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

Shout Factory doing 4 main Shaw boxed sets so far, and a Brave Archer set and a Ti Lung/David Chiang set. That's 6 boxed sets in a very short time.

Even if I could watch region A, I'm burned out too badly for these, I don't think I'll finish the Shawscope 2 even (regret buying it). A shame there wasn't more Wuxia high fantasy early on because I'd still buy more of them.
I'm skipping most of the new martial arts releases, I'm sorry but I just can't get that excited for Jet Li somehow.
But there's still things I'm looked forward to.

Fatal Termination sold out, hope another company picks it up.

FYI for anyone who wanted Shawscope v1, Arrow has released a regular edition of the films as three separate box sets, currently for pre-order at $30 each (under the "Shaw Brothers Presents" name) so if you just want the movies this is the way to go

Just hit the Mercenaries/Boxer's Omen disc on V2 and I don't know what I was on about, it's amazing.

Boxer's Omen gave me real Mystics In Bali vibes.

my orders get bigger every time. this time it was

Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea
Battles Without Honor and Humanity box
The Snake Girl And The Silver-Haired Witch
The Cassandra Cat

two czech and two Japanese. my wish list is emptying out.

I'd seen the smaller Shaw boxes but didn't think to compare the contents. those seem much more manageable

Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea
The Cassandra Cat

2 fantastic films. Not seen the other 2 you mentioned. Please let us know how they are!

Battles is a series of yakuza films, the first of which (yakuza papers) is in the 1995 kinema junpo list I've been using as a checklist (seen 22 of the top 25, goes down drastically after that). didn't enjoy YP when i watched it but maybe it'll be easier to follow the second time. meiko kaji is in these, briefly.

snake girl is described as twisted children's film. I'm imagining something like hausu crossed with kuro neko but we shall see.

I've got things from my first two orders yet to watch so...

(actually that's confusing. my copy of the first of the those is called 'Battles without honour and humanity' subtitled 'Yakuza papers Vol 1' and the box is also called 'battles without...' but contains the entire series (5 films). there's also a follow up trilogy by the same bloke called 'new battles...')

The Snake Girl And The Silver-Haired Witch is an adaptation of a Kazuo Umezu/Umezz manga, a mystery from the pov of a young girl, I like it.

Saw _The Cassandra Cat_ at my local Alamo a few days ago, really great experience.

xp did not know it was an Umezu adaptation, now i definitely want to see it!

koog's purchases are all bangers, possibly except the Yakuza Papers box - remember watching the first one and just being consistently confused by the sprawling cast and double crosses, but since then I've a) gotten a taste for intricate yakuza plots thanks to the video game series of the same name and b) gotten a deeper appreciation for the works of Fukusaku, so perhaps I should revisit.

You can REALLY tell Snake Girl is an Umezz adaptation, his fingerprints are all over that thing. Spookily enough, after I watched my Arrow disc once it broke itself in two within my player, something which hasn't happened with any disc before or since.

am getting behind slightly with the japanese masters of cinema releases as well, and those are never heavily discounted like the arrow stuff.

and how have i not previously seen all those eureka martial arts films that were only a tab away?

have never heard of Cassandra Cat but i'll add it to my next arrow order.

googling that led me to the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize list which is a fascinating list of things i love and things i've never heard of.

one of the things i've never heard of was Battle Of The Rails, which was on TPTV the day after and again on the 1st nov

list here (link ends in a bracket hence this link text)

Indicator sale on
https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/collections/sale

and how have i not previously seen all those eureka martial arts films that were only a tab away?

Haha yes, I enjoy the snooty game of who gets to be a Master of Cinema. Sorry, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, Sammo Hung.

watched Snake Girl last night and, well, all the reviews i've seen have mentioned scooby doo. and it's the same guy who did all* the Gamera films and was obviously pitched at kids, so don't go into it expecting The Ring or something. filmed nicely enough and i liked something about the b&w footage.

(* all but one of the Gamera films - for the second one, which only existed after the surprise success of the first one, he was demoted to second unit and sfx)

How long does Region B have to wait for Millennium Mambo?

I was aware of Tod Slaughter but not sure I'd ever seen a film and got the box set out of curiosity as a result of some of the general excitement around it.

Two films in and it might be my release of the year. An absolute joy.

https://www.radiancefilms.co.uk/collections/4for40

One of my fave reissue labels.

this GNV Ed Wood release has a lot of extras, should be a good time
https://goldninjavideo.com/collections/releases/products/blu-ray-ed-woods-revenge-of-the-dead

Yes indeed. Ordered that out of the gate.

