Great new Japanese film/TV releases coming soon!

Hello all my fellow fans of Japanese film and TV soundtracks!

It seems its been rather slow lately, but things are about to pick up with Hotwax/Solid records anouncing several great new releases that will be out in the next few months!

First off is a new Hotwax compilation called "Toei Collection: Jinginaki Tatakai theme collection". This series of films is the grandaddy of all Yakuza films series. However, I wonder if it will have any new material being released, as there is, of course, the VAP CD and the Vol. 1 of the Bunta Sugawara Toei works collection that has the complete scores for 4 of the films.

Next (actually to be released before the above CD on 7/21) is a "music file" collection of the 1975 Sonny Chiba show "Gorilla 7". I think this is the first release of any of the BGM music, the only other release was the theme to the show on a 7" record.

The most exciting releases to me are 2 new CD's in a new Hotwax CD series called "Hotwax trax composer series". The first highlights two films scored by Kaburagi So. If you bought the AWESOME Hotwax book "Queen of Japanese Cinema" which came with the bonus CD containing the (almost) complete score of "Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter" then you will be excited to know that this CD also contains this score. And like me, you are probably hoping that it will contain bonus material like the conspicuously missing "Main theme". The other score is to another Nikkatsu "bad girl" flick "Bad Girl Mako" starring Natsu Junko. Previously the only music available was a short track on Go! Cinemania vol. 3 "Walk on the Wild Side".

The second of this yet unreleased series is a mystery to me as I've never heard of either of the films on it. The focus of the disc itself is two films scored by Kunihiko Murai (who of course scored some of the Lone Wolf and Cub films). The two films seem to be related and are both called "Yaju" (Yaju Shi Subeshi Fukusho no Mekaniku and Yajukari). It sounds promising tho, and like all Hotwax releases, it should be great.

Finally for you Tokusatsu fans VAP is releasing an EXTENDED 2 disc music file of the classic Tsubaraya mystery/horror TV show "Kaikei Daisakusen". The older single disc released many years ago is hard to find (it took me a while to track down a copy) and usually sells for $70 - $100 (US) in Japan! If you have a all region DVD and can understand Japanese, pick up a copy of any of the 6 DVDs that comprise the whole series. It should appeal to fans of such shows as "Ultra Q" or "Fear Theater Unbalanced". Sorry there are no links for now, but as these CD's are released you can be sure that I will post links for you guys!

- Eric Yee

erictyee, July 10, 2007; 7:59 AM