Third Window Films

[Calvin]

Listening to that section of the podcast again, it seems that it's not a definite that they'll be boxed up together and Adam will be canvassing for views as to whether it should be a box set or separate releases. What links them is a common rightsholder - they all seem to have been released on Blu-Ray in Japan by Kadokawa.

Arrow presumably doesn't have much of an interest in Obayashi as they've licensed quite extensively from the Kadokawa catalog without touching these. They didn't licence any of his three films for ATG either.

[yoloswegmaster]

Apparently the following titles were revealed to be getting a release sometime this year on the same podcast that revealed the Obayashi titles:

Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
Summertime Machine Blues
Suicide Club

[yoshimori]

Suicide Club

!!

[Finch]

TWF have announced some of the titles on their 2022 schedule:

Hiruko The Goblin (January)
Crazy Thunder Road (February)
Funky Forest/Warped Forest (March)
Zokki (April)
Onoda: 10,000 Nights In The Jungle (May)
Summertime Machine Blues (June/July)
Suicide Club (Aug/Sept)
Nohubiko Obayashi 4 film set (Nov)

imdb entries for the newly announced titles:

Zokki (2020)
Summertime Machine Blues (2005)
Onoda: 10,000 Nights In The Jungle (2021)

[yoloswegmaster]

The Kitano titles are going to be OOP soon (Hana-bi/Kikujiro/Dolls - very soon; Kids Return/Scene at the Sea - end of this year). You can buy each title for £6 each or but 4 for £20 on Terracotta

[hearthesilence]

The Kitano titles are going to be OOP soon (Hana-bi/Kikujiro/Dolls - very soon; Kids Return/Scene at the Sea - end of this year). You can buy each title for £6 each or but 4 for £20 on Terracotta

For those who can play region A, Film Movement's edition of Hana-bi should have noticeably better encoding than Third Window's.

[ryannichols7]

good deal for the UK but not so much US (or elsewhere most likely) - untracked shipping is 10.60GBP and they say 21-60 days, goes up a tenner from there. damn shame as I'd love to take part in this, hopefully they last until the next Arrow sale (end of March?)

[dwk]

I wonder if that rumored Arrow set is just going to be these titles.

[Finch]

Adam Torel said TWF would like to renew but the Kitano films are changing their sales agent so he has no idea how this is going to pan out. They have not been picked up by anyone else at this point and Adam would be surprised if they went quickly to another label as most companies would wait for the original stock to deplete. The other question is, even if someone else got them, would they be willing to do a restoration of these as the masters are getting long in the teeth by now and would the films' owners even let them (given it's Japanese companies we're talking about here)? And yes, the US Film Movement edition of Hana-Bi is the disc to get if you're region free.

[Finch]

Adam confirmed two Katushito Ishii titles and one Gen Sekuguchi film which are also going to be released by Spectrum in France: Sharkskin Man and Peach Hep Girl, Party 7 and Survivor Style 5+.

The latter actually had a UK DVD as this cineoutsider review shows.

[colinr0380]

I was actually recently hoping for Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl to turn up somewhere as that is the one that has fallen out of availability. I remember reading about it decades ago in, I think, Manga Mania magazine, mostly because the strange wordy title made it stick in my head (though a couple of years after that I began to get it confused with the Robert Rodriguez family film The Adventures of Shark-Boy and Lava Girl, which is an entirely different thing!)

I have that UK DVD of Survive Style 5+ that was one of the few live action films that Manga Video put out (Shinya Tsukamoto's Tokyo Fist back in the VHS days was the big one that I most treasured!), and it probably only happened because Vinnie Jones is, for some inexplicable reason, in the cast!

It will be interesting to see what the upgrade does for Party 7. I picked up the over a decade old US DVD edition from Synapse quite recently to go with the Third Window edition of The Taste of Tea, so it is still available in that form, but certainly would benefit from an upgrade.

[Orlac]

Put "Shark" in the title and I'm there...

...well, I was before all those Sharknado films came out.

[rapta]

I have that UK DVD of Survive Style 5+ that was one of the few live action films that Manga Video put out, and it probably only happened because Vinnie Jones is, for some inexplicable reason, in the cast!

I actually got sent a DVD of this film to review way back when, and had no idea Vinnie Jones would show up. I can't remember much about the film but vaguely remember his scene. Be curious to see it again though!

[Calvin]

Third Window have confirmed that their upcoming Obayashi box set will come with a booklet and, with regards to his early short films, they're "asking his daughter about them, but not sure about the materials. we'll see"

Fingers crossed they can work something out - obviously new HD transfers would be wonderful, but realistically if SD is the only option to finally get any of Dandanko, The Girl in the Picture, Onomichi, and Confession on disc with English subtitles then I'll take it.

