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"Hausu" (aka "House"), from 1977, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. I've seen bits of this crazy-looking Japanese film, but would love to get it with English subtitles.

kiyoshi kurosawa : eyes of the spider, serpents path, license to live, barren illusion, sweet home. takashi miike : blues harp, guys from paradise, new graveyard of honour, mpd psycho, shangri-la... and "shoguns joy of torture" trilogy... more extreme and obscure stuff, perhaps pinku movies...

Anything not available here yet by Kinji Fukasaku. Plus Seijun Suzuki's later films Yumeji/Zigeunerweisen/Kageroza or really any of his films not picked up by HVe or Criterion.

DOING TIME, JIGOKU, and tons of Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Survive Style 5 when that becomes available. That shit looked crazy.

Was just out for lunch with a friend who's a major japan-o-phile ... he said he was gonna post to this but he's moving to Vancouver tomorrow, so I kind of doubt it ... anyway, Howitt threw in yet another vote for Kiyoshi Kurosawa and also Shunji Iwai.

I was also thinking Ping Pong and definitely GO - anything with Yosuke Kubozuka is worth looking at, really - need to have a North American release. Those are both amazing films that would play really well here ... and I'd really like to see Fukasaku's 70's sci fi flicks - Message From Space and The Green Slime. They're supposed to be horrible, but exactly the right kind of horrible ... and Message From Space apparently cribs large from Star Wars ...

And AMEN to Survive Style 5. Somebody's got to put that out ...

Just heard from some people at Artsmagic and their acquisitions guy is keeping an eye on this thread ... soooo, if you know people who are japanese film fans steer them this way. Artsmagic really wants to know what people are looking for, so if enough of us are vocal enough we've got a good shot at seeing some of these come to market ... spread the word on any other asian / cult film forums you may be part of ...

dear artsmagic : check out some of the sites based in america selling tapes of incredibly rare japanese horror :

http://www.revengeismydestiny.com/AsianInvasion.html

and

http://www.witchinghourvideo.com/japanese.htm

and

http://vsom.com/

and so on... search em out! spend some cash and see what you recon. anything odd from japan probably has a great cult following and would cause a storm. i would like to see films like "death powder"... if you see a title and description you like just google for more info : or get back to me and i will research for you...

oh, and artsmagic : check out the book "eros in hell". lots of obscure japanese horror discussed in there...

I second most of the recommendations made here already. In addition I would love to see Swallowtail Butterfly and Hardboiled (Yakuza film starring Riki Takeuchi).

There's a great bunch of cult yakuza films from the 70's. Anything with Bunta Sagawara or Noboru Ando is a good bet, such as Yakuza Punishment History - Lynch, The Violent Street, Escaped Murderer from Hiroshima Prison, Yokohama Underworld - Machine Gun Dragon, Noboru Ando's Chronicle of Fugitive Days and Sex, and Yakuza Cruel Secrets - Arm Dismemberment.

There are far too many to list, but a browse through the annual top ten lists at www.midnighteye.com will show a lot of great films, many of which have yet to get local releases, and with good reviews will undoubtedly already have something of a following.

Hope that helps. I would certainly be an excited consumer if any of these films were released.

I second the "Ping Pong" and "Go" recommendations... outstanding movies whose rewards grow with repeated viewings.

Oh sweet lord ... I can't believe I forgot about this one ... Gusher No Binds Me. Please. Pretty please. I just found a subtitled trailer for this and Tsukamoto's Vital (which I'm sure is obvious enough that you're looking at it already ... ) that I'm going to throw up on the front page ...

Please please pretty please...ANYTHING by Nobuhiko Obayashi. I have a bootleg of Hausu and have seen Sada, and they are both explosions of messy, wild genius. I would love to see anything more by him.

Hey ... heard from the Artsmagic buyer today and they are looking into a few titles off of these lists and have been checking up on the thread from time to time ... They're pretty exceptionally responsive to public input so keep on throwing titles out there ...

artsmagic told me theyre looking into a couple of kiyoshi kurosawa movies : no title given though. hope its "eyes of the spider" and "serpents path" as theyre the only ones i deparately want that are not released subbed anywhere...

They told me they're looking at Taste of Tea and Shangri La as well ...