Oh, the Insanity! Oh, the Japanity!

Oh, the Insanity! Oh, the Japanity!

I am currently on vacation from work and will be for most of July. While I do have my own real-life trips planned with my family, I would like to take my readers on a virtual trip to Japan. 

Japan has always had a robust cinema, for better or worse, Kaiju eiga in the 1950s gave rise to the tokusatsu show in the 1960s, which is an integral part of Japanese pop culture today. Even Godzilla, the king of them all, has been popular enough to get a handful of Hollywood films in recent years. Meanwhile, the samurai drama, or jidai geki, gave rise to the ultraviolent chanbara film in the 1970s, which tradition inspired Hollywood in films like Kill Bill Vol. 1 and is active to some extent in Japan to this day. 

All sorts of exploitation films were produced in the 1970s, when theaters were struggling to match the popularity of TV shows. We had pinku films like Female Prisoner Scorpion and Delinquent Girl Boss series. Hundreds of Roman Porno movies, generally produced by Nikkatsu, came out to varying degrees of mainstream success, filling theaters for more than a decade. There were disaster movies; violent yakuza films, or jitsuroku eiga; Godzilla movies that featured blood geysers; and let's not forget Sonny Chiba's bone-crunching karate films.

Things calmed down in the 1980s; for some reason, it was classier to make Roman Porno rapesploitation films than to make action movies. But then the 1990s arrived. The Godzilla series was now back in full swing. New and insanely popular adaptations of Ultraman, including series produced in both Australia and the US, popped up after a relative lull. Softcore sex films about female ninja, or kunoichi, also became popular. J-horror evolved, bringing the ghost story out of the Edo Period and into contemporary high schools and apartment complexes.

The following decade saw a new generation of filmmakers arise, many of whom had grown up on the works of Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, both of whom had strong cult followings in Japan. They brought that Hong Kong influence into their movies, regardless of the genre. Names like Ryuhei Kitamura, Yuji Shimomura, Go Ohara, and Seiji Chiba became popular with martial arts fans, especially those who were growing increasingly dissatisfied with Hong Kong cinema. Meanwhile, some studios realized the market for Japanese cult films in the West and started making movies for the ohtaku, filled with cute girls in schoolgirl outfits, lots of fake blood, and maybe even some boobs and sex. And so it goes.

In any case, stay tuned for a month of Japanese movie reviews of numerous films from different decades, mainly in the martial arts genre. This post will be included in the "Misc. Articles" page and plan on updating it regularly with the reviews I post, or old reviews I update should I do that. So, sit back, get some sushi or tempura, and enjoy the ride!

And thanks to Forest Taylor of Slaughter Film for allowing me to use the title "Oh, the Insanity! Oh, the Japanity!" for this marathon.

New Reviews:

Yo-Yo Girl Cop (2006)
Lady Snowblood (1973)
Gothic & Lolita Psycho (2010)
High Kick Angels (2014)
Blood Heat (2002)
Gothic Lolita Battle Bear (2014)
Bloodfight (1989)
Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974)
The Princess Blade (2001)
Rogue Ninja (2009)
Alien vs. Ninja (2010)
Kunoichi: Ninja Girl (2011)
Zatoichi (2003)
G.I. Samurai (1979)
Samurai Commando Mission 1549 (2005)

Movies watched, but not reviewed:

Akira (1988)
Love Ghost (2001)
Suicide Club (2002)
Vital (2004)
Angel Beats (2010 - anime)
Forget Me Not (2015)
A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016)

Older Reviews:

The Street Fighter
Return of the Street Fighter
The Street Fighter's Last Revenge
Sister Street Fighter
Karate Warriors
Soul of Chiba
Karate Wars
Sky High
Death Trance
Ichi
Machine Girl
High Kick Girl
KG: Karate Girl