Well Go has just announced plans to bring five Sushi Typhoon movies to our shores, snatching up DVD, Blu-ray, Digital, VOD and Television rights for North America. The Japanese company is known for its insane, over-the-top action/horror flicks, full of cheesy special effects and absolutely ridiculous set pieces and characters. The five that will be released are Mutant Girls Squad (my review), Karate-Robo Zaborgar (my review), Helldriver, Yakuza Weapon, and Deadball.
Here’s what you can expect-
Karate-Robo Zaborgar, written and directed by Noboru Iguchi, stars Itsuji Itao, Yasuhisa Furuhara and Akira Emoto. Karate-Robo Zaborgar is a hilariously over-the-top tribute to the transforming robots of 1970’s Japanese television, and an exciting action/comedy that will stir the heart of anyone who longs for justice dispensed at the short end of a swift robot karate kick! The film had its World Premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Yakuza Weapon, co-directed by Tak Sakaguchi and Yudai Yamaguchi, is a wild combination of hard-boiled gangster action, manga-style comedy and splatterific special effects. The film stars Tak Sakaguchi, Shingo Tsurumi, Mei Kurokawa, Akaji Maro and Jun Murakami.
Helldriver, written, character designed, edited and directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura, is an epic, apocalyptic road movie featuring non-stop action and over-the-top splatter. Starring Yumiko Hara, Eihi Shiina, Kazuki Namioka, Yurei Yanagi, Minoru Torihada and Guadalcanal Taka, Helldriver is Nishimura’s bid to create the ultimate zombie film. It had its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin and is scheduled to be released on DVD and Blu-ray in early November 2011.
Mutant Girls Squad was directed by Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura and Tak Sakaguchi, who have joined forces to bring three times the heart-pounding action, three times the jaw-dropping comedy and three times the head-exploding splatter of your average action/horror/comedy! It’s a three-times-larger Mutant Action Extravaganza starring Yumi Sugimoto, Yuko Takayama, Suzuka Morita, and Naoto Takenaka.
The hilariously offensive, politically incorrect sports splatter comedy, Deadball is director Yudai Yamaguchi’s follow-up to his earlier zombie baseball classic Battlefield Baseball, and once again features action star Tak Sakaguchi, along with Mari Hoshino, Mickey Curtis, Koichi Yamadera and Ryosei Tayama. A riotous, over-the-top epic of excess, Deadball is the movie for the psycho sports fan in all of us. The film received its World Premiere on July 15, 2011 at Fantasia International Film Festival.
Don’t you love Japan? Obviously these are all films that belong in your library, and I can’t wait to get my hands on Helldriver, personally. Expect to start seeing them rolling out this fall!