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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.

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.

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.

THIRST (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (£19.99) and Blu-ray (£24.99) by Palisades Tartan on 25th January 2010.

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.

Regular Japanese readers of easternKicks may spot a familiar name in the September issue of glossy interview magazine Cut (hitting shelves right now) – yep, that’s us! Our interview with Lee Byung-hun was reprinted with permisson and translated into Japanese. (And we’re hoping to bring you some more very interesting interviews very soon… So stay tuned!)

One of several blockbusters this summer, G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra is of note for easternKicks.com readers due to being the Hollywood debut for Korean star Lee Byung-hun (A Bittersweet Life, The Good, The Bad The Weird). Could this be the start of things to come? Well, Lee didn’t exactly enjoy his time, as he told us when we interviewed him last year, and outside of the US most audiences won’t know about the G.I. Joe franchise. (We called them Action Man!)

But hey, looking at this clip at least he’s not under that mask all through the film. (Though I can’t watch this without thinking of Team America – f**k yeah!…)

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!

» Click here to enter!

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.

And don’t forget there’s still plenty of time to bag your self the film on Blu-ray – enter our competition here!

The Good, The Bad, The Weird is released on Blu-Ray and two-disc DVD today by Icon Home Entertainment.

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…)

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…

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).

Well done to Charlotte of Taunton, the poster is winging it’s way in the post to you now!

(Stay tuned for more competitions coming very soon!)

Yep, if you haven’t entered our competition yet, there’s still a chance to win a poster from The Good, The Bad, The Weird exclusively signed by the director Kim Jee-woon… (more…)

Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird is released in selected cinemas around the UK today, and we’re giving away a poster exclusively signed by the director! (more…)

The director of A Bittersweet Life and A Tale Of Two Sisters talks about his latest movie, a homage to Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad & The Ugly… (more…)

No more mister nice guy. How Korean star Lee Byung-hun is ditching the romantic leads to play the bad guy… (more…)

Icon Films, the distribution company for Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird, have announced the UK release dates as 6 February 2009. An old-fashioned adventure yarn the way Indiana Jones movies used to be, this Sergio Leone homage is fantastic big screen entertainment! You can read our review here »

Stay tuned for our exclusive interview with Jee-woon and lead Lee Byung-hun, coming soon…!