New Japanese film reviews appear every last Friday of the month.

Ashurajo no Hitomi ****

Fans of fantasy samurai action are in for a treat with the new film from Yojiro Takita, who did the colorful "Onmyoji" films and the excellent swashbuckler "When the Last Sword is Drawn." After a wobbly start, Takita handles this weird amalgam of kabuki spectacle, gothic horror and fantasy romance with assurance. In this parallel Edo, demons with green blood live side by side with Tokyoites, and all have the same fondness for leopard prints in clothes and furniture fabrics. Kabuki scion Somegoro Ishikawa is a demon killer turned kabuki star in love with waif-like acrobat Rie Miyazawa, who's got an ominously throbbing camellia scar on her back, while all hell breaks loose around him - literally. Fellow demon-hunter Atsuro Watanabe, looking like a drug- ravaged singer from a glam metal band, has swapped sides, and is now working to bring demon queen Ashura to power. This is over-ripe stuff, and Takita plays it full tilt, bringing impassioned performances from his cast despite the cheesy CGs, loud Osakan bad taste, and way-over-the-top finale.

Tanuki Goten ****

The new film by cult 60s director Seijun Suzuki premieres at the Cannes Film Festival 2005. It's a colorful musical, an all-singing, all-dancing fantasy with live-action stars (Jo Odagiri and a luminous Zhang Ziyi) appearing against painted backdrops, surreal theatrical stages, blue-screen effects, etc. A succession of spectacular musical sequences around a very simple fairytale about forbidden love between humans and raccoons, its arch pretentiousness takes some getting used to, but eventually charms. The music ranges from Victorian-style operetta to Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra calypso, from Japanese rap to the shimmering godliness of the late Hibari Misora. The revelation, however, is the extraordinary Zhang Ziyi, radiant in a series of exquisite kimono and silky shifts, speaking in Japanese, singing in Chinese, dancing the cha-cha, acting flirtatious and coy! This is far more watchable than Suzuki's last misfire "Pistol Opera," and a coup de theatre: conjuring real emotional resonance within the most stylized stagecraft and fakery.

Osoi Hito ***

This extraordinary feature film by director Go Shibata plays like a serious documentary on the disabled that suddenly gets hijacked by a splatter movie director. A severely disabled man Masakiyo Sumida enjoys an easy life in the care of his various care-givers (punk rocker Naozo Horita and student Mari Torii), motoring around town on his powered wheelchair, shooting the breeze using a Stephen Hawkin-like computerized voice, kicking back with a few beers and porn videos. But when Masakiyo is once again disappointed in love, something snaps - and his long-festering animosity to the normal world explodes in an orgy of violence. This is always involving, with realistic performances from an unknown cast, unnerving camera angles, white-noise soundscape and scratch-video editing by Shibata. As the vengeful disabled man, Sumida makes an unforgettable debut in smeared glasses, baggy t-shirt and inscrutable yet challenging grimace.

Sakigake ! Cromartie Koukou **

This live-action adaptation of the popular manga by Eiji Nonaka plays like "Jigoku Koshien" reloaded. It makes sense, because once again it's directed by Yudai Yamaguchi, who cut his teeth on"Versus," before deciding that his calling was cartoon violence and splatter-stick. Cromartie High is the worst school in Japan: classrooms are full of proto-yakuza, hoodlums in Hawaiian shirts, bikers, juvenile-delinquent robots, hardcore gay thugs, gorillas and sneering Riki Takeuchi fans! Student on a mission Masataka Suga arrives determined to turn the school around, but he's faced with more than just a revolting student body: the school has been taken over by aliens from a shaky, retro flying saucer! Unlike "Jigoku Koshien," which generated some mirth with its gleeful mix of zombie, musical, and sports movie cliches, this one never raises above the level of a late-night TV comedy skit. Strictly for fans of the manga only.

Shirayukihime: Urami Renga (DVD) *****

Newly out on DVD is the much abused sequel to "Lady Snowblood," one of the films that inspired "Kill Bill." Having served her vengeful purpose in the first film, sword-spinning Meiko Kaji gives herself up to the Meiji police. Saved from the gallows by a sinister shadow government, operating out of a Conan Doyle-ish study, Meiko is sent to infiltrate a gang of anarchists led by brothers Juzo Itami (who went on to save the Japanese film industry in the '80s) and Toshio Harada. This is very stylish and intriguing entertainment, full of sensuality, fountains of gore and radical politics. The militaristic government is depicted as evil enough to use biochemical weapons against its own seething underclass. Meiko Kaji gives another of her trademark performances - she looks great in a series of bold stripy kimonos - and wields her umbrella-sword with baton-twirling aplomb. Worth a look for the finale in the plague-infested slums and Meiko's "disarming" of a one-armed baddie. In the bonus interview, she reveals that her murderous glare in both "Scorpion" and "Snowblood" series was due to her bad eyesight.