We've got your first news of some incredible upcoming releases from our friends at Third Window Films. There's a ton of news here, so bear with me, but trust that you'll be excited by all of it!
First up is the long gestating Blu-ray of Sion Sono's breakout masterpiece,
Love Exposure! We'd asked Third Window's Adam Torel about this a long while ago, and the official word was that the licensors were finicky about getting this release out, but the details appear to have been ironed out and the film is on its way in HD this summer! Torel tells us:
The film will be a new transfer to HD (they're making a new HDCAMSR from the original master and definitely no upconversion or anything like that) and will put the film on 1 Blu-ray, then extras on a separate DVD. This is really going to be an amazing release
Extras are to include:
Nearly an hour of deleted and extended scenes, New exclusive interview with Sion Sono plus the 1 hour long 'making of' which was on our original DVD release
Love Exposure on Blu-ray is scheduled to release on August 6th to pair up with the Blu-ray and DVD release of Sono's latest film,
Himizu from Third Window. This is quite a pairing, and marks the first Blu-ray release of either film, barring the crappy Taiwanese upconvert of
Love Exposure that isn't worth anyone's money. This is going to be an incredible release, I can feel it. I cannot wait!
The next piece of news leaves me speechless, so I'll let Third Window give it to you straight:
We are pleased to announce the Blu-ray release of 2 huge cult classics from Japan: Tetsuo 1 & 2 will be released together as a Blu-ray double-pack in October 2012 with brand new transfers restored from the original negatives by Shinya Tsukamoto himself. Along with these 2 new restorations, we will also include Shinya Tsukamoto's 45 minute Tetsuo-prototype film 'The Adventures of Electric Rod Boy' (Denchu Kozo no Boken) in the package. Also included will be a new interview with Tsukamoto regarding the restoration as well as talking about the re-release of these cult classics
The Tetsuo 1/2 set will coincide with the DVD/Blu-ray release of KOTOKO which is also scheduled for October 2012
This is unbelievably, insanely, cyberpunktastically awesome news! I had no inkling about these films coming to Blu-ray until Torel told me about these releases. Like I said, speechless.
The final bit of awesome news involves Third Window's latest acquisition, the new film from Japanese punk cinema legend, Sogo Ishii,
Isn't Anyone Alive? Again, Adam Torel on this news:
Third Window Films have secured the rights to the latest film from Gakuryu (Sogo) Ishii's 'Isn't Anyone Alive?' (Ikiteru mono inai no ka). Gakuryu Ishii's independent punk style has seen him, like Shinya Tsukamoto, become a cult icon in Japanese cinema with such classics as Crazy Thunder Road, Burst City, The Crazy Family and more recently Angel Dust, Electric Dragon 80000V and Gojoe. 'Isn't Anyone Alive?' is his first film in nearly 10 years and is a black comedy based on the play of the same name by Shiro Maeda and stars a variety of talent including Himizu's award winning star Shota Sometani, plus Jun Murakami (Land of Hope), Kiyohiko Shibukawa (Blue Spring), Mai Takahashi (Fish Story) and a lot of newcomers.
No release date planned yet, but will be sometime towards the end of 2012
I thought about breaking this post up, if only because it contains too much awesome for one little listing, but I couldn't help myself! You now know everything that I know, further details will be announced when the time comes. As of right now, I know that at least Love Exposure will be a region B locked disc, and I would imagine that the same would apply for the others as well. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to empty your pocketbooks, Third Window Films just made 2012 a lot more expensive!