RELEASE DATE: April 28, 2025 On April 28, 2025, Arrow Video will be releasing a Blu-ray collection for V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal, which will include 9 direct-to-video Japanese classics spread across 5 discs. In 1989, legendary Japanese studio Toei launched their V-Cinema line of direct-to-video genre features. V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal presents nine

RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2025 On April 1, 2025, Criterion is releasing a 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray for Ugetsu, a 1953 classic of Japanese cinema from director Kenji Mizoguchi (The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, The Life of Oharu). By the time he made Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. And with this … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: April 25, 202 On April 25, 2025, Radiance Films is releasing the Blu-ray (Region A/B) for A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness, Seijun Suzuki’s (The Man with a Shotgun) 1977 comeback film after being blacklisted by the film industry for ten years. Though adapted from a popular manga, the bold visuals and absurdist plot twists are vintage Suzuki. The editor of a sports magazine grooms fashion model Reiko … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2025 On March 3, 2025, 88 Films is releasing a Blu-ray (Region A/B) release for 1970’s Play it Cool, a little-seen gem by one of Japan’s most highly regarded directors of the 1960s, Yasuzō Masumura (Giants and Toys, Irezumi), a filmmaker known for his social satires and powerful portrayals of women. Play it Cool is a chic and erotically charged drama starring popular Japanese singer of … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2025 On April 15, 2025, Cleopatra Entertainment is releasing a Blu-ray (Region A) for The Beast Hand, a 2024 horror film from director Taichiro Natsume (Love Shark). Osamu (Takahiro Fukuya), a Japanese day laborer, is forced into a lifestyle of crime. Unfortunately, when he crosses the wrong gangsters, they punish him by Sword, amputating his left hand in the process. Osamu’s ex-girlfriend Koyuki takes him to … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2025 On March 24, 2025, 88 Films will release a Blu-ray for 964 Pinocchio (aka Screams of Blasphemy), a 1991 Japanese cyberpunk-horror film directed by Shozin Fukui (Rubber’s Lover). 964 Pinocchio depicts the nightmarishly surreal adventures of an illegally manufactured sex android found abandoned by his former owner and rescued from the scrap heap by a young woman, Himiko. She begins to tutor him in the … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2025 On March 24, 2025, 88 Films will release a Blu-ray (Region B) for Yumeno Kyusaku’s Girl Hell, a 1977 horror film directed by Masaru Konuma (Beach, La Ronde). Passions are inflamed in an elite school for girls in 1930s Japan in Yumeno Kyusaku’s Girl Hell, as two of its students find solace away from the crowd in each other’s company. But can their love flourish … Continue reading →