Congratulations to the three winners of the Chanbara Beauty DVD competition we ran last month – hope you enjoy the film! To those who didn’t win anything, stay tuned, as we’ll be launching a new competition this Friday…
Some very lucky readers will get their copy of Kim Jee-woon’s fantastic The Good, The Bad, The Weird on Blu-ray in the next few days. And don’t forget, there’s still time to enter our competition and you can win an exclusive Blood: The Last Vampire t-shirt and this original Anime version on DVD!
Osamu Tezuka’s (Astro Boy) Dororo gets the live-action makeover, from director Akihiko Shiota, starring Memories Of Matsuko’s Kou Shibasaki, but spoiled a little by wishy-washy CGI and under-par action from legendary Ching Siu-Tung… (more…)
In 2005, “Ong-Bak” introduced a whole new level of martial arts mayhem to unsuspecting action movie fans around the world and raised the bar as far as on-screen, in-your-face fight and action choreography was concerned. Now, producer Adirek Watleela (Bang Rajan; Bangkok Dangerous) and director Thanakorn Pongsuwan (Opapatika; The Story Of X-Circle) take things in a new direction with the electrifying and relentlessly violent Fireball, starring popular Thai rock star Preeti “Bank” Barameeanant in the dual roles of twin brothers who become dangerously involved in Thailand’s ultimate underground bloodsport.
Eschewing plot complexities in favour of all-out action sequences, Fireball combines the breakneck paced sport of basketball with the bone crushing brutality of Muay Thai fighting and mixed martial arts for an action movie experience quite unlike any other.
Recently released from prison, Tai discovers that his twin brother Tan is in a coma after being beaten to near-death by a rival. Further investigation reveals that in order to raise money to secure Tai’s early release, Tan had become involved in an illegal and deadly but highly lucrative underground sport known as Fireball, a no-holds-barred combination of basketball and martial arts in which ruthless murder is simply part of the game.
Seeking revenge on the man responsible for his brother’s condition, Tai poses as Tan and infiltrates the gangster-run world of Fireball by joining a team consisting of equally desperate individuals, including a Thai boxing champion out to prove himself, a Thai-African in need of money to support his impoverished family, and an old friend of Tan’s with a mysterious past.
After entering the latest Fireball tournament, Tai and his teammates are forced to risk everything, including their lives, by fighting their way to the final round of the championships in an arena from which several of them may not return. Along the way, Tai determines to identify his brother’s attacker and exact his revenge no matter what the cost to himself or those around him.
Breathtakingly paced from start to finish and featuring numerous extended scenes of stunning sports and explosive martial arts choreography, Fireball is a truly exhilarating action movie guaranteed to bludgeon viewers into submission and leave them as exhausted as its protagonists by the time the final credits begin to roll.
Japanese director Tetsuya Nakashima (Memories Of Matsuko) has rapidly earned himself a reputation as a hugely talented and idiosyncratic auteur whose genre-busting films have been favourably compared to the work of directors such as Tim Burton (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory; Big Fish), Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge; Romeo And Juliet) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (A Very Long Engagement; Amelie). Now, the pop culture phenomenon that has taken Japan by storm, Nakashima’s KAMIKAZE GIRLS, comes to DVD and Blu-ray as a Special Edition release courtesy of Third Window Films.
Based on the bestselling novel-turned-manga by cult author Novala Takemoto, KAMIKAZE GIRLS concerns 17-year-old Momoko (Kyoko Fukada), a self-absorbed dreamer and ‘Lolita’ fashion obsessive whose love of all things Rococo sees her fantasizing about fleeing her backcountry home and living life in 18th Century Versailles.
While selling off her father’s supplies of bootleg designer fashion goods in order to fund her expensive obsession, Momoko unexpectedly meets the rebellious Ichigo (Anna Tsuchiya), a rough-and-tumble ‘Yanki’ biker chick. The girls begin a tentative and unlikely relationship that soon sees the two seemingly incompatible misfits forming a unique friendship. Together, they embark on a vividly coloured, sugar sweet, hyper-stylized odyssey of female bonding all set to a pounding J-Pop beat.
Described as ‘a wild, surreal speed-freak’s walk on the kitsch side of pop culture obsessions’ by The Sunday Times and by Metro as ‘everything you’d want in a slice of Japanese pop culture and more,’ Nakashima’s adaptation of Takemoto’s novel is a full-on bubblegum-laced extravaganza – the cinematic equivalent of a sweet-toothed teenager being given the keys to the candy store.
