Criterion Channel includes a number of Godzilla / Giant Monster - or "Kaiju" - films, along with documentary extras..

Available to view on Amazon Prime, "The Invisible Man v The Human Fly", directed by Mitsuo Murayama and produced by the Daiei company...

Japanese director Seijun Suzuki's 1967 "Yakuza" film, "Branded to Kill" reunites him with the iconic surgically enhanced Joe Shishido..

Although I've been aware of Hayao Miyazaki's 1992 film "Porco Rosso" (Trans: "The Crimson Pig") since the early 90's..

I had doubts about posting a review of a film that is, on the face of it, a piece of soft-core pornography in the Japanese "Pink Film" genre

Giant monster films...you either love 'em or hate 'em, there doesn't appear to be a middle ground for them in terms of taste in cinema.

Japanese cinema of the 60's offers a vast selection of titles and subjects beyond the more familiar works known in the West

The plot combines elements of all these films with the added ingredient of fears about the nuclear age...

30-odd years on from the original 'Gamera" film that introduced Japanese and later, world, audiences, to the giant jet-propelled amphibian..

Based on a novel, Toyoda's film is, on the face of it, a domestic drama that could almost be dismissed as a soap opera

The success of Japanese "Kaiju", or giant monsters-on-the-loose films of the 1960's led to the emergence of two giants of the genre, Toho...

"Go to Hell Bastards!" or to give it its full title "Detective Bureau 2-3, Go To Hell Bastards!"..

A big, actually giant, monster film about a giant turtle, and a jet-propelled turtle at that, requires a suitably big poster image, right ..

And if the plot suddenly sounds vaguely familiar, you would be forgiven if the Mike Hodge film "Get Carter", made half a decade later..

One of the strong points of the film is that it aims for a more serious approach and honours the atmosphere of dread..

"Kwaidan" - literally "Ghost Stories", is exactly what it is - a portmanteau collection of creepy tales set in Medieval Japan.

I had seen "Onibaba" ("Trans: "Demon Hag") only once before in the mid 80's (U,K Channel 4) and thanks once again to BFI Player.

In amongst the more familiar films of Hayao Miyazaki's prolific output is "My Neighbours The Yamadas" - this would qualify as "Late-Miyazaki

This was to be my second or third viewing of "Spirited Away" - I have it on BluRay - and it never fails to hold your attention throughout.