It was in the 1970s that we saw the true beginning of the disaster movie genre because while films of catastrophic destruction had been around since almost the beginning of the medium itself it was during this period that the genre literally exploded, where Irwin Allen became known as the “Master of Disaster” but it…
The Time Tunnel (1966-1967) – Review
Irwin Allen may have been known as The Master of Disaster, giving the world such theatrical classics as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, but he was also a powerful force on television with such great shows as Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Land of the Giants, and…
Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (1974) – Review
In the 1960s, a rather bizarre genre exploded into Japanese theatres called “Pink Films,” which were movies produced by independent studios that included nudity (hence ‘pink’) and most often dealt with sexual content. Then, in the 1970s, major studios started producing a line of what came to be known as “Pinky Violence films,” and while…
Branded to Kill (1967) – Review
Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill is not your typical gangster film, nor is it your typical anything. This 1967 film is not just a crime thriller – though it does feature the yakuza and a variety of hitmen – it’s more a fever dream where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, creating a cinematic…
Tokyo Drifter (1966) – Review
Planning a career change can be tough, but it’s even tougher when your previous career was that of a yakuza hitman. With Tokyo Drifter, director Seijun Suzuki tackles this fun topic with a vibrant explosion of style and chaos, in a cinematic fever dream that eschews conventional narrative in favour of visual panache.