Sushi Typhoon - coming soon to a DVD or Blu-ray near you!

Big news for our North American fans and customers - Sushi Typhoon recently signed a deal for domestic distribution of all our remaining films with stellar Asian film specialist WellGo USA!

This includes YAKUZA WEAPON, MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD, KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR, DEADBALL and Yoshihiro Nishimura's zombie epic HELLDRIVER, which will be the first Sushi Typhoon / WellGo USA out of the starting gate, coming to DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and various streaming or download sites this November!

Anyone familiar with WellGo's track record releasing gorgeous, extras-laden DVDs and Blu-rays of Hong Kong action films like IP MAN 2 and LEGEND OF THE FIST will know what to expect from our upcoming Sushi Typhoon discs. Great-looking, hi-def transfers, lots of extras, beautiful packaging, and wide availability at a bunch of retailers in the US and Canada. To say that we're all very excited about this partnership is a big understatement - we're overjoyed!

Watch for an official announcement and release date for HELLDRIVER very soon. In the meantime, check out WellGo's information page for the film, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and definitely like their HELLDRIVER Facebook page! Watch for more title-specific pages coming soon, too.

We hope to be doing some additional HELLDRIVER theatrical and midnight screenings around Halloween, too, so if you've got a favorite cinematheque in your hometown, give us a shout about it via the Contact page.

Oh, and here's a tidbit of information you won't see (yet) anywhere else: the WellGo USA DVD and Blu-ray of HELLDRIVER will feature the longer, uncut, directors version, which has only screened a few times in the world outside of Japan! Along with WellGo, we're dedicated to bringing our fans only the bloody best, fully uncut and in its original language format. Watch this space for more info, coming soon!

Splatter Matters!

In conjunction with Rue Morgue magazine, we're teaming up with a bunch of cinemas in the US and Canada to present the "Splatter Matters" relief tour, the proceeds of which will be sent to various 3/11 Tohoku earthquake relief efforts.

Here's the full schedule:

April 28: New York, NY: Yoshihiro Nishimura's HELLDRIVER! With guests!

April 29: Dallas, TX: HELLDRIVER! With guests!

May 6: Edmonton, Alberta: HELLDRIVER

May 6: Vancouver, British Columbia: ALIEN VS NINJA and MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD

May 13: Ottawa, Ontario: KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR

May 13: Philadelphia, PA: HELLDRIVER

May 14: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: HELLDRIVER

May 20: Ottawa, Ontario: HELLDRIVER

May 21: Calgary, Alberta: KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR

May 26: Toronto, Ontario: HELLDRIVER and KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR


And how about that poster above? This baby will be available for sale at nearly all of the Splatter Matters charity tour screenings in the US and Canada. That list was earlier posted here. Some copies signed by our filmmakers will also be later auctioned for charity. Design by the amazing Justin Erickson, and courtesy of Rue Morgue magazine. You can see more of Justin's work here.

Blog entry from Yoshihiro Nishimura

Director and special effects maestro Yoshihiro Nishimura is a frequent blogger in Japan. He doesn't write much, but is always uploading photos of what he's doing. But like most people who don't ordinarily say much, when he does say something, it's usually pretty weighty and well-thought out.

That's why we thought it was worthwhile to bring you an English translation of a recent entry by the filmmaker, where he shares some year-end thoughts on the birth of Sushi Typhoon, and its first year of life.

The original entry (with photo).
And our English translation (thanks to Don Brown!):

With the preview screening of YAKUZA WEAPON yesterday [Nov. 26], this year's lineup of films from the Sushi Typhoon label is complete. ALIEN VS NINJA, MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD, COLD FISH, HELLDRIVER, KARATE ROBO ZABORGAR and YAKUZA WEAPON.

Objectively speaking, I truly feel that they represent an amazing variety. There tends to be a presumption that "They're just a bunch of movies with blood spurting everywhere!", but actually that's totally wrong. COLD FISH is a shocking 'family' film with a heavy physical and emotional impact; ZABORGAR is a good old-fashioned tokusatsu [special-effects] film for kids; and YAKUZA WEAPON is a full-on action film that takes a different approach to most manga adaptations.

