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ARROW VIDEO LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SLIPBOXES
A Bay of Blood *sold out*
Battle Royale *sold out*
Black Sunday [Dual Format]
Caligula *sold out*
City of the Living Dead *sold out*
Day of the Dead *sold out*
Dawn of the Dead *sold out*
Deep Red *sold out*
Demons *sold out*
Demons 2 *few copies remaining*
Forbidden Zone *sold out*
Frankenhooker *sold out*
Inferno *sold out*
Lisa and the Devil *sold out*
Maniac Cop *sold out*
Obsession *very few copies remaining*
Phenomena *sold out*
Red Scorpion *sold out*
Tenebrae *sold out*
The Beyond *sold out*
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage *sold out*
The Cat o’ Nine Tails *sold out*
The Exterminator *sold out*
The Funhouse *sold out*
The House by the Cemetery *sold out*
Vamp
Zombie Flesh-Eaters [Limited to 500] *sold out*

This listing on Arrow's blog got me thinking: I know the limited edition of Obsession contains Paul Schrader's screenplay. Do any of these other limited editions have exclusive bonus features not available on the standard editions (not counting the slipcover/additional artwork itself as a bonus)?

EDIT: I see the limited edition Demons releases include the Demons 3 comic as an extra. Any others?

Is anyone else getting one e-mail from Arrow per minute right now? I get it now, you've had to delay the release of several titles...

RobertAltman wrote:Is anyone else getting one e-mail from Arrow per minute right now? I get it now, you've had to delay the release of several titles...

Same here.
I thought they were sending this email once for each product concerned and order at Arrow's webstore, but actually, I received it 8 to 10 times and I only ordered Blood Rage from them !

I don't think this has been mentioned anywhere else on the board - Saturday on Facebook, Arrow posted something about a "very exciting collection that will be released next year" involving Jasper Sharp and Nikkatsu. Seems likely to be a Roman Porno collection.

And they just posted a picture to their Twitter:

I could be wrong, but the picture he's holding up looks pretty clearly to be Jo Shishido. Did he ever star in any Roman Porno films? Or were there any Roman Porno stars with cheekbones comparable to Shishido's?

Shishido never starred in a roman porno, but it's conceivable that he's just using that as a prop while talking about Nikkatsu's history. I don't think you can conclude much from it.

He's not giving a general history of Nikkatsu - Tony Rayns did a more than adequate job of that on Massacre Gun and there seemed to be little point in reinventing the wheel.

*** RELEASE DATE UPDATES**
We are very sorry to have to inform you of more date revisions. Manufacturing deadlines have become shorter in the lead up to Christmas and some of our larger projects have required extra work, further extras acquisitions and increased book lengths (for example our Rivette set has increased to a 200-page hard back book and Hellraiser will have some exciting new additions which will be revealed this week!) These changes have created a domino effect on our schedule and as such in the new year we will take a new course of action to remove any delays. The revised release dates are as follows:
Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cats – 19th October (UK) 27th October (US)
Thieves’ Highway – 19th October
Closely Observed Trains – 26th October
Tenderness of the Wolves – 2nd November (UK) 3rd November (US)
Kiju Yoshida: Love +Anarchism - – 2nd November
Nekromantik 2 - 16th November
Blood Rage – 23rd November (UK) 24th November (US)
The Mutilator – 30th November (UK) 1st December (US)
And, if you missed it last week, Deep Red is now set to be released – 7th December.
We hope you’ll bear with us in the lead up to Christmas but as ever our commitment to quality will ensure all releases will eventually be delivered to the highest standard. As always, direct orders from the Arrow store are expected to ship prior to these new dates.

A little bit odd to have Yoshida delayed all of two days from the date it had been listed as but hey whatever.

Good news that they've made the Rivette book a hardcover too.

Ribs wrote:

*** RELEASE DATE UPDATES**
We are very sorry to have to inform you of more date revisions. Manufacturing deadlines have become shorter in the lead up to Christmas and some of our larger projects have required extra work, further extras acquisitions and increased book lengths (for example our Rivette set has increased to a 200-page hard back book and Hellraiser will have some exciting new additions which will be revealed this week!) These changes have created a domino effect on our schedule and as such in the new year we will take a new course of action to remove any delays. The revised release dates are as follows:
Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cats – 19th October (UK) 27th October (US)
Thieves’ Highway – 19th October
Closely Observed Trains – 26th October
Tenderness of the Wolves – 2nd November (UK) 3rd November (US)
Kiju Yoshida: Love +Anarchism - – 2nd November
Nekromantik 2 - 16th November
Blood Rage – 23rd November (UK) 24th November (US)
The Mutilator – 30th November (UK) 1st December (US)
And, if you missed it last week, Deep Red is now set to be released – 7th December.
We hope you’ll bear with us in the lead up to Christmas but as ever our commitment to quality will ensure all releases will eventually be delivered to the highest standard. As always, direct orders from the Arrow store are expected to ship prior to these new dates.

A little bit odd to have Yoshida delayed all of two days from the date it had been listed as but hey whatever.

Good news that they've made the Rivette book a hardcover too.

I believe the Yoshida set was actually set for October 19th when officially announced (alongside the other October titles), but before that when it was up for Early Bird pre-order had stated October 31st (which isn't a Monday so couldn't be an official release date). I say vaguely because it said different dates in different places (both on different parts of the Arrow site and different retailer listings). So yeah, good to know it has been confirmed now...though there could well be another delay of a week or two, considering there have been 'domino effect' delays a few times in the last couple of months (to the point where some titles have had multi-month delays).

