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Blissful Sinner wrote:I'm confused. Is the Yakuza Papers a series or are they individual films within the same genre?

Poncho Punch wrote:

Blissful Sinner wrote:I'm confused. Is the Yakuza Papers a series or are they individual films within the same genre?

It's a series in that they all take place in the same fictional world, and I believe there is a protagonist across all five (but I'm not certain).

analoguezombie wrote: On another Fukasaku note:
The cover art for SYmpathy for the Underdog has just been posted at HVe. I'm starting to like their art much more than Criterion's. Compare the recent Criterion Suzuki film covers, with the new Fukasaku covers. Much better at conveying the film, and nicer to behold.

By DAVE KEHR

'Mikey and Nicky'

Elaine May's "Mikey and Nicky" (1976) has had a troubled existence. But the film's fine new DVD incarnation from Home Vision Entertainment provides a happy ending, firmly setting this neglected wonder among the finest American movies of the 1970's, and perhaps of all time.

Ostensibly a buddy comedy about the small-time Philadelphia hoods Mikey (Peter Falk) and Nicky (John Cassavetes) who spend a frenzied night together during which Mikey must finger his boyhood friend for a mob hit man (Ned Beatty), the film was the product of a difficult production. Ms. May, coming off the commercial and critical success of "The Heartbreak Kid," took her sweet time in shooting "Mikey and Nicky," insisting on shooting entirely after dark and leaving her crew standing idle for hours at a time as she discussed the characters and situations with her two extraordinary collaborators, improvising pages of new dialogue nightly.

In the end, says the producer Michael Hausman in an interview on the new disc, Ms. May exposed more than one million feet of film, a record many believe stands to this day. Holed up in a hotel suite at the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, Ms. May carved the film down to a perfectly paced 105 minutes over a period of many months. When the film opened in New York in December 1976, it sank quickly out of sight and has remained for the last 28 years a legend among those lucky enough to see it at its periodic revivals.

Seen today, "Mikey and Nicky" offers an almost Shakespearean appreciation of human complexity, paradoxically centered on two characters who are anything but self-aware. During the long night, as Mikey, supposedly trying to help his old friend in a moment of mortal consequence, actually steers him toward an assassin's bullet, the two men instinctively explore the history of their friendship, from childhood alliance to adult betrayal.

Mikey's monstrous act is revealed to have so many complex roots, from perceived adolescent slights to a cold economic decision to back his mob bosses (played by the great acting coaches Sanford Meisner and William Hickey) over his unreliable, irresponsible friend, that his betrayal comes to seem inevitable and even necessary - a working definition of modern tragedy.

In a movie filled with unforgettable performances, it is worth underlining the contribution of Carol Grace, who in two brief scenes creates an indelible portrait of Nellie, Nicky's sweet, sad mistress. Truman Capote's inspiration for Holly Golightly of "Breakfast at Tiffany's," and later the wife of William Saroyan and Walter Matthau, Grace, who died last year, modestly displays a magical presence that more than justifies the tales that have grown up around her life.

The Home Vision disc features a scrupulously cleaned-up and color-corrected print (along with an informative documentary on how the buffing up was done) as well as an essay by one of the film's longtime critical champions, Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Chicago Reader

Tribe wrote:I'm not familiar with any these March 2005 releases from HVE. Can anyone elaborate on the films?

Annie Mall wrote:Has anyone bought this one here:

http://www.homevision.com/users/folder. ... &id=KRI030

and care to comment? I'm a big Ullmann fan but I've still to watch one of her self-directed movies. Since Faithless is out on DVD but in poor conditions, is this a good start?

Ashirg wrote:Do they plan to release Zatoichi films in boxsets?

kekid wrote:The box set is not from Home Vision but Koch. Can anyone comment on the quality of these vis-a-vis Home Vision?

2005.01.18 - Starring Shintaro Katsu (star of the popular Zatoichi series), Hanzo the Razor Boxed Set (Streets: 4/19/05) includes three feature-length ‘70s exploitation films on DVD in a special boxed set from Home Vision Entertainment.

From the creator of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Hanzo the Razor Boxed Set, which includes Sword of Justice, The Snare, and Who's Got the Gold? (SRP: $59.95) is dirtier than Harry and shaftier than Shaft! It's Hanzo "The Razor" Itami, “The Longest Arm of the Law,” the incorruptible and uncompromising samurai cop that packs a weapon more devastating than any sword (just ask any of the female suspects he "interrogates").

Based on Kazuo Koike's classic mangas, and starring the screen's most outrageous samurai anti-hero, Hanzo the Razor Boxed Set special features include a new digital transfer, enhanced for 16:9 televisions, original theatrical trailers, and more.