Cinema Strikes BackContact

NewsReviewsDVD CalendarContestsFilm FestivalsMoviesPeopleInterviewsLinksAboutContact
Teruo Ishii, R.I.P. – Director Of Crazed Yakuza, Ero-Guro And Karate Exploitation Flicks Dies At 81
Posted on 08.16.05 by David @ 9:21 am

Teruo IshiiTeruo Ishii, a director of strange and wild films, died of lung cancer at the age of 81 on Friday, August 12, 2005. Ishii was perhaps best known for directing the long-running Abashiri Prison series (aka Abashiri Bangaichi) for Toei in the 1960s, starring Ken Takakura. He was also known for a series of films depicting torture and brutality in the Edo-era, under the Tokugawa Shogunate. In his time, Ishii worked with a number of Japanese cinema’s biggest stars, including Ken Takakura, Sonny Chiba, and Tetsuro Tamba.

Born in 1924, Ishii learned the ropes at Toho, and then became an assistant director at Shin-Toho, before moving to Toei in 1961. At Toei, he directed the popular Abashiri Prison series, the Line (aka Chitai) films, and a series of erotic-grotesque films in the ‘70s. After growing frustrated with the karate and biker films he was forced to make, Ishii quit the industry for a long period following 1979.

Ishii was a fan of ero-guro horror and suspense writer Edogawa Rampo (say it fast), a favorite writer for many in Japanese film, and adapted several of his works, putting aspects of more than one story into his film titled The Horror of Malformed Men (aka Edogawa ranpo taizen: Kyofu kikei ningen). After an interregnum during the ‘80s, Ishii resumed work as an independent filmmaker, directing a number of movies, including Blind Beast vs. Dwarf (aka Môjuu tai Issunbôshi), based on a Rampo story, as recently as 2001.

The Executioners

Ishii’s films have always demonstrated an inspired lunacy. The Executioner (aka Chokugeki! Jigoku-ken) is a truly joyous little piece of madness, shucking off logic and taste, and reveling in its own depravity. It’s one of craziest, most fun movies I have ever seen Sonny Chiba in, and that’s saying a lot about a man who acted in Ninja Wars (aka Iga Ninpoucho) and Karate Bearfighter. The sequel is even more insane. Apparently, Ishii deliberately made The Executioner and its sequel as offensive, scatological, and wacko as possible, out of anger at being forced to do karate films! Naturally, the movies were huge successes. Adness is preparing to release a remastered anamorphic double-disc of the two, for which we should all be grateful. Ishii also directed the second sequel to The Street Fighter, entitled The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge (aka Gyakushu! Satsujin Ken) - not the best entry in the series, but certainly the weirdest. I can’t say I enjoyed Yakuza Punishment: Lynch (aka Yakuza keibatsu-shi: Rinchi - shikei!), an anthology piece about Yakuza punishments throughout the ages, but I have to admire the sheer bloody mindedness of making an entire movie about Yakuza treating each other horribly. Fortunately, it should be only a matter of time before more of Ishii’s films are given the treatment they deserve on DVD.

Rest in peace, Teruo Ishii, and thanks for everything.

::: Read the announcement of his death by Japan Today

::: Tom Mes interviews Ishii at Midnight Eye

::: Nicolas Tavantzis interviews Ishii at HK Mania

::: Panik House discusses Ishii’s death and their future plans to release several of his films in their blog

::: Patrick Macias offers a emotional (and appropriately raunchy) memorial at his blog

::: Roberto Curti discusses Ishii’s films at Offscreen

::: A discussion of Ishii’s death can be found here on Mobius

:: Trailer for Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf
(careful, this is strong stuff)

Thank you to Patrick Macias - some of the information used in this obituary comes from his book Tokyoscope, an excellent resource for Japanese film in general, and Teruo Ishii in particular. Tokyoscope is available for sale at Amazon.

