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Festival coverage

Wild Japan

2006

Yakuza Graveyard
Yakuza Graveyard

This touring festival of cult Japanese films from the Sixties and Seventies kicks off at the National Film Theatre in London on November 3, before making its way across the UK and Ireland. Comprising 12 ultra-scarce film prints, this is a rare opportunity to see the films on the big screen.

View complete schedule

Latest reviews

  • Funeral Parade Of Roses
    Review preview for Funeral Parade Of Roses

    A predictable twist on the old Greek legend.

    Merlin Harries · 3 out of 5
    Sixties Japanese avante garde take on the Oedipus legend.
  • Sword Of Doom
    Review preview for Sword Of Doom

    Flawed, but stylish, Sword Of Doom is worth seeing if only for it's obvious contribution to recent cinema.

    Emma Slawinski · 3 out of 5
    Dark tale of a lone, deadly samurai.
  • Zatoichi The Fugitive
    Review preview for Zatoichi The Fugitive

    Shintaro Katsu is perfectly cast, as Zatoichi, being in every sense, except one, ordinary.

    Angus Wolfe Murray · 3.5 out of 5
    A blind swordsman returns to the village of his victim to make things right.
  • Pale Flower
    Review preview for Pale Flower

    Rarely has the vacuum of values left by dramatic social upheaval been captured with such subtlety.

    Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
    An ex con is seduced by the allure of a thrill-seeking female gambler, while returning to his old gang to settle a score.
  • School Of The Holy Beast
    Review preview for School Of The Holy Beast

    One minute School of the Holy Beast is titillating viewers with light porn, the next it is staging theological debates about the nature of faith and the problem of evil.

    Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
    A celebration of sadomasochism and other painful pleasures in a naughty nunnery.
  • Yakuza Graveyard
    Review preview for Yakuza Graveyard

    Fukasaku can be relied upon to deliver the goods.

    Keith Hennessey Brown · 3.5 out of 5
    An undercover cop drifts into a gangster lifestyle.
  • Jigoku
    Review preview for Jigoku

    Its play with lighting effects, colour gels and jarring camera angles makes everything - both on earth and below - seem an off-kilter nightmare.

    Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
    A young student's life spirals into catastrophe after he meets a mysterious young man.
  • Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
    Review preview for Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

    Aesthetically striking and deliriously weird.

    Anton Bitel · 4.5 out of 5
    A wrongly convicted prisoner goes on the run in classic arthouse sequel.
  • Branded To Kill
    Japanese surrealist hitman tale from the 1967.