Arrow Video will release on Blu-ray Takashi Miike's
Dead or Alive Trilogy, Steve Minor's
House and Ethan Wiley's
House II: The Second Story, and Juan Piquer Simón's
Pieces.
Dead or Alive Trilogy
Beginning with an explosive, six-minute montage of sex, drugs and violence, and ending with a phallus-headed battle robot taking flight, Takashi Miike's unforgettable Dead or Alive Trilogy features many of the director's most outrageous moments set alongside some of his most dramatically moving scenes. Made between 1999 and 2002, the Dead or Alive films cemented Miike's reputation overseas as one of the most provocative enfants terrible of Japanese cinema, yet also one of its most talented and innovative filmmakers.
In Dead or Alive, tough gangster Ryuichi (Riki Takeuchi) and his ethnically Chinese gang make a play to take over the drug trade in Tokyo's Shinjuku district by massacring the competition. But he meets his match in detective Jojima (Show Aikawa), who will do everything to stop them. Dead or Alive 2: Birds casts Aikawa and Takeuchi together again, but as new characters, a pair of rival yakuza assassins who turn out to be childhood friends; after a botched hit, they flee together to the island where they grew up, and decide to devote their deadly skills to a more humanitarian cause. And in Dead or Alive: Final, Takeuchi and Aikawa are catapulted into a future Yokohama ruled by multilingual gangs and cyborg soldiers, where they once again butt heads in the action-packed and cyberpunk-tinged finale to the trilogy.
Each of them unique in theme and tone, the Dead or Alive films showcase Miike at the peak of his strengths, creating three very distinct movies connected only by their two popular main actors, each film a separate yet superb example of crime drama, character study, and action filmmaking.
- High Definition digital transfers of all three films
- Original uncompressed stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles for all three films
- New interview with actor Riki Takeuchi
- New interview with actor Sho Aikawa
- New interview with producer and screenwriter Toshiki Kimura
- New audio commentary for Dead or Alive by Miike biographer Tom Mes
- Archive interviews with cast and crew
- Archive making-of featurettes for DOA2: Birds and DOA: Final
- Original theatrical trailers for all three films
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena
U.S. STREET DATE: MARCH 14.
UK STREET DATE: MARCH 13.
House: Two Stories
Step inside, we've been expecting you! At long-last, Arrow Video is proud to present the first two instalments of hit horror franchise House on Blu-ray for the first time!
In the original House, William Katt (Carrie) stars as Roger Cobb, a horror novelist struggling to pen his next bestseller. When he inherits his aunt's creaky old mansion, Roger decides that he's found the ideal place in which to get some writing done. Unfortunately, the house's monstrous supernatural residents have other ideas…
Meanwhile, House II: The Second Story sees young Jesse (Arye Gross) moving into an old family mansion where his parents were mysteriously murdered years before. Plans for turning the place into a party pad are soon thwarted by the appearance of Jesse's mummified great-great-grandfather, his mystical crystal skull and the zombie cowboy who'll stop at nothing to lay his hands on it!
From the team that brought you Friday the 13th, House and House II are era-defining horror classics – now newly restored and loaded with brand new extras!
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
- Brand new 2K restorations of House and House II: The Second Story
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- The House Companion – limited edition 60-page book featuring new writing on the entire House franchise by researcher Simon Barber, alongside a wealth of archive material
HOUSE:
- Audio commentary with director Steve Miner, producer Sean S. Cunningham, actor William Katt and screenwriter Ethan Wiley
- Ding Dong, You're Dead! The Making of House – brand new documentary featuring interviews with Steve Miner, Sean S. Cunningham, Ethan Wiley, story creator Fred Dekker, stars William Katt, Kay Lenz, and George Wendt, composer Harry Manfredini, special make-up and creature effects artists Barney Burman, Brian Wade, James Belohovek, Shannon Shea, Kirk Thatcher, and Bill Sturgeon, special paintings artists Richard Hescox and William Stout, and stunt coordinator Kane Hodder
- Stills Gallery
- Theatrical Trailers
HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY:
- Audio commentary with writer-director Ethan Wiley and producer Sean S. Cunningham
- It's Getting Weirder! The Making of House II: The Second Story – brand new documentary featuring interviews with Ethan Wiley, Sean S. Cunningham, stars Arye Gross, Jonathan Stark, Lar Park Lincoln, and Devin DeVasquez, composer Harry Manfredini, special make-up and creature effects artists Chris Walas, Mike Smithson, visual effects supervisor Hoyt Yeatman, and stunt coordinator Kane Hodder
- Stills Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer
U.S. STREET DATE: MARCH 21.
Pieces
From Juan Piquer Simón, director of the equally unhinged Slugs, Pieces is the original sickening slasher classic, now restored in glorious 4K!
A Boston college campus is being terrorised by a black-clad maniac who collects body parts from his unfortunate co-ed victims. As the corpses (and red herrings) begin to pile up, can Professor Brown (genre veteran Jack Taylor) unmask the murderer before his morbid puzzle is complete?
Boasting some of the most outrageous gore set-pieces ever to splash their way across the screen (including a particularly memorable slow-motion evisceration atop a waterbed), Pieces is an essential slice of Spanish splatter and more gruesome than ever on Blu-ray.
- Brand new 4K transfer from the original camera negative
- Two versions of the feature: Pieces, the US theatrical version, and Mil Gritos Tiene La Noche, the original uncensored director's cut, presented in Spanish with original score by Librado Pastor [Blu-ray exclusive]
- Original English and Spanish Mono Audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- 5.1 Vine Theater Experience
- Alternate Re-score by composer Umberto
- Brand new audio commentary with The Hysteria Continues
- It's Exactly What You Think It Is! – brand new featurette offering up an appreciation of Pieces by various filmmaker fans
- Brand new interview with art director Gonzalo Gonzalo
- Pieces of Juan – a career-spanning interview with director Juan Piquer Simón
- The Reddest Herring – extensive interview with actor Paul Smith, including a discussion of Pieces
- Audio Interview with producer Steve Minasian
- Image Galleries
- Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Marc Schoenbach
- Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Michael Gingold
- Soundtrack CD featuring the entire original score
UK STREET DATE: MARCH 27.
*Also in March, the label will release individual releases of
Death Walks on High Heels and
Death Walks at Midnight.