Tokyoscope: The Japanese Cult Film Corporation [Paperback]

Did you know that Samuel L. Jackson's Biblical speech in Pulp Fiction was borrowed from the brain-damaged Sonny Chiba karate flick The Bodyguard? Or that the design for the Smog Monster in Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster was based on a bathroom sketch of female anatomy? TokyoScope is a densely packed and illustrated volume full of trivia, biographies, poster art, and reviews of some 100 of the top films to see. It provides an attractive and accessible introduction to the world's most notorious movies and is an indispensable reference that belongs in the library of any true cult film fan.

Battle Royale director Kinji Fukasaku, who penned the Foreword to TokyoScope, writes, "In this book you will find as good an analysis of what we were trying to do as I have ever read. Patrick Macias has written very keenly and with much understanding about Japanese films, mine included."

"In this book you will find as good an analysis of what we were trying to do as I have ever read. Patrick Macias has written very keenly and with much understanding about Japanese films, mine included." ‹Kinji Fukasaku, director of Battle Royale

"When it comes to Japanese cinema, there are quite a few books out there if you want to know a lot about Godzilla or Akira Kurosawa. But if you want to know about yakuza films, or great actors like Sonny Chiba and Bunta Sugawara, or Kinji Fukasaku, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, then there's really only one book to turn to‹TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion. An invaluable treasure chest of information regarding films practically unknown to Western audiences, TokyoScope will open you up to a whole new world of cult cinema. Author Patrick Macias writes with an authority that is both informed and entertaining without ever coming across as stuffy or overly academic. Macias is obviously a film fan writing to other film fans, and the only short coming of his book is that over two hundred pages it just isn't long enough.TokyoScope is the best film book to come along this year." ‹David Walker, Bad Azz Mofo

"This authentic recovery of the previously scorned underside of Japanese exploitation cinema delivers the material the way we enthusiasts like it‹ obsessively researched, breathlessly detailed, and jam-packed with critical insights. The writing fairly ripples with specialized intelligence, subcult savvy, and just the right amount of irony‹irresistibly seducing us into the restless and garishly neon-lit Shinjuku streets. Macias¹ unapologetic embrace of this aggressively outsider cinema bursts with bold graphics and bolder adjectives. At last resituates the works against the true psychic tensions of the time‹a search for a national mythology of honor and identity against the angst of a too rapidly modernizing metropolis."

‹Craig Baldwin, director of Tribulation 99