Hisayasu Sato's 'Rafureshia' (1995), R1 USA DVD August 29th 2006.

Have Artsmagic said how many Hisayasu Sato films they are going to release? I just want to know for how long I should refrain from grabbing any Japanese VHS tapes of his stuff ...

nope. artsmagic seem to be opting for 'fresh air promotion' - dont get press releases of offers of review copies anymore, and i dont see anything around that would promote anything theyre releasing thats obvious... not trailers on their site... no news updates... nothing. good job some of us are interested enough to go searching.

thats strange

the description/synopsis i get at amazon.com/ca is:

Hisayasu Sato, one of the ‘Four Devils’ that infamously defined Japan’s erotic cinema in the 80s and 90s, brings you a wild and wacky adventure that proves that love always finds its way, no matter the circumstances. Young Alisa escapes her incestuous father and flees to the city for a fresh start on her own. Frustrated Harumi gives up her dreary housewife existence hoping to find the love that she’s missing. Now, after fate brings them together, Alisa and Harumi hope to escape their former unhappy lives and begin together afresh, with sword-wielding madams, adult babies, chainsaws and probably the world’s worst transvestite in their wake.

pleae disregard above message, had a short circuit (We really need an edit function in here) ^^;;;;

Thanks for the info, logboy! I think they may release more than those 3 from Sato. Didn't Jaspar say the other day that they had him do a couple more interviews with Sato? Oh well, it's not like there's nothing else I can pick up VHS. I still need to complete my MAKIGUCHI Yuuji collection (where in the fuck is that unedited TORN PRIESTESS tape) and grab more SEKIMOTO Ikuo flicks ...

noticed that someone mentioned at dvdmaniacs that theyre disappointed in not finding out abou these releases earlier cos theres no promotion for them going on... the only substantial (and i cant think of a better word than that) coverage of their appearance in america is from me, here.

You forgot to mention my commentaries!
RAFURESHIA is a pretty interesting title - you'd never recognise it as a Sato film though. I think the DVD of this is going to really look nice.
Other than that, there's Sano's UNDER THE CARP BANNER coming up, but that's going to be it for a while, while they wait and see how many people buy them. You're right thought logboy, it wouldn't hurt if they promoted these better. I haven't seen any reviews on these yet.

..i dont listen to commentaries :) sorry... anyway, switched it on for a second or two and heard your masculine tones for the first time.

as for 'how well these sell' - i dont think theyll sell well at all, simply because there's little president or understanding (so, to some extent their the apparently unintentional cutting edge) and primarily its because they dont promote their releases any more. havent seen many artsmagic reviews around for a while...

anyway, i can remember being told by artsmagic press that they intended to cut back on updates on the site in order to get the (their words) 'more important side' of putting releases out together. wrong! key mistake! dont forsake one fundamental aspect for another... it doesnt work like that.

these releases will probably fall flat, not because theyre not worth seeing, but because theres clearly influence and discussion online these days that takes things beyond the traditional routes of talking to distributors, persuading chains to stock them, producing leaflets for trade fairs...

having said that, if theyve managed to send out final-copy-quality screeners of the sato and 'extreme pink' releases then i dont know why i am nto seeing reviews online either : as good if not better, with more mileage and intrigue, that any similar bigger-budget or 'action movie'-slanted pink weve seen so far. cracking stuff.

Don't underestimate the interest in and demand for those films. After the killer business the Pinky Violence collection did I think all bets are off. We'll see. What Artsmagic can (and probably does) count on is that Pinku fans from all over the world will buy these DVDs and that includes fans in Japan. The Pinky Violence collection and Angel Guts sets are part of the catalogue of many Japanese online shops and constantly show up on YAJ as well. Maybe this is just wishful thinking but I hope not.

yep, i know theyll get listed on japanese sites... i can remember forwarding info on the panik house ones to a blog site in japan who knew they were coming but hadnt found the trailers for them... thing is, with all the will in the world, with the desire and the skill to find information, nobody can avoid missing some thiings... fantasium.com is a good site for seeing that japanese films released elsewhere get imported for japanese fans : surprised to see this also includes cheaper american anime releases too.

Angel Guts: Red Classroom will be released by Arts Magic Aug 29th

yeh, artsmagic are basically also rereleasing the 'angel guts : nikkatsu collection' as individual thingies...