Starring J-Pop idol Kyoko Fukada (The Ring 2; Dolls) and pop star turned actress Anna Tsuchiya (Dororo; Sakuran), KAMIKAZE GIRLS is delightfully exuberant trip through teenage alienation terrain in the company of two of the most fun and endearing girls ever to grace the screen.
Following its hugely successful theatrical release in October, which saw it being hailed as Film of the Week in both Time Out and The Guardian and being awarded Four Star reviews in The Daily Express, Time Out, The Sun, Empire, Total Film and Loaded, Park Chan-wook’s THIRST comes to DVD and Blu-ray on 25th January 2009.
The joint winner of the Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, THIRST sees the director of such acclaimed and varied films as the military thriller “JSA: Joint Security Area”, the comedy romance “I’m A Cyborg” and the standout movie of his “vengeance” trilogy “Oldboy” further emphasising his versatility as a storyteller and a filmmaker by turning his hand to Western horror traditions and taking on the ever-popular vampire genre.
Very loosely based on Emile Zola’s novel “Therese Raquin”, the story concerns a priest who, accidentally cursed with vampirism, is thrown into a whirlpool of moral decline that leads to him into a nightmare world of lust, adultery and murder.
Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine research project designed to eradicate a deadly virus. When the virus is found to be affecting the priest and threatening his life, a blood transfusion is urgently ordered up for him. However, the blood he receives is unknowingly infected, the result of the transfusion being that Sang-hyun survives the viral attack but now exists as a vampire dependent upon the life blood of others.
Struggling with his newfound carnal desire for this vital fluid, Sang-hyun’s faith is further strained when a childhood friend’s wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), comes to him asking for his help in escaping her tormented life. It’s not long before the former priest is plunged headlong into a world of sensual pleasures, finding himself on intimate terms with the deadliest of the Seven Sins.
Starring Song Kang-ho as Sang-hyun (The Host; The Good, The Bad, The Weird; Lady Vengeance; Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance) and Kim Ok-vin as Tae-ju (Dasepo Naughty Girls; The Accidental Gangster), THIRST is a visceral, thought-provoking and darkly comic exploration of human existence in extreme circumstances from one of the most original and provocative directors working in modern cinema.
DVD Features
Audio commentary by director Park Chan-wook; Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 and half-rate DTS 5.1 audio options; trailer; UK exclusive interview with Park Chan-wook.
Blu-ray Features
Audio commentary by director Park Chan-wook; Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 and DTS 5.1 audio options; trailer; UK exclusive interview with Park Chan-wook.
Chris Nahon’s live-action remake of anime Blood: The Last Vampire comes to DVD and Blu-ray on 12 October 2009, released by Manga. Detalis TBC.
John Woo’s superb return to form Red Cliff, makes its way to UK DVD and Blu-ray on 5 October, released by Entertainment in Video.
Kim Jee-Woon’s (A Tale Of Two Sisters, A Bittersweet Life) fantastic The Good, The Bad, The Weird, starring Song Kang-Ho, Lee Byung-Hun and Jung Woo-Sung, will be released on UK on DVD and Blu-Ray on 1 June by Icon Home Entertainment. A big-budget take on the Western genre set in the 1930s Manchurian desert, a search for a map brings together three very different men who seem to exemplify the characteristics of the title. In this Korean-language film, all of the actors – including the top-billed stars – performed their own stunts.
THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (SPECIAL EDITION) will be released as a two-disc DVD (£19.99) and single disc Blu-ray (£24.99) by Icon Home Entertainment on 15 June 2009. Special Features include: “Running Fast” – making of featurette; “The Good, The Bad, The Weird And The Vicious” (interview with the director and cast); “Analogue” (cinematography, lighting, action sequences, sound); “Space” (production design, costumes, set decoration); deleted scenes with optional director’s commentary; alternate endings (with multi angles); trailers.
The Good, The Bad, The Weird is released on Blu-Ray and two-disc DVD on 15 June (postponed from 1 June).
The second film in the live-action 20th Century Boys trilogy, 20th Century Boys Chapter 2, will be released by 4Digital Asia on 31 December 2009.
