Non-Criterion Boutique Home Video Discussion (Kino, Warner Archive, Arrow, Indicator, Vinegar Syndrome, Code Red, etc.)

Weekend before last I watched some Hungarian mind game thriller that I liked, title is really long and hard to remember.

Huh, I didn't even know they had their own streaming service. It seems like a lot of their physical releases wind up streaming on Criterion Channel.

Wait, I misspoke. Kino Lorber does have its own streaming service called Kino Now, but I streamed PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME from Film Forum.

Really hope that's not really the final Warner Archive sale! I didn't buy that often, but it was a nice thing to have around.

Streaming the latest Philippe Garrel from Film Forum now before it goes away.

xpost My understanding is that WB is parting ways with the company that runs WB Shop. There has been speculation running the gamut from 'so this is just the final 4 for $44 with that particular distributor' to 'so this means that WB is shuttering Warner Archive altogether'. Given that WB often demonstrates the sound business acumen of a downed power line whipping madly across a roadway, the real answer could fall anywhere within that continuum.

I recommend this Philippe Garrel film.

I'm sad about the possible demise of WB Archive but to be honest I could never be bothered with bare bones releases, even if the transfers are very good. Without the contextualization I'd rather just stream it or, in the before times, wait until it hits a repertory cinema.

Can heartily recommend the first volume of Indicator's Columbia Noir boxes. Bought it kinda expecting scraps, but the overall level is actually pretty good, and Drive A Crooked Road might make it on a hypothetical list of my all-time fave noirs.

Second Run is another one to look out for - they specialise in Eastern European cinema, so I end up giving them less of my money than I should because I'm just not very savvy on that topic yet. But a recent release that I loved is Tomorrow I'll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea, which is a nazi time travel comedy (!) from Czechoslovakia. Very much official state cinema, not a Czech New Wave kind of thing, but really clever with its time travel conceit; can't think of another movie that uses it so well this side of Back To The Future.

Finally, 88 Films, headed by Nicky Wire in a banana suit, have just had British censors refuse them permission to release a blu-ray for some Italian nazisploitation orgy thing, which is dumb but also very funny if you immediatley think of dude's ilx days.

i've been eyeing up the Second Run dvds for a while now, always meaning to buy more, but i only have the Jancso box.

(and Daisies. but then everyone has Daisies)

I'm sad about the possible demise of WB Archive but to be honest I could never be bothered with bare bones releases, even if the transfers are very good.

Huh. Are the latter regular Warner DVD releases that went OOP?

Some are. They just released Curse of Frankenstein which I think got a crummy snapcase DVD release 20 years ago in the US but was otherwise only ever available in multipacks. The new blu-ray is a two-disc set with the film in three different aspect ratios and a whole lot of new features.

Looking over my recent purchases (Curse, Shop Around the Corner, Meet Me in St. Louis, Best Years of our Lives), only Best Years is fairly stingy with the extras.

Second Run's Goodbye Dragon Inn might be my favorite release of the last year. Or at least my favorite movie that finally got a decent set.

Didn't realise Nicky Wire Bananaman actually ran 88 Films, but did watch one of his documentaries on a release - might have been Massacre In Dinosaur Valley? - so it makes sense.

I have never understood what "nicky wire in a banana suit" means and had no idea he was a poster...is there some reasonable reason his company has that name?

Big Hitler fan and cinephile

One of those more believable than the other.

ugh hitler stans are so annoying

Just did a nostalgic search through thread titles started by his most frequent identity and that was a wild ride. I didn't realise there were just so many of them.

In actually relevant news I went to order that Czech film from Second Run but I can't check out the shopping cart. Oh well.

yeah sorry for derail (also embarrassingly realized I've figured this out before)

still, I would probably avoid releasing nazisploitation movies with that company name

I wasn't having a go except at myself because I thought I was derailing.

there are lots of WB Archives Blu-Rays with extras. Off the top of my head, a couple Michael Curtiz movies (Dodge City + Adventures of Robin Hood) have newsreels, cartoons, short films (by Curtiz!), trailers, and multiple radio broadcasts of the film in question. Usually some contemporary interviews with scholars/critics, too.

Dunno about entire extra films though, I've only ever encountered that with Criterion. They should really emphasize that more imo, I mean the Stranger Than Paradise disc for example: it has Permanent Vacation! That's hardly an extra. Stranger Than Paradise is an extra on that disc!

Gaslight at least has both the 1940 and 1944 versions of the film. I could swear I have at least one other with a bonus film.