[yoloswegmaster]

Amazon Preorder link

A limited edition 4 disc digipack bluray set of 4 films from legendary Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi. Limited to just 2000 copies and includes a booklet by Ren Scateni and Joseph Kime. Disc 1: School in the Crosshairs ねらわれた学園 (1981) Special Features: Selected audio commentary by Aaron Gerow, Interview with Chigumi Obayashi, Translation Notes by Owen Baron, Original Theatrical Trailer Disc 2: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time 時をかける少女 (1983) Special Features: Archival interview with Nobuhiko Obayashi, Tomoyo Harada Story: Audition and Behind the Scenes, Music Video, Original Theatrical Trailer Disc 3: The Island Closest to Heaven天国にいちばん近い島 (1984) Special Features: Audio Commentary by Samm Deighan, Video Essay: “Obayashi - Femininity in Transition” by Robert Edwards, Original Theatrical Trailer Disc 4: His Motorbike, Her Island 彼のオートバイ、彼女の島 (1986) Special Features: Audio Commentary by Tom Mes, Archival interview with Nobuhiko Obayashi, Original Theatrical Trailer BLU-RAY CONTENTS • Interviews with Nobuhiko Obayashi • Multiple audio commentaries • Video essays • Limited to 2000 copies • Includes booklet by Ren Scateni and Joseph Kime

[Michael Kerpan]

Will this get a US release? Or do we need to order from the UK?

[Calvin]

Will this get a US release? Or do we need to order from the UK?

It's a UK release but I expect that DiabolikDVD will stock it.

[yoloswegmaster]

Preorder from Terracotta for £58

[therewillbeblus]

Will this get a US release? Or do we need to order from the UK?

It's a UK release but I expect that DiabolikDVD will stock it.

Does Rarewaves work with Three Window Films too? I often find them preferable to Diabolik when they share the market

[swo17]

They have the previous Obayashi set in stock

[Finch]

Terracotta Distribution have competitive prices on TWF releases too, so may be worth checking for their preorder rates as well. They do ship to the US. I had 2 packages from them, no complaints, and the owner is super nice.

[Calvin]

My Obayashi 80s set arrived from Terracotta the other day. The packaging has been nicely designed, so I can forgive the few mm height discrepency between it and the War Trilogy!

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

I first became familiar with this story through the Mamoru Hosoda anime and I know that I then read the original Yasutaka Tsutsui novel when it was translated a few years later but I remember very little of it. The material is a natural fit for Obayashi, who adapted it into the middle film of his so-called Onomichi Trilogy of films in between Transfer Students and Lonely Heart (though it is actually only his first Onomichi Trilogy, if they should be grouped together as such at all). For his whole career, he concerned himself with chronology and the non-linearity of time - how characters and communities struggle to escape from and/or to understand the past and the consequence of past actions on his characters' relationships and behaviours in the present day. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time turns this about somewhat as, to quote one character, “time isn’t the past, it’s the future” but I'd say that in this film Obayashi rather foregrounds time as a more tangible concept, not only a dimension that can be travelled through but arguably a character in its own right that not only exerts an influence on our memories and perceptions but also causes the schoolgirl Kazuko to experience feelings that she has never had before (puberty!).

The time travel scene is one of the most memorable in Obayashi's filmography, drawing on his experience with experimental shorts to create a visually thrilling depiction of time travel that doubles as the dizzying, heady rush of hormones and emotions that accompany Kazuko's coming-of-age.

I'm surprised that it has taken so long to get a Western release, considering both the cult popularity of Obayashi's House and Hosoda's anime this would seem like a relatively easy sell. Third Window's disc is respectable, with an archival interview with Obayashi who is always engaging and worth listening to. There’s also short promo called The Tomoyo Harada Story which shows her initial audition for Kadokawa and recounts her rise to fame as well as a music video and trailer.

With regards to the transfer, I'm fairly sure that this is the older master that was used for the original Japanese Blu-Ray release and not the subsequent 4K restoration. You can see a comparison between different masters here; the 4K clearly advances in detail but has much warmer colour timing.

[Calvin]

Satoshi Miki's Adrift in Tokyo coming in December as a world Blu-Ray premiere.

[yoloswegmaster]

The BBFC website revealed that Third Window submitted Electric Dragon 80000V for review.

[swo17]

Must be careful not to drool lest I get electrocuted