Arrow Video is delighted to announce a limited theatrical run of the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD release Branded to Kill, one of the undisputed classics of Japanese cinema. The film will open in select cinemas across the UK on 25th July before being released in a new digital transfer on Blu-ray and DVD from 28th July.
“Time and place are nonsense,” Suzuki once famously said of his films, and some have gone as far to describe Branded to Kill as the cinematic equivalent of a 1960s Pop Art collage. The truth is that few outside of a select group of local cinéphiles and critics cared much for Branded to Kill upon its initial release in June 1967, least of all Kyûsaku Hori, the president of the Nikkatsu studio that produced it, who famously fired its director Seijun Suzuki claiming that his films didn’t make sense and didn’t make money.
Branded to Kill presents an extraordinary experience. Opening with the sharp crack of gunfire beneath the Nikkatsu logo before the lilting theme tune kicks in to accompany the credits, from the offset the viewer is immersed in a world that can only be described as pure cinema. Its tale of Jô Shishido’s hitman, Gorô Hanada, and his attempts to rise to top-dog position in the underworld ranking of contract killers is pared down to mythic abstraction.
Branded to Kill is of a style all of its own. It operates simultaneously as a singularly nonconformist yet technically polished mood piece and as a sophisticated cinematic Rorschach that can be savoured again and again, with every further viewing revealing previously unnoticed aspects and individual meanings. Nonsense it may be, but it is intelligent, stylish and deliriously enjoyable nonsense, nonetheless.
Complementing this dual-format Blu-ray and DVD edition are a host of all-new extras, including a newly restored digital transfer and newly translated English subtitles. Alongside this, the disc will feature interviews with both director Seijun Suzuki and star Jo Shishido.
Most excitingly, the disc will include Trapped in Lust [Aiyoku no wana] (1973) – A delirious roman porno re-imagining of Branded to Kill from Atsushi Yamatoya (one of Branded to Kill’s screenwriters and Suzuki’s regular collaborators).
One could fuel an entire retrospective of films whose constellation of shared staff and thematic elements feed backwards or forwards to Suzuki’s iconic yet iconoclastic masterpiece of 1967, with Yamatoya’s input in many of these ironically more a constant than that of the actual Branded to Kill director himself. Trapped in Lust suggests the extent to which Branded to Kill, while perhaps not such a typical work by its director as it is sometimes labelled, represents a ‘Last Supper’ moment, following which Suzuki and his seven Hachirô Guryû disciples (plus the crucial new figure of Genjirô Arata) went their own ways out into the wider world of Japanese cinema to cause havoc and shake it up for good
Jasper Sharp, writer and curator specialising in Japanese cinema
Alongside this, the Blu-ray disc will also feature the original theatrical trailers for Branded to Kill and Trapped in Lust, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan and a collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the films by author Jasper Sharp, illustrated with original stills and new artwork by Ian MacEwan.
Synopsis:
Seijun Suzuki’s delirious 1967 hit-man film has drawn comparisons with contemporaries Le Samouraï and Point Blank and influenced directors such as John Woo, Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino among others.
The story of laconic yakuza Hanada, aka ‘No. 3 Killer’, the third rated hit-man in Japan who takes an impossible job from the mysterious, death obsessed Misako. Hanada bungles the hit and finds himself the target of his employers and a bullet ridden journey leads him to face the No. 1 Killer.
Shot in cool monochrome with beguiling visuals, Branded to Kill is an effortlessly cool crime film with a jazzy score that caused Suzuki to be fired by the studio’s executives but is now rightly recognised as his masterpiece.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
· New High Definition digital transfer
· High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
· Newly translated English subtitles for both films
· Interview with director Seijun Suzuki
· Interview with star Jo Shishido by critic and author Koshi Ueno
· Trapped in Lust [Aiyoku no wana] (1973) – A delirious roman porno re-imagining of Branded to Kill from Atsushi Yamatoya, one of Branded to Kill’s screenwriters and Suzuki’s regular collaborators
· Original Trailers for Branded to Kill and Trapped in Lust
· Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan
· Booklet by Japanese film expert Jasper Sharp, illustrated with original stills and new artwork by Ian MacEwan
The Last Horror Film (1982)
Uncut Special Edition Blu-ray
Directed by: DAVID WINTERS
A grossly underrated slasher gem! The infamous Joe Spinell, best known for his iconic role in Maniac, delivers his 'career defining performance' (Bill Gibon, DVD Talk) as an depraved, obsessed fanatic. Vinny Durand (Spinell) trails beautiful actress Jana Bates (fellow Maniac-alum Caroline Munro), to the Cannes Film Festival determined to have her star in his first film.
