Play it Cool

[yoloswegmaster]

Play it Cool is a chic and erotically charged drama starring popular Japanese singer of the day Mari Atsumi as a college girl negotiating her way through the male-dominated hierarchies of Tokyo’s seductive but treacherous nightclub culture.

Yumi (Mari Atsumi) is a pretty fashion student who shares a cramped home with her mother Tomi (Akemi Negishi, The Saga of Anatahan) and good-for-nothing stepfather Ryoichi. Tomi works at a local hostess bar and hopes for a better fate for Yumi. When Ryoichi violently forces himself upon her blossoming daughter, Tomi is not afraid to take action to protect her, an act which lands her in jail. Left to fend for herself, Yumi is taken in by her mother’s former place of employment, where she finds herself fighting off the unwanted attentions of the men who swarm around her. Then one day, a rescue by handsome former lawyer Nozawa (Yusuke Kawazu, Cruel Story of Youth) from a vicious gangster seems to offer an escape into an altogether glitzier world, albeit one that turns out fraught with similar dangers.

Arrow Films is proud to release this little-seen gem by one of Japan’s most highly regarded directors of the 1960s, Yasuzō Masumura (Giants and Toys, Irezumi), a filmmaker known for his social satires and powerful portrayals of women, as Play it Cool is released for the very first time for the home video market outside of Japan in a brand new high-definition transfer.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
Original uncompressed mono audio
Optional English subtitles
Brand new audio commentary with critic and Japanese cinema specialist Jasper Sharp and professor and Japanese literature specialist Anne McKnight
Too Cool for School, brand new video essay on Play it Cool and the career of writer-director Yasuzō Masumura by Japanese film scholar Mark Roberts
Original theatrical trailer
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Earl Jackson

[Glowingwabbit]

I hope this is a sign of more Yasuzō Masumura films to come.

[ryannichols7]

really hope to see Kisses, The Blue Sky Maiden, and Manji soon. but really glad to get this one! I wasn't sure if Arrow was done with them or not, a really lovely out of nowhere surprise

[Peacock]

This is the first ‘new to the English language market’ Masumura title to get a release in well over a decade right? (With the exception of The Black Report), so very exciting times. Fingers crossed for Blue Sky Maiden and A Wife Confesses for another couple of major ones that never got English friendly releases.