But yeah, Criterion (and others who do likewise) should make a bigger deal about that. I bought The Front Page from Kino not realizing that it was included on Criterion's release of His Girl Friday.

Most (if not all) of the Warner Archive Blu extras are ported over from the original DVDs.

The first Gaslight with Anton Walbrook is grebt.

Wow, I had no idea about Gaslight. Yeah, I had the same reaction with His Girl Friday, tbh I didn't even know it had the extra movie when I bought it. I went to watch HGF again like 2 years ago and was like "what's this extra disc...? ...oh..... wtf?!!"

It Happened One Night has a feature length Capra silent (haven't watched yet), and the Stagecoach release has one of the best Ford silents I've seen, Bucking Broadway.

Killer's Kiss included with The Killing...The Report included with Certified Copy...yeah...

I'd imagine with Criterion that it has to do with them gatekeeping what gets the official "prestige" of being included in the Collection, which kinda makes since for stuff like De Palma's Murder A La Mod (bonus for Blow Out) or the 30s version of Magnificent Obsession on the Sirk disc, but is pretty baffling choice when it comes to Permanent Vacation.

Killer's Kiss included with The Killing...The Report included with Certified Copy...yeah...

― Motoroller Scampotron (WmC), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:24 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

YO

I'VE HAD THE REPORT THIS WHOLE TIME.....?

xxp Yeah that does make sense, it just feels like they should advertise them more, I mean I had NO idea Certified Copy came with The Report-- and I've had that disc for years!

But, then again, I don't read stickers!

My birthday present to you!

I love you

The studio killed the original UK Gaslight in various ways such as renaming it so as not to compete with the US remake, iirc..

Okay, MGM destroyed the negative at the time, and one or both versions were variously known as Angel Street and The Murder in Thornton Square.

Bonus films are indeed an awesome feature, though tbh I'm not sure I'll ever get around to the earlier version of Holiday

I haven't looked at the Warner Archive site in years, but I remember being wary because the DVDs (and maybe the blu-rays?) were sometimes DVD-Rs/MOD. The fact that a even some factory-pressed Warner titles from about fifteen years ago became unplayable over time helped sour me on buying Warner releases. But I also just rarely watch physical discs any more, unfortunately.

xxp Another bonus feature IIRC is The Traveler on Criterion's Close-Up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/arts/gaslight-movie-afterlife.html
J. Hoberman's overview.

xpost Warner Archive DVDs are, unfortunately, usually DVD-Rs and thusly not generally something I'm inclined to pay money for (except that I'm probably going to fold on the Forbidden Hollywood sets eventually). Their blu-rays, however, are legit manufactured discs and well worth checking out. They have so much good stuff.

I'm slapping myself just now because when I started this thread I knew I was forgetting to mention a major player and sure enough: Shout/Scream Factory is probably the most dominant boutique label in my collection. And sure enough: they're having a sale (on box sets).

https://www.shoutfactory.com/page/list/id/282131?utm_source=rejoiner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BOXSET+SALE+FEB+2021+-+FIRST+DAY&utm_content=BOXSET+SALE+FEB+2021

You see, this is how I blew through whatever stimulus money I received last year. Soooo many sales. It's a really easy way to go broke.

Olive Films puts out a lot of good stuff. Can't seem to find a proper home page.

https://olivefilms.com/

(doesn't show up on a Google search).

If you’re not buying the Maude box set from that Shout sale, seriously what are you doing in life?!

Lol

I was looking at the Barney Miller box.

It's kind of like transfers, too, at this point. Which is the "correct" one? Criterion has a new 4K of "Point Blank," and there were people that complained it looked wrong or, worse, was not how they remembered it (how many decades ago?). But the restoration team had been provided with a reference print from the WB archives, so

There absolutely is not a platonically "correct" transfer, you're usually trying to get as close to the original as possible but even that is complicated by the fact that obviously a cinema screen in the 60's will look different than now, imo there are just transfers that look good and transfers that don't. That being said if the pitch was "I had AI restore this print and then had a cinematographer take a look" that's one edition I wouldn't buy. :)

I recommend Franju/Mocky's La Tete Contre Les Murs. I didn't realize that Eureka had previously released this on dvd.
I hope the Mocky releases keep coming.
I know Eyes Without A Face but does anyone here rate any Franju like Judex, Spotlight On A Murderer or anything else?

Saw Judex at the BFI once, tons of fun.

