Whither? Come On In Boys & Girls, Let’s Have It…

Reader Comments

1. David Benn 04/15/2006 @ 3:36am

   I Buy It!,

   What may seem egotistical to you (as a Twitch contributor), appears pretty close to the truth to me. You are surely not the definitive force behind the release of odd gems from around the world, however you [read: Twitch] aggregate such a large and diverse amount of film industry knowledge/information that I give you a great amount of credit for opening viewer and industry eyes alike.

   …or at least my eyes.

   I somehow stumbled across the site, almost a year ago, and have slowly become an addicted “viewer”. My interest in the media form (film particularly) has existed all of my life, however Twitch has really helped me to latch onto and informed me about the shining [film] diamonds in an otherwise rough and desolate desert of media mediocrity (please excuse the Disney’s Aladdin reference and alliteration). I commend the Twitch team on being incredibly thorough, accessible, different, and, my favourite of all, not falling into the trap of genre-whoredom.

   Long Live...,

   Davidb

   P.S.: Movies do disappear don’t they? I’ve become a huge Tadanobu Asano fan over the last six years, is there any information on the status of a possible English subbed version of Hakuchi: The Innocent? And with the growing recognition given Christopher Doyle why hasn’t a quality transfer/release of Away with Words been created?

   P.P.S.: How, in God’s name, was it possible for me to find a DVD copy of GaGamBoy at a local Indianapolis Fry’s Electronics?

   P.P.S.: Although trolling message boards would probably reveal the answer to this question, does the recently released [Korean] Beat Takeshi box-set include English Subs?

2. x 04/15/2006 @ 4:57am

   Regarding your PPS… most of the discs do. Only Brother doesn’t.

3. Caterpillar 04/15/2006 @ 5:08am

   Teruo Ishii: Porno Period Drama, Love and Crime, History of the Shogun’s Harem, Orgies of Edo

   Norifumi Suzuki: Tokugawa Sex Ban, Lusty Shogun’s 21 Dolls, Modern Porno Tale - Inherited Sex Mania, Dolls of the Shogun’s Harem

   Takashi Miike: Agitator (200 minute version), The Man in White, Shangri-La, The Guys From Paradise

   Takashi Ishii: Flower and Snake 2

   Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s EGG

   Shion Sono’s Strange Circus

   Kosuke Suzuki’s Stop the Bitch Campaign

   Shigeru Izumiya’s Death Powder

   Akio Jissoji’s Prosperity of Vice

   Yuuji Makiguchi’s Torn Priestess (引き裂かれた尼僧)

   Masaru Konuma’s Flower and Snake (1974)

   Koyu Ohara’s Female Leopard

   Koyu Ohara’s Fairy in a Cage

   Masahito Segawa’s Beautiful Teacher in Torture Hell

   Basically tons and tons of Nikkatsu Pinku Eiga, the more outrageous the better since I don’t really care all that much for the slightly sexed up dramas.

   Anime: Bondage Game, Ail Maniax, Enzai, Ai no Kusabi, Kaze to Ki no Uta, Elementalors, Angel’s Egg

   Non-Japanese: Gustavo Mosquera’s Moebius, Amir Naderi’s A, B, C… Manhattan, András Jeles’s The Annunciation, Andrzej Zulawski’s The Silver Globe & Boris Godounov

4. Onderhond 04/15/2006 @ 5:47am

   I’m in desperate need of some good Sabu (Tanaka) release. Especially Monday and Blessing Bell would be very welcome.

   Also (but I’m afraid even most Twitch readers won’t know about this one), a DVD release of Tsuburo No Gara would be awesome. Some independent but extremely well made Japanese cyberpunk movie. There’s no distribution whatsoever, and it’s only been shown at festivals as far as I know. Not even a poster was made if I got it all right.

