Arrow Announcements, Speculation & Wild, Irresponsible Conjecture

[yoloswegmaster]

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the restored 183 minute-long cut of the film
Original uncompressed mono audio
Optional English subtitles
Introduction by writer and curator Jasper Sharp
Scene-specific commentaries from leading Japanese film scholars Aaron Gerow, Irene González-López, Erik Homenick, Earl Jackson, Daisuke Miyao and Alexander Zahlten
Original theatrical trailer
Image gallery
Tomu Uchida filmography
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Fully illustrated collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by David Baldwin and Inuhiko Yomota

[FrauBlucher]

I'm not familiar with ^this^. It sounds interesting. What do folks think?

[swo17]

Worth noting that several people listed it in the Radiance wishlist thread!

[Michael Kerpan]

I think it is quite good -- and it is sort of an interesting companion piece to Imamura's later Vengeance Is Mine (and the star in this plays the murderer's father in Imamura's film).

[ryannichols7]

okay over the moon with this - James warned us there'd only be two September titles so I figured the Angela Mao set for the US and another wacky 90s studio title on UHD. instead, the best announcement (for me) since Come Drink With Me and To Sleep.., this is the kind of thing I was hoping Arrow would dig more into when hiring Jasper Sharp + had started with the Imamura box, the Masumuras, and a few other Japanese releases. never seen the film, been on my list for awhile, thrilled it'll be in an accessible edition. and they got Irene Gonzalez-Lopez and Earl Jackson involved, even better. I'm not familiar with the other scholars yet so I'm looking forward to this.

please James (and anyone at Arrow) if you read this: I would rather give you guys my money than pay $144 to import the Japanese 4K of Kon Ichikawa's The Inugami Family (1976). Ichikawa is one of my favorite directors and this is another hard-to-track-down one in the west, and this disc has gotten great reviews. port it over here and you have my money!

[Maltic]

Daisuke Miyao had a short, but dense "formalist" video essay on the Irezumi disc

Scene-specific commentaries from leading Japanese film scholars Aaron Gerow, Irene González-López, Erik Homenick, Earl Jackson, Daisuke Miyao and Alexander Zahlten

A bit like Criterion did with Seven Samurai

[Finch]

I'm very excited about A Fugitive From The Past as well, and it'll be my first time seeing that film. I'd also like to second ryan's request to port The Inugami Family over.

[Michael Kerpan]

It's sort of nice to see releases that feature mostly personal acquaintances as providers of the extras...

[Finch]

Second September title is Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash.

Youtube trailer

[Finch]

And two tweets from James:

James Flower
@jamesflowerfilm
18m
Just a friendly reminder to anyone getting all indignant about the second slimmed-down schedule in a row that this is part of our 'circuit breaker' while we get our act together following some internal shake-ups. Back to business as usual with a spooky October line-up next month!

James Flower
@jamesflowerfilm
17m
Also, I was really hoping that we'd be able to do an early bird announcement for Shawscope Vol 2 today, but we're still working very hard on getting that one sorted out and don't feel comfortable announcing a release date yet. Nearly there though!

[swo17]

Fugitive from the Past is worth at least three '80s slashers

[Finch]

^This.

[Michael Kerpan]

Uchida does good stuff. I hope that if this sells well we can hope for more.

Note the actual Japanese title of this film "Kiga Kaikyou" (literally "strait of hunger") -- refers to the strait between Honshu and Hokkaido.

[FrauBlucher]

This is from Film Comment late 2016 Tomu Uchida: Genre Artist

[Stefan Andersson]

This is from Film Comment late 2016 Tomu Uchida: Genre Artist

Many thanks for this! A great read.

Uchida´s Daibosatsu toge trilogy and Miyamoto Mushashi quintet sounds very interesting, to single out just a few films.

BTW, Kenji Misumi made two Daibosatsu toge films, starring Raizo Ichikawa and written by Teinosuke Kinugasa, based on the same novel as Uchida´s trilogy.

