Nikkatsu Action Flicks Picked Up by Criterion

[thatguy]

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Criterion Picks Up Nikkatsu Action Flick A COLT IS MY PASSPORT
July 12, 2008

Very good news out of Fantasia last night. At the festival’s first screening of Nikkatsu Action classic A Colt Is My Passport, series curator Mark Walkow dropped the fantastic news that the film has been bought for domestic release by the Criterion Collection, along with six other Nikkatsu Action titles. Though he was not specific on what the other titles were Walkow did mention that some early Seijun Suzuki titles were included in the purchase. These seven titles are in addition to at least three others that Criterion purchased years ago when they bought their slate of Seijun Suzuki films from the studio.

This will be the first time any films from the Nikkatsu Action series of releases have ever been available on any video format with English subtitles and these releases will make use of the freshly remastered transfers Nikkatsu recently prepared for the Japanese market. No firm release dates yet but expect these films to release some time in the next year as some sort of box set, most likely from Criterion’s Eclipse imprint.

--tg

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a Nikkatsu Action Flick and why should I care?

Let your angry posts start now.

[thatguy]

I've heard good things about it, but I've never seen it (as it's been next to unavailable up to now). Here's a review of Colt:

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And here's a summary from Amazon about the book "No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema"

Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan, restarted production in 1954 after WWII. To survive in Japan's brutally competitive film market, it launched a new genre called Nikkatsu Action. Nikkatsu Action defined cool for a generation and drawing inspiration from Hollywood and the French New Wave, it found salvation in Yujiro Ishihara, a hot new star who was Japan's Elvis Presley and James Dean Nikkatsu Action pictures blended East and West fantasies, showing the gritty reality of life in postwar Japan, from the hot jazz clubs and glam cabarets of the Ginza to the foggy loneliness - and danger - of the Yokohama docks at midnight. In the 1960s, Nikkatsu went Pop with a bang in films like Black Tights Killers, Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill. • Packed with illustrations, including color posters and stills • History of the studio • Profiles of stars and directors • Film reviews • Career interviews with Joe Shishido, Toshio Masuda and Seijun Suzuki

--tg