Very good news out of Fantasia last night. At the festival's first screening of Nikkatsu Action classic A Colt Is My Passport, series curator Mark Walkow dropped the fantastic news that the film has been bought for domestic release by the Criterion Collection, along with six other Nikkatsu Action titles. Though he was not specific on what the other titles were Walkow did mention that some early Seijun Suzuki titles were included in the purchase. These seven titles are in addition to at least three others that Criterion purchased years ago when they bought their slate of Seijun Suzuki films from the studio.
This will be the first time any films from the Nikkatsu Action series of releases have ever been available on any video format with English subtitles and these releases will make use of the freshly remastered transfers Nikkatsu recently prepared for the Japanese market. No firm release dates yet but expect these films to release some time in the next year as some sort of box set, most likely from Criterion's Eclipse imprint.
That's some great news! I had bought the Nikkatsu book awhile ago and have been eager to check out many of the films referenced in it.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT!!!
Thank you once again Criterion!
Just a clarification. There have actually been a few Nikkatsu Action titles on DVD in the US before, but they were always isolated releases, and not part of a concentrated effort to expose the genre.
For instance, all of Suzuki Seijun's pre-1967 films count as part of "Nikkatsu Action". Also BLACK TIGHT KILLERS (from Image), STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER and BLOODY TERRIROTIRES (from Home Vision), and a few others.
It was about time someone would pick this movies for distribution.
I would guess Velvet Hustler would be one perhaps included since Criterion had it out via Home Vision on VHS in the US with English subtitles years ago.
If Warped Ones is out, then would love to see it paired with Black Sun.
Still dying to see - Fast Draw Guy, Gangster VIP, Plains Wanderer, Dirty Work and Crimson Pistol.
I missed PLAINS WANDERER when it was shown but GANGSTER VIP is one of the better films I saw at the Nikkatsu retro. Still, THE WARPED ONES is easily my favorite.
> This will be the first time any films from the Nikkatsu Action series of releases have ever been available on any video format with English subtitles
wrong but not surprising from someone who claims to be an expert on "joe shishido" lol
Not last year as far as I know. Last year they had the Im Kwon-taek retro. I remember because I saw SOPYEONJE there and...THE SURROGATE MOTHER.
They had BLOODY TIES and FORBIDDEN....um....FORBIDDEN....I forget the title of it. FORBIDDEN QUEST! That's the title.
Yeah, I'll keep checking the site out for sure.
Oh, ok, then Park was the year before.
Another nice Nikkatsu that we saw back in 2005 is Roughneck.
I don't know why i have no review for that, but it's a gritty little flick.
Woo Hoo! I can't wait until these come out... Amazing, what's next - Misumi? It would be nice if the Jp dvd companies would condescend to english sub everything, but for now, I'll settle for the recently announced Tora-San box set. Which, strangely enough, has english subs!
No offense, but be wary of 'reviewers' that dismiss films in an offhand manner - If I would have paid attention to the loveHKfilm reviews when I started collecting HK films, I would have missed out on quite a few gems. So now their disapproval is the best recommendation!