Hisayasu Sato's 'Rafureshia' (1995), R1 USA DVD August 29th 2006.

The third Sato film from Artsmagic, the third in their new 'Shocking Pink' line of releases.

Already released on R1 USA DVD, the first, was Sato's 'Hard Focus' - review of that is still on the front of the page down there in with reviews smashed-out for the forum originally, great film but very odd and certainly another style of Pink to whats generally seen the light of day so far on DVD in America; worth noting the Artsmagic DVD seems to set a higher standard than previous releases with a transfer less likely to be termed over-dark as they have sometimes in the past. The lengthy interview on the DVD (Jason Gray?!) is essential, very thorough, thought through, and sheds a lot of necessary light on a very deceptive genre of movie and a very interesting figure in Sato himself; nice work.

Second 'Shocking Pink' release is July 25th 2006's R1 USA DVD release of Sato's 'Love - Zero = Infinity' which I've done a post about already - very much looking forwards to this one. Thirdly will be Sato's 1995 English Language 'Rafuseshia', aka 'Wife in Heat: While Husband Is Away' ('Sukebe-zuma: Otto No Rusu N').

Synopsis at Amazon says, "Young Alisa escapes her incestuous father and flees to the city for a fresh start on her own. Frustrated Harumi gives up her dreary housewife existence hoping to find the love that she’s missing. Now, after fate brings them together, Alisa and Harumi hope to escape their former unhappy lives and begin together afresh, with sword-wielding madams, adult babies, chainsaws and probably the world’s worst transvestite in their wake.".

Alternatively, slightly more information to be found on the Press Release synopsis, which reads, "A young girl, alone on a private island with her incestuous, domineering father decides to escape her confinement. An unhappy housewife, trapped in a loveless marriage with her unresponsive husband and an overbearing mother-in-law, wants her out of her dreary existence. With a bag full of stolen money, this troublesome twosome join up to escape their previous lives so they can start afresh together, leaving adult babies, sword-wielding madams, chainsaws and probably the worst transvestite in the world in their wake.". Also look out for two already-set (but titles escaping my memory right now) releases from fellow 'Four Devils' Director Kazuhiro Sano (one late September, one late October 2006), also from Artsmagic.