Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[domino harvey]

Right, of course, thank you! I’m losing track of these kind of things lately

[Peacock]

You can thank me for The Indian Epic set as I just bought it a few weeks ago on Ebay...

Interesting announcements:

Ju Dou - Film Movement
Indian Epic - Film Movement (seems to be a clone of their OOP release but with a slipcover)
Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun - Delirium
Wildwood NJ - AGFA
Fear Has 1000 Eyes - Klubb Super 8
Carnival In The Night + Saint Terrorism - Kani
Massacre - VS
Reviver 2 - Reviver

[The Narrator Returns]

Very happy the Castration Movies are getting good disc releases, though I’d probably have to advise against a blind-buy for anyone not steeled for four+ hours of trans brainworms. This first one at least settles in a sad, warm, talky place, while the second is excruciating (if comedically so) until it hits a looong stretch that’s the worst I’ve ever been made to feel by a movie.

Otherwise, Cindy Sherman’s Office Killer in 4K should look amazing, it’s an acquired taste (arthouse workplace slasher-comedy with a full-camp Carol Kane lead performance) but I like it a lot. I also really like Snowy Bing Bongs, a very silly dance film/sketch showcase with lots of alt-comedian cameos, plus some gorgeous Ashley Connor cinematography.

[criterionsnob]

Also, Canadian International Pictures' release of Vinyl (Alan Zweig) is pretty stacked with 5 commentaries, and companion feature (Vinyl: The Alternate Take).

[beamish14]

Bought way too many this month! Really hoping The Rubber Gun is Canadian International’s next announcement, or Animation Night Volume II

[What A Disgrace]

Carnival in the Night is a must-have for me, the director turned 70 just recently and Kani has already released three of his other essential works.

[TraverseTown]

What do we think is Reviver 2?

[Orlac]

LOVE LETTERS is heavily cut in the UK under the Protection of Children Act.

[andyli]

Ju Dou looks stupidly bad from the screenshots provided, despite the hype of a new 4K restoration. I'd advise whoever wants it use caution and consider releases from other territories.

[CSM126]

Ju Dou looks stupidly bad from the screenshots provided, despite the hype of a new 4K restoration. I'd advise whoever wants it use caution and consider releases from other territories.

Yikes. I zoomed in on those and thought “well that looks like it was ripped from tape”. Film Movement is a sad joke.

[Lowry_Sam]

So glad I picked up Imprint's Zhang Yimou box about a year ago. I almost didn't as I expected several would be coming out on UHD, but I figured it would be good to have the whole lot while working on my 90s lists.

[spectre]

One partner label announcement that hasn't been mentioned above is Big World Pictures' release of Radu Jude and Christian Ferencz-Flatz's Eight Postcards from Utopia, which I watched a few weeks ago. It's quite a cool project, basically a montage of clips from Romanian TV commercials over the past forty years assembled thematically – definitely not a major work in Jude's oeuvre (I'm still hanging out for English-friendly releases of Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World and Kontinental ’25!), but laugh-out-loud funny at times and well worth a watch.

It's paired with Jude and Adrian Cioflâncā's earlier Holocaust documentary The Exit of the Trains, which I haven't seen, but is apparently also constructed from found footage and photographs of a massive pogrom that took place in Romania in 1941.

[qw0aszx]

I don't think there ever be a new 4K restoration for Ju Dou, there are multiple 4K screenshots added to the website of Film Movement when they first announced their re-release. I compared those and found out they look almost exactly the same as the HD source from the previous Japanese blu-ray with sides cropped. I assume whoever provided them this source just did some additional works done to that HD version.

[Peacock]

So the next Pink Line release will be Hisayasu Satô Volume 4. There are at least 7 planned through 2027. There will be other titles by other directors released after Volume 4 from what I understand.

Watching the special features of the sets it’s stated that Save The Last Dance will be one of the Satô titles on one of these upcoming sets. Gimme Shelter will not (currently anyway) be included as it only survives on Satô’s own personal VHS.

Folks online are speculating Birthday, Distorted Sense of Touch, Survey Map of a Paradise Lost, and Fugue Music of Alpha and Beta will likely be some of the upcoming titles. But hopefully Muscle and the gay titles will come out too.

I have to say I’ve really enjoyed the first three Satô sets, these films aren’t for everyone of course as they sometimes feature gory violence and often feature sexual violence. But they really almost feel like Antonioni films in their weird alien isolated odysseys through urban sprawl.

These are really on the arthouse end of the scale of what you’d expect to find in a pink film, with a dash of Cronenberg’s Videodrome or Crash thrown in.

High points for me have been Love - Zero = Infinity, Turtle Vision, Re-Wind and An Aria of Gazes. But it’s hard to separate them, they all sort of exist in the same world, the same streets, same actors, same runtimes, same relationship with technology.

Lustmord is a lot more violent than the others and Rafureshia is a lot lighter (in an uncomfortable way to be honest) but all of these films paint the same large canvas.

Highly recommended (unless of a delicate disposition)

[Feego]

I ordered “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” from Deep Discount recently and ended up with the non-corrected 4K disc. After emailing Vinegar Syndrome about getting the replacement disc, they told me to message them next time I place an order through their site and they would include the disc. Has anyone else had this experience? Is the only way to get the replacement to place an order from Vinegar Syndrome?

[Murdoch]

You might want to check your state's law. At least in New York, manufacturers are responsible for replacing defective products, regardless of who sold you the product. I learned this after Radiance at first wouldn't send me a replacement disc for an order from a third party. I sent them my state's law on the issue and they sent me a replacement.

[bearcuborg]

Girls Town is a release I have waited for ever since I saw it on cable on the 90s. God, I miss this era of indie filmmaking. I’d happily take double the output of Jim McKay stories.

The release has lots of great contributions from the cast and crew. Just a beautiful transfer…

[DJBillyMac]

Kani has acquired five Hong Kong films that it will be showing theatrically and presumably/hopefully releasing physically later:

Cageman
The Enigmatic Case
Just Like Weather
Gangs
Queen of Temple Street

[Glowingwabbit]

Kani has acquired five Hong Kong films that it will be showing theatrically and presumably/hopefully releasing physically later:

Cageman
The Enigmatic Case
Just Like Weather
Gangs
Queen of Temple Street

I've been wanting to see Just Like Weather for sometime so this great news.

[What A Disgrace]

The films included in Reviver 2 are...

Spoiler

1965's The Horror From Beyond (directed by Newt Arnold, who only made three other films...including the JCVD classic Bloodsport), and The Paradise of Terror, directed by Michael duPont (who also procuded both films in the set, and Newt Arnold's other non-Bloodsport movies).

[Peacock]

Pink Line will be releasing some of Hisayasu Satô’s gay films based upon some social media posts (someone asking if Muscle was coming and being told “Patience” and Jasper Sharp being photographed interviewing one of Satô’s actors in Bondage Ecstacy (with Satô present). Hopefully all 5 of this cycle of films are included as they are meant to be great!

[luxta]

Liebestraum (1991) Uncut coming in april from Cinématographe.

[goblinfootballs]

Can't believe we're getting a blu-ray of Boarding Gate before demonlover.

[Glowingwabbit]

Can't believe we're getting a blu-ray of Boarding Gate before demonlover.

demonlover is already on blu-ray so this is great news!

[goblinfootballs]

Can't believe we're getting a blu-ray of Boarding Gate before demonlover.

demonlover is already on blu-ray so this is great news!

Sorry, region A / still reasonably priced. Did not convert to multi-region in time for the Arrow region B.