Asian Cinema Thread

For those interested, The Chaser is finally getting an English release in Australia. Link below is for Collectors Edition available only on the distributors website. You can also get a standard one with a slipcase.

shop.umbrellaent.com.au

The Chaser (2008) Collector's Edition (Blu-Ray +Book +Rigid case +Slipcase +Poster +Artcards)

A former cop turned desperate pimp, Joong-ho (Kim Yoon-seok) is frustrated that his girls are running out on him. When his last call girl, Mi-Jin (Seo Young-hee) disappears, Joong-ho makes a harrowing revelation – there’s a sadistic serial killer at play. Traversing the shadowed streets of...
shop.umbrellaent.com.au shop.umbrellaent.com.au
 
Rumour has it that it might be a while here as Legendary has exclusivity on Godzilla advertising for a period given the upcoming release of Godzilla x Kong
 
Yami said:
Rumour has it that it might be a while here as Legendary has exclusivity on Godzilla advertising for a period given the upcoming release of Godzilla x Kong
Click to expand...
I can't see Legendary being able to stop them advertising a completely separate license they've paid for.
Presumably anyway, AL still haven't confirmed if they've got home video rights and if they haven't they're s#it out of luck getting them now, it'll be too rich for their blood.
 
Third Window once again doing the Lord's work

GKKV67FaIAAspAH


Luminous Woman

AL4ef3b.png


This strange work from Shinji Somai (Typhoon Club) is presented with a brand new 2K restoration from the original negatives

A burly hulk of a man (pro-wrestler Keiji Muto) makes his way from Hokkaido to the decrepit trash heaps of outer Tokyo in a quest to find his beloved fiance, but meets a nightclub diva who has lost the ability to sing. When he finds himself pulled into the gladiator pits of a Tokyo nightclub, the mountain man agrees to fight in exchange for information on his lost love, yet also finds himself drawn to the various pulls of the big city.

BLU-RAY CONTENTS
• New 2k remaster from the original negatives
• Making Of (50 minutes)
• Deleted Scenes (50 minutes)
• Trailer
• Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju
• ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp - limited to 2000 copies


Love Hotel

sxUefwt.png


After mainstream success, Shinji Somai (Typhoon Club) returned to his Nikkatsu roots for this mournful Roman Porno scripted by Takashi Ishii (writer of Evil Dead Trap and director of Gonin). After Tetsuro loses his business, the yakuza collect his debt in the most violent, shocking way imaginable. Honorably, he divorces his wife and becomes a taxi driver. Existing bereft of meaning or support, he eventually encounters Nami, a part-time prostitute who has undergone similar tribulations. An existential study of two lonely and tortured souls, Somai’s melancholic roman porno follows the pair as they kindle a newfound friendship amid the chaos of their broken and dispirited lives.

BLU-RAY CONTENTS

• Feature length audio commentary by Jasper Sharp
• Shinji Somai at the Director’s Company: Video essay by Josh Slater-Williams
• Archival interview with actor Minori Terada and assistant director Koji Enokido
• Original Trailer
• Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju
• ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp - limited to 2000 copies


The Crazy Family

GeQjLCf.png


From the director of Electric Dragon 80000v, Crazy Thunder Road and Burst City

The Kobayashi family finally are able to move out of their tiny, cramped Tokyo apartment to the suburban house of their dreams. But things are not as perfect as they seem: the house is infested by termites and the family starts going crazy. As the Kobayashis’ house begins to crumble, so does the sanity of its inhabitants. Katsuhiko takes it upon himself to keep them from the asylum…at any cost.

BLU-RAY CONTENTS
• Director approved remaster from the original negatives
• Feature length audio commentary by Tom Mes
• Director Gakuryu (exSogo) Ishii interview
• “The Crazy Family: Sogo Ishii’s Wild Child” Video essay by James Balmont
• Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju
• ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp - limited to 2000 copies
 
Yami said:
Third Window once again doing the Lord's work

GKKV67FaIAAspAH


Luminous Woman

AL4ef3b.png


This strange work from Shinji Somai (Typhoon Club) is presented with a brand new 2K restoration from the original negatives

A burly hulk of a man (pro-wrestler Keiji Muto) makes his way from Hokkaido to the decrepit trash heaps of outer Tokyo in a quest to find his beloved fiance, but meets a nightclub diva who has lost the ability to sing. When he finds himself pulled into the gladiator pits of a Tokyo nightclub, the mountain man agrees to fight in exchange for information on his lost love, yet also finds himself drawn to the various pulls of the big city.

BLU-RAY CONTENTS
• New 2k remaster from the original negatives
• Making Of (50 minutes)
• Deleted Scenes (50 minutes)
• Trailer
• Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju
• ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp - limited to 2000 copies


Love Hotel

sxUefwt.png


After mainstream success, Shinji Somai (Typhoon Club) returned to his Nikkatsu roots for this mournful Roman Porno scripted by Takashi Ishii (writer of Evil Dead Trap and director of Gonin). After Tetsuro loses his business, the yakuza collect his debt in the most violent, shocking way imaginable. Honorably, he divorces his wife and becomes a taxi driver. Existing bereft of meaning or support, he eventually encounters Nami, a part-time prostitute who has undergone similar tribulations. An existential study of two lonely and tortured souls, Somai’s melancholic roman porno follows the pair as they kindle a newfound friendship amid the chaos of their broken and dispirited lives.

