Arrow Video August Titles
The Criterion of cult, Arrow Video, posted their August Blu-ray announcements while I was away at CINEVENT, and it’s an interesting mix of yakuza, giallo, and horror. I’m especially excited about Massimo Dallamano’s follow-up to What Have You Done to Solange?
Being that Arrow is a British company, keep in mind that not all of their titles will be released both in the U.K. and the U.S., due to distribution rights. However, Arrow always makes it perfectly clear which Blu-rays will be offered in both the U.K. and U.S. versus which ones are U.K. only.
Listed below are the disc descriptions directly from the Arrow Video Facebook page:
UK/US/CA TITLE: Street Mobster (Blu-ray)
A pivotal work in the yakuza movie genre and in the career of director Kinji Fukasaku
Release date: 6/7 August
A pivotal work in the yakuza movie genre and in the career of director Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale, Doberman Cop), Street Mobster presents an abrasive portrait of the rise and fall of a reckless street punk caught in the crossfire of a bloody turf war raging in the mean streets of Kawazaki.
When Okita Isamu (Bunta Sugawara, Cops VS Thugs) re-emerges onto the mean streets of Kawazaki after five years in prison for a string of brutal crimes, he comes face to face with prostitute Kinuyo, who immediately pinpoints him as one of the participants in her brutal sexual assault years earlier that left her shell-shocked and consigned to the life of a sex worker. While the two outcasts form an unlikely bond, Okita returns to his criminal ways. He is approached by veteran gangster Kizaki (Noboru Andô, Graveyard of Honour), who encourages him to round up a group of local chinpira street punks to shake up the uneasy agreement between the two rival yakuza groups, who between them control the city’s bars, gambling dens and entertainment areas. However, when the new outfit goes too far into the turf of the big boys, they find themselves caught in the midst of a violent reprisal, before an offer of patronage appears from an unlikely source.
Street Mobster is the first film in which Fukasaku’s vital and exhilarating approach to the contemporary-set gangster picture was paired with the untamed, raw charisma of Japan’s top screen mobster Sugawara Bunta. The film would change the life of both, paving the way for their subsequent collaborations on the landmark Battles Without Honour and Humanity series that began the following year.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
- Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary by Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes
- Theatrical trailer
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jasper Sharp
UK/US TITLE: Tideland (Blu-ray)
A rich slice of Southern Gothic blurring whimsical fantasy with unsettling reality
Release date: 13/14 August
For his tenth feature, Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits, Twelve Monkeys) adapted Mitch Cullin’s celebrated cult novel Tideland, a work he once described as “Alice in Wonderland meets Psycho through the eyes of Amélie.”
To escape her unhappy life in a remote part of Texas, nine-year-old Jeliza-Rose dreams up an elaborate fantasy world. But the reality of having junkie parents – played by Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski) and Jennifer Tilly (Bound) – and the influence of her eccentric neighbours begins to encroach, turning her daydreams ever darker.
A rich slice of Southern Gothic blurring whimsical fantasy with unsettling reality, Tideland is among Gilliam’s most personal works – indeed, with its shifts between the amusing and the macabre, expressive camerawork and striking special effects, the film could be the very definition of Gilliamesque!
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Commentary by writer-director Terry Gilliam and co-writer Tony Grisoni
- Introduction by director Terry Gilliam
- Getting Gilliam, a 45-minute documentary on the making of Tideland by Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice)
- The Making of Tideland featurette
- Filming Green Screen featurette with commentary by Gilliam
- Interviews with Terry Gilliam, producer Jeremy Thomas and actors Jeff Bridges, Jodelle Ferland and Jennifer Tilly
- Deleted scenes with commentary by Gilliam
- B-roll footage
- Gallery
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring two choices of original artwork
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Neil Mitchell
US TITLE: What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (Blu-ray)
A fast-paced, brutal and unforgettable thriller from a director at the peak of his creative powers.
Release date: 14 August
In 1972, director Massimo Dallamano (Colt 38 Special Squad, The Night Child) broke new ground in the giallo genre with the harrowing What Have You Done to Solange? Two years later, he followed up with an even darker semi-sequel – the chilling What Have They Done to Your Daughters?
A teenage girl is found hanging from the rafters of a privately rented attic, pregnant and violated. Hot-headed Inspector Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli, The Suspcious Death of a Minor) and rookie Assistant District Attorney Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli, Cold Eyes of Fear) are assigned to the case, the scope of which grows substantially when they discover that the dead girl was part of a ring of underage prostitutes whose abusers occupy the highest echelons of Italian society. Meanwhile, a cleaver-wielding, motorcycle-riding killer roars through the streets of Brescia, determined to ensure that those involved take their secret to the grave.
Also starring Mario Adorf (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) and Farley Granger (Strangers on the Train) and featuring an insanely catchy score by Stelvio Cipriani (Death Walks on High Heels), What Have They Done to Your Daughters? is a fast-paced, brutal and unforgettable thriller from a director at the peak of his creative powers.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original lossless Italian and English mono soundtracks
- English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
- New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films • Masters and Slaves: Power, Corruption & Decadence in the Cinema of Massimo Dallamano, a new video essay by Kat Ellinger, author and editor-in-chief of Diabolique Magazine
- Eternal Melody, an interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani
- Dallamano’s Touch, an interview with editor Antonio Siciliano
- Unused hardcore footage shot for the film by Massimo Dallamano
- Italian theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Michael Mackenzie
UK TITLE: Apprentice to Murder (Blu-ray)
A chilling and unforgettable tale of the macabre
Release date: 20 August
WAS IT MAGIC, MURDER, OR MADNESS?
In early twentieth-century Pennsylvania Dutch Country, young Billy Kelly (Chad Lowe, Highway to Hell) falls in with a charismatic “powwower” or folk magic healer, Dr John Reese (Donald Sutherland, Don’t Look Now), shunned by the rest of the community for his non-conformist beliefs. Together, they investigate the mysterious sickness that is blighting the area, which Reese believes to be the work of a sinister local hermit. But as the plague spreads and the wide-eyed Billy falls ever deeper under Reese’s spell, are they doing God’s work or the Devil’s bidding?
Also starring Mia Sara (Legend) and featuring a powerhouse performance by Donald Sutherland – reunited here with Don’t Look Now screenwriter Allan Scott — Apprentice to Murder is a chilling and unforgettable tale of the macabre that blurs the lines between conventional notions of “good” and “evil”.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original 35mm interpositive
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original lossless mono soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- New audio commentary by author and critic Bryan Reesman
- New video interview on religious horror cinema with Kat Ellinger, author and editor-in-chief of Diabolique Magazine
- New video interview with cinematographer Kelvin Pike
- New video interview with makeup supervisor Robin Grantham
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Haunt Love
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Paul Corupe