I agree that good grammar is a low bar, but I (like most of you) have seen dozens and dozens of subtitled films, hundreds, whatever the number is, and aside from good grammar and the lack of typos or whatever, I can't think of any examples of poor translations that impacted my enjoyment. But then again, when it comes to really specific nuance, I'm not sure how I would ever know! Iirc some people brought up nicknames in The Killer. Shrimp head, or something, vs. Mickey Mouse? Something like that. At some point the nuance might/will be lost on me, because even if it was a more accurate translation, I lack a comprehensive enough understanding of the culture for it to make any real difference. Especially in a John Woo film, lol.

AI is bullshit, of course, and automating these processes are no or at least a poor, lazy substitute for human input. But we've had decades of movies with hit or miss translations already, and none of those used AI at all. The more eyeballs on things the better, but machines and people are both if not equally than potentially prone to imperfection. I think about how spellcheckers can't catch homonymns, it takes a human to catch that.

Now, AI-automated DNR, that sort of stuff people catch in transfers all the time. Weird distorted faces, gibberish words on signs, that sort of thing. Translations ... I think it's a trickier slipper slope, especially when it comes to words or phrases or languages that just don't lend themselves well to precise translation.

Anyway, I do think it's an interesting discussion, and something I think about whenever I read/hear *any* translation. What am I missing? How close is it getting?

Read Hofstadter's Le Ton Beau de Marot

It's a question of trust, you're accepting that this translation is probably accurate and of course if you don't speak the language you'll be none the wiser but believe me if you DO seeing bad translations is maddening. So I welcome the chance to vote with my money.

This Shout kerfuffle is literally the only time I've ever heard anyone even mention subtitles when it comes to boutique releases and the fact that it was intense enough to get Arrow to procure alternative ones is I think a net good: in the future labels will tread more carefully and consider paying their damn translators.

At some point the nuance might/will be lost on me, because even if it was a more accurate translation, I lack a comprehensive enough understanding of the culture for it to make any real difference. Especially in a John Woo film, lol.

Sure, but this is part of the joy of exploring a foreign nation's cinema, the fact that the more you watch the more attuned you will be to the cultural subtelties. If the translator's doing good work you will eventually get used to, and understand, linguistic and slang nuances...not all of them, of course.

That's for sure where commentaries often come in, providing context that I/we might miss. They can kind of work like footnotes and annotations.

I think "trust" is the right word here, not just in the accuracy but in conveying the nuance (setting aside how much nuance is or is not lost in an action movie; I wonder what a bad translation job on "Die Hard" - say, from English to Cantonese - would look like?). There are lots of Russian-to-English translations of Dostoevsky, with various pros and cons, some of which I might appreciate, some of which I might, some of which may come from more trustworthy sources, and none of which, no matter how well done, a substitute for being a fluent Russian reader/speaker. But comparing all the translations from the position of a non-fluent person literally becomes an academic endeavor.

Anyway, I support Arrow's work, but I guess from my vantage the image/transfer quality is paramount. It is odd that this is one of the few times I've ever seen subtitles come up, too, even though it is always an issue or consideration. Makes me wonder if there's something personal going on. Translator beef!

I don't think Cheung and the Shout guy know each other (dunno if I would refer to the latter as a translator at all - everything else aside he also did his work for free, another big wtf there). There was some uproar when Cheung first noted some errors in the subtitles (from cinema screenings iirc, the discs weren't out yet), but frankly I don't think it would've gotten anywhere as large a controversy if dude hadn't then decided to self destruct by announcing loudly that he did it using AI, that he doesn't speak the language, that he wasn't paid and that no one cares about subtitles anyway.

It is odd that this is one of the few times I've ever seen subtitles come up, too, even though it is always an issue or consideration. Makes me wonder if there's something personal going on. Translator beef!

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, June 27, 2026 9:46 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I recently went looking for Varda's La Bonheur and there was several reviews about fucked up subtitles from a usually good label (Artificial Eye).

Interesting. Artificial Eye is Curzon, right? They do have a good reputation. Do you remember what people said went wrong? In this case there is a Criterion edition available, did people compare the subtitles? Or are they messed up on the Criterion, too?

This Shout kerfuffle is literally the only time I've ever heard anyone even mention subtitles when it comes to boutique releases

i don’t follow this world super closely and don’t have an example off the top of my head but it does come up with anime releases sometimes. seems like some companies are ok with AI slop translations and some are not and some shoddy translations find their way to crunchyroll etc, maybe even physical releases.

Yeah now that you mention it, have heard similar things but not knowledgeable about anime on disc either.