BLU-RAY CONTENTS

• Feature length audio commentary by Jasper Sharp
• Shinji Somai at the Director’s Company: Video essay by Josh Slater-Williams
• Archival interview with actor Minori Terada and assistant director Koji Enokido
• Original Trailer
• Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju
• ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp - limited to 2000 copies


The Crazy Family

GeQjLCf.png


From the director of Electric Dragon 80000v, Crazy Thunder Road and Burst City

The Kobayashi family finally are able to move out of their tiny, cramped Tokyo apartment to the suburban house of their dreams. But things are not as perfect as they seem: the house is infested by termites and the family starts going crazy. As the Kobayashis’ house begins to crumble, so does the sanity of its inhabitants. Katsuhiko takes it upon himself to keep them from the asylum…at any cost.

BLU-RAY CONTENTS
• Director approved remaster from the original negatives
• Feature length audio commentary by Tom Mes
• Director Gakuryu (exSogo) Ishii interview
• “The Crazy Family: Sogo Ishii’s Wild Child” Video essay by James Balmont
• Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju
• ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp - limited to 2000 copies
Click to expand...
I'll most likely pick up the TWF version but worth noting error_4444 also announced The Crazy Family in 4 different slipcovers (all insane).
All error_4444 releases are region free.
Screenshot_20240403_194114_Instagram.jpg
Screenshot_20240403_194132_Instagram.jpg
 
First time posting in this thread but I've been meaning to get into Asian Cinema but well, I'm not sure where to start.

Mostly interested in Japanese cinema for the time being to start with but if there are any great films which are non-Japanese which any of you would highly recommend, I'm open.

All I've really seen is The Grudge, The Ring and a number of anime / manga / video games adaptations such as Battle Royale so I'm a real newbie when it comes to this.
 
Lucky_Deity said:
First time posting in this thread but I've been meaning to get into Asian Cinema but well, I'm not sure where to start.

Mostly interested in Japanese cinema for the time being to start with but if there are any great films which are non-Japanese which any of you would highly recommend, I'm open.

All I've really seen is The Grudge, The Ring and a number of anime / manga / video games adaptations such as Battle Royale so I'm a real newbie when it comes to this.
Click to expand...

Third Window Films put out a lot of Japanese films - you can find them on Arrowfilms.com, and on Amazon, and HMV. They're how I first started getting into Japanese cinema.

It honestly depends on what sort of genre of films you enjoy more generally. As you eluded to, there are some great Japanese horror films out there. If you enjoyed The Ring then you may enjoy Dark Water by the same director. Takashi Miike has put out some good ones as well that I have enjoyed personally: One Missed Call, Lessons of Evil, First Love, Ichi the Killer.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is another big player in the J-horror arena, he's done movies like Cure, Pulse, Creepy, all worth watching in my opinion. Kurosawa has also done a bit of drama - Tokyo Sonata by him is a must-watch in my opinion.

Hirokazu Koreeda does a lot of films on the theme of family - Shoplifters and Like Father, Like Son are my personal favourites of his. I'd also highly recommend Memories of Matsuko and Confessions directed by Tetsuya Nakashima.

Toshiaki Toyoda has some good stuff too, Hanging Garden is probably my favourite of his. Sion Sono is another good director - you need to watch Love Exposure (it's super long but so worth it imo).

One Cut of the Dead is a super fun zombie film if you're into that sort of thing.

Arrow themselves put out more of the crime/Yakuza stuff, but I'm not too interested in that personally.

In terms of non-Japanese stuff, Bong Joon Ho (South Korean) is a great place to start - you may have heard of his film Parasite that was really popular when it came out - Memories of Murder by him is a must-watch too. The Vengeance Trilogy (South Korea) are also really good, they're action revenge-type films. Train to Busan, I Saw The Devil, Decision to Leave, are also really good South Korean films in my opinion.

I'd maybe have a look at the Third Window Film stuff here: https://www.arrowfilms.com/brands/third-window.list and see if anything takes your fancy by the synopsis. It's like most things, it's a rabbit hole and once you start watching a few films by one director you'll want to see what else they have done. Then you'll find other directors naturally and so on.

The British Film Institute also distribute some Japanese films as have Curzon/Artificial Eye. Eureka! also have a lot of Japanese films in their Masters of Cinema blu-ray line too.

I'm by no means an expert in Japanese and Asian cinema, so I'm sure others can pitch in with better thoughts than mine, but these are just some of the films that I've enjoyed in my exploration of Japanese and Asian cinema so far.
 
