Jun's lover was previously murdered, and the duo help one another to fight against Hell's Wind. The battles are getting more and more difficult, but with the appearance of Violence Jack, the citizens seem to gain the upper hand against Hell's Wind.

Violence Jack: Hell's Wind

5.3 1990
Wild Criminal

Tomoyo was the lover of Udo, a leading member of the Japanese mafia. When Udo disappears with a bundle of dirty money, she is a suspected accomplice. tomoyo is a woman who has always depended on men, and she often sleeps with them in order to survive. Yuki spent all her time around dangerous men, until her luck finally ran out. Beaten, raped and left in the trunk of a car, she ends up overhearing Udo as he assassinates his fellow mafia agents. Yuki is a woman who has always confronted men, and she often spills blood in order to survive. Thrown together by chance, Tomoyo and Yuki must work together, or die at the hands of the syndicate. They're always ready to love, always read to kill, and never ready to trust.

Wild Criminal

7.0 1999
Gundress

In 2100, the newly built Bayside City serves as Japan's premier international port. The Angel Arms Company is established by a former policewoman named Takako, to help wage war on terrorism with armed security suits. When the mayor is assassinated, the women of Angel Arms end up protecting the evil crime-lord Hassan, in hopes that his information will help bring down a global terror ring. Takako's back is to the wall as a band of criminals plot to kill Hassan, and the organization's leader is revealed to be the former lover of Angel Arms' own Alisa.

Gundress

4.8 1999
Mermaid's Scar

According to an ancient Japanese legend, mermaid flesh may grant immortality if eaten. However, there is a much greater chance that consumption will lead to death or transformation into a damned creature known as a Lost Soul (or Deformed Ones in the English dub). Mermaid Saga tells the tale of Yuta, an immortal who has been alive for five hundred years, who is wandering across Japan searching for a cure and meeting others whose lives have also been ruined by mermaid flesh in the process.

Mermaid's Scar

6.0 1993
One Bowl of Kakesoba

Set in Sapporo during the oil crisis of the early '70s, the film centers on the Hokkaitei soba stand run by a stoic patriarch and his perky wife. One New Year's day, a haggard-looking mother and her two adorable moppets poke their heads into the restaurant and ask for a single bowl of kakesoba. Noticing that the trio is looking a little low in the heels, she puts in an extra scoop of noodles. The youngest boy declares that the soba is delicious. The next year, the same threesome appears again asking for one bowl of kakesoba. This time the old man dumps in two helpings. He is struck by how much the youngest looks like their own son who was hit by a truck three years previous. The following year, the three return and this time the mother tells her story...

One Bowl of Kakesoba

8.0 1992
Jushin Liger: Fist of Thunder

Jushin Thunder Liger is having fits of dizziness and headaches, as he recalls childhood memories of being chased by demons. Helping him is a woman photographer named Miki Aizawa While Liger copes with his childhood fears, he gets ready for the three-way wrestling match. When the big fight begins on that night, the fight seems tough for Liger as he realizes that there's something very peculiar about Bounty Viper. He has demonic powers, similar to the demons that persecuted him as a child. In the course of the fight, Viper displays his wickedness by violently maiming Riot Orff. Liger eventually becomes violent, and when he and Viper tear into each other, both wrestlers begin to pulsate and glow with energy. In light speed, they dash out of the ring into a deserted street where they transform into demonic versions of themselves.

Jushin Liger: Fist of Thunder

6.5 1995
Kita no kuni kara '92 Sudachi Part 1

There is a man who divorced his wife. He moved to rural Hokkaido from Tokyo where he lived with his family without running water or electricity. He has his son and daughter in tow and works hard for them. The folk in the area try to help. A couple of years pass and the older son moves back to Tokyo, attends school and works part-time. The daughter commutes to the city to attend school. She wants to become a nurse. To become a registered nurse she needs to study a further three years. This takes money.

Kita no kuni kara '92 Sudachi Part 1

8.0 1992
Vampire Wars

The rural American west is the setting for this OVA, in which a bizarre and brutal attack on a NASA base in Arizona attracts the attention of a French secret service agent, Monsieur Lassar, when a dead CIA agent is found floating on the Seine in Paris. Lassar is convinced that these two events are related, and sets out to prove it. His investigation leads him to film star Lamia Vindaw and a vampire cult that may be far more vicious and dangerous than its eccentric exterior makes it seem.

Vampire Wars

4.0 1990
Ryokunohara Labyrinth - Sparkling Phantom

Hiroki and Kanata have been together since they were children. One day Hiroki is caught up in an accident while trying to save a little girl. The next thing he knows, he is looking down on his own body. Seperated from his body, Kanata, and everything else, he tries to figure out just what is going on. Why is he outside his body which is living on as if nothing has changed, how can he convince Kanata that he is there, and who is the strange girl, Fhalei, who keeps appearing for him?

Ryokunohara Labyrinth - Sparkling Phantom

3.5 1990
Tottoi

Based on the novel Tottòi by Gianni Padoan. Sardinia is abundant in beautiful beaches and mysterious caves which are known as the habitat of a peculiar kind of seal on the verge of extinction. After moving to this island, Tottoi, fascinated by nature, visits different beaches and caves everyday. When he finds a seal cub and its mother in an isolated cave, he is surprised by the humorous movements and innocence of the cub and the dignity of its mother. Tottoi soon becomes attached to the seals, but his secret is revealed to heartless adults. In the name of preservation, a plan is developed to capture them for an aquarium. Now the dignity and pride of the wild seal are in danger. No matter how painful for Tottoi to be separated from his small friends, he must fight for the welfare of the wild mammals and let them go free into the sea.

Tottoi

6.1 1992
Gay Toybox

A beautiful young man is riding a train when a suspicious man comes and snuggles up to him. A man who snuggles up to you even if you run away. Eventually, when he arrives at the station, the man gets off, but leaves a book. Thinking that the man might have forgotten it, he picks up the book. The book is "Gay Toybox". When he finally opens the book, the movie begins with an epilogue. The movie is an omnibus of three features. In other words, each book is an elaborate composition of one story of the gay world that is developed in that book.

Gay Toybox

4.3 1993
That's Cheating! The Biggest Plan in History?

The setting is the prestigious, traditional Japan University of Science. Mitsugu Kimura, a top-achieving student, is a resident of Sigma House, a student dormitory. Mitsugu is joined by a group of unique, problematic students with the lowest grades, but Sigma House is in danger of being demolished. Professor Migita, who is conspiring to build a hotel on campus, has plotted to close the dormitory unless all the students get straight A's on their next exams. In Campus Academic Wars, students wage a cheating war against a corrupt university professor, with the survival of Sigma House at stake. Will glory or ruin await them at the end of this righteous(?) cheating that brings together all their intelligence and physical strength? Namie Amuro, the top J-pop music sensation, plays one of the students. Screening alongside the film In Tomoko's Case (starring Rie Tomosaka, directed by Katsuyuki Motohiro) as a double feature theatrical release.

That's Cheating! The Biggest Plan in History?

7.0 1996
Seventeen Ninja

This remake of the classic film features the addition of Chiba Shinichi and Natsuyagi Isao as political intrigue reigns supreme. Tadanaga, the younger son of Shogun Hidetada has signed a dangerous pact with the intention of preventing his older brother Iemitsu from taking his rightful place as heir to the shogun's seat. During the early years of the Tokugawa shogunate highly skilled ninja groups carried out secret missions, and it falls upon Iga Jigoza's force of 17 ninja to infiltrate the enemy's stronghold and steal the pact from Negoro leader Saiga Magokuro.

Seventeen Ninja

9.0 1990