Tak Sakaguchi Movies
- 2009
Adapted from the outrageous manga by Hiroshi Takahashi, this sequel to Crows Zero continues the story of Takiya Genji, the son of a powerful yakuza boss who transfers to the gang-ridden Suzuran All-Boys High School with one goal in mind: unite the school's many, warring gangs under one banner, and prove to his father that he can handle the family business. Unfortunately, he has some competition in the form of Serizawa Tamao, a gang leader also known as "King of the Beasts." ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shun Oguri, Takayuki Yamada, (more)
- 2008
A typical Japanese schoolgirl becomes a full-fledged zombie fighter when she travels to the countryside for a visit with her grandfather, and discovers his village has been overrun with the living dead. Rika almost made it to her grandfather's house in one piece, but a run in with some particularly hungry flesh-eaters left her half the girl she used to be. Fortunately for Rika, Grandpa Ryuhei is a talented surgeon. In the process of patching his granddaughter up, Ryuhei goes one step further and turns Rika into the ultimate zombie fighting machine. But Rika's ordeal isn't over just yet, because Zombie Boss Glorian is still out there and thirsting for vengeance. Perhaps with a little help from her friends Takashi and Yuji Rika will finally lay waste to the lowest of the low, and somehow find the time to keep up her good grades. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2008
A pleasant day trip turns into a blood-spattered nightmare in this extreme horror vehicle from actor and director Tak Sakaguchi. A happy family is taking a trip to the country when their mini-van is sidelined by a pair of angry criminals intent upon taking the vehicle and any valuables inside. The crooks lead the family into what looks like an abandoned village in the woods, but they quickly discover they picked the wrong place to pull a carjacking -- this section of the forest is patrolled by Yoroi, an undead samurai who has not lost his talent for killing even though he's been deceased for quite some time. Yoroi doesn't distinguish between heroes and villains, and soon everyone involved is fighting for their lives against the undying warrior with the deadly sword. Yoroi: Samurai Zonbi (aka Youoi: The Samurai Zombie) was an official selection at the 2009 New York Asian Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2007
In a stark depiction of the dissatisfaction that followed the demise of 60's idealism, United Red Army follows the story of the titular leftwing Japanese terrorist group that came together in 1972 as two pre-existing groups merged. Interspersed with large amounts of archival footage and employing a semi-pseudo-documentary style, the film visits upon the key historical figures and events that led to the United Red Army eventually purging much of its membership, leading five student radicalists to hole up in the Asano mountain lodge in Nagano Prefecture in a standoff against the police. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Akie Namiki, Arata, (more)
A fearsome samurai hungering for the ultimate challenge is forced to do battle with a powerful temple monk intent on preventing ultimate destruction in an action-packed swordplay adventure in which the fate of the world lies in a mysterious coffin. Grave (Tak Sakaguchi) is a samurai whose power is unequaled by mortal man. In his desperate quest to find a suitable foe with whom to do battle, Grave steals an ancient coffin from the Tougan Temple said to contain the mythical Goddess of Destruction. Now, as Grave drags the coffin across the countryside in search of a way to pry it open and unleash the power contained inside, a temple monk charged with the task of ensuring the safety of mankind sets out to stop Grave from freeing the Goddess of Destruction even if it means sacrificing his own life in the process. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tak Sakaguchi
Yudai Yamaguchi, who worked with Ryuhei Kitamura on the screenplays for Versus and Alive, makes his directorial debut with the low-budget zombie sports musical comedy Battlefield Baseball. The prospects for the new season are looking bright for the Seido High baseball team. With their best hitter, Gorilla, leading the squad, the coach anticipates a successful year, despite the presence of the runty Four Eyes (Atsushi Ito). But then the coach finds out that his team has to play the dreaded murderous zombie team from Gedo High, a team that makes up its own deadly rules, and he considers forfeiting the entire season. But a new student, the intriguingly named Jubeh the Baseball (Tak Sakaguchi, who has appeared in several of Kitamura's films), shows up and demonstrates his amazing baseball prowess in a fight with the local gang of dropouts. Jubeh's arrival renews the team's hopes, but when Four Eyes asks him to play, Jubeh explains, in a heartrending musical number, the tragic reason why he's vowed never to play baseball again. Four Eyes sees through Jubeh's pain to his genuine love for the game, and convinces him to help the team. But on the day of the big game against Gedo High, Jubeh finds himself in jail, and Gorilla and the rest of the Seido team try to forge ahead, with horrific results. Jubeh eventually gets out of jail, and with the help of some unlikely allies, takes on the Gedo team in a bloody showdown. Battlefield Baseball, based on a manga by Gatarô Man, was shown at the 2004 New York Asian American Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Evil Dead 2 meets Street Fighter by way of The Matrix in this wild and woolly zombie/yakuza/samurai/kung fu/splatter flick directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. Throughout the world there are 666 portals to the other side; the 444th is Japan and is called the Forest of Resurrection, where good has battled evil for time immemorial. The film opens with prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi) and his fellow cellmate escaping a maximum-security prison and ending up in the forest where they are supposedly to be picked up by a band of gangsters in a shiny Mercedes and taken to a safer place. Instead, the gangsters try to use them and a female hostage (Chieko Misaka) as pawns in a larger power struggle. A gunfight ensues killing KSC2-303's colleague and the mob boss, but just as the standoff is about to yield more violence, an odd thing happens -- the dead get up and attack the living. In the chaos, KSC2-303 and girl disappear into the forest with a band of slickly coifed yakuza in hot pursuit. High-kicks, machine guns, and rampant disembowelments ensue. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, (more)
In the years before he struck big as the writer of the action/horror hit Versus and the director of Battlefield Baseball, Japanese filmmaker Yudai Yamaguchi teamed with charismatic then-unknown Tak Sakaguchi for this series of outrageous and outlandish experimental vignettes. The laughs come fast and furious in a collectionj of surreal comedy clips featuring energetic rock and roll music, slapstick mayhem, and an abundance of juvenile humor. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
