Message from Space (1978)
Mar 6, 2001Japanese Space Opera
Japanese attempt to jump aboard the Star Wars fad, a vigorous and colourful retelling of The Seven Samurai as a space opera
Hiroyuki Sanada
The Spiral (1998)
Mar 26, 2008Ring Sequel
The black sheep among the Japanese Ringu films. A sequel released the same time as the first film, this lacks the other's uncanny atmosphere and was ignored
Ring (1998)
Aug 31, 1999Cursed Video Broadcast/Japanese Ghost Story
Kaidan eiga (Japanese ghost story) that was a huge hit, spawning several sequels and an English-language remake, plus a horde of imitators. For all its reputation, the film is often crude, nevertheless does evince an eerie atmosphere
Ring 2 (1999)
Oct 1, 1999Cursed Videotape/Haunting/Japanese Ghost Story
The second of the Japanese Ring/Ringu films where director Hideo Nakata improves over the original with a series of eerie scares if a frequently incomprehensible mishmash of story ideas
Sunshine (2007)
Apr 19, 2007Solar Expedition
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland make a big serious SF film about a solar expedition, which works with great scientific rigour until the shows heads off at a tangent and falls apart in the latter third
The Wolverine (2013)
Aug 3, 2013X-Men Spinoff Film
While this received a good deal of fan buzz, I must admit to being disappointed. It strips much of the superheroics and mutant cameos of the other X-Men films until it feels more like a Westerner in Japan thriller like Black Rain or even a routine film noir plot that happens to be cast with Wolverine
47 Ronin (2013)
Jan 18, 2014Samurai Epic Fantasy
US film based on a real Japanese historical incident that has been oddly spun out into a Keanu Reeves-starring epic samurai fantasy film. One of the biggest financial flops of 2013
Life (2017)
Jun 10, 2017Alien Organism Amok on the International Space Station
This is essentially Alien as a scientifically grounded space film like Gravity where an original alien menace attacking aboard the International Space Station
Mortal Kombat (2021)
May 1, 2021Interdimensional Combat/Videogame Adaptation
A reboot of the film series adapted from the popular videogame. Produced by James Wan, this emerges as a kinetic and enjoyable effort that has clearly designed to introduce an ongoing franchise
Mortal Kombat II (2026)
May 30, 2026Interdimensional Combat/Videogame Adaptation
A sequel to the 2021 revival of the film series based on the videogame and a much more satisfying film. The first film was all origin story, but this plunges us into the actual kombat itself