Sorry I’ve been absent the last couple of days - my day job’s been kicking my ass the last week or so, but I felt the need to comment on the recent passing of Japanese actor Ken Ogata.

The first time I remember seeing Ogata was in Paul Schraeder’s flat-out-amazing biopic Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. Despite the fact that he didn’t really look like Yukio Mishima, Ogata projected his presence in a way that I’d rarely seen in biographical film. Unfortunately, Ogata was never very well-known in the West, which is truly a shame.

Fortunately, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters was recently released as part of the venerated Criterion Collection, so this is as good an opportunity to familiarize yourself with his work as any. You won’t be disappointed.

Manila-born director and producer Cirio Santiago died of lung cancer on Friday. Santiago directed and produced dozens of films both here and in his native Philippines. Among his efforts were T.N.T. Jackson, Bloodfist 1 and 2 (starring Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson’) and the drive-in classic She-Devils in Chains. Not surprisingly, Quentin Tarantino counted Santiago among his many influences.

Here are a few samples of Santiago’s work:

Final Mission (1984)

Wheels of Fire (1985)

Savage (1973)

Boing Boing notes that Japanese artist Nagi Noda, who directed the video for Yuki’s ‘Sentimental Journey’ (embedded below) died earlier this week. Noda apparently suffered ongoing complications from a car accident some time ago, but it’s not clear whether the accident was ultimately responsible for her demise.

Fans of exploitative martial arts films will surely remember the Barry Gordy-produced shlock-fest The Last Dragon. Sadly, actor Julius Carry - who memorably portrayed the baddie Sho’nuff opposite leading man Taimak - died of pancreatic cancer two days ago at the age of 56. Carry never really moved up to the a-list, but genre fans will also remember his stint as Lord Bowler on the short-lived (though much beloved) Bruce Campbell vehicle The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.

Professional-wrestler-turned-restauranter Hiroaki ‘Rocky’ Aoki, founder of the Benihana chain of Japanese restaurants, died two days ago at the age of 70. Cause of death is noted as pneumonia. I’m sure that Benihana was for many an American their first taste of Japanese food, even if the menu doesn’t feature many of the more exotic selections of the Japanese diet.

I remember my brothers and I once went to Benihana to eat one afternoon a few years ago, and my father (who himself is in the restaurant business and seems to know everyone else in the biz for a 100-mile radius) found out that our tableside chef was in fact Filipino. After a spirited conversation in Tagalog, it soon turned out that every Asian employee of the restaurant was likewise Filipino - an irony I was quick to recognize.

That has nothing to do with Mr. Aoki, but its’ my fondest memory of Benihana. It’s also worth noting that Mr. Aoki’s daughter, Devon Aoki, portrayed the silent assassin Miho in Robert Rodriguez’ film adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City.

Damn, three obits in one day. That’s some sort of record, for sure. Thankfully, however, this one is for a magazine, not a person - the magazine in question being PiQ, which was supposed to carry the torch for the late, lamented Newtype USA.

A recent post on PIQ’s website sadly proclaims that the July issue (presumably available now) is to be the last.

It’s unfortunate that we’ll never get a chance to see how successful PiQ could have been, but a combination of low advertising revenue, poor business management and a lack of proper marketing and promotion all hamstrung the magazine from the start. We, the editorial/creative/production staff, did the best we could to put together a quality publication, but as we’ve discovered, without a good financial backing, it’s all an exercise in futility.

For those readers that were just starting to get behind the magazine, the staff of PiQ gives a hearty “thank you” to all of you for your support. To those of you who subscribed (or were formerly subscribed to NTUSA), more details will be coming soon.

To be completely frank, PIQ was fine for what it was, but it was a really odd move to try and fill Newtype’s shoes by catapulting off in some completely tangential direction. Newtype filled a very narrow, albeit deep, niche and PiQ was not in any way a panacea for those who mourned its’ passing.

Hate to be a bummer with all the obits, but I just found out that Battle Royale II, Kamen Rider, and Sailor Moon actress Miyuki Kanbei died of heart failure at the all-too-young age of 24. Unless she was doing an Amy Winehouse, it sounds like something congenital. At any rate, it’s a damn shame.

From her Wiki entry:

She is best remembered for her role in the Sailor Moon musicals as Usagi Tsukino; other credits include Battle Royale II (2003), Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (theme songs, 2003), Kamen Rider Hibiki (2005-2006) and the related movie Kamen Rider Hibiki & The Seven Fighting Demons (2005).

Kanbe was cast in the role of Eponine in the Japanese production of Les Miserables, but was forced to give it up due to poor health in February of 2007. Since then, she had been in and out of the hospital until her death in Kawasaki City on June 18, 2008 at 4:08 am. The cause of death is cited as sudden heart failure.

Here’s a commercial of Ms. Kanbei shilling for - well, something or other…

We’ll miss you, buddy…

If you haven’t guessed by the frequency of gaming-related posts, I’m an RPG nerd…of course, I mean that in the best way possible. So I was a bit saddened last night when my buddy Ed informed me that Erick Wujcik, co-founder of Palladium and game designer behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness and the nigh-legendary Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game passed away on Saturday evening.

Aside from his pen-and-paper game design work, Wujcik spent time in the computer game industry, working on Sierra’s Return to Krondor and Alter Echo.

Our condolences go out to Mr. Wujcik’s friends and family.

As Ed pointed out to me, it’s been quite a crummy year for the game industry, insofar as game developers shuffling-off their mortal coils is concerned.

Tartan USA, the North American branch of UK distributor Tartan Films, has ceased operations according to IGN. I’m fairly disappointed by this - Tartan USA’s Asia Extreme label was responsible for some really remarkable Stateside DVD releases, including Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Shinya Tsukamoto’s A Snake of June, A Tale of Two Sisters, Natural City, and a whole slew of other great flicks.

One assumes that most of these films will find new distribution, but it sure sucks to see a good company go the way of the dodo. If you’re looking for any of the films they had rights to, you might want to grab them while you can. At the very least, you’ll want to nab the excellent 3-disc Oldboy tin…it’s worth every penny.

Thanks for the good times, Tartan! You’ll be missed (sniffle)…