I recently went looking for Varda's La Bonheur and there was several reviews about fucked up subtitles from a usually good label (Artificial Eye).

Looked at the amazon uk reviews and the subtitle issue in this one seems to be that there are two sets of subtitles, of different size, appearing consecutively and only one is correct! So more of a disc production problem than any fault of the translator but yeah, wild that this hit the market.

subs for the original release of Come Drink With Me by 88 Films were terrible - people being misgendered, wrong character names etc. iirc the subs were provided by the licensors. there were enough complaints that when rereleased on 4K they commissioned a new set of subs.

I do sometimes think that a peculiar choice of phrase in a subtitle gives me a little peek into the idioms of the language being translated, and I'm usually fine with it/expecting it in wuxia and martial arts releases. Daniel absolutely right tho I was prefer my shonky translations created by a paid human being

Gotta check which "Come Drink With Me" I've got later, never noticed it being egregious

Are translators/subtitle editors usually credited in these released? Maybe somewhere in the, well, credits I assume. It looks like the guy that handles a lot of the 88 Films is named Gary Lau, or at least the buck stops with him.

Anyway, here's the epic debate/Cheung post that started this ball rolling:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=23294136

Lots of claims, complications and details, many tbh that are quite interesting to me. The two (feuding?) guys used to work together, the guy that doesn't speak Chinese nonetheless always works with a native speaker, John Woo himself approved the editions translated by the non-native speaker, etc. And this whole debate came to a head before either the Shout or the Arrow discs were even released! I find a lot of the comments fascinating, like this one:

Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless is now 65 years old and one of the most famous arthouse films ever made. It has had multiple translations over the years by some very proficient people, yet no one knows how to exactly translate the last line of dialogue in the film. The original French is vague by design, and how you interpret it depends on many factors. Since there is no exact English analog for the phrase, each translator has to choose one of the many possible meanings for the audience. I have seen at least three different translations of that last line and each version changes the tone of that final moment. Sometimes drastically.

The thread goes on forever, but there are some interesting twists and turns and interjections from people with production knowledge. Morality, ethics, professionalism, snobbery, fandom, personal beefs - all comes into play! And again, this is before any of the contested titles/translations were released! I had to skip way ahead in the forum until I found someone directly comparing some subs in the Shout and Arrow versions of "City on Fire:"

First line
Shout: He's involved in illegal gambling, drug trafficking, loan sharking.
Arrow: This guy... running gambling stalls, peddling dope, loan-sharking!

Second line
Shout: If we lose out to the cops like that, how are we supposed to carry on?
Arrow: How can we walk the streets if we lose to a bunch of cops?

From what I've seen while spot checking a few scenes, I prefer the Arrow subtitles. The main character jokingly says "no problem" a few times in what I believe to be Hakka instead of Cantonese. I imagine that it's an ad-lib of Chow Yun Fat, who is of Hakka descent. In the Shout subs it's translated to "no problem", but in the Arrow subs it's "no problemo". Substituting it with a mock Spanish expression is a good call imo.

I'd call the differences subtle, but can see why someone might still prefer one over the other.

I don't think translators are credited on most releases, no, which is a shame. There's a lot of questionable practices in the industry, I've heard rumors that translators aren't the only ones sometimes working for free w/ these releases (not specific to Shout).

Yeah that Godard line is a tough one. Tbf tho English speaking audiences are more likely to either know French or have access to someone who does than w/ Cantonese or Japanese, so at least that aspect gets discussed a lot.

88 Films - Just feels like they mostly release leftovers, stuff that the other boutique labels found too mid.

Well, I'm in the B area, so Duel To The Death is not overlooked for me - Eureka already put out a lovely blu (great film tho agreed!). And ofc I got all the Shawscopes.

yea, 88 films rules! and their prices are still pretty sane too, which is nice.

similarly, third window films is very well-curated for japanese stuff. anything they put out is worth a look imo. tho a good chunk do end up overseas on other labels.

Every 88 release I've bought so far has been a dud, both in quality of film and features (the guys they got to talk about Italian crime cinema, urgh). But I'll admit they haven't been many.

Third Window otoh have been consistently quality, would be somewhere in the upper half of my list.

re: 88 films extras, I think the HK stuff is prob where they shine there too. frank djeng in the lineup is always a good sign.

re: third window, special shout out to the director's company releases, love a lot of these:
https://thirdwindowfilms.com/genre/directors-company-2/

even the ones that don't really work (like kiyoshi kurosawa's pink godard knock off) are interesting curiosities but crazy family, door, typhoon club, mermaid legend... sooo good

Djeng suffers from overexposure imo, feels like he has a commentary on every HK release by every boutique label in existence and some of them you can really tell he's running on fumes.