5. hellocruelworld 04/15/2006 @ 8:33am

   There’s a new film about Yakuza Wives that’s supposed to be very bloody and fun, but doesn’t have English subs. I would really like to see that. I’d also like to see a good release of the 200 minute Agitator(I think Pathfinder has been holding on to this for a wire). A non-bootlegged Graveyard of Honor is needed. Also, I’d love to see a remastered-anamorphic Blues Harp. That movie is awesome. A remastered Gonin would also be a treat.

6. jon pais 04/15/2006 @ 8:55am

   “Savage Nights” (Les Nuits Fauves)-Cyril Collard

   “Berlin Alexanderplatz"-Fassbinder

   “Eyes of Dawn"- Korean TV drama

7. collin a 04/15/2006 @ 9:40am

   Early K. Kurosawa and lots of it. How about a subbed BARREN ILLUSION, too?

   Here are a few more (too many to list)…

   VARIOLA VERA

   THE SHUTTERED ROOM

   THE DAMNED (’63)

   EVER SINCE THE WORLD ENDED

   THE ILLUSTRATED MAN

   MORDBURO

   NEXXT

   SATANTANGO

   Some TV…

   ANDY RICHTER CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE

   Seasons 2 and 3 of NIGHT GALLERY

8. Swarez 04/15/2006 @ 10:11am

   Hear, hear on the Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Brilliant show that needs to be on DVD.

9. Blackzarak 04/15/2006 @ 11:35am

   I’d really want Toyohisa Araki’s ‘Take the A Train Someday’ which stars Chiaki Kuriyama. The Japanese DVD has no subs and its really expensive. No idea what its about but I’m a Chiaki completist!

10. TiGrBaLm 04/15/2006 @ 11:41am

    We need some Daisuke Yamanouchi!

    Red Room 1 & 2 - Unearthed if you’re reading this, a release is long overdue

    Senketsu no Kizuna

    Girl Hell 1999

    Kyoko vs Yuki

    Dead a Go Go

    ----------------

    Otokotachi No Yamato

    Princess Raccoon

    Nana

    Linda Linda Linda

    Fantastipo

    The Hino Hedeshi Grotesque Theatre Collection (日野日出志怪奇劇場）

    To name a few…

11. coyoteblue 04/15/2006 @ 1:07pm

    ‘TRICK 1’

    ‘TRICK 2’

    ‘TRICK 3’

    TRICK THE MOVIE

    (Yukie Nakama and Hiroshi Abe)

    There’s not that much of it and it’s all good.

    ‘Eko Eko Azurak’ tv

    ‘Ultra Q’ tv

    ULTRA Q THE MOVIE

    ‘Ultra Q Dark Fantasy’ tv

    ‘Makai Knight Garo’ tv

    ‘Mr Vampire’ tv

    ‘Real Kung Fu’ tv (tvb)

    More classic tvb wuxia series

    NIGHTMARE MAN

    ‘Ace of Wands’

    ‘Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’

    ‘Adam Adamant Lives!’

    ‘The Girl From Tomorrow’

    ‘Ocean Girl’

    ‘Hex’

    ‘Sea of Souls’

    ‘Spaced’

    ‘My Date With a Vampire’ series 1, 2, 3

    ‘Densha Otoko’

    SWING GIRLS

12. nitty 04/15/2006 @ 2:38pm

    I’ve mentioned these on other forums but films I’ve been waiting for like forever(hopefully region 1) are:

    Abashiri Prison

    Black Lizard

    Black Rain..dir.Shohei Imamura

    Bloodshed

    Crazy Family

    Crazy Thunder Road

    Crimson Bat series

    Destiny’s Son

    Female Neo Ninjas

    Fried Dragon Fish

    Funeral Procession of Roses

    All Hideo Gosha films

    Insect Woman

    Last Frankenstein

    My Soul is Slashed

    Picnic

    SwallowTail Butterfly

    Sweet Home

    Under the Cherry Blossoms

    War of the Gargantuas

    Woman in the Dunes...dvd is OOP

    This is just my Asian list I’ve also got a European list.Its filled mostly with Euro crime and western flicks but gets smaller each month.

13. TiGrBaLm 04/15/2006 @ 4:54pm

    Oh how could I forget!

