Budo: The Art of Killing his native Japan until he came across Arthur Davis, an American film exhibitor who ran a distribution company in Tokyo. Davis stated he funded the film out of the respect and gratitude he felt towards Japan. "The Art of Killing" won first prize at the 1978 Miami International Film Festival, but did not find an American distribution deal until 1981, when it was acquired by Crown International Pictures and received a limited release in 1982 under the title "Budo". The film eventually got a VHS release through Prism Entertainment which helped build its cult status among Japanese martial arts practitioners
What Is a Man Without a Moustache? Times" had also expressed opinions of a divided nature. He called the film "pleasant if inconsequential", offered an opinion that it contains "good-natured sensibility" and a "slightly fabulous tone" while still feeling like "magic realism, without the magic", and concluded his review by stating that "the pleasant pointless of it all is laced with a tantalizing tease of allegory suggested by the dialectical twins and the strain of mellow nationalism in the dialogue." Reviewing the film for "TV Guide", Maitland McDonagh awarded the film three stars out of four calling it "sardonic" and "absurdist". What Is a Man Without a