Dodgeball meets Rollerball in this violent bloodsport flick, but before you go thinking we’re back to the excesses of 80s martial arts films, think again… (more…)
It’s a good day for fans of Tetsuya Nakashima, as today sees the release of both his scripted comedy Lala Pipo, directed by Masayuki Miyano, and his own highly enjoyable feature Kamikaze Girls, released in a new special edition 2-disc DVD and single disc Blu-ray boasting plenty of new features including the short film ‘Birth Of Unicorn Ryuji’, a making of featurette, interviews with cast and crew, and a music video with star Anna Tsuchiya.
Easily the most palatable Chinese historical drama in ages, John Woo’s Red Cliff comes to UK DVD and Blu-ray today courtesy of Entertainment in Video. Oh, and it’s the best film he’s done in a long time too, so if you’ve yet to catch it, this is a must!
(Shame it’s not all four hours plus??)
Surely, no need to highlight that Park Chan-wook critically acclaimed Thirst gets released by Palisades Tartan on Blu-ray and DVD? Highly enjoyable, funny and intelligent, it’s everything you’d want from a post-modern vampire film but were too afraid you’d end up with Twilight, instead.
Also out today – and sharing a common theme in Catholism – is the four-hour epic Love Exposure, from writer-director Sion Sono (Exte: Hair Extensions). Highly inventive and less of an endurance test than you might expect at that length, to my mind the end result is flawed – not helped by the lack of chemistry between leads Takahiro Nishijima and the delightful Hikari Mitsushima.
After a delay in production that put back the release a couple of weeks, Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird finally arrives on UK DVD and Blu-ray, and what an awesome package it is! Sure, this might not be quite the Korean 3-disc First Press limited edition release, but it’s still a pretty fine DVD set – particularly for an Asian release, which invariably end up missing out all the best features.
There’s a fantastic hour and a half long ‘making of’ documentary, featurettes on cinematography, action sequences, production and set design, costumes and much more, over 50 minutes of deleted scenes and alternative endings, and an entertaining four-way interview with the director and his three leads. You can read our updated review here.
The Good, The Bad, The Weird is released on Blu-Ray and two-disc DVD today by Icon Home Entertainment.
Just a quick round-up of some future releases to look forward to:
Of course, the chief one will be Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, coming to DVD and Blu-ray on 25 January 2010, an undoubtedly one of the biggest releases for the newly reborn Palisades Tartan label.
January also sees the release of The Twins Effect and Sniper director Dante Lam’s The Beast Stalker as a two-disc collectors edition. Starring Nicholas Tse (Dragon Tiger Gate; New Police Story; The Medallion) and Jingchu Zhang (Rush Hour 3; Seven Swords), this kinetic crime-thriller gets released on 4 January 2010 by Cine Asia.
There’s also the Ong-Bak styled Thai martial arts film, Fireball, from producer Adirek Watleela (Bang Rajan, Bangkok Dangerous) and director Thanakorn Pongsuwan (Opapatika, The Story Of X-Circle). Fireball is released on DVD and Blu-ray by E1 Entertainment.
Just to remind you that the Tetsuya Nakashima scripted sex comedy Lalo Pipo is on limited release around the UK. Those based in the UK and fully digital (shouldn’t we all be) may be interested to know that Film4 is showing Nakashima’s epic Memories Of Matsuko and (the arguably more impressive) Kamikaze Girls, as well as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, so set your PVRs.
Out today, Akihiko Shiota’s entertaining live-action update of the Dororo manga, by Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka – and there’s still a chance to win a copy on DVD…! (more…)
With the DVD and Blu-ray release of Kim Jee-woon’s enormously entertaining The Good, The Bad, The Weird now imminent (though a little less than it was due to production problems!) we’re all looking forward to a pretty decent, feature-packed UK version. Here’s an exclusive look at in-case character cards that will be available in DVD and Blu-ray copies for a limited time from HMV only…
To celebrate the release of Blood: The Last Vampire on DVD and Blu-ray, we have three copies to give away… (more…)
Babes, bikinis, blades, guns and zombies – what more could you want? And you can win a copy on DVD…! (more…)
We have three copies of the live-action version of Osamu Tezuka’s (Astro Boy) Dororo to give away on DVD… (more…)
Fancy owning Kim Jee-woon’s fantastically entertaining The Good, The Bad, The Weird on Blu-ray? Well, it’s your lucky day, as we have three to give away! (more…)
