Sixteen-year-old Ami (Mihaya Shirata) is a Singaporean teen haunted by the echoes of the mysterious disappearance of her mother in the wake of the cataclysmic tsunami that tore through eastern Asia in 2011. Her dreams torment her leading her to seek answers from her father who initially acts very cagey and emotionally shut down. He…
The Shape of Water [Criterion Collection] 4K UHD Blu-Ray Review
Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a mute cleaning woman at a top secret government facility who becomes fascinated with a humanoid amphibian creature (Doug Jones) that is being held captive and tormented by the sadistic Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon). When her feelings of fascination grow into something more akin to love, Elisa, with the help of…
Slap the Monster on Page One [Radiance Films] Blu-Ray Review
Giancarlo Bizanti (Gian Maria Volontè) is the editor-in-chief of the fiery Italian newspaper “Il Giornale”. When a teenage girl is found murdered, the far right-leaning owner of the paper works with Bizanti to undermine the police investigation by casting doubt on the main suspect, influencing a key witness and leading a conflicting campaign against a…
Japan Organized Crime Boss [Radiance Films] Blu-Ray Review
At a macro level, Japan Organized Crime Boss follows a yakuza proxy war waged by the Tokyo Alliance who uses the Sakurada family of Yokohama to attack the Hamanaka Family, also of Yokohama, who have aligned themselves with the Danno Organization out of the Kansai region. We follow Tsukamoto (played by the legendary Tsuruta Kôji…
Silent Bite [Cleopatra Entertainment] Blu-ray Review
A group of five festively adorned bank robbers, in the wake of an intense bank heist, are looking for a place to lay low until the heat dies down. They crash at the Jolly Roger Hotel while one of their members, dressed as Santa, acts as a decoy and lures the authorities away from their…
Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger [Cohen Media Group] Blu-ray Review
Michael Powell, ex-banker and studio contract director who churned out 23 films between 1931 and 1936, and Emeric Pressburger, a well-educated Hungarian whose career as a journalist was cut short by the rise of Nazism causing him to flee to Paris and switch to becoming a screenwriter, may have begun their careers in wildly disparate…
Infinite Santa 8000 [Synapse Films] Blu-Ray Review
In a desolate post-apocalyptic wasteland a thousand years in the future, in a land where mutants, monsters, robots and crazed killers roam around wreaking havoc on anyone unlucky enough to cross their paths, one man remains with a small shred of hope for the future of the planet, one man who these days is just…
EuroCultAV Holiday Gift Guide 2024 Part 2 – Books, Music and Tabletop Gaming
While ECAV’s bread ‘n’ butter is all about soaking in the effervescent glow of the television screen, basking in the splendor of the goopfests of Joe D’Amato, the eroto-vampire flicks of Jean Rollin and the twisty and beautiful films of Dario Argento, we also have other interests here. We read, folks! We like to chill…
EuroCultAV Holiday Gift Guide 2024! – Part 1 – Blu-ray and UHD
Contributions from the staff of EuroCultAV including Ben Tucker, Scott MacDonald, David Steigman, and Richard Glenn Schmidt. That oh-so-frosty time of year has arrived once again when we reflect back on what a bountiful crop of splendid releases that have been put out by all the stellar boutique media labels out there and recommend some…
Daiei Gothic: Three Ghost Stories [Radiance Films] Blu-ray Box Set Review
Adapted loosely from the much celebrated kabuki play, The Ghost of Yotsuya finds our lead Iemon Tamiya (Kazuo Hasegawa) destitute, having failed to become a samurai, and living with his wife Oiwa (Yasuko Nakada), depressed and aimless. One day he meets with the daughter, Ume Ito (Yoko Uraji), of a powerful samurai who becomes infatuated with…