What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!

March Haul #4

Two packages this week and also an IKEA shelf addition which helps move the big Asian Cinema & European Cinema sets to another part of the room (no photos this time as it would be showing off too much).

The packages arrived last Monday and today.


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#6: Terracotta March Pre-Orders Haul (88 Films & Eureka Entertainment)
The March pre-orders have now started to show with Terracotta dispatching the latest releases from both 88 Films and Eureka Entertainment, with the latter not going to see any new Asian titles for a few months (at least until July perhaps).

We'll start off with Eureka Entertainment titles first. Cruel Tale of Bushido (武士道残酷物語), Tadashi Imai's 1963 film is the latest Masters of Cinema release starring Kinnosuke Nakamura (Goyokin, Shogun's Samurai), Ineko Arima (Equinox Flower, The Human Condition), Satomi Oka (13 Assassins, Miyamoto Musashi) and Kyôko Kishida (The Human Condition, Princess Tutu). The limited edition release includes an o-card slipcase and booklet.

The Invincible Eight (天龍八將), Lo Wei's 1971 film is one of the films he directed just before working with Bruce Lee that same year and is part of the Eureka Classics label. The film stars Nora Miao (Dragon Fist, Fist of Fury), Angela Mao Ying (Lady Whirlwind, When Taekwondo Strikes), Paul Chang Chung (Center Stage, Duel to the Death), James Tien Chun (Dragons Forever, Righting Wrongs) and many more. The limited edition release includes an o-card slipcase and booklet.

From 88 Films we have two films joining the Japanarchy label, both from director Mika Ninagawa. 2012's Helter Skelter (ヘルタースケルター) starring Erika Sawajiri (No Longer Human, Shinjuku Swan), Nao Omori (First Love, Ichi the Killer), Shinobu Terajima (Kokuho, Vibrator) and Go Ayano (Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, A Story of Yonosuke), and 2006's Sakuran (さくらん) starring Anna Tsuchiya (Kamikaze Girls, Nana), Kippei Shiina (The Forest of Love, A Night in Nude), Hiroki Narimiya (Ace Attorney live-action, Nana live-action), and Yoshino Kimura (The Boy and the Heron, Confessions). The Japanarchy limited edition releases include o-card to keep the artwork info-free, and a booklet.

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#7: Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- was a very entertaining season and it was a no-brainer to pick up the anime for home video. Crunchyroll released their limited edition for the UK market and this time I pre-ordered in advance to avoid leaving it to the last second and losing out on the set. The set is also thinner than the previous season and instead of using a card box for the art cards and sheet it's like a book cover.

You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
 
For a Few Dollars More
Loads of extras, hopefully interesting..
I'll get the others eventually. Fistful is my least favourite and I saw The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in the cinema after they found lost footage with no sound and got Clint and Eli Wallach to dub it. So I can wait a bit.

The Way of the Dragon
For the extras, the big fight and the Chuck intro in the airport.
Bruce I want to fight you in my new film
Chuck Who wins?
Bruce I do
Chuck You're going to beat the World Champion?
Bruce No, I'm going to kill the World Champion

Chuck Norris didn't go to heaven, he had it delivered.
 

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I received a few more anime items earlier this week - one art book from Amazon US on 3/25, and two anime steelbooks from AOL and Target on 3/24:


The Art Of The Boy and the Heron VIZ Hardcover Art Book

The Place Promised in Our Early Days UK Steelbook
Loner Life in Another World Steelbook

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With the Place Promised Steelbook, I believe I have all of Makato Shinkai's works in UK steelbooks.
 
I received 4 Blu-rays from the Amazon US Sale last week; the first two arrived on 3/26 and the second two today. I had wanted to pick up Accel World for years because of the hot black-haired MC chick, but never bit on it, and it seems to be getting scarce now so I finally decided to grab them on sale. Nakaimo I threw in just to satisfy my big siscon fetish, lol.


Nakaimo: My Little Sister is Among Them.
Accel World Set 1
Accel World Set 2
Accel World Infinite Burst

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March Haul #5

Last haul for the month. We have two packages that arrived last Friday and one that arrived yesterday. April's haul will start off with a package from Radiance Films arriving tomorrow too.


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#8: The Dangers in My Heart Season 1
An anime that I've been anticipating to watch for a while now. The Dangers in My Heart Season 1 finally gets released in the UK from Anime Limited after not only being licensed much later than the US market, but there was also an authoring error which pushed the set back by about two months. Similar to the recent Sentai sub-licensed pickups, this release also carries over the booklet from Sentai Filmworks' steelbook release which is handy.

You can view more photos & specs on my blog.

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#9: Play-Asia Koei Tecmo Haul
It's been a long while since I've last used Play-Asia for any pickups and sometime in March they held a sale on Koei Tecmo releases so I decided to take that opportunity to get a few titles that I was interested in owning.

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We're starting off with two survival horror games from a classic franchise; Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse and Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, the fourth and fifth games in the series. The former was originally released only in Japan for the Nintendo Wii in 2008 and was notable for being co-developed between Tecmo, the main developers for the Fatal Frame franchise, and Grasshopper Manufacture, the developers of No More Heroes and many other unique titles with their style with Suda51 co-directing with Tecmo's Makoto Shibata. The remaster was released in 2023 for modern platforms.

The latter did get released in the west for the Nintendo Wii U in 2014, but only Europe received a physical for the English speaking territories. Koei Tecmo were the main developers this time with Makoto Shibata returning as director. The remaster was released in 2021 for modern platforms, marking the first time PlayStation received a game from the franchise since Fatal Frame III: The Tormented.

