Overview: In 1989, legendary Japanese studio Toei launched their V-Cinema line of direct-to-video genre features. V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal presents nine explosive titles representing some of the best the Japanese crime film has to offer.

Blu-ray Verdict: Fast-paced and action-packed, Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage (1989) sees detective Joe Kawamura out for revenge against the men who gunned down his partner. Along the way he teams up with Lily, a gun-toting nun looking to get back five million dollars that was stolen from her church.

Expensive-looking for a V-cinema production, Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage plays, like a lot of V-Cinema, with the narrative cadence and aesthetic of a comic book. A cop named Joker and a cop named ... I don’t know, something else ... they arrest a criminal called Bruce, who’s stolen money from a nunnery!

On the way back with Bruce in the squad car, the other guy is starting to do a bit of the ol’ police violence to get Bruce to cough up the loot, when a group of clown-masked criminals ambushes them and shoots other cop right between the eyes. Joker also gets shot, and Bruce gets away.

So Joker gets out of the hospital, steals some horrifyingly deadly drugs to keep himself going, and tracks down Bruce, looking for revenge. He meets a goofy nun along the way, who is almost his love interest by the end. That’s pretty much it, but it is a fun movie ... if you aren’t watching too closely.

Next up, Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet (1990) sees wannabe yakuza Junko get more than he bargained for when tasked with avenging the murder of a fellow gang member or face the consequences for betrayal.

Junko (Sho Aikawa), is a young yakuza junior who spends much of his time driving his Boss, Yoshikawa (Toru Minegishi) around and providing him with hot towels.

When one of his family is assassinated by rivals, he and two others are ordered to carry out a hit in revenge, but his seniors end up flaking out though and the hit falls on him alone, only he’s very reluctant to pull the trigger, especially with his new narcoleptic girlfriend (Chikako Aoyama) in tow, as well as his famous uncle Mizuta (Jo Shishido) constantly questioning him.

Banmei Takahashi’s Neo Chinpira was apparently a big hit and it’s not hard to see why, it’s a fun little V-Cinema dramedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously and features a spirited cast with a few legends sprinkled in to sweeten the deal. Takahashi satirizes not only the Yakuza genre, but the criminal life itself as he focuses on those who shirk their duty when it comes down to the dark side of the job.

Meanwhile, in Shunichi Nagasaki’s unbearably tense thriller Stranger (1991), a late-night taxi driver is stalked by the unseen driver of an SUV, who just might have a connection to the taxi driver’s criminal past. In Carlos, the eponymous Brazilian-Japanese petty criminal sees an opportunity to play rival yakuza gangs against each other but bites off much more than he can chew.

An incredibly low-key (ignore the salacious cover art) V-Cinema take on Duel in which a taxi driver (Shunichi Nagasaki) tries to pick up the pieces of her life, deal with the annoying men that won’t leave her alone and get rid of this mysterious land cruiser that won’t stop attacking her!

Mostly downtime made up of long shots of the protagonist driving around the neon streets as jazzy music plays in the background, it’s charmingly low budget (a climatic stunt goes wrong and they had to keep it in) and it is a bleak portrait of loneliness that’s well worth seeing.

Burning Dog (1991) is a gripping heist film where a gang of thieves plot to rob a US military base in Okinawa, but rising tensions in the group threaten to put the plan in jeopardy.

In truth, Burning Dog is very long for a V-Cinema film and there aren’t enough flashy shootouts to keep you entertained throughout which consequently causes the film to drag. The scenes are long and there is a lot of dialogue ... some of it’s in English but it’s usually insults and never anything important.

Not every film in big box-set’s like this can be a full on winner, but that doesn’t mean Burning Dog is a bust. No, for it is a very decent film that I could see working better as a theatrical release with a higher budget but as a V-Cinema film, it doesn’t offer nearly enough flash or excitement, sorry.

The sequel to one of the most iconic Japanese franchises of all time, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat (1991) sees a female assassin hired to infiltrate a women’s prison and search for The Scorpion, a legendary rebellious prisoner hiding in the bowels of the building.

This was a cool V-Cinema take on the classic Female Prisoner Scorpion film which sounds like it should be way better than it actually is. I watched this one without subs and consequently found parts of it confusing but aside from the story there really wasn’t as much sex and violence as I was hoping for which is strange for a V-Cinema film because I expected them to double down on the sex and violence!

To be fair there was actually a decent amount of violence, but it was mostly just generic gun kills, I was hoping for something a little more creative. The crucifixion scene was pretty cool and so was the skeleton that spontaneously combusted even though it made no sense! It’s weird to not have Sasori as the protagonist in a Scorpion film and even weirder to have her killed off and so I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the direction the film took but it was certainly interesting, that’s for sure.

