Heat Wave (Japan, 1991)

A woman follows in her late father's footsteps and becomes a gambler, only to meet her father's murderer at a game.

Heat Wave (a.k.a. Kagero) doesn't bring a whole lot of new twists to the world of cinema but it's still a tense thriller which after a fateful confrontation ends in a flaming and well-choreographed brawl. The setting of a suspenseful card game is definitely reminiscent of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, and I think it's a brilliant concept when two adversaries have no choice but to fight each others wits when there's people and witnesses around. I also enjoyed the surprise of seeing Tatsuya Nakadai in a prevalent role. 

Genre: Crime/Drama

High and Low (Japan, 1963)

A wealthy businessman is told his son has been kidnapped and he will have to pay a very large sum for him to be returned safely. It is then discovered that his son is safe at home: the kidnapper took his chauffeur's son by accident. The kidnapper says this makes no difference: pay up or the child dies. This leaves him with a moral dilemma, as he really needs the money to conclude a very important business deal.

Akira Kurosawa thought his big thriller High and Low was gonna reduce the number of kidnappings in Japan and act like some sort of deterrence, instead, to his big surprise, he was criticized for their increase. High and Low is a suspenseful detective story where everything that easily could have been a slog to watch are exciting and really invites you to follow the bread crumbs. The cast is once again a Kurosawa's Greatest Hits with Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai and Takashi Shimura in the lead roles, all contributing in making this noir something truly special.

Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery

Sword of Doom (Japan, 1966)

Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai without compassion or scruples. When he is scheduled for an exhibition match at his fencing school, the wife of his opponent begs Ryunosuke to throw the match, offering her own virtue in trade. Ryunosuke accepts her offer, but kills her husband in the match. Over time, Ryunosuke is pursued by the brother of the man he killed.

Tatsuya Nakadai (Harakiri, Yojimbo) stars in this dark samurai film in a role that's somewhat rare in this genre; a creepy, murderous  yet calm man who've lost all compassion for his fellow humans. Nakadai gives a composed portrayal of this psychopath but we still feel the raw intensity in him, and his large piercing eyes makes one hell of a first impression. Toshiro Mifune joins in on the action further into the film (in a beautiful show-off fight scene) but his Yojimbo co-star Nakadai  is the who steals the show. It all erupts in of the best sword fights of the jidaigeki genre.

It all ends abruptly, and the reason is that there was supposed to be two sequels but they were scrapped, but it all still amounts to a fantastic film nonetheless. I've also heard that the film studio pulled the plug because the sequel would be too violent, and that makes it much more frustrating. 

Genre: Action/Drama