RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2013 Tokyo Shock presents Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer & Ichi 1 Origin: 2-Disc Uncut Duo Edition DVD. Includes the original, along with the hard-to-find prequel, Ichi 1: Origin. Welcome to a world where violence is a virtue and depravity is a way of life. This is the underside of Shinjuku and the home of Kakihara, a sadistic yakuza killer who relentlessly tears apart the underworld searching for the man … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: January 22, 2013 Pathfinder Home Entertainment presents the DVD for End of Animal. Jo Sung-Hee’s remarkable film reaches a heart of darkness that ordinary disaster movies cannot reach. According to Tony Rayns: Maybe the most striking debut in Korean film history, this pocket-sized apocalypse shows the day when electricity disappears and the road becomes a dog-eat-dog world. Watch the trailer.

RELEASE DATE: February 12, 2013 Screen Media Films presents the DVD for Li Sheng Lin’s Croczilla (aka Million Dollar Crocodile), starring Barbie Hse, Tao Guo and Lam Suet. A 36 foot crocodile goes on the rampage in Beijing after being moved from a peaceful Crocodile Farm and onto the menu of a local gangster. Watch the trailer.

RELEASE DATE: December 11, 2012 Icarus Films presents the DVD for Shohei Imamura’s A Man Vanishes. This film follows the case of a businessman who has suddenly vanished. Radical in scope, technique and aesthetic, A Man Vanishes has a stunning sequence that explodes any stable sense of fiction and reality. Also includes 5 documentaries by Imamura. Watch the trailer.

RELEASE DATE: February 26, 2012 Criterion presents the Blu-ray for Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff. When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually separated by vicious slave traders. This classic Japanese story became one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil. Watch the trailer.

RELEASE DATE: February 5th, 2013 Criterion presents the Blu-ray & DVD for Keisuke Kinoshita’s The Ballad of Narayama. This haunting, kabuki-inflected version of a Japanese folk legend is set in a remote mountain village, where food is scarce and tradition dictates that citizens who have reached their seventieth year must be carried to the summit of Mount Narayama and left there to die. Watch the trailer.

RELEASE DATE: February 26, 2013 Vanguard Cinema presents the DVD for Ryotaro Muramatsu’s Hey Japanese! (aka Hey Japanese! Do You Believe Peace, Love and Understanding? 2008 or Heyjapa!). According to Nippon Cinema, this movie is a black comedy interweaving 6 concurrent stories occuring in a suburban area on the outskirts of Tokyo. Check out the trailer.

RELEASE DATE: February 19, 2013 Asian Media Rights presents the DVD for My Sassy Girl: Director’s Cut. A chance meeting with a drunk girl (Ji-hyun Jun) on the train puts Gyun-woo (Tae-hyun Cha) in a masochistic relationship he never wanted. After all these years, this beloved Korean comedy is finally available (officially) in America. Watch the trailer. Read our reviews.

RELEASE DATE: February 19, 2013 Asian Media Rights presents the DVD for Atsushi Yamamura’s Bullet Explosion. Get ready for some hard-hitting Yakuza action – at the mercy of their violent lifestyles, two brothers are determined to make a name for themselves in the Japanese gangster society. Starring Hitoshi Ozawa and Kazuyoshi Ozawa.

RELEASE DATE: January 15, 2013 Zeitgeist Films presents the DVD for China Heavyweight. Award-winning filmmaker Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze) returns to China for another riveting documentary. In China Heavyweight, Chang follows the charismatic Qi Moxiang, a former boxing star and state coach who recruits young fighting talent from the impoverished farms and villages across Sichuan province. Watch the trailer.