Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[therewillbeblus]

Fun City strikes again!

[Glowingwabbit]

A great day for HK cinema. Along with The Iceman Cometh from VS, we are also getting Viva Erotica from their partner label, Kani.

[swo17]

88 Films is also putting out Iceman Cometh in November

[Glowingwabbit]

88 Films is also putting out Iceman Cometh in November

Yeah I figured it was already announced so I didn't need to mention it. I might end up double dipping because I love this one. I did the VS sub this year so I'll be getting their release automatically.

[Finch]

Can anyone remember how quickly partner label releases showed up for pre-orders with other retailers? Since this is hitting in the last week of September, I'm thinking deep discount etc should have Married to the Mob listings up after Labor Day. I can't find anything else I'm interested in to pair the Demme with. At the time of writing this, they have over 400 units of the standard edition which is the one I want left so I'm only going to order from VS direct if no other retailer has it soon and the numbers go down to 200 for the standard.

[therewillbeblus]

I have too much faith in Fun City as a label to believe they’d give fans the much-wanted rerelease of this film on blu only to shut the door on hopes and dreams within a week of announcement. Surely they must be able to produce more copies, no? That wouldn’t be very fun of them

[EddieLarkin]

Y'all already went through this with Ilya Muromets. Only the limited slipcover editions are limited, the standard editions are infinite. They just restock them, over and over, when they're getting low. Unless it's specified as an edition that it is strictly limited in the listing, there's no reason to panic buy.

[therewillbeblus]

I remember this with partner labels, but I’m not sure if we covered whether the same goes for VS releases themselves?

[Finch]

Thanks for the reminder, Eddie. I had forgotten that part.

A Blu-Ray.com user has the VS edition of Righting Wrongs and was saying their booklet too has a font that is way too small to read comfortably (Deaf Crocodile were guilty of this with their recent Russian releases). Glad I held off for the 88 release.

[therewillbeblus]

I believe Glowingwabbit has also been quite vocal in this thread about the flaws of their booklets, including that very release

[Finch]

At this point, as it's a struggle to be able to read their booklets, they might as well not include them or offer another price tier at a lower rate where you only get the on-disc extras for $21.99. (I was actually surprised that they were offering the booklets with the standard edition; when I first visited the VS site months ago, my expectation was that you'd lose the booklet and the slipcase if you went for the standard)

Are there any VS or partner label booklets at all that don't require a fucking magnifying glass?

[EddieLarkin]

I remember this with partner labels, but I’m not sure if we covered whether the same goes for VS releases themselves?

Yes, same goes for VS. The vast majority of their catalog going back a decade is still available in standard editions, excepting a few titles that were announced as strictly limited to start with, and others that they've since lost the rights to.

[therewillbeblus]

Is the book for Cloak & Dagger good at least? It's such a cool and integral part of the packaging, and I'm holding out to buy direct just for that

[swo17]

It's very cute, perfect bound, half writing and half images, with the writing intentionally stylized to look like a redacted document

[therewillbeblus]

Sold

[What A Disgrace]

Yeah, Cloak is easily the best packaged release of the year in my opinion. Absolute gem of a release all around.

[Glowingwabbit]

Most of the booklets for VS and Partner labels are fine. Cloak and Dagger is definitely a gem. Righting Wrongs is definitely one of the worst offenders of unreadable text I've ever seen from any label. The text is so faded that it's even hard to see who to blame for it on the acknowledgements page (ok I'm being a tad hyperbolic on that last point, but you do have to squint).

I give Deaf Crocodile the benefit of the doubt for their Russian releases since they are just reprinting an essay from Video Watchdog and they might not have had permission or simply the time to redo it. Those Video Watchdog pdfs can be found online if you know where to look anyway.

[Glowingwabbit]

I discovered yesterday that my system wouldn't recognize the Robinson's Garden disc. Turned out I'm not the only one with this problem. If the disc plays then you got a good one. I have a replacement disc on the way now after emailing them. So if you have a copy play it immediately.

[ianthemovie]

Vinegar Syndrome has done a new restoration of the 1974 gay porn film That Boy, which will be playing at Anthology Film Archives in October.

EDIT/UPDATE: On the newest episode of her podcast, Elizabeth Purchell says that unfortunately as of October 2022 this restoration doesn't have a Blu-ray release planned.

[What A Disgrace]

From Kani Releasing, I own Cain and Abel, and have pre-ordered their latest title. I'm wondering if anyone can comment on the other films they have released? Robinson's Garden sounds interesting, in particular.

[Glowingwabbit]

From Kani Releasing, I own Cain and Abel, and have pre-ordered their latest title. I'm wondering if anyone can comment on the other films they have released? Robinson's Garden sounds interesting, in particular.

Unfortunately I can't comment on Robinson's Garden (see my post a few comments up). The only other titles I've got form them is Videophobia which wasn't very interesting, and Tremble All You Want which I enjoyed but not as much as Hold Me Back. I'm not one to relate to characters when watching a film but I'll say beyond not being a Japanese woman I've never related more to a protagonist in a film as I had those two films. There is a musical number part way through the film that was really wonderful. The packaging for Tremble is great too as it comes with stickers and a nice booklet.

[EddieLarkin]

VS have started segregating any Partner Label releases that are properly going out of print, i.e. not just the LEs but the standard editions too:

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections ... t-of-print

[dwk]

VS' November titles:
ROAD HOUSE 4K UHD/BD (VSU, so it isn't part of the yearly subscription package.)
THE INVISIBLE MANIAC - 4K UHD/BD
HOME GROWN HORRORS VOL#2 - 3BD BOX (MOONSTALKER, DEAD GIRLS,  HANGING HEART)
BURNING PARADISE - BD
SECRET RELEASE #1 - 4K UHD/BD
SECRET RELEASE #2 - BD
About the 2 secret releases

...one of which is a big budget sleaze epic with an equally epic cast, and the other a delirious celebration of murder and mayhem that ranks amongst the more over the top entries in annals the 80s slashers

[tenia]

"a deluxe 4K UHD special edition of what is hands down one of our most highly requested films ever: Adam Rifkin, or, "Rif Coogan’s" THE INVISIBLE MANIAC! This one should need no introduction."

I'm always amazed at this, because while it's great to have people dedicating that much time, energy and money to have these movies available, and of course this is their core area of work, how many people exactly actually don't need an introduction to The Invisible Maniac ?

[yoloswegmaster]

I've seen people say that the mystery big budget sleaze epic title is Caligula.