Akira Kurosawa's first color film is a spellbinding tribute to humankind's ability to overcome adversity by holding on to dreams. Brilliant colors flood the screen as Kurosawa illuminates the grim world of Tokyo slum dwellers who, to escape the pain of poverty, have taken refuge in illusion. Made in 1970, this film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1972. This is Kurosawa's first color film, and there seems to be an almost psychedelic overlay to his production palette. The story revolves around a collection of characters held together only by the frayed thread of poverty. Rokkuchan (Yoshitaka Zushi), a teenager with the mind of a boy, is obsessed with trolley cars. He draws them from every angle in vivid colors. His despondent mother (Kin Sugai) hangs them lovingly on the walls and windows of their simple home. Every morning Rokkuchan goes out to his imaginary trolley car and makes his way through the surrounding slums. His neighbors include a humble man with a terrible limp and an unforgiving wife, two couples who color-coordinate their husband-swapping, and a sad derelict man with an adoring but doomed little boy. [+]

True to its Sega video-game roots, this futuristic 60-minute movie includes a lot of yelling, crashing, and exploding on the way to saving the world. Sonic and his sidekicks are determined to thwart a plan that would turn their Land of the Sky into the equivalent of The Land of Darkness, which lurks beneath the surface (and is obviously the former planet Earth). So they plow through to the center of the planet and the ancient city of Robotropolis (the former New York City?) to do righteous battle. The big question of the day is whether the usually evil Dr.  Robotnik is telling the truth for once or sending the good guys into a trap. The tape's producers suggest viewers be at least 7 years old because of its violence, but the rudimentary nature of the animation will probably make it appealing only to hard-core action fans among the older-kid crowd. -Kimberly Heinrichs.

This 1990 feature from anime legend Go Nagai, creator of Devilman and Cutey Honey among other animated series, is a spirited if uninspired mix of Ninja warrior swordplay, modern yakuza gangster gunplay, and anime-style demons. The mysterious Ninja Dragon is a vaguely supernatural warrior sworn to defend the Nindo clan. He dedicates his sword to Shinobu, the schoolgirl daughter of a yakuza lord, and just in time. Upstart gangster Ranjuji, a hulking thug with demonic eyes, massacres the heads of rival criminal families and kidnaps young Shinobu for his bride. There's plenty of flashy swordplay and bloody violence (blood spurting from wounds like a waterfall, limbs ripped from bodies, and a man's face ripped from his head like a banana peel), and the massive battle between the Ninja Dragon's trio and Shinobu's army makes up for sloppy technique with vigorous choreography and a rush of activity. Apart from a few sidelines for unnecessary exposition and a ridiculous contest that turns Ninja warriors into World Wrestling Federation wrasslin' chicks, Nagai keeps this silly, simplistic Japanese comic book B movie zipping along with gusto. It won't leave much of an impression, but it's a fun 70 minutes of brainless action. -Sean Axmaker.

From one of the world's greatest directors of women comes a candid and revealing look at discrimination against women in 1930's Japan. The highly acclaimed film chronicles the heartbreaking fall of a young telephone operator who consents to become her boss' mistress in order to support her alcoholic father and put her brother through school. Isuzu Yamada is tremendous as the tough heroine condemned by society for behavior that would have been tolerated if she were a man.

During an unusual chapter in the career of director Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon), the filmmaker went to Russia because he found working in his native Japan to be too difficult. The result was this striking 1975 near-epic based on the turn-of-the-century autobiographical novels of a military explorer (Yuri Solomin) who met and befriended a Goldi man in Russia's unmapped forests. Kurosawa traces the evolution of a deep and abiding bond between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the sub-zero Siberian woods. There's no question that Dersu Uzala (the film is named for the Goldi character, played by Maxim Munzuk) has the muscular, imaginative look of a large-canvas Soviet Mosfilm from the 1970s. But in its energy and insight it is absolutely Kurosawa, from its implicit fascination with the meeting of opposite worlds to certain moments of tranquility and visual splendor. But nothing looks like Kurosawa more than a magnificent action sequence in which the co-heroes fight against time and exhaustion to stay alive in a wicked snowstorm. For fans of the late legend, this is a Kurosawa not to be missed. -Tom Keogh.

Shot in black and white, this 1965 Japanese monster movie was the Daiei company's answer to Toho's famous Godzilla series. A skirmish between U. S. and unknown "enemy" planes results in an atomic explosion over the Arctic which unthaws and unleashes the giant flying turtle Gamera, who eventually settles into Japan to wreak havoc while seeking out hydro-electric sustenance. However, this fire-eating (and breathing) behemoth displays a compassionate streak when he saves the life of a young boy who nearly falls to his death from a toppled lighthouse. Panicky scientists and military officials vainly try to find ways to destroy Gamera while the boy seeks to bond with his misunderstood reptilian hero. Like many of its celluloid Japanese monster brethren, Giant Monster Gamera has not aged all that well, but the well-staged and photographed assault on Tokyo makes for festive mayhem. Overall the film is good entertainment for young kids as well as the inner children of the adults who grew up on these monster mashes. -Bryan Reesman.

An absolutely phenomenal surrealist-cum-exploitation picture, "Female Convict Scorpion-Jailhouse 41" is the second in a series of films about Matsu (known to her fellow inmates as "Scorpion"), a diminutive but volatile woman who is wrongly sent to prison by a betraying boyfriend. Incredibly satisfying and spectacularly photographed, these women's prison pictures feature an anti-heroine who is beautiful, strong, principled and basically honorable and decent-especially when compared to everyone around her. One of the truly genuine masterpieces of violent 1970s cinema, "Female Convict Scorpion-Jailhouse 41" is, in its own way, as subversive as Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg's "Performance," John Boorman's "Point Blank" and Jean-Luc Godard's "Weekend. " Gonzo doesn't begin to describe this wild women-in-prison film. A mad mix of outrageous exploitation, flamboyant art movie, and energetic comic book, this manga-inspired cult classic is actually the second film in a series, but you hardly need the history. Matsu (Meiko Kaji, of Lady Snowblood fame) is an innocent woman in jail who defies the sadistic warden and brutal guards with silent stares and sudden strikes. Nicknamed "Scorpion" for her lethal, lightning attacks, she is systematically abused, tortured, and humiliated by the vengeful warden (guess why he wears that eye patch), but escapes with a chain gang and leads the cops on a violent chase through the countryside. The doomed "Seven Sinful Women" are systematically cut down by the trigger-happy posse, but not before they take a few with them. Kaji gives a near silent performance as the smoldering Matsu, who stares out from under artfully tousled hair with piercing eyes and spars with her bullying, psychotic cellblock rival. Director Shunya Ito paints his striking set pieces in brilliant colors: an autumnal death scene that turns from restful, leaf-blown orange to a desolate gray in a flash, a blue waterfall that suddenly runs red with blood, an escape down a literal mountain of garbage. [+]