Let’s get one thing out of the way: Osamu Tezuka’s Cleopatra is not your average historical epic. It’s also not your average anime. It’s… well, it’s what happens when the “God of Manga” watches Barbarella, chugs a vat of sake, and says, “Let’s do Ben-Hur, but horny and in space-time.”
Tag: Japanese
A Thousand and One Nights (1969) – Review
When most people hear the name Osamu Tezuka, they think of wide-eyed robots (Astro Boy), jungle adventures (Kimba the White Lion), or whimsical medical dramas (Black Jack). But in 1969, Tezuka — the so-called “God of Manga” — shocked audiences with something very different: a psychedelic, erotic, and adult-oriented animated film called A Thousand and…
Submersion of Japan (1973) – Review
The disaster boom struck Hollywood hard in the 1970s, with the Airport franchise kicking off, as well as Irwin Allen’s The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno cementing him as the “Master of Disaster,” but Hollywood wasn’t the only producer of such cinematic spectacle. In 1973, Japan threw their hat in the ring with Submersion…
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…
Mothra (1961) – Review
If Godzilla is “The King of Monsters” than Mothra is clearly the queen and with the increasing popularity of kaiju it’s fascinating that the next biggest star to Godzilla would be a creature that didn’t rampage out of malice, like its peers Godzilla and Rodan, but instead was on a rescue mission, albeit a rather…