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Ecstasy of the Angels | 
 enlarge | Director: Koji Wakamatsu
Actors: Ken Yoshizawa, Rie Yokoyama, Yuki Arasa, Masao Adachi, Michio Akiyama
Studio: Image Entertainment
Category: DVD
Buy New: $45.48
New (3) Used (6) Collectible (1) from $32.99
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 91283
Format: Black & White, Color, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), Japanese (Original Language), Japanese (Dubbed)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 88 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 014381896527
EAN: 0014381896527
ASIN: B000051S7H
Theatrical Release Date: June 1997
Release Date: December 26, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: This is the RARE & OUT OF PRINT Dvd of ECSTASY OF THE ANGELS (OFFICIAL IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT DVD). Dvd is BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED. I am a person, not a company, so my items are ALWAYS in stock and are from my personal collection (a smoke-free home). I am also a Dvd Expert and deal primarily in Rare Dvds, so rest assured you will be getting the real thing. Dvd was purchased at a store in Arizona, is Region 1, and most definitely not a bootleg/copy/import. I'm an experienced seller and have had perfect feedback online for over 4 years, so please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
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Description
The '60s are definitely over in director Koji Wakamatsu's outrageous look at the Japanese radical movement. A group of oversexed militants (named after the days of the week) try to steal weapons from a U.S Army base--Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are killed. Slowly, the surviving group members realize they've been betrayed by their own organization, and begin to wreak sexual and political anarchy on everything in sight. Between the 1960's and early 1970's, Japanese cinema literally exploded with some of the greatest genre filmmaking ever seen--a mindbending Cinemascope paradise of samurai swordfests, crazed yakuza thrillers and low-budget erotica. In conjunction with the American Cinematheque, Image Entertainment presents this rarely-seen Japanese cult film.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Wakamatsu: A Whole New Dessert March 3, 2008
Eileen Corder (West Coast)
In a rare and most informing interview included on this DVD (for which I give five stars) director Wakamatsu Koji says plainly and with conviction that his movies rewrite film grammar. Soft-spoken with an impish grin, his manner reveals a moxy, an intelligence, an innovator who was drawn to filmmaking in such an unlikely manner that his low-budget and stylish films are to studio pictures like an Outsider painting is to Western Art. There is a profusion of sex and violence, but in the end, they seem more like a rite of passage, a breaking down of barriers, an initiation into his perspective on the world. Ecstasy of the Angels continually surprised me with satire, humor, and a strong, yet understated pathos. And, cinematically, the fistful of unexpected explosions of color, jabbed like punctuation marks into an otherwise black & white film, hooked me good.
Although Wakamatsu has made over 100 films in the last 45 years, several of which he talks about in this DVD interview, they are rarely screened in the U.S. outside film festivals. Working as a construction worker before he began his film career in 1963, he nonetheless made a stir at the 1965 Berlin Film Festival with his Secrets Behind the Wall, which competed for the Golden Bear, no less. A major influence in Japan's pink (soft porn) film movement, his subjects often revolve around politics, murder and sex. In the West he is potentially best known for his role in producing In the Realm of the Senses.
His new film, United Red Army, recently won two prizes at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival, the C.I.C.A.E./Arte Award and the Netpac (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award. At present there are less than a handful of his films available, but with these new accolades, perhaps more of Wakamatsu's art will make its way to us. I hope so because discovering the art of Wakamatsu Koji isn't like finding a new flavor of ice cream, it's like stumbling upon a whole new dessert.
 Successful? March 5, 2001
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
An interesting film that I don't believe was entirely successful. The premise, a revolutionary group recognized by rank and function by the names of days, months and seasons that falls apart and betrays itself, is a clever one, but the dialogue is often too repetitive and cryptic to draw you in further. I'd like to see more from this director, but I think this film fell short its mission. I saw the VHS version so I can't comment on the DVD extras, if there are any or not.
Not bad... Not bad. January 15, 2001
James E Byrd III (Charlotte, NC United States)
1 out of 19 found this review helpful
Part of the Japanese Outlaw Masters series that played at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles last year. I hear that the great Female Convinct Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 was by far the highlight, but if this is even half as good, I want to own it. Directed by Koji Wakamatsu.
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