Blog - A Man's Graveyard Production
A Man's Graveyard Production
On Wednesday night we went to a small theater in Shimokitazawa to see the two latest films of indies director Sugisaku J Tarō (aka LL Cool J Tarō)'s production unit, 男の墓場 (A Man's Graveyard Production). The two yakuza-themed films shown were 「怪奇！幽霊スナック殴り込み！」 (Horror! Ghosts raid at the snack!) and 「任侠秘録人間狩り」 (chivalry top secret man hunt(?)).
怪奇！幽霊スナック殴り込み！
Action takes place in a snack in Asakusa, where many customers can't help but fall in love with the young and beautiful mama, Yuki. No luck though, as they can only get love back from Mari who ruthlessly kills each of those to benefit from their insurance. The snack is soon haunted by the ghosts of Mari's preys, and they will finally have their chance to get some attention from Yuki by defending her against yakuza.
My favorite part of this film is probably when some zombie-ish guy (he can be seen at the top of the ticket pictured) travels almost naked through the night to go in turn take revenge on the ghosts. A fun, action-packed yakuza vs ghosts film.
任侠秘録人間狩り
Young desperate yakuza kins carry business in promising beautiful women to their client. The system is so that the client is given three days with a girl, and if he can win her heart during that time, he doesn't have to pay. Or so the client is told, as no girl is involved in the plan to extort money from the perverts.
Tables seem to turn when a strange client who seems to know too much shows up. Could he be yakuza himself, or maybe a cop?
One characteristic of the two low-budget films is that they featured a ton of actors, including many popular personalities from the scene. The ones that caught my attention were Yokoyama Ken (Crazy Ken Band), Paradise Yamamoto, Gyokō, Anzai Hajime (Tamori club), Yamada Gorō, and Ebisu Yoshikazu.
Yokoyama Ken was especially funny as he played himself in the snack flick. When a guy showed up to his office to claim money asking for some unknown name, he went "What!? I'm Yokoyama Ken! Crazy Ken Band! ii---ne!", and then when confronted being told that he's been going to that snack, he said that he doesn't go to snacks because he only drinks water and juice (true fact that he doesn't drink alcohol).
Paradise Yamamoto was an angry neighbor in the second film, he only showed up for a few seconds.
After the screening was a talk show featuring the director and several actors, including the zombie-ish guy in his film outfit. Ebisu-san was hilarious complaining that he wasn't paid and didn't even get free goods or tickets. Sugisaku-san then said that even the guy who designed the badges being sold had to buy his own.
The program is screened everyday at 8pm until February 3, at Cinema Artone in Shimokitazawa.
I can't recommend enough to get there early, we were a few minutes late for the door opening (19:45) and we ended up sitting on uncomfortable stools along the wall, instead of the cozy theater seats, and that for over 3 hours. The tilted floor didn't help to comfort either. So if you go, go early!
Posted on January 27, 2006 at 12:31 | Tweet
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I interned at Kodansha when Yamada Goro was the editor-in-chief of Hot Dog Press. I just knew him by his real name, and then I was watching some TV show one night and he was on there. I went to work the next day and was like, you're Yamada Goro!!
And that's my brush with fame.
Posted by marxy on January 28, 2006 at 15:47
Haha! Now that's a funny anecdote!
Posted by Patrick on January 28, 2006 at 22:03
I really like that theatre in Shimokita. I used to live in Ichibangai about 30 seconds walk from it and went there a few times. Have you ever been to the "other" movie theatre in Shimokitazawa? Tollywood I think it was called.
Did you know that in the '60s Shimokitazawa was a movie theatre mecca? What's now the fitness club and Daiei were big movie theatres.
Posted by Roy on January 31, 2006 at 04:27
Thanks for the insight!
Yes I've been to Tollywood a few times before, I like it.
Posted by Patrick on January 31, 2006 at 08:42