Happy Holidays!
To all you Asian cinema fans, we hope you have a lovely Holiday season and a great new year!
2017 has probably been our hardest year to date (though we seem to be saying that every year), but we’ve spent the year working on our distribution model in order to hopefully allow for a smoother 2018! We’ve also spent the year promoting our latest film production LOVE & OTHER CULTS which we not only independently produced, but also independently distributed it in Japan and brought it to many international film festivals, so it’s been a very busy year! While we’ve been promoting Love & Other Cults we’ve slowly been acquiring some tasty titles for the first half of 2018, so here’s a look at what we have planned for the first half of the year.
Though first off, here’s a very subjective list of our 10 favourite Japanese films we saw in 2017.
In all honesty, it was a pretty poor year for Japanese films, but these are some of our personal favourites
*For our #1 favourite, these 2 are both so different that it’s hard to separate them, so tied them both at #1!
Upcoming Releases
LOVE & OTHER CULTS
Third Window Films once again team up with EIJI UCHIDA after LOWLIFE LOVE to produce the black comedy LOVE AND OTHER CULTS, a film about cults, gangs and true love in Japan’s countryside, based on an unbelievable true story!
Love & Other Cults made many Best Of lists of 2017 such as at Eastern Kicks and Asian Film Vault plus was invited to many major film festivals such as Udine, Sitges, Fantasia, Raindance and many more!
Third Window will be releasing as a ALL REGION DUAL FORMAT dvd/bluray March 26th, 2018 with loads of extras!!
“The most unique film to come out of Japan in a long time” BLUMHOUSE
“A breezy, blackly comic delinquent romance” HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“Youthful, punkish… Love And Other Cults mounts a scathing attack on social hypocrisy but never lets the comment get in the way of telling a colourful tale” EYE FOR FILM
Pre-order now on amazon at: http://amzn.to/2kFmDee
Check out the trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWkIWFiVW1w
PLUS FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WATCH IT ON THE BIG SCREEN:
LONDON: Feb 13th at the Deptford Cinema
DERBY: March 16th at the Quad Cinema
WHISPERING STAR / THE SION SONO
SION SONO, the director of such Third Window favourites classics as LOVE EXPOSURE, COLD FISH and HIMIZU has his sci-fi arthouse film THE WHISPERING STAR released as a DUAL FORMAT blu-ray/dvd on April 16th together with the FEATURE-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY THE SION SONO on the discs.
Whispering Star was a big festival success and the accompanying documentary tells of the making of the film and Sion Sono’s career, plus is directed by Arata Oshima, the son of legendary director Nagisa Oshima (Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence)
Apart from the documentary extra, the release will feature a reversible package sleeve!
Check out the trailer to Whispering Star: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1U8jWYdG2w
and the trailer to The Sion Sono: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBVxovfMXxc
Pre-order it now at Amazon
http://amzn.to/2Dxs2fd
ANTIPORNO
April continues the SION SONO madness with ANTIPORNO, his entry in the Nikkatsu ROMAN PORNO REBOOT series, which is out as a DUAL FORMAT dvd/bluray on April 30th!. The artist that is Sion Sono subverts the genre by only casting women and making a film which breaks through the genre with something totally unique and outrageous! A huge film festival hit and something we can’t wait for you to see in the new year!
Check out the trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubByZnN3-1I
Pre-order on Amazon at: http://amzn.to/2zg85pT
PLUS FOR YOU SION SONO FANS:
We are teaming up with the Deptford Cinema in London to show Sion Sono’s HATE TRILOGY of LOVE EXPOSURE, COLD FISH and GUILTY OF ROMANCE on the BIG SCREEN in FEBRUARY!
More details here!
1001 NIGHTS / CLEOPATRA
Third Window Films are pleased to announce the WORLD’S FIRST BLURAY release of two rare animations from the “Godfather of Manga” TEZUKA OSAMU: 1001 NIGHTS and CLEOPATRA as a double disc, limited edition box-set coming in JUNE!
In the late 60s, Tezuka Osamu with his production company MUSHI PRO and director EIICHI YAMAMOTO (Belladonna of Sadness) started a very short run series of X-RATED animations called ANIMERAMA. The series only really officially made these two films before Mushi Pro went bankrupt, but they have been totally forgotten in history and we are very happy to bring them back with new 2K remasters.
The release will feature many NEW & EXCLUSIVE extra features inlcuding an interview with director Eiichi Yamamoto, audio commentaries on both films by Helen Mccarthy, author of The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga, plus 4K scanned trailers and liner notes by film critic Simon Abrams.
CLEOPATRA will have a one-off screening on JANUARY 12th at the QUAD CINEMA in DERBY!
More details here!
THE SUFFERING OF NINKO
SUFFERING OF NINKO – The debut film of Norihiro Niwatsukino is like nothing you’ve seen before!
Part ghost-story, part period piece, Ninko tells the story of a monk who is insanely popular with women! As a monk, it’s a sin to go near women, but the more he resists, the more they come!
A totally wild tale and one which made huge splashes at festivals worldwide!
Out in early Summer!
Check out the trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g19Jh_e4m2M
DANGAN RUNNER
For you fans of 90s japanese wild cinema, SABU’s classic DANGAN RUNNER will get its BLURAY DEBUT in the Summer of 2018! More details coming soon!
MORE GREAT FILMS PLANNED FOR THE 2ND HALF OF 2018!
WATCH THIS SPACE!
Shinya Tsukamoto’s Fires on the Plain
A few limited edition copies still available!
SHINYA TSUKAMOTO, the director of TETSUO: THE IRON MAN, TOKYO FIST, SNAKE OF JUNE and many more cult classics, brings his version of the Shohei Ooka novel (which was made into a 1959 film by Kon Ichikawa) with FIRES ON THE PLAIN
Dual format DVD & BLURAY
1 hour extensive making of
Audio commentary by Tom Mes, author of “Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto”
STILL SOME COPIES AVAILABLE OF THE ILLUSTRATED SLIPCASE EDITION!
Just 1000 made!
Check the trailer out at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLBkD1xjY7g
Order it now at
AMAZON – http://amzn.to/2qOiGVX
HMV: https://goo.gl/Pa4Vhq
Zavvi: https://goo.gl/czQA3f
BIKINI RIOT sees Ena Fujita once again delve into Japan’s extreme horror genre with album track Watashi dake ga Inai Sekai being used as the theme to ABCs of Death 2 director Souichi Umezawa‘s latest blood filled flick Chi wo Suu Nendo, internationally known as VAMPIRE CLAY. The film also stars Ena Fujita and has been screened at a number of film festivals outside of Japan.
The album is available now ahead of the CD release for digital download and streaming.
