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A lot of Imamura is oop, so even if expectations are dashed for something more obscure for the Radical Japan banner, I would consider this something of a rescue. The arrow set would be a great follow up for another. I am also happy with individual releases like The Eel.

pzadvance wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2026 11:00 am The Pornographers in particular would have fit right in to the theme/era of this box.

Yeah, that's very puzzling to me as well. I've got the MOC and Criterion releases so it's too bad this isn't just UHD discs as I don't need more Region B blus. But Insect Woman and Intentions will look terrific so I'm sold. I really wish this box had A Man Vanishes tho. As to the OOP Arrow box, at least we know Fran knows which rights holders to talk to if they did a second Imamura box.

Have to imagine we’re going to see a standalone release of Profound Desires of the Gods too at some point

From Fran:

‘Why wasn’t The Pornographers included’ - two reasons, one it was a test case for UHD. Two for those who have the MoC box this would clearly separate the titles since there would be less need for missing titles. While I like the early features, especially ENDLESS DESIRE, anyone who is completist enough to buy for those alone would be the type of person to upgrade for the 4Ks

I actually really appreciate that they consider things like that when putting these together - thanks Fran!

pzadvance wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2026 1:23 pm I actually really appreciate that they consider things like that when putting these together - thanks Fran!

Exactly, it's actually very insightful and pragmatic. Now don't forget to release all the stuff I want.

Just noticed the spine numbers are mismatched between the product description/box set and the individual keep cases: 217-222 vs 212-216. I'll wait for Radiance to fix either before I update the thread title.

I'm elated to see Insect Woman get this treatment, which I recall loving when I still had the Criterion set. I run lukewarm to very cold on Imamura, but IW stood out to me as a masterpiece. I'm interested in revisiting the other two big titles as well (the MoC blu for Pigs and Battleships has long sat dormant on my shelf).

Great surprise, after I often dissuaded people from the logic of an Imamura set since we'd had two individual releases of his work already. Sounds like The Pornographers was a test to see how things went before a full box set, and I'm grateful here they've included two new films not previously released by MoC (particularly excited for Intentions of Murder, in 4K no less) as well as two upgrades to 4K for a couple of those ex-MoC ones. I'll definitely be getting this on release!

Supposedly the next volume of Radical Japan will be both a UK and US release, which implies it'll be someone previously unavailable in both territories (I'm thinking Wakamatsu, though my personal taste would be for Shinoda or Masumura).

domino harvey wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2026 12:46 pm Have to imagine we’re going to see a standalone release of Profound Desires of the Gods too at some point

Yup, that's the title from Nikkatsu I also assumed they'll try to do individually. It is already known to have had a 4K restoration, but I wonder if Radiance might want to do their own colour grading, if not a complete in-house restoration of their own (depends what the studio say yes to).

Vengeance is Mine would also be excellent but since it's Shochiku might prove trickier, especially if Criterion intend to upgrade theirs at some point soon. Again, it's a very strong film that would stand alone on its own released individually.

Just realized this is priced similarly to the previous set even though you get three titles on UHD as well. Thanks for not gouging us, Radiance!

Fran - I’m excited for this, but can we expect another Radical Japan set this year?

Maybe I spend far too much time on this forum but I genuinely had a dream a few nights ago that I was sat in the Radiance offices (which were overlooking a canal in Amsterdam of all places!) and Fran frankly told me the Terayama set was coming soon, but it was just a bit complex materials wise.

Will my dream come true?

Not til next year, if it's anything like the last two sets, and all we currently know about the third volume is that it'll be for both the UK and US/Canada. Could be Terayama, but I think some have mentioned the BBFC cuts might be required on at least a couple of his films (Emperor Tomato Ketchup in particular).

A mishmash of different Art Theatre Guild titles like Hear the Wind Sing would be great

beamish14 wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2026 6:07 pm A mishmash of different Art Theatre Guild titles like Hear the Wind Sing would be great

It's also likely that some ATG titles will simply be released individually outside of the Radical Japan boxes, as we see with Aesthetics of a Bullet, although hopefully they do both.