As Durand's disturbing fascination grows, a mysterious killer begins slaughtering all people in Jana's entourage. Is the obsessed fanatic and the psychotic killer one in the same? Will this be Jenna's Last Horror Film?
This stellar treatment of this forgotten classic, includes engaging Spinell-memorializing supplemental material, and is a must-own for any horror film enthusiast.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• REGION FREE
• Original Trailer
• Booklet Notes by Calum Waddell
Actors: Caroline Munro, Joe Spinell, Judd Hamilton
Release Date: 16 June 2014
Region Code: All
Picture Format: HD 1080p 1.85:1
Audio Format: LPCM 2.0 Stereo
Language: English
Certification: 18
Running Time: 87 Mins Approx
On 29th July 2014 Lumière will release the DVD from KILL YOUR DARLINGS.
A TRUE STORY OF OBSESSION AND MURDER
Director:John Krokidas
Writers:Austin Bunn (screenplay), Austin Bunn (story)
Stars:Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C. Hall
In the early 1940s, Allen Ginsberg is an English major at Columbia University, only to learn more than he bargained for. Dissatisfied by the orthodox attitudes of the school, Allen finds himself drawn to iconoclastic colleagues like Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Together, this gang would explore bold new literary ideas that would challenge the sensibilities of their time as the future Beat Generation. However, for all their creativity, their very appetites and choices lead to more serious transgressions that would mark their lives forever
BONUS: In conversation with Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan & Deleted scenes
DUTCH VERSION:
DVD Release op Lumière
KILL YOUR DARLINGS op 29 juli 2014
A TRUE STORY OF OBSESSION AND MURDER
Een portret van de beginjaren van de Beat Generation
Een waargebeurd verhaal van obsessie en moord, met een sterrencast bestaande uit Daniel RADCLIFFE ('Harry Potter'), Dane DEHAAN ('The Amazing Spider-Man 2'), Ben FOSTER ('Lone Survivor'), Michael C. HALL ('Dexter'), Jack HUSTON ('Boardwalk Empire'), Jennifer Jason LEIGH ('The Machinist') en Elizabeth OLSEN ('Godzilla')
WINNAAR VENICE DAYS INTERNATIONAL AWARD 2013
“Fascinerende biopic die ook een levendige lovestory en een intrigerend moordmysterie is… Dit is sterk werk.” De Morgen
“Ambitieus en sprankelend …een onbevreesde Daniel Radcliffe.” VPRO Gids
Synopsis:
KILL YOUR DARLINGS is het waargebeurde verhaal van de moord die enkele legendarische auteurs samenbracht. Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac en William Burroughs ontmoeten elkaar in 1944 in New York, waar ze aan de wieg staan van de Beat Revolution. Een cocktail van vriendschap, verraad en moord leidt tot de geboorte van een rebelse generatie.
Een intens portret gedreven door een sterrencast met Daniel RADCLIFFE ('Harry Potter'), Dane DEHAAN ('The Amazing Spider-Man 2'), Ben FOSTER ('Lone Survivor'), Michael C. HALL ('Dexter'), Jack HUSTON ('Boardwalk Empire'), Jennifer Jason LEIGH ('The Machinist') en Elizabeth OLSEN ('Godzilla').
BONUS: In conversation with Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan & Deleted scenes
20th Century Fox announces us that they will release The Book Thief on 23rd July on Blu-ray and DVD.
Director:Brian Percival
Stars:Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson
In 1938, the young girl Liesel Meminger is traveling by train with her mother and her younger brother when he dies. Her mother buries the boy in a cemetery by the tracks and Liesel picks up a book, "The Gravediggers Handbook", which was left on the grave of her brother and brings it with her. Liesel is delivered to a foster family in a small town and later she learns that her mother left her because she is a communist. Her stepmother, Rosa Hubermann, is a rude but caring woman and her stepfather, Hans Hubermann, is a simple kind-hearted man. Liesel befriends her next door neighbor, the boy Rudy Steiner, and they go together to the school. When Hans discovers that Liesel cannot read, he teaches her using her book and Liesel becomes an obsessed reader. During a Nazi speech where the locals are forced to burn books in a bonfire, Liesel recovers one book for her and the Major's wife Ilsa Hermann witnesses her action. Meanwhile Hans hides the Jewish Max Vandenburg, who is the son of a...
DUTCH VERSION:
20th Century Fox verwittigt ons dat The Book Thief vanaf 23 juli op Blu-ray en DVD verkrijgbaar is.
