ZEGEN (The Pimp). “Of Imamura’s late films, Zegen is the most like his early masterworks: epic, energetic, sexually impudent, and grotesquely funny. A satire about colonialism, commerce, and carnality, Zegen is based on the true story of a hairdresser, Iheiji Muraoka (Ken Ogata), sent to Manchuria to spy on the Russian army. A born entrepreneur, Muraoka set up a chain of brothels throughout Asia —a kind of fornication franchise— and became ‘the big Boss of the South Seas.’ As Imamura portrays him, the ‘zegen’ is a decent but doltish and blindly patriotic businessman who views his development of a prostitution empire throughout Southeast Asia as the vanguard of Japan’s military adventurism: ‘For the sake of a great cause, I procure women.’”Imamura's rambling epic is filmed entirely outside Japan in early 1900's South East Asia. It satirizes Japanese imperialism with considerable bite, but is also very entertaining in its characters and story. Based on the autobiography of a Japanese business man named Muraoka, if follows the main character from when he jumps ship swimming ashore in Hong Kong harbour, to Manchuria where he works as a Japanese spy using prostitutes to gain information from the Russians, to Malaysia where he sets up brothels of Japanese prostitutes in a effort to further Japanese colonization in the area. Ken Ogata plays the lead, giving a nuanced performance of the man who runs brothels as part of his noble service to the Emperor. There is also a compelling love story, some very humourous satirical lines and plenty of half clothed women. What more could you want?Note: The title 'oyabun' is used for Muraoka often in the film. It means Boss, or Big Boss or Godfather... I think you get the picture. Trivia: Director Takashi Miike was given his first film credit, as assistant director on Zegen. He was a student at the Japan Institute of the Moving Image at the time. The Institute was founded by Imamura.

Mitsu (Sumiko Kurishima) works as a hostess in a Ginza bar entertaining docked sailors. She is single and supporting her son Fumio (Teruko Kojima). She shares a room with a couple (Jun Arai and Mitsuko Yoshikawa) who babysit for her.Her estranged husband Mizuhara (Tatsuo Saitô) shows up one day to see his son...

Fuki who lives with her grandfather Shoei in Taketomi Island, Okinawa, dreams of becoming a photographer. In her childhood, her mother Masami left Fuki to live in Tokyo. Although Masami has not come back, Fuki receives birthday cards from Masami every year on her birthday. On Fuki's fourteenth birthday, Masami promises to confess everything when Fuki becomes 20 years old. After her graduation from high school, Fuki moves to Tokyo to work as a camera assistant. Fuki starts off her hectic life in Tokyo, and soon, her nineteenth birthday comes. As usual, she receives a birthday card from Masami. A year later... Uploader's Comments: If you're looking for a relaxing film, this might be you're looking for. I just wish they'd toned down the dorama shenanigans that really spoils the later part, at least for me. But Yu is, as always, sweeter than sugar and could probably melt all the ice of Antarctica if she wanted to. So that lessens the blow considerably. Many thanks to Stythe for once again being the hero we need but perhaps doesn't quite deserve... closedeyes.gif

There are mysterious legends about the "Huangwei Hunters" among the people in the Northeast. They have lived in the mountains for generations and guarded the emperor's vitality movement in Xing'anling, a land of Longxing. It is said that in addition to being proficient in hunting, hunters also know the art of exorcising ghosts and gods. In a remote mountain village in the northeast, a massacre occurred quietly. At the plea of ​​the villagers, Liu Er Ye, the last generation of Huangwei hunter, decided to go out and investigate the truth. He didn’t want strange things to happen repeatedly in the process, Lao Linzi. The secrets inside have also been gradually revealed.

Wine, a young man with an angelic physique, meets by chance a boy of his age who turns out to be totally amnesiac. A special bond is formed between them when Wine realizes the nature of the unknown: the latter is a creature of the night , thirsty for blood and put to the torture by lack. Wine ends up letting him quench his thirst on him, crossing the point of no return at the same time. Around them gravitate to Tee, Wine's ex-boyfriend who is struggling to accept his homosexuality, and Boy, a long-time Wine-loving businessman who still hopes to conquer him.

Between the three men, Wine is soon the target of many desires, the most disturbing of which do not necessarily come from the vampire.

O-bok’s eldest daughter is about to get married to an educated, well-off young man, but she’s far from happy. It’s not just hot weather, hot flushes, her daughters’ materialism, her mother’s dementia, her husband’s drinking, or the impending gentrification of the food market where she sells fish – although all of that will push her to take a stand. After trying to cover it up, O-bok reveals to her daughter that she was raped by a fellow stallholder, the man organising the traders against their landlords. Increasingly furious, O-bok eschews the useless police to pursue her own justice, even if it means a physical fight.

Ten-year-old fifth-graders Akira and Koichi are best friends who always seem to get into trouble. When the new term starts, they are placed in different classes. Initially, this is just a minor obstacle to their continued friendship, but then their relationship begins to change. Akira befriends the fatherless Shun, while Koichi hangs out with the newly-transferred and mischievous Samajima. One day, when Akira declines an invitation to attend Shun's birthday party in favour of spending time with Koichi, tragedy strikes as Shun dies along with his mentally ill mother. Koichi and Samajima become engrossed with committing petty crimes.

"High and Low" focuses on Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), a powerhouse executive in the Japanese shoe industry. In the midst of an attempt to take over his company, a proposition that throws him in hock down to his own furniture, he's hit by a huge ransom demand, with a twist -- the kidnaper (Tsutomu Yamazaki) takes, not his own son, but his chauffeur's.

Adapted loosely from the novel “The King’s Ransom” by Evan Hunter.