Customer Reviews

TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Never mind the haters, this book has the goods. An excellent resource and a joy to read, this is the place to start your exploration of some of the most amazing Japanese films you're likely to see in this lifetime. Hip, funny and oh so knowledgable, Macias has written a film companion that you'll be coming back to again and again.

I've read everything from Japanese Cinema:The Essential handbook to Eros in Hell and Tokyo Scope beats them all. Patrick Macias's writing is crisp and his knowledge will have even the most hard-core fan in awe. With chapters on filmmakers and idols like Kinji Fukasaku, Takashi Miike, and Sonny Chiba this book will have you locked in for hours upon hours. It also is packed with chapters on the yakuza, giant monsters, horror, and pink films with each loaded to the kilt with interviews and reviews. All of the above and more make this a must have for everyone from people with just a passing interest in Japanese film to the most jaded of asian film junkies.

I wouldn't call myself an expert on Japanese movies, but I do get to every movie festival I can that has Asian features (a great one--the Philapdelphia film festival and their Action Asia selections). I regularly scan the gray market and grab at whatever tickles my fancy even remotely. But this book still provided me with an education. I quibble sometimes with the author's taste, but his breadth of knowledge is undebatable. I now keep this book on my computer desk as I scan for more titles to fuel my little obsession.

Tokyoscope:The Japanese Cult film Companion is a great book if you want to know about the 5 [now 4] banned films and disaster films. I was shocked about the Pink and Violent section [Recommned for 18 and up]. I just wish they include the Toho disaster flick Conflagration which was an inspiration to a story I wrote at school. In Conclusion this book was great.

P.S. Pat Macias PLEASE WRITE A BOOK ON JAPANESE DISASTER FILMS SOON!!!!!!!!!

Feeling like a collection of incredible Japan-centered zines, TokyoScope hosts reviews, interviews, and assorted oddities together for one whiz-bang collection of Japanese film. Omitting overexposed works of anime and chambara, Macias instead focuses on under-appreciated genres like yakuza-eiga and roman porno and stars such as Sonny Chiba and Bunta Sugawara. Additionally, TokyoScope contains interviews with directors Kinji Fukasaku and Takashi Miike.

Boasting scads of reviews for dozens of films I've never had the pleasure of seeing, TokyoScope is a terrific step in the right direction for folks who want to associate themselves with the multifaceted cinema from the Land of the Rising Sun. (ISBN: 1569316813)

In the first pages author Patrick Macias introduces us to the
Shinjuku Showakan, an oldfashioned nostalgic Tokyo grindhouse
playing triple bills of 60ies and 70ies yakuza and sleaze movies.
( Illustrator Yukihiko "Happy" Ujihashi, who provides great manga for TOKYOSCOPE, draws poster art for this cinema.) Now that's a place for a movie buff like me! And this introduction sets the tone for all the great stuff to come.
You are going to meet all the usual suspects - chapter one is about the inevitable Gojira ( or Godzilla how he is called abroad ) and his monster colleagues, the next about the great Sonny Chiba. This chapter is introduced with a still from "Champion of Death" (1978) displaying the Karate maestro crushing a Coca Cola bottle with his bare hand, not only proof of amazing martial arts skill but also a fine symbol: Japanese movies rule! Yeah!
On we go with horror movies, banned films, disaster movies, the
great Kinji Fukasaku and his controversial masterpiece "Battle
Royale", pink movies ( = sex films ) and yakuza films. Have you ever heard about Noboru Ando? He was a real life gangster, imprisoned for his involvement in the near fatal shooting of a
dubious businessman and became an actor after his release. During his career he played mostly himself, because the majority of his films were based on his own exploits (!)
The last chapter is devoted to my favorite director Takashi Miike, the genius who helmed "Fudoh", "Dead or Alive" and "Audition", which rank among my most favorite movies.
TOKYOSCOPE is exceptionally well written, thoroughly researched and nicely illustrated with filmrelated funny manga artwork
provided for the most part by the aforementioned Yukihiko "Happy"
Ujihashi. There are profiles about actors and directors, reviews and interviews. There are also some lengthy articles from the Japanese movie magazine "Eiga Hi-Ho".
You see, it is doubtless a great book and a must-have, but I do

have some complaints about it. Personally I was quite disappointed about the very brief sexploitation chapter entitled
"Pink and Violent". Admittedly I am biased because I love such
movies, but it is too brief anyway given the enormous amount of
Japanese sex films.
The book would also benefit from some colour pictures. VHS- and DVDcovers as well as cinema poster artwork from reviewed movies are provided, but rather small pictures and only in black-and-white.
Unfortunately information on availability of movies is quite sparse and not always correct. Two examples: It is not true that "Battle Royale" is only available in Japan, because there is an English subtitled Hongkong VideoCD, DVD and VHS as well as a British VHS & DVD. "Flower and Snake" (along with dozens of other Nikkatsu titles) can be obtained from a Florida based company.
But these are only minor flaws.
As a devoted fan of Japanese cinema this book was compulsory
reading for me. It is clearly a must buy for everybody who is interested in Asian movies.

I was looking for more insight into some films that I enjoyed. Instead the author spent more time talking abotu the film process than anything.

I did like the presentation though