Thematically and visually predicts WKW's "In the Mood for Love" - but 10x more badass. Fukusaku knows to bring the action, while always humanizing his cast of beaten down cops, Yakuza and disgraced women.

The shaky, hand held camera gives this color saturated and ultra violent film a total sense of immersion into this foreign, yet wholly familiar world of honor (or lack thereof) among thieves.

A tremendous achievement in the gangster epic. Fukusaku is a master. One of the first and best Radiance restoration and releases.

In my time, I had some bad dates and some really random nights out - but never a Christmas Eve like this! Great tension and mystery and a truly bonkers twist.  

Marthe is definitely alluring enough to keep returning to the scene of the crime.

Tres bon!

Ohhhhhh, I get the title now! 

A fun and demented French noir, where every character is kinda awful and selfish. Jeanne Moreau is the best thing going here by a mile. Really mean and twisty, but maybe 10 mins too long.

Radiance Films out of the UK, has quietly become the boutique blu-ray label I trust most. Heavy on Japanese crime/Samurai tales, Italian neorealism, French noir, and many blind buys that had no business being this good.

As and his “high council of Physical media” noted over and over again on their recent episode - Radiance routinely discovers the lost classics you simply have to see.

I’ve been keeping a running log and ranking of their releases (almost at 90)— which I'll update regularly as I watch more of their releases. These are the current top 10.

Many of these films can be rented from our partners at the Hewlett Woodmere Public Library, which keeps an extensive library of Radiance releases on hand for members.

But we encourage you to check out these amazing films - wherever you can find them.

1. Near Orouët - ★★★★★

   

   Near Orouët blows in through the jasmine of my mind. The most perfect film about summer and young friendship I've ever seen — summer weekends with girls you only kind of knew, where relationships stayed indefinable and blurred with ocean water and music and sun and wine. Rozier captures a feeling so completely you cannot help but feel your own memories intertwining with his characters. An all-time masterpiece.

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2. Il Sorpasso - ★★★★★

   

   So much love and humanity — for people, for family, for the open road, for Italy. I kept thinking of Wild Strawberries, but with less obvious pathos and more "ciao bella." Made me snort with laughter. A classic that deserves to be mentioned alongside Fellini, Visconti, and Rossellini.

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3. The Ghost of Yotsuya - ★★★★½

   

   The last 30 minutes are absolutely insane. Creepy, atmospheric, body horror — you can see how this scared the pants off a generation of Japanese. Scary mostly because the fears are so grounded in real emotions. Jealousy, avarice, and evil at their most elemental.

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4. Misunderstood - ★★★★½

   

   The saddest movie I think I've ever seen.

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5. Big Time Gambling Boss - ★★★★½

   

   A lot more intimate than I was expecting. A good reminder that there is never any honor or code or brotherhood among thieves and murderers. No wonder the Yakuza got a reputation for being cold-blooded.

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6. Sympathy for the Underdog - ★★★★½

   

   The deepest and most badass gangster film I've seen in some time. Cool, ultra-violent, amazing set pieces — but also deep oceans of humanity. Rare that a brutal gang fight leaves you both elated and grief-stricken. A masterpiece of the genre.

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7. The Case Is Closed, Forget It - ★★★★½

   

   It's rare we see cowardice and its fundamental appeal placed at the center of a film. Venzi feints at morality. Presenti is destroyed for his standards — Venzi gets to go off on a yacht. In these times, that's absolutely terrifying.

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8. The Working Class Goes to Heaven - ★★★★½

   

   Who are the masters and who are the slaves? Does it really matter? In an age when we freely give value to our tech overlords, who profits from our attention — who do we really work for? Lulu's eyes light up when he hears he's "the first to be rehired." That's all you need to know. One of the most French Italian movies ever made.

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9. The Bride Wore Black - ★★★★½

   

   Ice-cold revenge about which Klingons would write epic poems. Tarantino's Bride had samurai swords and machine guns and years of ninja training — she still couldn't lay a finger on the OG. Just so badass. Truffaut!

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10. Thieves Like Us - ★★★★½

    

    The platonic ideal of an American realist film. My favorite Shelley Duvall performance of all time. Consumerism, media, the drive for money and fame — so core to the American experience. I will never think of having a Coke and a smile in the same way again.

...plus 77 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Les Fellas Bon! Or not? It drags a bit in the middle, but there’s no denying Jean Gabon’s French variation of Bogey or the truly intense (especially for the 1950’s) gun battles.

Really good start to Radiance’s World Noir 4 box set.

Picture it - Sicily, 1948 - family of sailors tries to better themselves under capitalism in a Visconti film. You can draw your own conclusions!

Visconti always draws Lenin with his lush, loping visuals that sit with our characters and draws out their inferiority through settings. It’s a great trick that works in lush films like the Leopard and Senso, and the more neo-realist films like this.