After his fiancée is killed in the crossfire of a yakuza turf war, a man on the edge remorselessly hunts down the gangsters responsible in legendary director Teruo Ishii’s The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses (1991).

After witnessing his girlfriend being used as a human shield and getting killed in a shootout involving two yakuza clans, Takanashi, (Hideki Saijo) a former police officer with excellent sniper skills, plans his revenge by eliminating the yakuza boss and his entire clan who were involved in the death of his lover.

After a decade of working in television production, Teruo Ishii finally returns to make a film, but in the V-Cinema world. Unfortunately, Hitman isn’t one of his best films. The film starts strong with several quick bursts of action and Ishii’s signature visual flair. However, once Takanashi loses his briefcase to a woman name Rumi (Natsumi Nanase) the film loses its steam and never recovers from that point, in my humble opinion.

For the next 60 minutes, we are treated with nothing but filler. Loads of uninteresting exposition scenes, Ishii sprinkles a bunch of sex scenes through the film, but due to the low production value, these scenes feel like something out of Pornhub!

Even the performances from the main cast are flat. Hideki Saijo, who is well known for being a singer, tries too hard to pull off the “Strong, but silent” type. Saijo lacks the acting chops and charisma that a Ken Takakura or Bunta Sugawara would have. One thing I will praise is the final shootout where an entire house gets blown apart and the sexy end credits. These scenes were some of the highlights.

Meanwhile in Danger Point: The Road to Hell (1991), duo of contract killers’ fragile partnership is tested when their most recent hit starts to have unforeseen consequences.

I actually found this to be thoroughly enjoyable and a brilliant no-frills fun film that kept you watching throughout. The two leads are compelling despite the lack of depth, the dialogue sticks the landing more often that it doesn’t and as much as the rest of the film is just gangster-by-numbers with a few gritty kills to elevate things, I REALLY loved the finale!

Finally, assassin and femme fatale Shion rebels against the fanatical religious order who prepared her from birth to be the perfect killer in the pulpy XX: Beautiful Hunter (1994).

Konuma moved into video after the pinky boom dried up but lost none of his virtuoso nastiness and confrontational style. This lurid, pulpy yarn follows a Catholic assassin who breaks her programming and begins to turn her back on the church for love.

It’s full of audacious and eyebrow raising erotic sequences, which range from lush outdoor sex in a public field with long takes galore to an electrifying lesbian electro torture that goes further than you may expect. Konuma had not lost his touch nor his ability to excite, arouse, and baffle by the 1990s and this film is a prime example of a man still on top form.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all films
Original lossless Japanese mono audio on Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage and original lossless Japanese stereo audio for all other films
Optional newly translated English subtitles for all films
Nine postcard-sized artcards
Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Earl Jackson, Daisuke Miyao, and Hayley Scanlon

DISC 1 - CRIME HUNTER: BULLETS OF RAGE / NEO CHINPIRA: ZOOM GOES THE BULLET:
Newly filmed introductions to both films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka
Loose Cannon, a newly filmed interview with Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage director Shundo Okawa
Zooming Out, a newly filmed interview with Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet writer-director Banmei Takahashi
Crime Hunter and the Dawn of V-Cinema, a brand new video essay on Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage by Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes
Original trailers for both films

DISC 2 - STRANGER / CARLOS:
Newly filmed introductions to both films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka
Stranger than Fiction, a newly filmed interview with Stranger writer-director Shunichi Nagasaki
From Manga to Movies, a newly filmed interview with Carlos writer-director Kazuhiro Kiuchi
An Extra Round in the Chamber, a brand new video essay on Carlos by critic and Japanese cinema expert Jonathan Clements

DISC 3 - BURNING DOG / FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: DEATH THREAT:
Newly filmed introductions to both films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka
Fire and Ice, a brand new video essay on Burning Dog by critic and Japanese cinema expert Mark Schilling
Toshiharu Ikeda’s Beautiful Monster of Vengeance, a brand new video essay on Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat by film historian Samm Deighan
Original trailers for both films

DISC 4 - THE HITMAN: BLOOD SMELLS LIKE ROSES / DANGER POINT: THE ROAD TO HELL:
Newly filmed introductions to both films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka
The Versatility of Teruo Ishii, a brand new video essay on The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses and its director Teruo Ishii by Japanese cinema expert Frankie Balboa
The Road to V-Cinema, a brand new video essay on Danger Point: The Road to Hell by critic and Japanese cinema expert James Balmont
Original trailer for The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses

DISC 5 - XX: BEAUTIFUL HUNTER:
Newly filmed introduction by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka
The Sacred and the Profane, a newly filmed interview with screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi
They Brought Back the Sleaze, a brand new video essay on XX: Beautiful Hunter by critic and Japanese cinema expert Patrick Macias
Original trailer

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