Last edited:
Lucky_Deity said:
First time posting in this thread but I've been meaning to get into Asian Cinema but well, I'm not sure where to start.

Mostly interested in Japanese cinema for the time being to start with but if there are any great films which are non-Japanese which any of you would highly recommend, I'm open.

All I've really seen is The Grudge, The Ring and a number of anime / manga / video games adaptations such as Battle Royale so I'm a real newbie when it comes to this.
Click to expand...
As the above post said Third Window Films is a very good shout for a variety of genres.
If you're in the UK and have Amazon Prime they did a deal with them a while ago so quite alot of their catalogue is available for free, including newer releases like School In The Crosshairs & The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (from the 80's, not based on the anime)!
 
Pretty good write-up from @BrokenPhoenix, not a whole lot to add. Just look up what's available in the genres you prefer and/or generally comes highly recommended and is easily available.

Shout-out to the Memories of Matsuko recommendation. I don't see too many people mention it often, but holy **** what an incredible movie. Very "out there" and a bit weird in its style, but if it hits with you, it'll hit hard. Watched it about three years or so ago, and barely a month goes by where I don't still think about it, few films have stuck with me the way this one did. The ending left me an absolute blubbering mess.

The Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance. A thematic trilogy rather than any actual story links) often come recommended and for good reason, but Park Chan-wook's other films are also fantastic. Decision to Leave is a really great drama. Joint Security Area is also absolutely fantastic. The Handmaiden is a really great heist film (though fair warning, it contains a few incredibly gratuitous lesbian sex scenes).

@BrokenPhoenix said they weren't too into crime/yakuza stuff, but if you are, and you enjoyed Battle Royale, its director, Kinji Fukasaku made a lot of enjoyable yakuza films in the 70s. He made a lot of films in general, Battle Royale was unfortunately his final film before his death. And if you enjoyed Takeshi Kitano's role as the teacher in Battle Royale, Kitano himself has also had a sizable film career, both as an actor and director, quite a few of his films are available from Third Window, as well as a 3-film boxset from BFI.

For me personally, one of the things I got into early when starting with Asian cinema was Hong Kong martial arts films, primarily the Jackie Chan stuff put out by Eureka and 88 Films. The plots and acting are often super cheesy, with humour that's often somewhat puerile (or simply hasn't aged well), but if Jackie and/or Sammo Hung was in any way involved with the fight choreography then it's a sight to behold. The Police Story trilogy (though I'm personally not a huge fan of the second one) is probably the highlight. If you're into that stuff you could even then branch off into wuxia films. I don't have a lot of experience with that, but Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a classic for a reason and Duel to the Death is a highlight from the ones I remember seeing.

Also a bit of a wildcard recommendation from me: if you're into the more technical aspects of filmmaking, the South Korean film The Villainess is absolutely worth watching for the crazy camerawork alone. It's a pretty unremarkable revenge film, but gooddamn is it a spectacle to watch.
 
88 Films have revealed their July 2024 announcements, featuring the return of a CATIII classic.

815Pnvhl+sL._AC_SL1500_.jpg


Immortal Story (海上花), directed by Yonfan released in 1986 - 15th July
A story of lost lives and lost souls, writer/director Yonfan delivers one of his strongest studies of human fragility. The movie focuses on the relationship between a chanteuse and her Japanese lover from the time they first meet to the present day where she is now at rock bottom and he’s a washed-up drug addict. With incredible performances from Sylvia Chang and Shingo Tsurumi, we act as a voyeur, dipping into their bleak, fragmented existences where others control their choices and the only the only light in their lives is their unbroken love.
Click to expand...

71fvRpomIcL._AC_SL1500_.jpg


An Autumn’s Tale (秋天的童話), directed by Mabel Cheung released in 1987, starring Chow Yun-fat - 15th July
Set in New York, this bitter-sweet drama stars Chow Yun-Fat as Sam, a cool, and charismatic waiter who takes his naïve and heart-broken NYU student cousin, Jennifer (Cherie Chung) under his wing. Their friendship grows as he shows this innocent youngster all that life in the Big Apple has to offer. This wonderful time capsule of New York as it was 1987, is perfectly constructed by director Mabel Cheung who frames each shot with care making sure that this a true love-letter to the iconic city from a very original point of view.
Click to expand...

Sex and Zen (玉蒲團之偷情寶鑑), directed by Michael Mak released in 1991, CATIII title in deluxe edition - 29th July
“Banned for 400 years!” screamed the original poster and you can see why as this erotic comedy is brilliantly bizarre, pretty sleazy and downright weird. Also known as The Carnal Prayer Mat's Stash of Illicit Love and slightly based on the seventeenth century novel The Carnel Prayer Mat, we follow a desperate man who is convinced by his mentor that he needs to be “well equipped” to pleasure his wife, so he has a horses appendage transplanted onto him! From here on in it gets really strange! A box-office hit in Hong Kong, this Category III movie is an erotic experience like no other and presented here UNCUT and remastered for the very first time.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Back
Top