Vinegar Syndrome Reveals New Partner Label Releases
Posted December 4, 2021 05:22 PM by Webmaster
Vinegar Syndrome has announced and detailed nine new partner label releases that will be available for purchase later this month. They are: Rebels of the Neon God (1992),
Arrebato (1980), Her Smell (2018), Detention (2019), Being Natural (2018), Savage Harvest (1994), Norway (2014), Moments Like This Never Last (2020), and Assholes (2017). All titles will be available for purchase on December 28.
Description: Tsai Ming-liang emerged on the world cinema scene in 1992 with his groundbreaking first feature, Rebels of the Neon God. His debut already includes a handful of elements familiar to fans of subsequent work: a deceptively spare style often branded "minimalist"; actor Lee Kang-sheng as the silent and sullen Hsiao-kang; copious amounts of water, whether pouring from the sky or bubbling up from a clogged drain; and enough urban anomie to ensure that even the subtle humor in evidence is tinged with pathos. The loosely structured plot involves Hsiao-kang, a despondent cram school student, who becomes obsessed with young petty thief Ah-tze, after Ah-tze smashes the rearview mirror of a taxi driven by Hsiao-kang's father. Hsiao-kang stalks Ah-tze and his buddy Ah-ping as they hang out in the film's iconic arcade (featuring a telling poster of James Dean on the wall) and other locales around Taipei, and ultimately takes his revenge. Rebels of the Neon God is a remarkably impressive first film that hints at the promise of its director: a talent confirmed by Tsai's equally stunning second feature, Vive L'Amour (Golden Lion, Venice), and continuing to his most recent film, Stray Dogs, which ranked high on many "best of" lists last year. Though showing such diverse influences as the French New Wave, Wong Kar-wai's early films—and, yes, Rebel Without a Cause—Tsai's film is most remarkable for introducing his startlingly unique vision to world cinema.
Description: Horror movie director José is adrift in a sea of doubt and drugs. As his belated second feature nears completion, his reclusive bubble is popped by two events: a sudden reappearance from an ex-girlfriend and a package from past acquaintance Pedro: a reel of Super-8 film, an audiotape, and a door key. From there, the boundaries of time, space, and sexuality are erased as José is once more sucked into Pedro's vampiric orbit. Together, they attempt the ultimate hallucinogenic catharsis through a moebius strip of filming and being filmed.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
Commentary Track w/ Mike White of The Projection Booth
Description: Set during the Taiwanese martial law of the 1960s, this shockingly gruesome and terrifying coming-of-age drama based on a hugely popular video game sees two classmates who go looking for their missing friends and teachers, all of whom took part in an illegal book club, only to come face to face with ghosts and deformed monsters that have taken over their school. This masterful debut from director and co-writer John Hsu recalls the best of Guillermo del Toro, with enough blood, striking sound design, art direction and special effects to evoke Silent Hill and other landmarks of the genre.
Description: Takashi Uno (Yohta Kawase, RUBBER'S LOVER) wants little more from life than to play the bongo under the starlight. When his uncle passes, his freshly divorced cousin inherits their traditional country home and tasks the shy slacker with caring for it. Together with the town's underdog grocer, the three revert to a joyful childhood dynamic. Leisurely BBQ (the cheapest beef!) and cup noodles, it's all fun and games until a family from Tokyo led by an unhinged patriarch (screen veteran Kanji Tsuda, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE) and his enigmatic wife (Natsuki Mieda) manifest their desire to open a countryside café at all costs.
Tadashi Nagayama – a protégé of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival since his 2017 Grand Prix-winning debut JOURNEY OF THE TORTOISE – baffles audience expectations at every turn with this mellow yet thoroughly eccentric pastoral comedy about the right to do nothing, Japan's growing urban-rural divide, and the country's ongoing nuclear anxieties.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
OUT FISHING (2021, 19 MIN): NEW FEATURETTE INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR TADASHI NAGAYAMA, WRITER YURIKO SUZUKI AND ACTOR YOHTA KAWASE
MAKING OF BEING NATURAL: PUBLIC TALK AT K'S CINEMA (2019, 19MINS) FEATURETTE WITH DIRECTOR, SFX AND VFX TEAM
"A STORY OF FLOATING RADIUM" NEW WRITING ON BEING NATURAL BY MATHIEU LI-GOYETTE
Description: Determined to atone for the suffering brought upon his people during the Trail of Tears, a Cherokee elder engaged in dark magic to summon an ancient demon entity known as Retlawkoob. When the tribe awoke to find their bountiful harvest turned into rows of useless stone, they buried the elder in the fields beneath a pile of the cursed rocks; each of which bore the mark of a different bestial demon. After a flood causes the stones to resurface, six teenagers camping on the burial site unsuspectingly unleash the demonic forces. Possession consumes one camper camper after another, transforming them into animalistic animalistic, frenzied killing machines, voraciously feeding on the warm meat of their freshly deceased victims. As the body count grows, only the timid Mikki is left to unlock the riddles left behind by the elders and do battle with the vengeful demon Retlawkoob. Now, only bloodshed, violence, and terror grow in these darkened fields...and tonight the harvest begins.
