Violent Streets | Limited Edition | Blu-ray

Hideo Gosha is a bit like John Frankenheimer of Sidney Lumet to me. Rarely mentioned as one of the all time greats, but a browse through their filmography will turn up a number of films that deserve to be recognized among cinema's great classics.

Initially, Gosha was an instrumental part of the transformative shift of Samurai cinema from chivalrous tales of court intrigue into gritty stories of unscrupulous ronin. Movies like Three Outlaw Samurai, Goyokin and Sword of the Beast are 60s classics.

Violent Streets is part of Gosha's shift into crime thrillers in the 1970s. A kinetic, exploitation-tinged Yakuza film starring actual former Yakuza gangster-turned-actor Noboru Ando. It's a bloody, brutal film, not necessarily suitable for sensitive viewers, but highly memorable for anyone looking for more classic Japanese cinema gems.

Special Features (via vinegarsyndrome.com)

• Tattooed Director: Hideo Gosha featurette with Tomoe Gosha
• A Street That Can’t Be Beat video essay by TokyoScope author Patrick Macias
• 16-page booklet with a new essay by Japanese film expert Mark Schilling
• English subtitles