The Guard From Underground Review

Though Kiyoshi Kurosawa is now one of Japan's most respected film makers this was not always the case. Like most Japanese directors Kurosawa cut his teeth in the straight-to-video market, doing contract work for different studios cranking out low grade genre flicks on tight shooting schedules and even tighter budgets. The idea is to have a director prove himself able to work efficiently before putting them in charge of theatrical work and most good directors work their way through the ranks quickly. But not Kurosawa. After a highly public blow up with an older, better known and well respected director who had altered his work without permission, Kurosawa was locked in a v-cinema hell. Considered risky and hard to control he had to scrabble for work and spent much longer in the v-cinema world than most directors of his obvious skill would ever have to. If not for a screenwriting award from the Sundance Institute Kurosawa would likely never have had the chance to make Cure, the breakout film that got him out of v-cinema for good.