St. Louis, Missouri based writer / director Eric Stanze (The Scare Game, Scrapbook, Ratline) made major waves in the underground with this ambitious, Native American themed, Evil Dead-style demonic possession romp filmed against the backdrop of the Great Flood of 1993; a real life debilatating disaster that devastated parts of the American Midwest. Elabortae practical effects, extreme chainsaw violence, a memorable monster, and some genuine atmospheric scares helped put Savage Harvest on the map and cemented Stanze's status as one of the most consistent and visionary auteurs working in the shot on video horror medium.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
"A Quarter Century Since the Harvest" - new 2021 retrospective documentary
"Hell or High Water: The Making of Savage Harvest" - archival 1994 documentary
Archival audio commentary with writer / director / producer Eric Stanze & actor / producer D.J. Vivona
Archival audio commentary with associate producer Jessica Wyman and actors Ramona Midgett & Rebecca Kennebeck
Behind-the-scenes stills montage
Archive of music videos directed by Eric Stanze (1994-2000)
Description: Photophobic Zano, arrives in the big city for the very first time. The year is 1984 and Athens beckons. A vampire and a fine dancer, Zano quickly gets devoured by the dark underbelly of the capital city. All he really wants is a "warm" girl. Strung out and down and out, he ends up at disco Zardoz, a hive of scum and villainy, where he meets Alice, a prostitute, and Peter, a Norwegian drug dealer. Lured into their shady shenanigans, the three of them will traverse mountains and descend into the core of the earth, all the way to the Kingdom of Mathousalas. Norway puts on shiny new shoes, dances the night away with colorful scoundrels and only bites when absolutely necessary. "Norway descends upon the Mediterranean".
Description: Moments Like This Never Last explores the life and legacy of the late artist Dash Snow (1981-2009) who died of a heroin overdose in a Noho hotel room at the age of 27. Growing up in the beautifully fucked up Manhattan, before Giuliani and the broken window war, before Disney sanitized 42nd street of prostitutes and pornographers, before lower manhattan turned into a shopping mall, chaos came naturally. He reveled in the fraying social fabric of 80s New York and fought capricious authority at home, at the "juvi" institution he was locked up in, and on the streets. In a jeremiad of graffiti, trash assemblages, un-photoshopable polaroids, cum stained headlines, collage and feral rituals archived on super 8, Dash celebrated creation, destruction and the marginalized, striking out at the social pasteurization and criminalization of nonconformity happening all around him.
He was a bull born into the China shop, rejecting the trappings of privilege for freedom, a force of nature refusing to play nice. He took what he found, and like a hurricane rearranging the landscape. Born into one of the most important American art families whom he rejected and was rejected by, he found a new family in the artists of post 911 lower Manhattan. He Started the take-over by writing his name all-city as a young graffiti artist and subsequently becoming an accidental international art star. High stakes, drugs and the pressure to keep producing took its toll becoming a cautionary tale.
Description: Becky Something is a '90s punk rock superstar who once filled arenas with her grungy all-female trio Something She. Now she plays smaller venues while grappling with motherhood, exhausted bandmates, nervous record company executives, and a new generation of rising talent eager to usurp her stardom. When Becky's chaos and excesses derail a recording session and national tour, she finds herself shunned, isolated and alone. Forced to get sober, temper her demons, and reckon with the past, she retreats from the spotlight and tries to recapture the creative inspiration that led her band to success.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
New Audio Commentary with Director Alex Ross Perry and Actress Elisabeth Moss Recorded in 2021
Audio Commentary with Director Alex Ross Perry
New Conversation with Director Alex Ross Perry and Cinematographer Sean Price Williams Recorded in 2021
New Conversation with Director Alex Ross Perry, Composer Keegan DeWitt, Sound Designer Ryan Price and Editor Robert Greene Recorded in 2021
Never Before Seen Original Behind the Scenes Hi8 Footage Shot by Director Alex Ross Perry
A Conversation Between Actress Elisabeth Moss and Musician Brandi Carlile Recorded at SXSW 2019
Akergirls "Can't Wait" Music Video
Something She "Breathe" Music Video
Gallery of Album Covers Created for the Film
Gallery of Behind the Scenes Photos Taken By Director Alex Ross Perry
Description: From the mind of Peter Vack…We follow the story of Adah & Aaron, two young recovering addicts who meet in their psychoanalyst's office, fall in love, relapse on poppers, and become the biggest assholes in New York City. Winner of the first ever Adam Yauch (of the Beastie Boys) Hornblower Award at SXSW in 2017 and dubbed by critics as "one of the most disgusting movies ever made," "a surreal comedic masterpiece," "the cinematic equivalent of getting a face tattoo," "the first authentic cult movie of the millennial generation," "the Goatse of cinema," "the kind of art that many others wouldn't even dare to make," and "74 minutes of insane joy," Assholes is a debaucherous romantic comedy of excess for the asshole in all of us!
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Archival Video Commentary
New Audio Commentary with writer/director Peter Vack and actors Betsey Brown and Jack Dunphy
New Audio Commentary with writer/director Peter Vack and actor Betsey Brown
New Interview with Ron Brown and Jane Brown, parents of writer/director Peter Vack