Cool about the Rivette set though...hardback book sounds good, though I do love the high quality bound paperback booklets (e.g. Eureka). I really would love to buy both that and the Yoshida set but likely won't be able to afford either straight away, and may have to wait until Christmas to order one or both of them. I have the Yoshida set pre-ordered for just over £45 on Amazon though, so will have to see in a month's time whether I feel it's worth keeping my pre-order. The Rivette set sounds like better value for money, but is quite a bit more expensive - though if I do end up getting it, I'll definitely order direct from Arrow assuming it's still the cheapest (and taking into account the points too).

As for a guess of what the Nikkatsu-related set might be, considering that most Imamura titles have already been released on UK Blu-ray, I reckon it's likely to be a Suzuki box set. Either that or a mixed set of Yakuza titles...perhaps containing A Colt is My Passport amongst some others. I would love to see the remaining Imamura titles released by somebody (especially The Pornographers) and there are some Ôshima and Shinoda titles from Nikkatsu that should get released if possible (i.e. quality of materials) but I'm thinking they are possibly more MoC's fare.

A boxed set of Suzuki's films would probably save me the trouble of waiting for Criterion to upgrade certain discs, and be a better package besides. But I'd also hope a boxed set of Nikkatsu's non-Suzuki Yakuza titles is a possibility; I'm still perplexed as to why Massacre Gun and Retaliation were not packaged together.

What A Disgrace wrote:A boxed set of Suzuki's films would probably save me the trouble of waiting for Criterion to upgrade certain discs, and be a better package besides. But I'd also hope a boxed set of Nikkatsu's non-Suzuki Yakuza titles is a possibility; I'm still perplexed as to why Massacre Gun and Retaliation were not packaged together.

Me too. I assumed they would be, or at least released side-by-side. Who knows? Maybe they decided one was in colour and one was B&W so they should be released separately...I dunno. But yeah, I reckon either a Suzuki set or a general Yakuza set are the most likely. Slight edge to Suzuki because they asked us to guess and that'd be the straightest answer.

We'll be announcing January titles in 24 hours time! So make sure you tune in tomorrow at 4pm GMT / 8am PST / 11am EST.

Weirdly quick turnaround this month. Wonder why the rush?

Ribs wrote:

We'll be announcing January titles in 24 hours time! So make sure you tune in tomorrow at 4pm GMT / 8am PST / 11am EST.

Weirdly quick turnaround this month. Wonder why the rush?

Not really - first Friday of the month is the traditional announcement time. I suspect it's more a case of previous announcements being delayed (usually for awaiting-confirmation-of-something reasons) than anything else.

January Titles

Beyond The Valley of the Dolls. UK ONLY. Dual-Format.
Nikkatsu Diamond Guys, Volume 1. UK+US. Dual-Format.

"January is a light month for us," is what they said on Facebook. Though at this point, any month my wallet gets a break is okay with me.

Drucker wrote: "January is a light month for us," is what they said on Facebook. Though at this point, any month my wallet gets a break is okay with me.

Both limited editions, and I want them both. Not so light for my wallet...

Is it safe to assume Valley of the Dolls could also come from Criterion, especially since the Arrow is Region-Locked?

Just got my Black Cats box, and there's an insert that shows The Night Evelyn came Out of the Grave, The Zero Boys, Sheba Baby, Blood Bath, and Blood Feast- I don't think I've heard any of these announced yet, unless they are alternate titles (The same insert shows both Fall Break and The Mutilator, which I believe are the same film)

Drucker wrote:Is it safe to assume Valley of the Dolls could also come from Criterion, especially since the Arrow is Region-Locked?

Region locking makes no difference, that's a requirement for MGM/Fox (hell, most) titles. That rule is there irrespective of whether or not anyone else will be releasing it overseas.

an insert that shows The Night Evelyn came Out of the Grave, The Zero Boys, Sheba Baby, Blood Bath, and Blood Feast- I don't think I've heard any of these announced yet,

All but The Zero Boys have been discovered on their facebook page when they teased their next set of postcards.

Drucker wrote:Is it safe to assume Valley of the Dolls could also come from Criterion, especially since the Arrow is Region-Locked?

Has been rumored for a long time, though the region-locking has little do with it,

Does anyone know if postcards still come in old releases?

tomN245 wrote:Does anyone know if postcards still come in old releases?

I'm sure I saw something about Arrow only including postcards in the initial run of a disc. When I've ordered older titles recently, the inclusion of a postcard has been rather hit or miss. I've just chalked it up to not ordering the disc closer to the release date.

scubadonc wrote:

tomN245 wrote:Does anyone know if postcards still come in old releases?

I'm sure I saw something about Arrow only including postcards in the initial run of a disc. When I've ordered older titles recently, the inclusion of a postcard has been rather hit or miss. I've just chalked it up to not ordering the disc closer to the release date.

Thanks for the reply. I'll order a few and see how it goes. I'm putting them on my bedroom wall and they look awesome \:D/ .

tomN245 wrote:I'm putting them on my bedroom wall and they look awesome \:D/ .

I frame them (in 4x6 or 5x7 with matte) and put them up in my movie room. Eureka has sent me promotional postcards a couple of times that I've requested with an order.

Banasa wrote:

an insert that shows The Night Evelyn came Out of the Grave, The Zero Boys, Sheba Baby, Blood Bath, and Blood Feast- I don't think I've heard any of these announced yet,

All but The Zero Boys have been discovered on their facebook page when they teased their next set of postcards.

I did receive the The Zero Boys postcard today inside my Black Cat set. Other than what have already been mentioned, on the back of the postcard I see a poster art for Buddy Cooper's Fail Break. Isn't the movie later retitled as The Mutilator? There is a poster art for that one too. I am little confused!