    Kyouki No Sakura aka Madness in Bloom

    Its truly unbearable to watch the crappy Chinese version that is the only one available with eng subs....

14. hernanmelzi 04/15/2006 @ 4:54pm

    more Sogo Ishii films please! I beg!!!!!! Media Blasters or Diskotek media, pretty please with a cherry on top.

15. collin a 04/15/2006 @ 8:55pm

    coyoteblue -

    The TRICK movie is out on DVD - I have an HK release with english subs. I *think* we’re talking about the same thing.

    Here it is…

    http://www.buyoyo.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?style=1&prrfnbr;=3233000&prmenbr;=152&CGRY;_NUM=251&LANGUAGE;=1&Supplier;=&curr;=USD

    There’s also a site selling the TV series which has an english-subbed version of season 2 - not sure if it’s legit or not, but here you go…

    http://www.shopktslab.com/product_info.php?cPath=29&products;_id=395

16. beavis 04/16/2006 @ 1:16am

    This year has already seen a few major cult releases: Mr. Freedom and Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? by William Klein were released by Arte in France; Trys Dynos by Sharunas Bartas was released in the Netherlands; and there are some unique Peter Watkin’s films released in the USA. I am still waiting on Satantango by Bela Tarr and Terrorama! by Edwin Brienen that were also rumored to be released somewhere this year. The Japanese and other Asian film goldmines are also being dug deeper and deeper each month with English subtitles becoming a much more common feature it seems.

    But still there are some films on my wish-list that I have heard nothing about:

    Russian art cinema (necrorealism, parralel cinema, moscow radical cinema) is, like most art cinema, released very poorly. I think there is a market for (some of) the films of Yefgeni Yufit. And I would personally very much like to own Green Elephant Calf made by the extreme performance artist Svetlana Baskova. It’s a real punk / underground slap in the face kind of movie. For some shocking images see this link:

    http://drugie.here.ru/supernova/zlonik.htm

    The Swiss serial killer flick Angst was once to be released by Barrel Entertainment but seems to be lost in development hell or something. This classic should be released whatever the cost

    And where is John Water’s Multiple Maniacs???? Together with Desperate Living one of the best things he has ever made. True underground / punk genius.

    A Humble Live from Aleksandr Sokurov is a introspective and small movie from this master director, but I felt something when I saw this in the cinema… maybe I should call it spiritual, but that somehow sounds wrong… something I have only felt once before while watching Stalker. So this is for me the reason why Sokurov can be placed at the same level as Tarkovski. There seems to be a Japanese release for this, but it definetely needs an international one (and somebody needs to update Imdb because this film is not in it!).

    I know we can forget about Matthew Barney’s films, because he sells them (like all his art-pieces) to collector’s for a lot of money; and it seems for him to be the only way to get new projects financed, so he’s not going to do anything about it. But I would still like to own a copy of the Cremaster Cycle.

    I should stop now but here are a few more titles I would like to see one day: Themroc, Verushka, Ascension (Hussain), Squareworld, the House (Bartas), Vive Elle, Pentimento (Zwartjes), SubUrbia and a few comedy things from Dutch and Belgian tv that might go beyond the scope of Twitch but still: We Zijn Weer Thuis, Poelmo en Lava tv

17. Deadpool 04/16/2006 @ 5:48am

    “Early K. Kurosawa and lots of it. How about a subbed BARREN ILLUSION, too?”

    ^^ PLEASE!!!

    And Saminjo by Park Chan-wook!

18. collin a 04/16/2006 @ 7:36am

    Yes to the CREMASTER cycle and yes to ANGST!!!

    Barrel still advertises their release of ANGST in the Phantom of the Movie’s bi-monthly “Videoscope” - hopefully it’s still in the pipeline.

    Around the time Palm released the short Barney section THE ORDER, there were rumors either they or Lion’s Gate was to release the whole CREMASTER series. I saw when it played in Philly a few years back and was blown away - would love to see it again. I guess nothing ever came of it.

