Cult Classics GIANTS & TOYS, OVER THE EDGE, and More Make Blu-ray Debut From Arrow Video This May
May 2021 is another great looking month for Arrow Video and cult movie fans with the company reissuing some classics in brand new editions, upgrading Blu-rays to 4K, and bringing a contemporary indie darling to home video.
The release I'm most looking forward to is Masumura (Blind Beast, Black Test Car) Yasuzo's classics Giants and Toys coming to Blu-ray in the US, UK, and Canada. Not far behind is cult gem Over the Edge by director Jonathan Kaplan, an exclusive UK release. Also on this month's docket are recent indie horror A Ghost Waits in the US, UK, and Canada, a new steepbook edition of Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, and Sergio Corbucci's classic Django getting shuffled a bit in the release schedule to the end of May.
Check out the details for the new releases below!
Over The Edge (UK)
I ONLY GOT ONE LAW: A KID WHO TELLS ON ANOTHER KID IS A DEAD KID.
Inspired by real-life incidents, Over The Edge is an incendiary ode to teen rebellion that quickly became a Gen X/punk-rock touchstone, and a key influence on filmmakers such as Richard Linklater and musicians like Kurt Cobain (who often cited it as his favourite film). New Granada is a brand new planned community, miles from the noise and crime of the big city and a perfect place to raise a family. The only problem is they forgot to build anything for the kids to do. Bored out of their minds and stuck in the middle of nowhere, the teens in the town, led by Carl (Michael Kramer) and Richie (an effortlessly charismatic Matt Dillon in his first film role), do pretty much anything to fill the time, quickly escalating from drugs and sex to petty crime. A rash action by an overzealous local police officer (Harry Northup, Taxi Driver) sets in motion a face-off between the frustrated kids and their clueless parents that will lead to explosive, destructive consequences... Armed with a classic 70s rock soundtrack (including Cheap Trick, Ramones and Van Halen), energetic direction by Jonathan Kaplan (White Line Fever) and an intelligent script by Tim Hunter (Rivers Edge) and Charlie Haas (Matinee), Over The Edge still packs a righteously powerful punch today, and makes its worldwide Blu-Ray debut with brand new bonus features interviewing the cast and crew.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray transfer
- Original uncompressed mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Archive commentary by director Jonathan Kaplan, producer George Litto and writers Tim Hunter & Charlie Haas
- New commentary by star Michael Kramer and journalist Mike Sacks
- Isolated music and effects track
- Wide Streets + Narrow Minds, an exclusive retrospective documentary featuring newly recorded interviews with cast and crew, including Jonathan Kaplan, Tim Hunter, Charlie Haas, talent scouts Jane Bernstein and Linda Feferman, production designer Jim Newport, stars Michael Kramer, Harry Northup, Vincent Spano, Pamela Ludwig, Julia Pomeroy, Kim Kliner, Diane Reilly, Eric Lalich and others
- Full post-film Q&A from a 2010 screening at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, featuring Litto, Hunter, Haas, Bernstein, Northup, Kramer, Ludwig, Pomeroy and Tom Fergus
- Excerpts from the Projection Booth podcast episode on the film, including discussion by Mike White, Leon Chase and Heather Drain, plus interviews with Haas, Hunter, Spano, Northup and Andy Romano
- Destruction: Fun or Dumb?, the full educational short excerpted within the film, in high definition
- US theatrical trailer and TV spots
- UK VHS promo
- Image galleries
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing by Kim Morgan and Henry Blyth, and the original San Francisco Examiner article that inspired the film
- *** EXTRAS STILL IN PRODUCTION AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE ***
Giants and Toys (US/UK/CAN)
Giants and Toys is a sharp and snappy corporate satire revolving around the ruthless machinations of a group of admen working in the confectionary industry. As a new recruit to the marketing department of World Caramel, fresh-faced graduate Nishi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) is eager to impress his ambitious and hard-nosed boss Goda (Black Test Cars Hideo Takamatsu), even if it strains his relationships with his college friend Yokoyama (Koichi Fujiyama) and budding love interest Masami (Michiko Ono), who work at the rival companies of Giant and Apollo. With Worlds lead over its competitors slipping badly, the two spot a chance to get back in the race in the shape of the pretty but unsophisticated 18-year-old, Kyoko (Hitomi Nozoe). Goda and Nishi get to work polishing this rough diamond as their new campaign girl, but as the three rival confectionary companies pitch themselves into an all-out advertising war that spills out onto the streets of Tokyo as it escalates to ludicrous extremes, Kyokos newfound fame starts going to her head. Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, this lurid adaptation of the award-winning 1957 novel by Ken Kaiko is considered a landmark in Japanese film history and a key work by Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast, Red Angel), one of the countrys most highly acclaimed directors of his generation. Its absurdist and acidly cynical take on the excesses of the media and advertising worlds recalls the work of Frank Tashlin (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), as it presents a garish vision of a bold new postwar Japan where traditional company values come head-to-head with American-style consumer capitalism.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Brand new audio commentary by Japanese cinema scholar Irene González-López
- Newly filmed introduction by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns
- In the Realm of the Publicists, a brand new visual essay by Asian cinema scholar Earl Jackson
- Original Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing by Michael Raine
A GHOST WAITS (US/UK/CAN)
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
An ingeniously unique and unpredictable combo of horror, humour and heart, A Ghost Waits is a DIY labour of love years in the making from first-time writer/director Adam Stovall and producer/star MacLeod Andrews.
Tasked with renovating a neglected rental home, handyman Jack (MacLeod Andrews, They Look Like People, Doctor Sleep) quickly finds out why the tenants keep leaving in droves - this house is haunted. The ghost in question is Muriel (Natalie Walker), herself employed from beyond the veil to keep the home vacant. Against the odds, Jack and Muriel find they have a lot in common... pulse notwithstanding. Having found a kindred spirit in an otherwise lonely existence, they must fight for their newfound affection as pressure mounts for them each to fulfil their "cross-purposes".
From its opening spectral assault to its achingly poignant conclusion - as well as a witty depiction of afterlife bureaucracy in the vein of Beetlejuice and A Matter of Life and Death - A Ghost Waits has shocked and surprised audiences around the world, and now makes its home video debut stacked with insightful bonus features that take you inside the process of creating this phantasmagorical monochrome marvel.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
- Original uncompressed stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Audio commentary by writer/director Adam Stovall
- Audio commentary by Adam Stovall and MacLeod Andrews
- Audio commentary by the cast and crew
- Humanity and the Afterlife in 'A Ghost Waits', a new video essay by Isabel Custodio exploring the film's themes and cinematic forebears
- Eight interviews with cast and crew moderated by critic and programmer tt stern-enzi
- Interview and post-film Q&A with Adam Stovall moderated by Alan Jones at Frightfest Glasgow 2020
- Outtakes
- Easter eggs
- Theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde and original artwork by Julie Hill
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Craig Ian Mann
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