Still after a bit this felt somewhat tortured for me and Antonio. It’s good to know that in the planned but never shot sequels, he gets his redemption.

Or he could just move to America, where his entrepreneurial spirit and hustle would be rewarded. Especially in ‘48.

Goes as hard as a Japanese women’s prison revenge film from the 1970’s can go. And then some. Damn.

A spiritual heir to the first half of “A Clockwork Orange”. There’s a ton of the ole’ Ultraviolence here, but with Hitchcockian set pieces (Bank Robberies! Trains!) that keep the suspense levels high.

This is a twitchy, beautifully composed, truly dark work of pathos.

I loved it!

A color-saturated tone poem that shows the power and danger of nationalism. One of the most beautiful films of the 21st century period, I can’t help but feel sadness at its ending.

The nameless Hero’s sacrifice for “Our Land” is admirable - but its tale is tragedy from start to finish. Watching this back-to-back with In the Mood for Love and 2046, you get the sense that these are all lost souls destined to circle each other in mythic circumstances both large and small.

Not feeling more comfortable about geopolitics after immersing myself in this and Red Cliff

Dreams upon dreams upon fantasies of the future and the past on Christmas Eve. Dickens ghosts are strong throughout this one. Impeccable vibes. I too dream in vibrant colors and reflections.

One moment of real human connection can change everything - and put the degradation and beauty of the real world in relief. Incredibly sad film, but given the subject matter - how could it be anything else?

Got more action like my man John Woo!

There’s Hard Boiled, Terminator 2, and Die Hard (in that order), a deep chasm and then all other action films.

Cops and robbers as improvised jazz. The action masterpiece that sets the standard for all others. Still the greatest of all time.

Visceral and brutal retelling of retribution and revenge from a discarded and abused wife. These post-War Japanese films have a lot of pathos encoded - from atomic body horror, to the emasculation of defeat and guilt over inflicted horrors. It’s a heady brew that gave us genre classics like Godzilla and humanist masterpieces like Tokyo Story.

This film is much more judgmental towards Japanese society and its “respectable” lords and rich merchant class. Oiwa’s tale becomes one of power and oppression - which is why the righteousness of her abuser’s end feels so satisfying.

Not for the squeamish, but very rewarding for those with a strong stomach for a grim and bloody moral tale.

John Woo’s war epic makes Braveheart look as gentle as Toy Story. How many films have soldiers jumping off horses, catching spears, lighting them on fire and then blowing things up? How many manage to have complete and compelling performances from a lead cast of a dozen?

I sure as hell hope the Russo brothers have sought this out when thinking about how to manage a long and dynamic action film. But who are we kidding?

John Woo is absolute auteurist genius in any language, in any country. What an absolute masterpiece!!!

Watched with Part 2 in 35mm repertory for The Grandmaster: Tony Leung at Film at Lincoln Center

A memory of a love you wish you once had and still yearn for in dreams.

Rock and roll filmmaking! This is so much better than the dreary and dragging Departed - which has never been my favorite Scorsese film. Tony Leung is magnetic as an undercover cop who is losing his identity. But the film’s ability to shift tones from romance, to violent gunplay, to mobster melodrama to slapstick comedy and Hitchcockian thriller is its greatest trick.

An absolute masterpiece!

*Film at Lincoln Center - Tony Leung Tribute Series

A gangster film so good it elevates the entire form. This has it all - operatic love story, balletic gun battles, saturated cinematography David Lynch would luxuriate within.

Tony Leung is so young here - but all the oceans of depth are present right from the beginning. A work of art that has so many layers - with every frame bursting with color or neon or beautiful imagery.

You can see how Wong Kar Wai learned from this mentor.

Amazing!!! A masterpiece!!! Movies!!!

What if Dubliners took place in Hong Kong, but also had martial arts? Find out in this lusciously shot, brilliantly madcap exploration of lost youth - that well, takes some turns!

Reminiscent of Park Chan-Wook in the best possible way, I had no idea where this beautiful film was headed and after the credits rolled, I’m sure of it.

Really powerful exploration of loneliness and alienation in the big city. Tremendous performances and production design that make you feel guilt for being a voyeur on this awkward and sad evening.

New York has always been the loneliest big city in the world, for a certain type. This makes it palpable through a timeless script.

Excellent if quite sad.

A fascinating time capsule of early 2000's anxieties and nightmares. Aviva's journey takes us into the sordid fascinations that have come to dominate our populist era. The freaks, weirdos, religious nuts and angry young men are all here in their larval form - as Aviva goes on an unwanted Odyssey back to suburbia.

Profoundly unsettling in 2026, just to see how little in America has changed to improve the misery and loneliness that leads to so much unhappiness. But I suppose that's what makes it a Palindrome