Where he really excels I think is in cultural context, dude actually grew up in Hong Kong and is excellent at explaining wordplay, references to then contemporary culture (ads, tv dramas), demographics, etc.

As a critic I rate him less, I remember in one of the Mr Vampire sequel commentaries his co-host mentions people disliking a certain actor's character and Djeng just goes "well that's how he's written!", as if that puts the matter to rest.

I checked out several of 88's roman porno releases and didn't find them especially memorable, sorry to say. Was hoping for something a bit more stylish. 88 Films really needs to do more trailers on youtube but I know these films present a bit more of a challenge. But really it's still very do-able to make a short trailer.

Every fan of weird-ass japanese films needs to see Pinocchio 964, I don't have their recent release but definitely get it if you haven't seen it.

They released Mika Ninagawa's two most famous films: Helter Skelter and Sakuran. They look really striking but I've been slightly hesitant, I don't know why, they have good reputations.

Them releasing Jane Campion's Holy Smoke is a little head scratching.

Also, Stanley Kwan's Center Stage.

Did anyone see Gate Of Flesh?

Djeng does seem to be all over these things. He is to HK cinema commentaries what Kim Newman is to horror. But Djeng seems good when he's pared with someone else, though, like F.J. DeSanto on some of those 88 sets.

I'm not a fan of commentaries that come from people with a nebulous pedigree, at least to me. Like, "James Mudge, Hong Kong Film Critic At easternKicks," that means nothing to me, though his commentary on "Armour of God 2" seemed fine, and he wasn't afraid to point out the long boring stretches of nothing, or inappropriate jokes or whatever. Lots of youtubers, podcasts hosts, bloggers show up offering commentaries, but I just don't recognize them by name. Unlike, say, Ian Christie or David Kalat or Stephen Prince or some of those Criterion standard bearers.

this thread has prompted me to check radiance website and they've got a sale on at the moment. i've been holding off for a while rather than buying full price films that i then don't watch so i had quite a few on my list... 6 in fact, £52 total

I checked out several of 88's roman porno releases and didn't find them especially memorable, sorry to say

curious if you tried girl hell (1977) ? that one is pretty stylish and even moving imo

i also like the watcher in the attic, mostly because watching in the attic is such creepy concept, one soon perfected in gary busey’s hider in the house (not really don’t watch that one lol)

Girl Hell might have been the highlight of the bunch but I didn't feel strongly about it

fair enough

i also like the watcher in the attic, mostly because watching in the attic is such creepy concept,

Is this based on that Edogawa Rampo book? Cause that's creepy as fuck, indeed.

I think it's a blend of a few Rampo stories, it has the human chair in it too.

Like, "James Mudge, Hong Kong Film Critic At easternKicks," that means nothing to me, though his commentary on "Armour of God 2" seemed fine, and he wasn't afraid to point out the long boring stretches of nothing, or inappropriate jokes or whatever

Saw this guy talk about Taoism Drunkard for twenty minutes on the Eureka disc yesterday. Seems to know his stuff and has a pleasant scottish voice, good enough for me!

Anyway, I do think it's an interesting discussion, and something I think about whenever I read/hear *any* translation. What am I missing? How close is it getting?

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, June 27, 2026 12:35 PM (two days ago)

so hi i have Opinions lol

(i like "le ton beau de marot" and hofstadter isn't a linguist, his understanding is limited and flawed in certain ways... his perspectives are interesting, but he doesn't represent a mainstream academic view of translation, i'll just say that.)

this is a particularly interesting topic because there are concepts that are constructed within a certain cultural context liiiiike, uh... gender

the way gender is understood is something that's changed significantly over the past 30 years in the US, and the way it's understood in other cultures is _very often distinct_ from western understandings. one of the reasons i am patiently waiting for a boutique label to release the mandarin print of Swordsman II in the US (there's a German blu-ray with a copy) is because of Brigitte Lin's character, Dongfang Bubai. Bubai is the villain of the film - I wouldn't say it's, like, a positive representation of gender non-conformity or anything - but it's INTERESTING and Brigitte Lin is, I mean, she's fucking awesome.