More Black Friday sales:
Grasshopper: https://grasshopperfilm.myshopify.com
Cinema Guild: https://store.cinemaguild.com/homevideo/SFNT.html

Also for those in NYC, Black Friday sale at Metrograph - get a NEW annual membership for 40% off ($30 instead of $50) using the code THANKS2023
This will bring down ticket prices to $10 from $17, other discounts associated with Metrograph, and you get access to their curated streaming service, which is pretty great.

(Also Cinema Guild is about to release Claire Denis's 35 Shots of Rum on Blu-ray for the first time ever - it's not out yet, but they've included it in their 50% off sale.)

Forgot another, Oscilloscope!

https://store.oscilloscope.net/

Among various discounts, all Blu-rays and DVD's are 50% off. Don't forget to use the code OSALEOSCOPE when you check out, otherwise the sale prices don't show up.

Grindhouse Zideo has a pretty nice one right now, lots of Arrow and other specialty labels (and porn too if that's your thing)
https://grindhousevideo.com

Forgot another one:

https://shoparbelosfilms.com/collections/blu-ray

Standard edition Blu-rays and posters are 50% off but the limited editions (where they usually add something like a slipcase for collectors) is 25% off.

I don't know if it's a musical or not but some here were interested in 50s-60s chinese historical epics like this, The Beauty Of Beauties is getting a release in march, not a Shaw Brothers film but it looks similar
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311305/?ref_=ttco_ov_i

yes I'm very interested in this type of Chinese historical epic, do you know who is releasing it?
"over 6000 costumes, 30 thousand individual weapons, 800 chariots and 8000 chariot horses, 120 thousand extras, and a shoot that took 334 days and 120 thousand feet of film."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivQfHkgbBps

ah found it, 88 Films

Figured it would be them!

over 6000 costumes, 30 thousand individual weapons, 800 chariots and 8000 chariot horses, 120 thousand extras and one Nicky Wire in a banana suit

i was listening to a podcast a few months ago and c-man's name came up! I think he'd done an extra for some horror blu ray. all I could think about was if he'd done it in a banana suit or not.

He owns 88 Films

lol no

I know a few horror film aficionados and it's always funny when Calum's name pops up as he's quite well known in cult horror film circles and all I think about is the C-Man persona he had on ilx.

Imagine Tim Robinson shouting into a fast food intercom "6000 COSTUMES, 30,000 WEAPONS, 800 CHARIOTS, 8000 HORSES..."

Arrow Video is putting out a really nice package of both Conan movies (they're also being sold separately) and I'm seriously considering it.

https://www.arrowvideo.com/the-conan-chronicles-conan-the-barbarian-and-conan-the-destroyer-limited-edition-blu-ray/14976087.html

not in the uk. searching for 'conan' turns up 'children of the corn'

Yeah, Arrow doing a lot of North America only releases these days.

They’re essentially handling Universal’s legacy home releases on this front from what I can tell.

lol no

Happy to be wrong. Dr W kind of likes to give the impression.

yeh I bet he does!

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/frontpage/products/little-darlings

Complete with the original theatrical soundtrack!

I got the huge VS Lost Films set for Christmas and have loads of opinions but the overriding one is this is not for normal people. (By which I mean even trying to explain some of what's in it is only possible by invoking other non-mainstream film makers so essentially only in its own language.)

With 2 to watch I genuinely think Rare Blue Apes might be my favourite though.

yeh that set is for people really deep down the rabbit hole!
in "I didn't know they were still going" news, Something Weird is closing down later this year.

It's also for people who aren't scared to say they didn't like things. I actually fell asleep during my first go at the hobo doc and didn't rate it much on the second go, and from limited reviews I'm not the only one (with one person saying they had a third go with the commentary which was worthwhile).

I'll have a go at trying to explain the films later.

in "I didn't know they were still going" news, Something Weird is closing down later this year.

― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Friday, 5 January 2024 11:57 (one hour ago) link

It's sad! I'm glad I picked up some of their physical releases over the past couple of years, as they've been slowly phasing those out. It seems like they might have some sort of deal with Kino, though (as the latter has been releasing a bunch of SW's old exploitation titles under the Forbidden Fruit banner), so hopefully their font of Weirdness will remain available in some form or another.

I think all these Deaf Crocodile films are region a only
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zca9nCm8McY