I think the fact that such a richly diverse collection of films has come together this year is largely attributable to the ability of producer Yoshinori Chiba. I can't say this to his face, but in an industry where so many producers start out saying to you "Please make this film!" and yet don't fulfill their responsibility to stick with it until the very end, this guy makes absolutely sure that your film will be entertaining. Chiba has a unique talent for sniffing out interesting projects, and while that may be thanks to his own sensibilities, he has skillfully deployed each director to make what he considers to be entertaining films in several different genres. That's why, after yesterday's preview screening, I genuinely felt from the bottom of my heart that I want everyone to see all of them!

New reviews online!

A bunch of new reviews of our early titles have gone online. Here's a roundup.

SciFi Japan covers ALIEN VS NINJA and MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD

Variety on ALIEN VS NINJA

Some film blogs in Britain cover COLD FISH from the London Film Festival

Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow reviews COLD FISH
And so does Variety
And so does Film Business Asia

Film Business Asia also reviewed MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD

Twitch gives a mixed review after the premiere of HELLDRIVER

Plus a bunch of coverage from Fantastic Fest this past September and from the New York Asian Film Festival in July

Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow also covered ALIEN VS NINJA

There have also been a bunch of interviews online...

SciFi Japan interviewed producer Yoshinori Chiba

Variety also ran a piece about the label and an interview with Chiba

Geekadelphia interviewed director Noboru Iguchi

And finally, io9 interviewed director Yoshihiro Nishimura


And as always, there's much more to come. Stay tuned!

Film Business Asia reviews ALIEN VS NINJA

Thanks to Derek Elley and Film Business Asia for posting a terrific review of our ALIEN VS NINJA! You can read it via the link from our website.

And readers in Canada and England will soon have a chance to see the film for themselves, at screenings on August 16th at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, and at London's Film4 Frightfest, on August 27th. Please come out and support Sushi Typhoon if you live in either city!

An additional note to fans of crazy Japanese genre cinema: Toronto After Dark will also be screening Noboru Iguchi's ROBO-GEISHA on Sunday, August 15th. Don't miss it! And check out the Toronto After Dark Festival trailer below.

Welcome to The Sushi Typhoon

Welcome! Thanks for visiting our blog. We'll be posting news items and updates to this page that are either too long for, or don't fit in otherwise with our Twitter feed, Facebook page, or website. Nevertheless, feel free to bookmark and visit those other sites, as well!

For the uninitiated, here's what The Sushi Typhoon is all about...

Born in 2010, The Sushi Typhoon is the the upstart, wild offspring of a respectable parent—Nikkatsu Corporation, the oldest film studio in Japan and once home to legendary 1960’s action stars like Joe Shishido, Akira Kobayashi, Tetsuya Watari, Meiko Kaji and Yujiro Ishihara. With a long history of genre films and violent gangster epics, the company was also the leader of Japan’s erotic renaissance of the 1970’s with their Roman Porno line…and now, Nikkatsu’s latest offering, The Sushi Typhoon, takes their century-old extremes to the next level.

The brainchild of veteran producer Yoshinori Chiba, responsible for introducing directors Takashi Miike, Noboru Iguchi and Yoshihiro Nishimura to Western audiences, The Sushi Typhoon seeks to satisfy audiences who crave the good taste of bad taste, and for whom too much is never enough.

The Sushi Typhoon has brought together the best and brightest of Japan’s genre entertainment world, with Miike, Iguchi and Nishimura joined by the festival award-winning Sion Sono, Tak Sakaguchi and Yudai Yamaguchi. A tour-de-force of inventive, boundary-pushing entertainment, the first phase of The Sushi Typhoon’s films will be released in late 2010 and early 2011, with the company self-distributing their titles in North America with the assistance of FUNimation Entertainment, the Texas-based company responsible for releasing some of the best anime titles in America. FUNimation will begin releasing Sushi Typhoon titles to DVD and BluRay in early 2011.

Connoisseurs of dangerous and wild Japanese cinema need look no further to satisfy their hunger for comedy, action, horror, splatter and raucous cult entertainment: The Sushi Typhoon is headed for America’s shores, ready to fill your belly with the raw entertainment you’ve been craving!

Got it? For more fun, you can...

...check out our trailers and Preview Reel at our YouTube Channel.

...look for behind-the-scenes and candid photos from convention and film festival appearances at our Flickr page.

...and learn more about our films on the Movie Pages of our website.

...and for the adventurous or linguistically capable, check out our Japanese language home page and blog, which feature slightly different content than the English versions!

Watch for our films at festivals and conventions throughout the summer, fall and into next year!