Takushii Doraibaa

Just when I thought I'd seen everything in Japan, along comes TAXI DRIVER brand sake! That's right: rotgut rice wine with De Niro's wasted, triumphant face on the label. (That's you after polishing off the bottle.)

Is it legit? Bootleg? Beats the hell out of me, but what better way to celebrate the tortured descent of Travis Bickle's shattered psyche than with a fine bottle of cheap sake? 1,500 yen ($12), spotted in a souvenir shop in Morioka station (three hours north of Tokyo by -- fittingly enough --bullet train.)

Comments

[Steve Harrison]

Well, that's about as odd a 'boutique' branding as I've ever seen...

What next, 'Driving Miss Daisy' Udon?

I mean, they don't...they don't put in big ragged 'shouting' Japanese "THE SAKE THAT WILL MAKE YOU SHOOT A PRESIDENT" or some such, do they?

mannnnn.

[MattAlt]

This is the first movie tie-in saké I can remember. We can only pray that a Sonny Chiba vintage is next.

[Steve Harrison]

Well now..Sonny Chiba sake...I just might go for that. I'm not a drinking man, but a booze that promised me the powers of 'The Street Fighter'...that'd be hard to resist.

Course it probably just sneaks up on you like that 'usual blind guy' and just *zzziip* you're done, passed out drunk..

making pithy comments about Japanese pop culture when you don't know jack crap number one about people's names is probably a loser thing to do... GUILTY! I CONFESS! ;)

[JoshB]

We neat a Takeshi Kitano Sake that you have to drink blindfolded.