Brought to you offically via our exclusive feed with CULT LABS, I've got some exciting news about some of the amazing releases the mighty Arrow Video and its offshot ArrowDrome have got planned for the UK in 2012. There's no news yet about release dates and extra features etc., but there are some long-awaited titles included in the list, as well as the addition of a purple-covered Blaxploitation range from Arrowdrome!
Without further ado, here's the full list, followed by proposed cover artwork:
Red Scorpion (Arrow Video) (Blu-ray)
The House by the Cemetery (Arrow Video) (Blu-ray)
Demons (Arrow Video) (Blu-ray)
Demons (Arrow Video) (Limited Edition DVD)
Demons 2 (Arrow Video) (Blu-ray)
Demons 2 (Arrow Video) (Limited Edition DVD)
The Deadly Spawn (Arrow Video) (DVD)
Cat o' Nine Tails (ArrowDrome) (DVD)
Penitentiary (ArrowDrome) (DVD) - purple is the new colour for blaxploitation!
A film and TV blog devoted to the latest releases in Horror, Cult, Archive, Vintage and Arthouse
Friday, 28 October 2011
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Latest Horrorview Reviews
I have two more reviews up today at Horrorview (don't worry - there will be some original content here eventually!). First up, William Friedkin's misfire The Guardian has been given a special editon DVD release by Second Sight, which you can read my thoughts about here ... and secondly, I take a look at the new Studiocanal 'double play' release of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer which brings this grungy classic to region B Blu-ray. Read the review here.
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES (1976)
My review of Studiocanal's 'double play' release of Nagisa Ôshima's IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES is now up at the mighty HORRORVIEW.COM
UK Blu-Ray Premiere on 17th October
New uncut version available in Double Play disc set
Based on a true story set in pre-war Japan, a man and one of his servants begin a torrid affair. Their desire becomes a sexual obsession so strong that to intensify their ardour, they forsake all, even life itself
Monday, 24 October 2011
TOKYO DECADENCE (1992)
mastermind behind Takashi Miiki's Audition (1999). That one fact is probably all you need be aware of to form a fairly accurate idea about what to expect from his 1992 film Tokyo Decadence, which was adapted from the director's own novel. In its original 135 minute Japanese cut, the film was entitled Topaz; the present title comes from the 112 minute U.S. cut, which removes some of the more explicit sexual content in order to avoid an 'X' certificate. The film tells the story of Ai Sakakibara (Miho Nikaido, wife of indie director Hal Hartley), a call-girl with a female-run Tokyo escort agency that supplies girls to high-powered businessmen with a taste for sexual sadism. Using a similarly low-key approach to his own material as was evidenced by Miiki in his treatment of Audition, Murakami gradually builds up a grimly depressing character portrait based around one lost and lonely abused soul.
Submissive and emotionally numb to the point of catatonia (qualities which make her much sought after by the agency's abusive white collar clients), Ai stumbles from one degrading sexual exploit to another in a succession of identical arid rooms lining the featureless corridors of an expensive, high-class multi-story Tokyo hotel.
Her first encounter sets the tone for the rest of the film: a well-dressed tycoon makes her stand at his central hotel room's large window overlooking the concrete high-rise cityscape — and masturbate ... for several hours! Next, he makes her crawl around on her hands and knees with a vibrator lodged inside her while he makes out with his girlfriend on the couch. Finally, Ai has to join-in their lovemaking while the tycoon has sex with the other woman.
Inevitably, the film stands or falls on the performance of its lead actor, and, here, Miho Nikaido gives more of herself than should normally be expected of any performer in a movie. Although the film observes the usual Japanese taboo concerning displaying pubic hair on screen, Nikaido still takes part in some pretty extreme and protracted sexual scenes that go further than most soft-core exploits. While the Takishi Miiki connection is an obvious reference point (and any potential audience this film might have will probably come from that sector of Asian cinema fandom that enjoys Miiki's offbeat approach), there is also a marked air of Lynchian strangeness surrounding the film. A succession of oddball characterisations and a protagonist whose gradually fracturing identity leads her further into a nightmarish illogical world are well-worn Lynchian motifs; and a scene in which the dominatrix, Saki, takes Ai back to her plush, subtly-lit minimalist apartment and ends up performing an impromptu mime to an old record (with an electric dildo substituting as a microphone!) recalls many similar scenes from the Lynch filmography.
The final half-hour of the film abandons any comprehensible narrative altogether in favour of a series of encounters with a strange singer (who claims to have been a rival for Ai's absent lover's affections) and a pill-fuelled trek through the suburban areas of Tokyo city, during which Ai appears to suffer some sort of personality breakdown. The abstract (and somewhat incoherent) ending and a generally detached, Antonioni-esque approach throughout, places this effort more in the art-house camp than the exploitation bracket and there is a wonderfully diverse score by the great Ryuichi Sakamoto, that ranges from austere synthesised classical pastiche to psychedelic jazz wig-outs that sound like they've come on loan from a '70's Jess Franco flick.
One is left with more than just a slight feeling of befuddlement at the end of it all; the second half of the film, and particularly the last twenty minutes, has a radically different feel to the sex-drenched nihilism of most of the rest of the work. There is something of an improvisational quality to the final scenes that leaves the impression that there was no clear intent behind the project to begin with; yet Miho Nikaido's committed performance cannot help but entrance the viewer with its stark simplicity and honesty.
The DVD from ArrowDrome is a re-release of the previous Arrow Films disc which still features the same poor artefact-ridden transfer, but this time in an anamorphic format. Again, it still appears to be a NTSC-PAL conversion job which means the image is soft and sometimes blurry; darker scenes in particular look quite bad.
Company: ArrowDrome/Format: DVD/Region: 2 PAL
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1/Original Release Date: 1992/Genre: Asian Cinema
Director: Ryu Murakami/Cast: Miho Nikaido, Sayoko Amano
Read more from Black Gloves at HORRORVIEW.COM
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