On September 18, Arrow Video is proud to present Ringu (4K) (UK/IRE/US/CA), the film that launched an iconic franchise, restored from the original negative in glorious 4K.
In 1998, director Hideo Nakata (Dark Water) unleashed a chilling tale of technological terror on unsuspecting audiences, which redefined the horror genre, launched the J-horror boom in the West and introducing a generation of moviegoers to a creepy, dark-haired girl called Sadako. The film’s success spawned a slew of remakes, reimaginations and imitators, but none could quite boast the power of Nakata’s original masterpiece, which melded traditional Japanese folklore with contemporary anxieties about the spread of technology. A group of teenage friends are found dead, their bodies grotesquely contorted, their faces twisted in terror. Reiko (Nanako Matsushima, When Marnie Was There), a journalist and the aunt of one of the victims, sets out to investigate the shocking phenomenon, and in the process uncovers a creepy urban legend about a supposedly cursed videotape, the contents of which causes anyone who views it to die within a week – unless they can persuade someone else to watch it, and, in so doing, pass on the curse.
On September 22, head east with ARROW for Solid Metal Nightmares: The Films of Shinya Tsukamoto (UK/IRE/US/CA). Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto is best known for his debut body horror-cyberpunk shot-to-the-arm Tetsuo: The Iron Man, but there is much more to this maverick director. Solid Metal Nightmares is a collection of Tsukamoto’s breathtaking films – all nightmarish portrayals of obsession and madness. Self-funding, writing, shooting and editing, as well as directing and appearing in his films, Tsukamoto is a true auteur, with singular, sometimes terrifying, transgressive visions, that he uncompromisingly brings to the screen in order to haunt, repel, seduce and inspire. Titles Include: Tokyo Fist, Tetsuo, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer.
On September 25, the man who gave the world Gremlins, The ‘Burbs, The Howling, Small Soldiers and many more shares with audiences Joe Dante Selects. “ARROW kindly asked me to curate some films for you. It wasn’t an easy task. Their vast library is the most eclectic group of movies I’ve ever encountered. Nonetheless, I came up with some must-see choices I can really stand behind.” Titles Include: The Mighty Peking Man, Horror Express, Vampire Circus.
September 29 captures the last heat of summer with a pair of sensual dramas for North American audiences. Julia (US/CA): On vacation from his private boarding school, teenager Pauli (Ekkehardt Belle) discovers that his hormones aren’t the only ones running rampant when he spends an adventurous retreat with his father Ralph (Jean-Claude Bouillion), his mistress Yvonne (Teri Tordai), their amorous friends, and Julia (Sylvia Kristel). Filmed and released immediately after Sylvia Kristel became one of the world’s biggest stars as Emmanuelle (1974), Sigi Rothemund’s Julia is a German sex comedy drama, with Sylvia starring as a young man’s first love, foreshadowing her later U.S. commercial hit Private Lessons.
Macumba Sexual (US/CA): Perhaps the most stunning work of his Golden Films Internacional period, this ‘late career masterpiece’ (Cult Movie Reviews) from writer/director Jess Franco can now be experienced like never before: Lina Romay (in her succulent ‘Candy Coster’ guise) stars as a sexually repressed wife tormented by visions of ‘the goddess of unspeakable lust’ Princess Obongo (an unforgettable performance by pioneering transgender actress Ajita Wilson of Sadomania fame) in a fever dream of erotic cruelty, carnal duality and nonstop Franco-style insanity. Antonio Mayans (Bahia Blanca), Hemy Basalo (Night of Open Sex) and Uncle Jess himself co-star in this ‘wonderfully vivid sexual nightmare that’s one of Franco’s best’ (Mondo Esoterica), now scanned in 2K from the original negative for the first time ever.
September 29 closes out the Seasons with Dark and Sharp: The Jim Cummings Collection. Get to know the cutting and acerbic work of a one-of-a-kind indie cult filmmaker in Dark and Sharp: The Jim Cummings Collection. Known for his uncomfortably awkward tragi-comic roles in films that he also wrote and directed, like Thunder Road and The Beta Test, Cummings has also written and directed a series of biting and unmissable short films featuring outsiders pushed to breaking point. As well as these shorts, Dark and Sharp also features an exclusive ARROW original introduction to his shorts that sees Jim as the great-great-grandson of the legendary and lethal pistoleer Sartana and his Selects. Titles Include: Us Funny, The Beta Test, The Robbery. |