Nu al beschikbaar op DHD
Het inspirerende verhaal THE BOOK THIEF wordt op 23 juli uitgebracht door 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment op Blu-ray en DVD, en is nu al verkrijgbaar op DHD. THE BOOK THIEF is gebaseerd op de internationale bestseller van Markus Zusak en vertelt een buitengewoon verhaal over de hoop en kracht van woorden en verbeelding door de ogen van een jong meisje. Een film die zich afspeelt tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, maar door zijn unieke invalshoek geen oorlogsfilm pur sang is.
Synopsis
De verfilming van de bestseller THE BOOK THIEF vertelt het ontroerende verhaal van het bijzondere meisje Liesel (Sophie Nélisse). Wanneer haar moeder tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog niet meer voor haar kan zorgen, wordt Liesel geadopteerd door een Duits echtpaar (Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson). Liesel kan aanvankelijk niet lezen, maar haar adoptievader geeft haar les en ze ontwikkelt een passie voor boeken. Liesel is ontzettend leergierig en zet alles op alles om te leren lezen. Ze vindt een vriend in de Joodse Max (Ben Schnetzer), die onderduikt in het huis van haar adoptieouders. Terwijl de situatie om hen heen met de dag slechter wordt, bieden woorden en fantasie een uitweg om te ontsnappen aan de werkelijkheid.
Cast
De Downtown Abbey-regisseur Brian Percival heeft een indrukwekkende cast samengesteld. De hoofdrol van het jonge meisje Liesel wordt vertolkt door de veelbelovende opkomende actrice Sophie Nélisse. THE BOOK THIEF is Nélisse haar tweede film, ze zette in 2011 een buitengewone vertolking neer als Alice L'Écuyer in Monsieur Lazhar en ontving hiervoor zelfs een Genie award. De pleegouders van Liesel worden gespeeld door Geoffrey Rush ( Pirates of the Caribbean ) en Emily Watson (War Horse). Door hun gevestigde carrière en internationale uitstraling zorgen zij er samen voor dat de chemie van het scherm spat.
Blu-ray
Benieuwd naar nog nooit eerder vertoonde scènes uit de film? De exclusieve specials op de Blu-ray bieden je deze mogelijkheid. Daarnaast kun je op de Blu-ray versie van THE BOOK THIEF gelijk even een kijkje nemen achter de schermen.
DVD
Ook de DVD van THE BOOK THIEF bevat een aantal leuke extra’s, waaronder de bioscooptrailer en verwijderde scènes uit de film.
Digital HD
De Digital HD versie van THE BOOK THIEF is nu al verkrijgbaar via de Apple iTunes Store. Digital HD biedt snelheid, gemak en de beste kwaliteit op digitaal gebied.
Sony Home Entertainment will release on 16th July 2014 The Art Of THe Steal on both DVD and Blu-ray.
Director:Jonathan Sobol
Stars:Kurt Russell, Jay Baruchel, Katheryn Winnick
Crunch Calhoun (Russell), a third rate motorcycle daredevil and semi-reformed art thief, agrees to get back into the con game and pull off just one more lucrative art theft with his untrustworthy brother Nicky (Dillon). Crunch reassembles the old team and comes up with a plan to steal a priceless historical book, but the successful heist leads to another, far riskier, plan devised by Nicky. What the brothers don't realize is they each have their own agenda and their plan goes awry in this con movie about brotherhood, honor and revenge.
DUTCH VERSION:
Sony Home Entertainment zal The Art Of Steal op 16 July 2014 uitbrengen, zowel op dvd en Blu-ray.
Crunch Calhoun (Russell), een derderangs stuntrijder en voormalig kunstdief, besluit nog één keer het slechte pad op te gaan voor een lucratieve kunstroof met zijn onbetrouwbare broer Nicky (Dillon). Met zijn oude team bedenkt Crunch een plan om een kostbaar historisch boek te stelen, maar de succesvolle diefstal leidt tot een andere, veel riskantere onderneming, bedacht door Nicky. Wat de broers niet beseffen is dat ze allebei een eigen agenda hebben en hun plan gaat hopeloos mis in deze film over broederschap, eer en wraak.
Extra’s
·Audiocommentaar van regisseur Jonathan Sobol en producent Nicholas Tabarrok
·"Doing the Crime": De making-of van The Art of the Steal
·"Getting Away With It": Achter de schermen van The Art of the Steal
·De making-of van "Theft of the Mona Lisa"
