Japanese Cult Cinema | The Bedlam Files

THE BURNING BUDDHA MAN

Cut-out animation, H.R. Giger-esque grotesquerie and Buddhism—an irresistible combination, I say

The second feature by Japan’s Ujicha, following the mind-roasting BURNING BUDDHA MAN

Shaw Brothers action movie madness!

Continuing with my Year in Bedlam year-end overviews, we arrive at 1984

A short collection of six Asian Cult Cinema magazine articles, spanning the years 1997 to 2007, by the late horror novelist Jack Ketchum

In the 1980s movie-verse 1987 was something of an anomaly, being an authentically good year for film

This Japanese oddity was directed by Atsushi Yamatoya, who’s best known for the screenplay of Seijun Suzuki’s bonkers yakuza pastiche BRANDED TO KILL

PRISON BREAK was directed by Kazuo Ikehiro in 1969, and is widely believed to be the best Yakuza-themed film he and actor Matsukata Hiroki ever made

Before ELEPHANT and LESSON OF THE EVIL there was PANIC IN HIGH SCHOOL, a 1978 film co-directed by Japan’s Sogo Ishii, who was just 19 years old

There’s never been a love story quite like this 47 minute Japanese drama about insanity and obsessive knot-tying