Emperor Tomato Ketchup isn't going to happen in the UK so a dual territory set isn't going to feature it.

on the discord, it has been mentioned that another RJ set will be announced this year, for release in first 3-4 mths of 2027.

and it's likely to be a US/UK release. with it being a US release, I tend to believe this will be more of a "deep cut" selection compared to the bigger names of Oshima or Imamura, so Terayama would fit here

and the PDC clue from 2026 was also pushed out to 2027...

At first I was like, Vol 3 in Q1 27 already, and then I remembered they were aiming for six (or seven) volumes. So this would have to follow the World Noir release pattern going forward, one set every four, five months, no?

Fran has said they have up to vol 7 in the works and some sets will be smaller.

What A Disgrace wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2026 7:53 pm

beamish14 wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2026 6:07 pm A mishmash of different Art Theatre Guild titles like Hear the Wind Sing would be great

It's also likely that some ATG titles will simply be released individually outside of the Radical Japan boxes, as we see with Aesthetics of a Bullet, although hopefully they do both.

Aesthetics of a Bullet was easier to license because it's actually owned by Toei, as a co-production between Toei and ATG. ATG gave it a 10 million yen budget, which Toei more than doubled, as a test to see if there was a future in collaborating with ATG. That didn't happen beyond that one Nakajima film.

Similarly, the Ōshima ATG titles were able to be licensed because they're owned by Ōshima Productions. Other ATG stuff that's owned entirely by ATG might be harder, after they fully merged with Toho in 2018; Toho is famously difficult and expensive to work with. I also would love to see Radiance do a Terayama ATG Radical Japan set, and thankfully most of those are co-productions with what seems to be Terayama's own production company (though as far as I can tell, Emperor Tomato Ketchup is entirely ATG), so it could probably happen.

My dream Radiance release(s) would be Kazuhiko Hasegawa's two directorial features, especially as a smaller Radical Japan set (especially if paired with some of the Nikkatsu Roman Porno films he wrote earlier). Youth to Kill feels like a realistic ATG selection as it's also a co-production with Imamura's company, though I'm not sure how hopeful I should be on The Man Who Stole The Sun, a co-production between Toho, Kitty Films (mostly an anime company, but also involved with Demy's manga adaptation Lady Oscar) and Tristone Entertainment.

Anyway, didn't mean to hijack the thread, just mentioning the above as it relates to what I've heard about ATG/Toho licensing. Excited for the Imamura box, I've only seen The Pornographers on the recent 4K and thought it was intriguing but a bit too messy. Hopefully something in this box set fully clicks with me. Sad that we're no longer getting Rayns contributions on the extras, though his piece on The Pornographers was pretty comprehensive about Imamura's career up to that point, including the films in this Radical Japan set.

Thanks so much for that info! I was confused how Toho was seemingly so tough to work with nowadays while simultaneously also owning and licensing ATG titles out relatively often (compared to the past!) but now I see it’s not what it seems… I wonder how many ATG titles are now fully owned by their directors?

Is the director-ownership the same deal with Funeral Parade of Roses and the Arrow Jissoji and Yoshida titles?

I assume Funeral Parade of Roses is Matsumoto Production owned now but I wonder why Demons is still with ATG/Toho? I may be wrong about that though.

My understanding (going back many years, and these things can change) was that the Art Theatre Guild films are such a minefield to licence because they weren't a traditional production company, but rather a distributor of international arthouse films that moved into local production on a very low scale. They didn't have the funds to fully produce films, but would contribute money to help directors make more personal works, and those productions would be funded by collaborating with any and everyone, including major film studios, the filmmakers' own production companies, and bespoke agglomerations of funders. This means that, for the most part, ATG didn't really control the rights to most of their films in the long term. In many cases, the film rights reverted to the filmmaker after a certain time, but where there was a more complex production arrangement, the rights could continue to be split, or partly lie with defunct legal entities, or be one of those frustrating instances where nobody really knows for sure who owns the film and licensors are too afraid to proceed on those grounds.