Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

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Guro Taku
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by Guro Taku »

Guro Taku wrote:I'm all sorts of bummed that it didn't get a Takashi Ishii drawn cover artwork like SWEET WHIP last year.
Turns out that if you want Takashi Ishii cover artwork you have to spring for the GONIN BLU-RAY TRIPLE PACK, which packs the previously released GONIN and GONIN 2 BDs with the standard (theatrical cut only) BD of GONIN SAGA in a nifty cardboard box with Ishii's artwork:

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The painting continues on the side and all over the back of the box.

To be fair it should be noted that the color booklet that comes with the above mentioned $100 special edition of GONIN SAGA also includes a single page of (different) Ishii artwork.
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HungFist
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by HungFist »

I had such great time with (the non-Ishii directed) Flower and Snake: Zero, which I saw a few days ago, that I decided to give another S&M movie a try, Ishii's Sweet Whip.

Ugh. This is a strong candidate for the worst film I've seen all year. Ishii's been down for years, yes, but with this film he's gone all Dario Argento.

The beginning is surprisingly decent. We have a dual story simultaneously following a character as an abducted high school girl and traumatized adult. For a moment I was interested in seeing where it goes.

The answer: absolutely nowhere. We get nearly two hours of very nasty raping, beating and humiliation, mostly shot in two locations, and very little anything else. Do not expect to see Ishii's once so elegant aesthetics here, as those have been traded for porn film close ups of genitals - censored of course. Which brings us to the next problem: the film is an unbelievable mosaic mess with blurring applied to nearly every scene.

Add classical music, a narrator, and a climax you can see coming miles away, and you've got a film that ultimately isn't as offensive as it is incredibly dull, nearly unwatchable.

By far the worst film Ishii has ever done. He was once a master of neo noir; now just a dirty old man with a camera.
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by HungFist »

Did anyone get the A Night in Nude (1993) BD? Is it a notable improvement over the R2J DVD?

The BD is OOP now.
Guro Taku
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by Guro Taku »

I have it and you can find some full-resolution screenshots below (click for full size) but I no longer have the DVD, so I can't do a comparison.

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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by HungFist »

Great! Thank you!

Top: Geneon DVD
Bottom: Kadokawa BD
(right click for full size)

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Guro Taku
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by Guro Taku »

Takashi Ishii has died on May 22nd. It was only reported an hour ago. It was cancer. He was 75.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.asahi. ... VL035.html
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by HungFist »

Fucking hell! This came as a total shock! Just next week I'm planning to watch Red Vertigo in 35mm at Laputa ("50 Directors' Debut Film" screening series).
- http://www.laputa-jp.com/laputa/program/debut_works/
Lou Bloom
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by Lou Bloom »

I'm on a Takashi Ishii binge right now. Got Gonin on DVD from many years ago and watched it again recently. It's such a good movie and I had to look into his other stuff. Managed to find all his movies online and I'm watching them one by one. I'm really impressed with A Night in Nude and Alone In the Night. It's almost criminal how these gems are ignored outside of Japan. I recently saw Rainy Dog for a second time, it's a decent noir with several releases outside of Japan, but Ishii's yakuza movies are definitely more gripping and interesting. One of the most interesting writer-directors from the 90's. Cinematography is generally stunning and he had a flair for writing dark and desperate stories with panache. A company like Arrow should look into his work. I could see something like a yakuza trilogy of the movies I mentioned kicking up some dust and gaining some popularity in Europe.
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by HungFist »

Agreed! I've been hoping for an Arrow release, too. Ishii's early / mid 90s neo noir films really deserve to be discovered outside of Japan!
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by Lou Bloom »

Absolutely. For whatever reason he faded into obscurity, but his stuff from the 90's deserve a proper release on blu ray. Gonin is an absolute banger. It's somewhat similar to Across 110th Street, but really there's nothing like it out there. One of a kind movie thanks to some incredible individual scenes like the one where the company man gets home to his family.

It was hard to find information about his movies, but luckily I stumbled upon this page and found some good reviews of his stuff. There are zero reviews of Alone in the Night on imdb which is strange. It should have a cult following. I only found one decent article in a magazine. I'll post my thoughts on Ishii's flicks in the Asian movies thread. Hopefully more people will catch on. I'm watching Orchids Under the Moon tonight. Hopefully it's a lot better than Wild Orchid.
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by 10vodkaredbull »

Lou Bloom wrote: 08 Apr 2023, 20:20 There are zero reviews of Alone in the Night on imdb which is strange. It should have a cult following.
It does in my house. That flamenco track + the ending, high art. Red Vertigo is good too, got a Sato vibe.
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by Lou Bloom »

10vodkaredbull wrote: 30 Apr 2023, 20:33 It does in my house. That flamenco track + the ending, high art. Red Vertigo is good too, got a Sato vibe.
Awesome. The flamenco track is either the same or similar to the one in Gonin. I found it on youtube for anyone who's interested. From around 33:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n27haP2tyS8
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by HungFist »

Good news! Happinet will be releasing four Takashi Ishii films on BD.

May: Original Sin (死んでもいい) (1992) BD debut
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with English subs even!
- https://happinet-p.com/jp3/releases/HPXR-2516

June: A Night in Nude (ヌードの夜) 1993) BD
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Unclear is this is a new master or not, but I think it is. It says supervised by the DoP.
- https://happinet-p.com/jp3/releases/HPXR-2517

July: Alone in the Night (夜がまた来る) (1994) BD debut
- Link and artwork not available yet

August: Angel Guts: Red Flash (天使のはらわた 赤い閃光) (1994) BD and Disc debut
This was never even released on DVD.
- Link and artwork not available yet
Guro Taku
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Re: Takashi Ishii thread (A Night in Nude: Salvation etc.)

Post by Guro Taku »

Great news indeed, especially regarding the BD debuts. Original Sin also came with English subtitles on the Japanese DVD release, for some reason. I went into that film with totally wrong expectations and should probably reevaluate it eventually. Now let's just hope Happinet doesn't drop the ball on the transfers, like they've occasionally done in the past. With so many of Ishii's films now having HD transfers, I'm also rooting for some boutique label getting on bringing them to a wider, international audience.
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