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Stars: Saya Minami, Kenji Shimada, Kaori Kawabuchi, Kei Miura, Nozomi de Lencquesaing, Yoji Yamada, Sawa Masaki, Yasunari Kondo, Ten Miyazawa, Yûki Kuroda, Dylan Davies Tanaka, Dylan Heath, Ayumu Kawashima, Yumiko Dunk | Written by Bill Clare, Addison Heath, Dylan Heath, Jasmine Jakupi | Directed by Addison Heath, Jasmine Jakupi

I’ll be honest, I’m a Huge fan of writer/director Addison Heath’s work – from his script for Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla; to his fantastic directorial debut Under a Kaleidoscope (which I reviewed back in 2014 when it screened at that years MonsterFest); to his most recent film, the superb genre-bending Monda Yakuza; I have enjoyed each and ever one of his movies to no end. So how excited am I for with his latest opus, The Viper’s Hex, another film inspired by Far East cinema? Let’s just say a Lot!

Whilst his previous film, Mondo Yakuza, was clearly inspired by...

Black Forest Films, the Auusie production company behind the awesome Mondo Yakuza and the forthcoming The Viper’s Hex, have announced their next film - The Shinjuku Five.

Set to film in Japan and Australia, The Shinjuku Five is once again written and co-directed, alongside Jasmine Jakupi, by Addison Heath (Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla, Under a Kaleidoscope) and stars Yoji Yamada, Saya Minami, Cris Cochrane, Tim Jason Wicks and Mondo Yakuza star Kenji Shimada. The soundtrack comes from Queensland based The Screaming Meanies, who have provided scores for The Perfect Nonsense, Mondo Yakuza and Stuart Simpson’s kung-fu short Dragon Force.

Check out the poster for The Shinjuku Five below:...

Stars: Kenji Shimada, Glenn Maynard, Skye Medusa, Cris Cochrane, Kristen Condon, Vlady T, Saya Minami, Tom Liddy | Written by Addison Heath, Glenn Maynard, Kenji Shimada | Directed by Addison Heath

A brand-new take on the Japanese Yakuza films of the 1960s, Mondo Yakuza is clearly inspired by the nihilistic work of Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill) in particular. The film tells the story of Ichiro Kataki (Shimada), a violent Yakuza gang member travels to Melbourne, Australia after his beloved sister Yuko is brutally murdered by a group of criminals. Hell bent on vengeance he teams up with Cassidy Arizona (Skye Medusa), a lady of the night with a vendetta of her own…

Seijun Suzuki’s prolific work in the yakuza genre was marked by a few things: his visual flair, the often avant-garde nature of his movies, sheer coolness… and actor Joe Shishido; who appeared in a number of Suzuki’s movies,...

Australia’s premier genre film festival Monster Fest wrapped its most successful edition to date last night in Melbourne with official closing film The Greasy Strangler (with actors Sky Elobar and Elizabeth De Razzo in person) followed by its annual awards ceremony acknowledging the best of this year’s impressive lineup.

The features jury, consisting of Fantastic Fest head programmer Evrim Ersoy, filmmaker Donna McRae and longtime screen critic Simon Foster awarded the festival’s top prize, The Golden Monster, to Julia Ducournau’s Raw, with Ducournau in person to accept her award, beautifully designed and sculpted by Rain Gidley Studios. Raw also walked away with an honour for best FX.

“Monsters Choice” audience awards also went to two of Nerdly’s current favourite Ozploitation filmmakers: Stuart Simpson (Monstro!, Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla) for his short Dragon Force; and Addison Heath (Under a Kaleidoscope) for his new feature Mondo Yakuza.

The...

Welcome to the latest edition of our regular crowdfunding feature here on Nerdly – Back This! – where we take a look at some of the cool content taking the crowdfunding route on sites such as Indiegogo, Sponsume and Kickstarter. This month we’re spotlighting two very different projects, yet two projects which share a common theme: movies.

The Viper’S Hex

The Viper’s Hex is a feature length Japanese horror film set in Tokyo. The film sets out to explore the psyche of Kiyo, a cursed and lonely hostess who falls pregnant to a foreigner named Anchin. The story is loosely based on the 11th century Yokai folklore tale named Kiyohime. It will be the fourth feature film by Black Forest Films – the teams behind Chocolate, Strawberry Vanilla, Under A Kaleidoscope, Lowlife Love, Mondo Yakuza and The Perfect Nonsense.

Kiyo, a cursed and lonely hostess is shunned by society. She...

Addison Heath.s Under a Kaleidoscope and Timothy Spanos.s Sizzler .77 tied for best film at the 16th annual Melbourne Underground Film Festival.

Named as best international film was Terry McMahon.s Patrick.s Day, the chronicle of a young man with mental health issues who becomes intimate with a suicidal flight attendant, prompting his obsessive mother to enlists a dysfunctional cop to separate them, featuring Kerry Fox, Moe Dunford, and Philip Jackson.

Under a Kaleidoscope stars Kenji Shimada, Kristen Condon, Aston Elliot, Tim Jason Wicks and Glenn Maynard in the saga of two brothers and a female neighbour who begin a voyage of discovery through the small hole in the wall that secretly joins the two apartments.

Sizzler .77 follows a crime war on Melbourne.s streets as two cops are forced to don frocks and go undercover as trannies in order to infiltrate a gang, featuring Alan King, Teri Yeboah,...

Director-writer Addison Heath is such a fan of classic Japanese gangster movies his next film is entitled Mondo Yakuza.

Due to start shooting in Melbourne in August, the micro-budgeted film will star Australian-born Kenji Shimada as Ichiro Kataki, a violent Yakuza gang member in Japan.

When his younger sister is murdered in Melbourne, he sets out to wreak vengeance on those responsible and teams up with Cassidy Arizona (Skye Korvin), a lady of the night who is on her own vendetta.

Glenn Maynard will play Ryan Beckett, a sadistic, mid-level criminal with a thirst for violent torture, whose days are numbered.

Shimada and Maynard appeared in Heath.s debut feature, Under a Kaleidoscope, which premiered at last year.s Monster Fest, where it was voted best Australian feature.

For the key support roles Addison is holding auditions in Melbourne on July 4. He describes it as .a violent action film which...

Stars: Kenji Shimada, Kristen Condon, Aston Elliot, Damien Vennell, Tim Jason Wicks, Glenn Maynard | Written and Directed by Addison Heath

Addison Heath, writer of the recently released Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla, re-teams with some of the cast from that film – including Kristen Condon, Aston Elliot and a scene-stealing Glenn Maynard (as a crazy TV evangelist) – for his feature film directorial debut Under a Kaleidoscope, a film which is less of a traditional narrative tale and more a look at life through an LSD haze.

The crux of the film deals with Caleb Loomis (Shimada) an agoraphobic twenty-something who spends his days making UFO movies with cardboard props, eating baked beans, smoking weed and downing an unhealthy amount of LSD. One afternoon, after hearing his neighbour Beatrice (Condon) being being abused for the umpteenth time, he strikes up a friendship with her through a hole in the wall…

I say crux of...