Survive Style 5 Hitting DVD in March! English Subs Included!

Whee! There are two films from Japan that I've been following closely for months now, just itching for the chance to finally take a good look at them. One is The Taste of Tea. The other, the wickedly absurd Tadanobu Asano / Sonny Chiba / Vinny Jones star vehicle Survive Style 5+. Both have received hugely positive press around the world while hitting the festival circuit, though both mysteriously skipped the Toronto festival, thus killing my shot at a theatrical screening.

Well, the news improved a couple weeks back when the Japanese DVD for Taste of Tea was announced and it turned out the film would include English subtitles. And now Geneon has announced the full specs for their coming March releases for Survive Style 5+ and it will also be getting the full, subbed treatment. And yeah, I did say releases in the plural. March 4th sees the release of the 'premium' two disc edition of the film, while the big ol' collector's box set comes March 25th. Both releases will include DTS sound, English subs on the feature, a making of feature, interviews with the actors (Tadanobu Asano, Reika Hashimoto, Hiroshi Abe, and Yoshiyoshi Arakawa), opening day stage greeting, deleted scenes, a talk between the director (Gen Sekiguchi) and screenwriter (Taku Tada), and footage of overseas film festivals (Locarno International Film Festival and Pusan International Film Festival). On top of all that the big box will include a mouse pad, sticker, postcard, bandana, and 200 page storyboard book.

You can find the trailers here and the Japan Times review here. The only retailers listing it so far are CD Japan and HMV Japan, so as soon as something turns up locally I'll post a link. Still looking for artwork, too ...

via the Asian DVD Guide Forum.