Obituary and © by David Austin


Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Japan and Contributors: David and People: Sonny Chiba and Movie News: Obituaries and People: Teruo Ishii
Comments:

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)



Search

Latest Movie News
* Satoshi Kon, Innovative Anime Director, Dies at 46 (08/25/2010)
* New York Asian Film Festival 2010 Report 7: CSB Interviews Bruce Leung Siu-Leung, Kung Fu Actor Extraordinaire and Star of Gallants (08/23/2010)
* CSB Interviews William Lustig about “William Lustig Presents” at the Anthology Film Archives (08/10/2010)
* Guillermo Del Toro to Scale Mountains of Madness (07/30/2010)
* New York Asian Film Festival 2010 Report 6: CSB Interviews Yu Irie, Director of 8000 Miles (Saitama no Rapper) and 8000 Miles 2: Girl Rappers (07/20/2010)
 

* Shusuke Kaneko
* Malik Bader
* Nobuhiro Yamashita
* Sabu
* Johnnie To
* Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg & Nick Frost
* Bong Joon-Ho
 
Recent Comments
Kid Supreme: Turbo, man i have to credit a lot of my break dance style back in
junskies: i like im saw happy 2 say exciting action drama and survival complete plot storiess
junskies: i new im believe its saw touch im watch the movie is battle royale it
junskies: i wish ilike 2 watch new movie battle royal part 3 and part 4
bunty: nice
Sigg3: Thanks for the tip, now I'm gonna have to look into Sarli :)
David Austin: Stuart Gordon did a decent adaptation of Shadow Over Innsmouth called Dagon almost 10 years
spm: as cool as i think this is, i think something like Shadow over Innsmouth would
george: I had a 6 word line in this thing, "It looks like there's nobody
gerg: hahaha, most unrealistic piece of sh-- I've ever seen, the worst plot, acting, directing etc,

Movie News
Australia
Canada
France
Germany
Hong Kong
India
Israel
Japan
Malaysia
New Zealand
Pakistan
Poland
Singapore
South Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
Uganda
UK
USA
Vietnam

By Type:
DVD News
Movie Quotes
MP3 Podcasts
Obituaries
Production Info
Rumors
Trailer News
Trivia

External Article
External Interview

By Studio:
IFC Films
Milkyway Image
Shaw Brothers
Sony Pictures
Warner Bros.
More Studios >

Movies
2007
Bug
Grind House
Rogue

2006
Adam's Apples
Apocalypto
Casino Royale
Descent, The
Exiled
Funky Forest
Pan's Labyrinth
Scanner Darkly, A
Superman Returns
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance


Latest Reviews
* Decades Later, Argentinian Sex Symbol Isabel Sarli Receives Her First American Retrospective (08/06/2010)
* Japan Cuts 2010 Report 3 (07/13/2010)
* Japan Cuts 2010 Report 2 (07/08/2010)
* New York Asian Film Festival 2010 Report 3/Japan Cuts 2010 Report 1 (06/30/2010)
* New York Asian Film Festival 2010 Report 2 (06/28/2010)

Movie Reviews
By Country:
Australia
Canada
Czech
Europe
Germany
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Iran
Italy
Japan
Russia
Spain
South Korea
Sweden
Thailand
Turkey
UK
USA

By Rating:
Great ****
Good ***
Average **
Poor *

By Author:
Charlie
David
Jeff
Pete

By Guest Writer:
Brian
John
Mike G.
Mike M.
Wade

Cable:
Cable Series

External Reviews

People
Argento, Dario
Bale, Christian
Chan-wook, Park
Cheh, Chang
Chow Sing Chi, Stephen
Craig, Daniel
Freeman, Morgan
Giamatti, Paul
Gilliam, Terry
Howard, Ron
Hark, Tsui
Jaa, Tony
Jackson, Peter
Jee-woon, Kim
July, Miranda
Kaige, Chen
Kar-wai, Wong
Kurosawa, Kiyoshi
Kuriyama, Chiaki
Lau, Andy
Miike, Takashi
Miyazaki, Hayao
Myung-se, Lee
Nolan, Christopher
Spielberg, Steven
Suzuki, Seijun
Tarantino, Quentin
To, Johnnie
Tse, Nicholas
Vaughn, Matthew
Yen, Donnie
Yeoh, Michelle
Yimou, Zhang
Ziyi, Zhang
More People >

Archive
  • 2010
  • 2009

  • RSS Syndication

    Add to Google

    Subscribe in NewsGator Online

    Add Cinema Strikes Back - Covering the World of Film to Newsburst from CNET News.com

    Add to My AOL

    Add to netvibes

    Subscribe in Bloglines

    Add to The Free Dictionary

    Add to Bitty Browser

    Add to Plusmo

    Subscribe in podnova


    Credits and Copyright
    Proudly powered by WordPress. All content © 2004-2005 Cinema Strikes Back.
    Theme by Theron Parlin