Both games were released on the PlayStation 5, however physical copies were only available in Asia for the PlayStation 4 version. Fortunately both have free upgrades for the PlayStation 5 version if you have an account in Asia, which I was able to sort out with the Singapore PSN store (if you're curious why I opted for Singapore instead of Hong Kong it's because a good amount of English versions released in Asia aren't available on the Hong Kong store, plus Koei Tecmo's physical copies were made from the Singapore branch).

Also included in this haul is another Koei Tecmo classic with the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection, that features three games from the modern storyline of the series.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma, the 2007 updated version of the 2004 Xbox exclusive that released exclusively on the PlayStation 3, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, the 2013 updated version of the 2008 Xbox 360 exclusive that also released exclusively for PlayStation 3 & Vita, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, the 2013 updated version of the 2012 release. These versions were fairly controversial for making adjustments to the games that many felt were inferior to the original (& Black version for the former), but they're still considered very difficult in terms of the challenge.

I do have Ninja Gaiden II Black which was released about a year ago, but I wanted to play these ones first to get used to the challenge when I get around to them. Interestingly you have the option to install any of the three games at a time, similar to the Yakuza Remastered Collection.

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#10: Terracotta March Pre-Orders Haul (Arrow Video & Radiance Films)
Wrapping up the month with another batch of new March releases for the Asian Cinema collection from the Terracotta store. This time we have releases from Arrow Video and Radiance Films.

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We'll start off with the Blu-ray limited edition release for Eiichi Kudo’s Samurai Revolution Trilogy from Arrow Video. This release features three classic Japanese films by director Eiichi Kudo.

1963's 13 Assassins (十三人の刺客) starring Chiezo Kataoka (Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji, Killer's Mission), Kōtarō Satomi (Miyamoto Musashi V, Red Peony Gambler: Biographies of a Gambling Room), Ryōhei Uchida (Blind Woman's Curse, The Human Condition), and Tetsuro Tamba (The Happiness of the Katakuris, Harakiri). This is the film that Takashi Miike eventually remade in 2010 which I have seen, so I'm curious to see how the original plays out.

1964's The Great Killing (大殺陣) starring Tōru Abe (The Human Condition, Underworld Beauty), Mikijiro Hira (The Shape of Night, Three Outlaw Samurai), Yoshio Inaba (Harakiri, Seven Samurai), and Chiezo Kataoka (Japanese Godfather: Conclusion, Red Peony Gambler: Execution of Duty).

1967's Eleven Samurai (十一人の侍) starring Isao Natsuyagi (Like Father, Like Son, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge), Kōtarō Satomi (Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit, A Chorus of Angels), Kōji Nanbara (Branded to Kill, The Human Condition), and Junko Miyazono (Ohyaku: The Female Demon, Samurai Wolf).

Arrow's limited edition release includes an o-card sleeve, rigid box, three Amaray cases and a booklet that includes various essays about the films.

Next we have the 4K Ultra HD limited edition release for John Woo's 1992 film Hard Boiled (辣手神探), the third Golden Princess title to be released in the UK under Arrow Video. The UK is behind compared to Shout! Factory but there's more effort put into the packaging, authoring and translation work. The film stars Chow Yun-Fat (A Better Tomorrow, God of Gamblers), Tony Leung Chiu-wai (In the Mood for Love, Shang-Chi), Anthony Wong Chau-Sang (Infernal Affairs, The Untold Story), and Teresa Mo Shun-Kwan (All’s Well, End’s Well, Touch and Go).

Arrow's limited edition release includes an o-card sleeve, rigid box, a 4K UHD case, a double-sided fold-out poster and a booklet that includes various essays about the film. There's also a second Blu-ray disc with more extra features.

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Then we move over to Radiance Films with their limited edition release Underworld Chronicles: Three Yakuza Fables from Takashi Miike. This release features three of Takashi Miike's classic films from the late 90s to early 00s now back in the UK on Blu-ray with one of them also included in 4K Ultra HD.

1996's Fudoh: The New Generation (極道戦国志 不動) starring Shosuke Tanihara (Memories of Matsuko, The Sky Crawlers), Riki Takeuchi (Dead or Alive Trilogy, Yakuza 0), Kenji Takano (Sleepless Town, Spriggan), and Toru Minegishi (Departures, His Motorbike, Her Island). Media Blasters released the film in 4K Ultra HD with MediaOCD handling the authoring, and the distributor provided Radiance Films with the master which they then did some additional restoration work for this release. This is also uncut compared to before.

2001's Agitator (荒ぶる魂たち) starring Masaya Katō (Brother, Kingdom live-action films), Taisaku Akino (Izo, Tora-san film series), Kenichi Endo (Nobody Knows, Yakuza 4), and Hakuryu (Under the Open Sky, Violent Cop). The Radiance Films release includes both the 150 minute theatrical cut and the 200 minute two-part extended cut, the latter presented in standard definition due to the masters not available in HD.

2002's Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (実録・安藤昇侠道（アウトロー）伝 烈火) starring Riki Takeuchi (Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage, His Motorbike, Her Island), Sonny Chiba (The Bullet Train, The Street Fighter), Tetsuro Tamba (The Cat Returns, Gozu), and Ryôsuke Miki (Graveyard of Honor, Izo). Arrow Video previously released the film on DVD but this marks the UK's debut on Blu-ray.

This 6000 unit release includes an obi strip, rigid box, three Scanavo cases and a booklet that includes various essays about the films. A standard edition is expected that would split up the formats for Fudoh and release them all with the new artwork but without any reversible covers or physical items.
 
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