Arrow Academy has announced that it will add two new releases to its Blu-ray catalog in June:
Dark River (2017) and
Akio Jissôji: The Buddhist Trilogy (1970-1972).
Dark River
Clio Barnard, one of Britain's most distinctive contemporary filmmakers, follows The Selfish Giant and The Arbor with Dark River, a searing Yorkshire-set drama inspired by Rose Tremain's acclaimed rural novel Trespass.
Following the death of her father, Alice (Ruth Wilson, Saving Mr. Banks) returns home for the first time in 15 years, to claim the tenancy of the family farm she believes is rightfully hers. Once there she encounters her older brother Joe (Mark Stanley, Game of Thrones), a man she barely recognizes, worn down by years of struggling to keep the farm going whilst caring for their sick father (Sean Bean, Lord of the Rings). Joe is thrown by Alice's sudden arrival, angered by her claim and finds her presence increasingly difficult to deal with. Battling to regain control in a fraught situation, Alice must confront traumatic memories and family betrayals to find a way to restore the farm and salvage the bond with her brother before both are irrevocably lost.
Combining the poetic realism of The Selfish Giant with a heightened strain of tragedy, Dark River is a dark folk tale of family secrets which has impressed critics and is set to become a modern classic of British drama.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio description track
- Interviews with director Clio Barnard, and stars Ruth Willson, Mark Stanley, Sean Bean and Esme Creed-Miles
- Behind the scenes
- Stills gallery
- Original trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring two artwork options
- First pressing only: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the films by Will Massa, curator of contemporary cinema at the BFI.
UK STREET DATE: JUNE 25.
Akio Jissôji: The Buddhist Trilogy
Akio Jissôji created a rich and diverse body of work during his five decades in Japan's film and television industries. For some, he is best-known for his science-fiction: the 1960s TV series Ultraman and 1998's box-office success Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis. For others, it is his 1990s adaptations of horror and mystery novelist Edogawa Rampo, such as Watcher in the Attic and Murder on D Street. And then there are his New Wave films for the Art Theatre Guild, three of which – This Transient Life, Mandara and Poem, forming The Buddhist Trilogy – are collected here.
Winner of the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno Film Festival, This Transient Life is among the Art Theatre Guild's most successful – and most controversial – productions. The film concerns a brother and sister from a rich family who defy the expectations placed on them: he has little interest in further education or his father's business, instead obsessing over Buddhist statues; she continually refuses a string of suitors and the prospect of marriage. Their closeness, and isolation, gives way to an incestuous relationship which, in turn, breeds disaster.
Mandara, Jissôji's first colour feature, maintained the controversial subject matter, focussing on a cult who recruit through rape and hope to achieve true ecstasy through sexual release. Shot, as with all of Jissôji's Art Theatre Guild works, in a radically stylised manner, the film sits somewhere between the pinku genre and the fiercely experimental approach of his Japanese New Wave contemporaries.
The final entry in the trilogy, Poem, returns to black and white and is centred on the austere existence of a young houseboy who becomes helplessly embroiled in the schemes of two brothers. Written by Toshirô Ishidô (screenwriter of Nagisa Ôshima's The Sun's Burial and Shôhei Imamura's Black Rain), who also penned This Transient Life and Mandala, Poem continues the trilogy's exploration of faith in a post-industrial world.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- Original uncompressed LPCM mono 1.0 audio on all three films
- Newly translated optional English subtitles
- Introductions to all three films by David Desser, author of Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave
- Scene-select commentaries on all three films by Desser
- Theatrical trailer for Mandara
- Theatrical trailer for Poem
- Limited edition packaging, fully illustrated by maarko phntm
- Illustrated 80-page perfect-bound collector's book featuring new writings on the film by Anton Bitel and Tom Mes
U.S. STREET DATE: JUNE 12.
UK STREET DATE: JUNE 11.