Prisoners of the Ghostland

[Greg]

I'm putting in the placeholder now.

[Drunk Monk]

CRAZY SAMURAI MUSASHI Lands At Well Go USA For North American Release
byLee B. Golden III
September 12, 2020

Courtesy of the Fantasia International Film Festival

Third in line since debut directing [i]Death Trance[/i] and the recent Shudder release of [i]Re:Born[/i], dynamic action duo Tak Sakaguchi and Yuji Shimomura will be bringing the crazy to North America with their latest feat, [b]Crazy Samurai Musashi[/b].
Well Go USA has acquired the rights to the ambitious period sword thriller, marking Sakaguchi’s first time back to the label since 2011 with the U.S. release of several Japanese genre titles, namely [i]Mutant Girls Squad[/i], [i]Helldriver[/i], [i]Yakuza Weapon[/i] and [i]Deadball[/i].
In [b]Crazy Samurai Musashi[/b], Sakaguchi stars as the 17th century samurai of legend, Miyamoto Musashi, who battles more than four hundred warriors in a deadly challenge against the Yoshioka Ryu. Actors Kento Yamazaki, Yosuke Saito, Ben Hiura and Arata Yamanaka also star in the film which is now being sold internationally for this year’s virtual market at the Toronto International Film Festival by sales agent, Princ Films.
[b]Crazy Samurai Musashi[/b] has taken quite a while to arise given public announcements made more than a decade ago, with Sakaguchi and auteur Sion Sono then planning on birthing a groundbreaking new action film at the time. (Several years later, Sakaguchi would go on to co-star in Sono’s 2014 action comedy, [i]Why Don’t You Play In Hell?[/i]. The two recently completed production with a cast that also lists Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella, Ed Skrein and Imogen Poots for the new thriller, [b][i]Prisoners Of The Ghostland[/i][/b][i]).[/i]
Atsuki Tomori penned [b]Crazy Samurai Musashi[/b] based on Sono’s concept, prior to the 2013 shoot of the film’s major single-take action sequence, which comprises 85% of the film. The few years that followed are a bit of an anomaly with Sakaguchi reportedly announcing retirement that year, which was a shock to many fans of the actor who’ve followed his career for close to twenty years (myself included), which in turn, made the burgeoning teaser announcements back in 2015 for [i]Re:Born[/i] all the more bewildering, but satiating. And, even moreso, with Sakaguchi appearing in Shinsuke Sato’s [i]Kingdom[/i], Takahiro Ishihara’s [i]Red Blade[/i], and Yuki Kobayashi’s [i][b]Rise Of The Machine Girls[/b][/i].
After five years in limbo, [b]Crazy Samurai Musashi[/b] finally began showing signs of life when Shimomura teased a first look via Twitter in 2018, prior to crowdfunding efforts to help complete the project by August that year. Shinichi Fujita produced the film, with Takayuki Ota, who partnered with Sakaguchi and Shimomura for the U.S. promotion of [i]Re:Born[/i], emerging as executive producer.
“It took us seven years to complete the film as after the 77-minute one-shot scene was initially filmed, Tak had broken fingers, ribs, and teeth, and couldn’t even grip the sword anymore,” Ota said. ”After buying the rights, we worked on the opening and ending”, reports Screendaily‘s Ben Dalton.
Shimomura is currently paired once again as action director with actor Yamazaki for the current production of [i]Kingdom[/i] helmer Sato’s eight-part Netflix series, [b][i]Alice In Borderland[/i][/b], streaming globally later this year.

FYI http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=6109

[thatguy]

The trailer is in the Movie Trailers thread

http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...4#pid49354

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Cult Japanese Director Sion Sono Accused of Multiple Sexual Assaults
The allegations against Sono, who directed Nicolas Cage in last year's 'Prisoners of the Ghostland,' follow similar accusations against a Japanese director and an actor last month.
BY GAVIN BLAIR

APRIL 4, 2022 10:58PM

Sion Sono MONICA SCHIPPER/GETTY IMAGES FOR TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

Japanese director Sion Sono has been accused by two women of sexual assault and offering parts in his films in return for sex.

A long-time international festival favorite who directed Nicolas Cage and Nick Cassavetes in last year’s Prisoners of the Ghostland, Sono, 60, has yet to respond to the allegations made in the Shukan Josei weekly magazine.

An executive at a Japanese film distributor told the magazine: “Even now, there is a director who has no qualms about saying ‘If you screw me, I’ll give you work’. His films are acclaimed and many actresses want to appear in them. He uses that to assault women as if it’s nothing. That director is Sion Sono.”

These accusations follow those made last month against director Hideo Sakaki and his friend Houka Kino****a by multiple women. Japan may be on the verge of a delayed #MeToo movement.

An unnamed actress says that Sono told her that lots of women had been having sex with him for many years because they wanted to work in his films, and that they did well in the industry thanks to him, according to Shukan Josei.

She went on to recount how after Sono offered her a part in one of his films, he attempted to force her to have sex with him. When she refused, the director called another woman who had previously worked with him and they proceeded to engage in sexual acts in front of her. While she was in shock, an assistant director who was present led her outside. Assuming he was trying to help her, she followed him outside, but the assistant director then attempted to take her to a love hotel.

Another actress reported that after Sono had coerced her into sex with offers of work, he told her, “I want to screw you while you’re talking to your boyfriend on the phone.” When she told him she didn’t have a boyfriend, he allegedly said, “Well get one, I like that kind of thing.”

Sono’s 2001 Suicide Club attracted some attention on the international festival circuit, but it was Love Exposure (2008) which proved to be his breakthrough film, winning the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin.

The director has since won a cult following for his idiosyncractic style, vivid depictions of violence and eroticism, and provocative imagery.

Sono is married to Megumi Kagurazaka, a former pin-up model who has appeared in a number of his films. His first child was born in 2019, two days before he was hospitalized by a heart attack, delaying the production of Prisoners of the Ghostland.

Crap

[Greg]

Crap.

[Drunk Monk]

I finally watched this. WTH? Oh right, Sono + Cage. 

This film is a stretch for both of them. It’s either post apocalypse or alternate reality. It doesn’t even bother with that detail (although I lean towards the former). It’s a hybrid world of samurai & cowboys, with a toxic nuclear dump through in for good measure. There are swords and cell phones, parts in Japanese, English and nonsense languages. A lot of idiosyncratic elements. Cage is a busted bank robber tasked with retrieving a lost gal (Sofia Boutella) from the badlands - the catch is he’s strapped into a leather suit with bombs on his arms, throat and testicles, set to explode if he doesn’t make it in time.

There’s lots of gratuitous sanguineousness. There’s also lots of surreal imagery, tossed in for art’s sake. Or Sono’s. Cage is there for it, along with the ride jamming up the absurdity like only he can. Some of the scenes are eerily beautiful and visionary, others crass and violent. 

Ultimately I was engaged, not so much for the story or acting, but for the sporadic moments of atmosphere. The fight choreo wasn’t outstanding but it wasn’t bad either. Cage is past his action prime and should refrain from high kicks because they’re out of his range now. He dons a helmet later which covers his stuntman double. Also in the cast as the main villain’s right hand thug is Tak Sakaguchi, who Ive praised previously for Crazy Samurai Musashi and 1%er, but his sword work is substandard for him here.

D00M recommended? Maybe for the D00M surrealists, or the Cage or Sono fans. It’s a weird uneven film but it had enough moments to sustain me. I confess to being a fan of all three (although given Somo’s aforementioned abuse, he’s falling into that Woody Allen zone - I suppose it’s worth following up on).

Seen on Hoopla