19. gwyddon 04/16/2006 @ 9:03am

    House (Hausu, 1977 by Nobuhiko Obayashi)

    I’ll have to second Hakuchi, more by Sabu, more by Sogo Ishii(he is working on a remastered japanese DVD boxset of his early films, a subtitled port of it or even just parts of it would be wonderful)

    nitty: An UK R2 disc of Funeral Procession of Roses will come out sometime this year by Eureka / Masters of Cinema.

20. Fabool 04/16/2006 @ 1:19pm

    We definetly need those Sabu films on DVD with subs! At least Dangan runner, Monday and Blessing bell. It’s really odd that there isn’t a single decent release with subs of any of his films.

    Something that I really, really desire is the IRE version of Koyaanisqatsi, preferrably on HD DVD or Blu-ray. At the moment, I must praise the p2p-networks which allowed me to locate a copy of the *extremely* rare IRE DVD for this film - it completely destroys the horribly cropped MGM version in quality.

21. David Benn 04/16/2006 @ 2:54pm

    Have the original television versions of Ju-On 1 & 2 been released, possibly in a set. I always liked them better than any of the movie versions, and would like to see them again and buy a nice version.

    NOW HEAR THIS…

    “The Berne Act”,

    http://www.superhappyfun.com/

    Most of the Sabu stuff is available @ superhappyfun.com with English Subs. I never really completely gauged the attitude here at Twitch, but this (SHF) is a tape “trading” site… so if your beliefs don’t match do not enter. However, I’d suggest it because they have a ton of hard-to-find stuff.

    I’d suggest joining the Yahoo! Group as well, you may just find some things easier that way [Hint--Passwords--Hint].

    I’ve ordered many interesting things through SHF; for example, Shunji Iwai’s Swallowtail Butterfly,

    Higuchinsky’s Long Dream and Tokyo Eleven,

    Various Peter Watkins films,

    Geoff Murphy’s The Quiet Earth,

    etc…

    Testicle-Muscle Cycle Complete,

    Davidb

    P.S.: “‘The Berne Act’ clearly states: films unreleased in the United States, including original version of films altered and/or edited for release in the United States, are not protected by American copyright; thus, they are considered public domain. The entire purpose of our company is to provide (otherwise unavailable) films to the serious video collector. We do not offer videos owned by American releasing companies. If a film should become available domestically, or if another seller should offer a better copy, we immediately stop offering it to our clients.” --from SHF FAQ

22. TiGrBaLm 04/16/2006 @ 3:11pm

    in regards to SHF, there are ALOT of titles there that have ORIGINAL R1 Releases by Arts Magic, Tartan, et al. This site needs to be shut down.

23. beavis 04/16/2006 @ 4:03pm

    no SHF should not be shut down. The guy who runs it is a real movie fanatic like ourselfs; and it is guys like that who helped dig up some very rare gems before the DVD market started to boom, and maybe even helped to create that boom. I personally would always like to own an original copy if it’s available, but I believe tapetraders to have an important role in the underground of the cinema world.

    Just to add a few more titles to my earlier list. Another great (and unexpected) release of this year was the Japanese underground / punk film Peep “tv” Show by Facets. But the list of Japanese films that need to be released with English subs is still big. Ryuichi Hiroki’s L’amant for instance is only available in Japanese. Maybe when It’s Only Talk will be released on DVD they can fix this by releasing a box of these two movies together with Vibrator? that would be sweet.

    I am also looking for a kids anime tv-series that played on Dutch tv when I was little (With some great voice acting by Tamar Baruch and others). It’s called the Swiss Family Robinson or Kazoku Robinson Hyouryuuki - Fushigima Shima no Flone in Japanese. It’s out on DVD without subtitles, so a subtitled release would be great (and a Dutch spoken release even better just to get nostalgic...)

