This Just In

This week brings multiple new releases from our seven Sister City countries. DVDs are available in stores, via Amazon or Netlfilx.
Two samurai classics from Akira Kurosawa get reissued by Criterion with improved features. The New York Times gives a great review of the improvements.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/movies/homevideo/23dvd.html?ex=1173844800&en=33a621435556605b&ei=5070

Fires on the Plain (Nobi) 1959
Director Kon Ichikawa's harrowing film set in the Philippines during World War II, a Japanese soldier, his emotional and physical resources nearly depleted, endures the vicissitudes of war. Ichikawa, whom some cineastes say was as talented as his better-known contemporaries, including Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi, had a way with infusing light in the darkest places.

The Burmese Harp (1956) – Japan
Also directored by Kon Ichikawa. Set during World War II's last days, this indelible antiwar drama chronicles a Japanese soldier's transformation after coming face to face with the human cost of war. Sent to inform another platoon the war is over, Cpl. Mizushima (Shôji Yasui) can't persuade the men to surrender and becomes the lone survivor when the British attack. But the casualties he sees on the way to rejoin his unit overwhelm Mizushima, and he soon finds a higher calling.

Tales of Terror from Tokyo and All Over Japan: Vol. 3: Part 2 (2006) – Japan
Demons materialize during a high school video project and ghouls stir up deadly mischief in a deserted office space in this collection of 20 supernatural stories from horror writers Kihara Hirokatsu and Nakayama Ichiro. These startling stories are adapted from accounts of true events that occurred all across Japan. This collection showcases truly terrifying episodes of the TV series Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro.

Con Artists (1978) – Italy
Directed by Sergio Corbucci, Bluff storia di truffe e di imbroglioni, features, a notorious con man named Bang who somehow manages to elude the long arm of the law – just barely. As he weaves in and out of trouble, Bang’s misadventures involve him with a delightfully rakish cast of characters.

Hellbenders (1967) – Italy
An earlier work by director Sergio Corbucci Italian. In this gritty spaghetti Western helmed by Sergio Corbucci, Joseph Cotten headlines the cast as a bitter ex-Confederate officer named Jonas who hatches a scheme to reignite the Civil War by robbing a freight train carrying Union soldiers. After slaughtering them, Jonas and his three sons find themselves in a battle against the U.S. Cavalry and a tribe of Indians. Julián Mateos, Ángel Aranda, Gino Pernice and Norma Bengell also star.