Independent British distributors Third Window Films confirmed in their holiday newsletter that they are planning to add a number of new titles to their Blu-ray catalog. Amongst them are Sion Sono's The Whispering Star, Tezuka Osamu's 1001 Nights and Cleopatra, and Sabu's Dangan Runner.
The Whispering Star: An interstellar delivery robot-woman (Megumi Kagurazaka) travels the galaxy distributing packages to various human beings, and muses on the meaning of life in this haunting sci-fi drama from Japanese auteur Sion Sono (Love Exposure).
The Sion Sono Documentary: Arata Oshima (son of the famous director Nagisa Oshima) documents the making of Whispering Star as well as the life of cult director Sion Sono in this feature-length documentary.
In the late 60s, Tezuka Osamu, with his production company Mushi Pro, and director Eiichi Yamamoto (Belladonna of Sadness) started a very short run series of X-rated animations called ANIMERAMA. The series only really officially made these two films before Mushi Pro went bankrupt, but they have been totally forgotten in history and we are very happy to bring them back with new 2K remasters.
The release will feature many NEW & EXCLUSIVE extra features inlcuding an interview with director Eiichi Yamamoto, audio commentaries on both films by Helen Mccarthy, author of The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga, plus 4K scanned trailers and liner notes by film critic Simon Abrams.
Cleopatra was a part of a series of adult anime films called Animerama (Japanese: アニメラマ), originally conceived and initiated by Osamu Tezuka and made at his Mushi Production animation studio from the late 1960s to early 1970s. As well as the erotic themes, they are also defined by mixing more typical traditional animation with sequences of UPA and Yōji Kuri–influenced experimental use of modern design, limited animation, and still paintings akin to Tezuka's experimental short films and like those largely were all directed, sometimes sharing the billing with Tezuka, by Eiichi Yamamoto. The first, A Thousand and One Nights, was the first erotic animated feature film and, at 130 minutes, remains one of the longest ever animated films and one of the first X rated animated films, pre-dating Fritz The Cat. The first two are also notable for having scores by famed composer and electronic rearranger Isao Tomita. The third, Belladonna of Sadness, made without Tezuka's direct involvement, is more serious than its predecessors and more avant-garde still, telling its story largely through pans over still, panoramic paintings with narration.
The three films in the trilogy are: 1001 Nights (千夜一夜物語 Senya Ichiya Monogatari) (1969), Cleopatra (クレオパトラ Kureopatora), and (1970) Belladonna of Sadness (哀しみのベラドンナ Kanashimi no Beradonna) (1973).
"Non-Stop" is the story of three losers brought together by fate with disastrous results. A would-be bank robber forgets his mask on his first big heist, and then botches an attempt to shoplift a replacement mask from a nearby convenience store. The store's clerk, a washed-up rock star, chases the thief and literally runs into a Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) thug to whom he owes money. Thus begins an all-night, three-way pursuit through the streets of Tokyo.
Synopsis: Synopsis: Japan's oldest major movie studio asks a batch of venerable filmmakers to revive its high-brow soft-core Roman Porno series. Directed by Sion Sono, and starring starring Ami Tomite, Mariko Tsutsui, and Asami.
Synopsis: Born in a small town in Japan, a young girl named Ai is sent to a cult commune by her religious maniac mother and lives there for seven long years. After the cult is exposed by the police, Ai starts a new stage of life, going to a normal school for the first time, but she can't find her place to fit in there. Ai drops out from the school and society, spending her life living with a rock-bottom delinquent family full of gangsters and call girls. In a strange twist of fate she finds herself back in a new and normal life, living with a middle-class family, but her troubled life continues to follow her into more deep and seedy paths.