24. logboy 04/17/2006 @ 3:02am

    david benn : “P.S.: “‘The Berne Act’ clearly states: films unreleased in the United States, including original version of films altered and/or edited for release in the United States, are not protected by American copyright; thus, they are considered public domain. The entire purpose of our company is to provide (otherwise unavailable) films to the serious video collector. We do not offer videos owned by American releasing companies. If a film should become available domestically, or if another seller should offer a better copy, we immediately stop offering it to our clients.” --from SHF FAQ”

    the berne act is often quoted by those dealing in dodgy copies. ive read evidene somewhere in the past that contradicts what people quote from supposed legal documents that state its a misnomer and not to be taken in the way it usually is. anyone a copyright specialist around here?

    apart from this, thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. shame this isnt the longest selection of comments ever : 20k readers a day and a couple of dozen people have requests… odd. anyway, its always ‘more the merrier’ but glad to have what we do.

25. x 04/17/2006 @ 3:16am

    the berne act is quite an interesting cop out, but then again, I took a look at the Korean films he’s selling and… no shit, they’re the same HK bootlegs popping up on Ebay. Which are nothing but ports of either 1) the Korean rental or 2) the sales version.

    Now, if he were selling previously unreleased versions, like classics from the 60s or little gems from the 90s, I’d understand (I buy myself all those grey market Taiwan releases, which have little to no chance of surfacing on ‘proper’ DVD. I mean, Whale Hunting on DVD!), but this is simply bootlegging hidden under another facade of ‘being OK with the law because...”

    No sympathy from me.

26. Fabool 04/17/2006 @ 4:52am

    Whoa.. just noticed a very nice surprise being released in Korea. The 47 ronin, and it includes english subs!

    As far as I know, there has only been one release (R1) of this with english subs and it has been out-of-print for ages. The OOP discs seem to be selling for around $75 at the Amazon marketplace.

    The Korean releas is extremely cheap, $6.99 at dvdfromkorea, most likely a port of the OoP release but I don’t care about that - I love Mizoguchi and this is a must buy for me.

    ... which reminds me, I’d like to see more Mizoguchi. A better version of Oharu would be lovely, somewhere along the lines of the very nice Ugetsu release from Criterion.

27. collin a 04/17/2006 @ 7:34am

    Just noticed another title on a list here -

    THE NIGHTMARE MAN has been released in the UK on DVD. Good stuff, too. Very bizarre, with nice atmosphere.

    Speaking of MFTV materials, how about any of the scads of wonderful MFTV horror and suspense pics from the ‘70s and early ‘80s here in the US? There’s some great stuff out there - early Carpenter, early Spielberg, lots of very inventive and genuinely frightening films.

28. Chester 04/24/2006 @ 5:18pm

    Where to get the films of Edwin Brienen? I read a lot about Terrorama!, bought the Lebenspornografie soundtrack, but never saw one of his films. Anyone information? Thanks.

29. beavis 04/25/2006 @ 3:39am

    the first brienen newsletter from december 2005 has the following:

    brienen’s 5th feature ‘Warum Ulli sich am Weihnachtsabend umbringen wollte’ is released.

    postproduction on ‘last performance’ is underway

    ‘hysteria’ starts shooting. this is the first part of an ‘apocalypse trilogy’ release expected in march and shooting of the second part expected in the summer.

    release of Terrorama! on the Salvation DVD label in february (didn’t happen, more problems with the UK censors I expect)

    Both ends Burning available via edwinbrienen.com (also didn’t happen)

    musicvideo ‘Das Absolut Böse’ released by Kommando 6 records (this did happen! you can buy the darkshots dvd via http://www.simulacron.org)

    Lebenspornografie soundtrack still available (you knew that already)

    the second brienen newsletter from februari of this year has the following:

    an interview at

    http://www.simulacron.org/mag/2006/01/interview-with-movie-director-edwin.html

    new film ‘Hysteria’ wraps up the shoot

    Brienen plays a role in Julie und Celine kentern das Boot’ from director Carl Andersen

    next newsletter expected in may. check the website for (not much) further information: http://www.edwinbrienen.com

30. TheGhostInYou 05/11/2006 @ 9:53am

    Hysteria will be released June 15th. For news: http://www.myspace.com/edwinbrienen

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