[therewillbeblus]

I think it is quite good -- and it is sort of an interesting companion piece to Imamura's later Vengeance Is Mine (and the star in this plays the murderer's father in Imamura's film).

This is spot-on, in more ways than I anticipated- particularly the central relationship between the killer and the prostitute. A Fugitive from the Past is like a blend between Vengeance is Mine and High and Low, with Zodiac's obsessive longevity of the procedural component giving it a surprising temporal elasticity to its sprawling narrative. I don't know if it's as great as any of those masterpieces, but still very good, and I look forward to revisiting it with a new restoration.

[dwk]

Kat Ellinger directed a feature length doc on Jean Rollin made "in partnership with" Arrow. I assume they'll be releasing the doc on disc, but it wouldn't be a shock if they also released some of his films.

[Orlac]

Kat Ellinger directed a feature length doc on Jean Rollin made "in partnership with" Arrow. I assume they'll be releasing the doc on disc, but it wouldn't be a shock if they also released some of his films.

Most, if not all, of his films are already on BD in the US and UK, but ZOMBIE LAKE, which Arrow released on DVD way back around 2004, has yet to get a UK Blu-ray.

[Glowingwabbit]

ZOMBIE LAKE

Yikes. In that case they should just release the doc on it's own.

[dwk]

Most, if not all, of his films are already on BD in the US and UK, but ZOMBIE LAKE, which Arrow released on DVD way back around 2004, has yet to get a UK Blu-ray.

I knew a number had been released in the US, but I wasn't sure about the UK. (Not really a fan of his films, so I have not paid too much attention to what has or hasn't been release.)

[Adam X]

As someone who is, Screenbound have released about 15 of his films in the UK, though I think without the US extras. Almost all of them were released in the first half of 2018, so their license might very well be nearing it’s end.

Based on precendent though, I wouldn’t be surprised if anything they put together are just ports of the Wicked Vision JR series. Happy to be surprised, though I hope you don’t need to buy a boxset just to see the documentary.

[Orlac]

ZOMBIE LAKE

Yikes. In that case they should just release the doc on it's own.

Hey, I liked it!

[Nw_jahrles]

As someone who is, Screenbound have released about 15 of his films in the UK, though I think without the US extras. Almost all of them were released in the first half of 2018, so their license might very well be nearing it’s end.

Based on precendent though, I wouldn’t be surprised if anything they put together are just ports of the Wicked Vision JR series. Happy to be surprised, though I hope you don’t need to buy a boxset just to see the documentary.

Saimm Deighan and Kat Ellinger were both involved in a Jean Rollin book with writing comprised completely by women on Rollin's work.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35899391-lost-girls

I'm sure they'd be easy and eager to commission for new commentaries and/or writing for a boxset.

[Glowingwabbit]

As someone who is, Screenbound have released about 15 of his films in the UK, though I think without the US extras. Almost all of them were released in the first half of 2018, so their license might very well be nearing it’s end.

Based on precendent though, I wouldn’t be surprised if anything they put together are just ports of the Wicked Vision JR series. Happy to be surprised, though I hope you don’t need to buy a boxset just to see the documentary.

Saimm Deighan and Kat Ellinger were both involved in a Jean Rollin book with writing comprised completely by women on Rollin's work.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35899391-lost-girls

I'm sure they'd be easy and eager to commission for new commentaries and/or writing for a boxset.

Considering Kat Ellinger directed the documentary in question I think that would be a given

[Adam X]

Saimm Deighan and Kat Ellinger were both involved in a Jean Rollin book with writing comprised completely by women on Rollin's work.

Yep, I got that book on release, but I’ve sadly not got round to reading it yet. Given Samm Deighan edited it, I was slightly surprised to see Kat Ellinger’s name attached. But they both do great work, so it should be interesting to watch.

Looking it up, it should be noted that Dima Ballin also deserves credit, as co-director.