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SERPENT’S PATH: THE FILMS OF KIYOSHI KUROSAWA returns, and we dive into the third and fourth entries of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s crime-comedy V-cinema series: Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Loot (1996) (Katte ni shiyagare!! Ôgon keikaku) and Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself: The Gamble (1996) (Katte ni shiyagare!! Gyakuten keikaku). Once again we follow low-level criminals Yûji (Sho Aikawa) and Kôsaku (Kôyô Maeda) as they find a treasure map(!), win big at the track, get in trouble with yakuza (of course) and maybe, just maybe, learn a little about themselves. Or not! We look at how Kurosawa’s style is developing, where he’s moving to in his career, and look forward to some VERY interesting developments. CHECK IT OUT!

Our major sources for this episode are:

This Tom Mes interview with Kurosawa from Midnight Eye:

http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/kiyoshi-kurosawa-3/#:~:text=It%20was%20based%20on%20a,I%20actually%20made%20this%20film.

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Check out the Serpent’s Path archive right here.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is coming off a rough patch after controversies around SWEET HOME in 1989 and the financial failure of THE GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND in 1992, but after retreating into television work he’s about to be given a new lifeline in the 90s: V-CINEMA! This straight-to-VHS trend focusing on genre fare ended up being a training ground for a number of favorite directors and Kurosawa dives right in, first with the extremely silly (but quite fun) crime-comedy YAKUZA TAXI, and continuing with the cycling drama (adapted from a Yasuhito Yamamoto manga) MEN OF RAGE. On this episode of SERPENT’S PATH we look at everything Kurosawa was up to, how he ended up on these two films, and detail some of our own frustrations watching them. ENJOY!

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On this rip-roaring episode of Cinema Fantastica we’re traveling to the 2014 (premiere) edition of the Chattanooga Film Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee to pit two festival favs against each other: James Ward Byrkit’s low budget sci-fi mindbender COHERENCE vs Sion Sono’s epic tribute to filmmaking (and “mankind’s greatest achievement”) WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL? Which movie reigns supreme? Listen and find out!