There are a LOT of ways that representation can be handled in translation. One of those ways would be to, like, treat Bubai as being "transgender" and lean into a bunch of transphobic tropes. Well, this would be bad, but it would also be a misrepresentation of the film! There is this tendency to want to impose Western norms on films where it doesn't apply, and even when well-intentioned, I don't think it's necessarily good. There's a 2013 Japanese film that's translated into English as "The Clan's Heir is a Trans Woman". Well this translation is ABSOLUTELY not accurate - the Japanese title is "Nidaime wa Newhalf". Newhalf is... I'd call it a slur, others might disagree, but it's _not_ a value-neutral term. The Japanese word for "transgender" is, uh, "transgender". There's not really any other word in Japanese that represents that concept.

This was... particularly in manga fan-translation circles, this was a BIG deal in the early 2010s, when the term "trap" was widely used as a translation for, I think, "otokonoko". A number of people put a good deal of effort into pointing out that "trap" is just not an accurate translation of that word. The term "trap" carried a connotation of deceit which is simply not _present_ in the original term.

So yeah, it comes up a lot, and it comes up not just in terms of translation, like Dongfang Bubai in Swordsman II, but simply dealing with, for instance, how to understand Lou Reed's partner Rachel Humphreys in relation to gender. Hell, it's something that's directly affected my life - when I was young, I didn't really have access to any words that described my gender identity.

Well, I mean, all of this is just one _tiny_ minor subset of the issues that crop up in the process of translation (which, as Casey Brienza argues, persuasively IMO, is better termed "domestication").

I can't speak to the specific case being discussed above... it's just a really important and interesting topic to me!

huh, I've only heard the term "newhalf" in passing and didn't know it had negative associations. I just assumed it came from the same place as "newtype" from Gundam that describes people who've developed psychic abilities & are seen as the next evolution of humans, so "newhalf" were the next evolution in gender

Djeng suffers from overexposure imo, feels like he has a commentary on every HK release by every boutique label in existence and some of them you can really tell he's running on fumes.

I remember when he was the public face of Tai Seng, and hence subject to all the slings and arrows of the Asian movie newsgroups. Not undeserved: Tai Seng had some really dubious business practices, like splitting up a 90-minute movie over two tapes and selling it for double the price (I have a Jeff Lau movie – his maudit Out of the Dark – in that format).

curious if you tried girl hell (1977) ? that one is pretty stylish and even moving imo

Definitely more palatable than the only other Masaru Konuma I have seen, Wife to be Sacrificed, which I found thoroughly repellent, if impeccably framed.

oh man, i used to really covet those tai seng releases but they were _way_ outta my price range at the time and i made do with bootlegs. probably for the best. and had no idea djeng worked for em!

There's a 2013 Japanese film that's translated into English as "The Clan's Heir is a Trans Woman". Well this translation is ABSOLUTELY not accurate - the Japanese title is "Nidaime wa Newhalf". Newhalf is... I'd call it a slur, others might disagree, but it's _not_ a value-neutral term.

oh this is interesting. ive seen this one but assumed it was fansubbed or similar? a flawed film in ways outside of the title translation, i thought… but it had a lotta heart

Arrow has a new sublabel - Toy Robot - and the spiel is that it wants to "evoke the feeling of being in a video rental store" or something along those lines.

It's a little confusing to me. Arrow used to have Arrow Academy as its sublabel for artsier fare, and that made sense from a brand perspective - some of the genre audience Arrow cultivated wouldn't be interested in Elio Petri or Czech New Wave films. Then they closed that down, and Radiance sorta took over that space. But the Toy Robot releases - a slasher, a Sonny Chiba vehicle, the original Masters Of The Universe film - these are absolutely releases that could be announced by Arrow proper and no one would think it strange.

On another forum someone suggested it's basically playing on the psychology of collectors - the larger a label becomes the less ppl will try to keep up with it, but if you keep creating sublabels collectors will give in to the "gotta catch 'em all" impulse more readily.

I mean, how many sub-labels does Vinegar Syndrome have? 20? More, lol?

VS only have about 5 sub labels, the rest are partners labels that they distribute via their sister company OCN Distribution - Deaf Crocodile & Fun City for example used to be partner labels but left. heard some vague gossip that the terms for partner labels aren't that great, but I don't think anyone has gone on the record about it.

Yeah I guess there are 8 or so official sub-labels, and 40+ partner labels, but that seems like a distinction without a difference.

Speaking of Shout, this is wild/weird, not just the fuck up but that people caught it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IGcBEnq1eY

Guess I'll be hanging onto my old Anchor Bay DVD...