The Arrow Thread - Page 1419

Susan Foreman · #**14181** 17th May 2019, 02:36 PM

ARROW ACADEMY

NEW UK/US/CA TITLE: Akio Jissôji: The Buddhist Trilogy (Blu-ray)

Release date: August 19th 2019

Explore the work of Akio Jissôji’s with this collection of New Wave films

"Akio Jissôji created a rich and diverse body of work during his five decades in Japan's film and television industries. For some, he is best-known for his science-fiction: the 1960s TV series Ultraman and 1988's box-office success Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis. For others, it is his 1990s adaptations of horror and mystery novelist Edogawa Rampo, such as Watcher in the Attic and Murder on D Street. And then there are his New Wave films for the Art Theatre Guild, three of which – This Transient Life, Mandara and Poem, forming The Buddhist Trilogy – are collected here.

Winner of the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno Film Festival, This Transient Life is among the Art Theatre Guild's most successful – and most controversial – productions. The film concerns a brother and sister from a rich family who defy the expectations placed on them: he has little interest in further education or his father's business, instead obsessing over Buddhist statues; she continually refuses a string of suitors and the prospect of marriage. Their closeness, and isolation, gives way to an incestuous relationship which, in turn, breeds disaster. Mandara, Jissôji's first colour feature, maintained the controversial subject matter, focusing on a cult who recruit through rape and hope to achieve true ecstasy through sexual release. Shot, as with all of Jissôji's Art Theatre Guild works, in a radically stylised manner, the film sits somewhere between the pinku genre and the fiercely experimental approach of his Japanese New Wave contemporaries.

The final entry in the trilogy, Poem, returns to black and white and is centred on the austere existence of a young houseboy who becomes helplessly embroiled in the schemes of two brothers. Written by Toshirô Ishidô (screenwriter of Nagisa Ôshima's The Sun's Burial and Shôhei Imamura's Black Rain), who also penned This Transient Life and Mandara, Poem continues the trilogy's exploration of faith in a post-industrial world."

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentations
Original uncompressed LPCM mono 1.0 audio on all three films
Newly translated optional English subtitles
Both the 120-minute Theatrical and 137-minute Extended versions of Poem
Bonus Blu-Ray disc with Jissôji's 1974 feature It Was A Faint Dream, which continues the themes explored in the Trilogy
Introductions to all three films in the Trilogy by David Desser, author of Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave
Scene-select commentaries on all three films in the Trilogy by Desser
Theatrical trailers for Mandara, Poem and It Was A Faint Dream
Limited edition packaging, fully illustrated by maarko phntm
Illustrated 60-page perfect-bound collector's book featuring new writings on the films by Anton Bitel and Tom Mes

Demdike@Cult Labs · #**14182** 17th May 2019, 02:59 PM

Good call with guessing BJM was to come, Justin.

Susan Foreman · #**14183** 22nd May 2019, 05:03 AM

In the US, DiabolikDVD have got a flash Arrow sale

Rob4 · #**14184** 22nd May 2019, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

In the US, DiabolikDVD have got a flash Arrow sale

wish i'd kept a list of the US only releases - i know Torso was one. Any others?

Graeme73 · #**14185** 22nd May 2019, 01:06 PM

Children of the Corn

The Reaper Man@Cult Labs · #**14186** 22nd May 2019, 04:18 PM

Basket Case
Bloody Birthday
Dillinger
Keoma
Pray For Death
Psychomania
Rage of Honour
RE-Animator
Strip Nude for your Killer
Torso
What Have They Done To Your Daughters?
Children of the Corn
C.H.U.D