Radiance Films Announces March Releases
HomeRadiance Films Announces March Releases
Posted December 13, 2023 04:17 AM by Webmaster
Radiance Films has announced its March batch of Blu-ray releases. They are: Tony Arzenta (1973), The Bounty Hunter Trilogy, A Story Written With Water (1965), and Suzhou River (2000).
Tony Arzenta
Description: Alain Delon (Le Cercle Rouge) stars as efficient and ruthless mob assassin Tony Arzenta. With a young family, Tony wants to leave his life of crime to ensure his young son will not get caught up in the revenge killing that so often accompanies people in his position. But the bosses don't make it easy and Tony finds himself on a bloody mission that takes him across Europe to eradicate his former employers. Delon delivers a haunted performance that is as stoic as the iconic assassin role he played for Jean-Pierre Melville in Le Samourai though firmly within the Italian crime film poliziottesco framework, Tony Arzenta delivers thrilling set-pieces and an emotional core that carries the narrative trajectory to the final nail-biting frame. This underseen crime classic from genre master Duccio Tessari (A Pistol for Ringo, Death Occurred Last Night) features an incredible supporting cast of poliziotteschi regulars including Richard Conte (The Boss), Umberto Orsini (Violent City), Corrado Gaipa (Illustrious Corpses), and many others. Now newly restored it is finally released in the UK for the first time.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy
Description: Before he made his name in Lone Wolf and Cub Tomisaburo Wakayama starred in this triptych of violent samurai spectacles that draw on James Bond and Spaghetti Westerns for inspiration yet feature the familiar style and blood-spattering action of the period. Wakayama stars as Doctor and spy-for-hire Shikoro Ichibei who in Shigehiro (The Streetfighter) Ozawa's Killer's Mission is hired to prevent the sale of firearms to a hostile Shogun. In Eiichi (13 Assassins) Kudo's follow-up, The Fort of Death, Ichibei is hired on a Seven Samurai-style mission to protect a village of farmers from a ruthless Lord. The final film sees Ozawa return for Eight Men to Kill, in which Ichibei is hired to recover a cache of stolen gold from the government's mine. Featuring an array of weapons and gadgets that would make Q proud with Ichibei supported by a band of helpers including fellow spies, ronin and female ninjas, the Bounty Hunter films deliver action thrills galore and deserve to sit alongside the celebrated action epics that followed.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
UK STREET DATE: MARCH 25.
A Story Written With Water
Description: From one of the leading lights of the Japanese New Wave, Kiju Yoshida (Eros + Massacre) broke with studio filmmaking for A Story Written With Water, his first independent production and the start of his signature style. Telling the story of a man torn between his fiancee and the familial bond of his mother, Yoshida creates a dazzling narrative that uses flashbacks to tell its story of obsession and desire. With the luminous Mariko Okada as the mother, the celebrated star of such masterpieces as Floating Clouds and Late Autumn, she would become Yoshida's muse across a series of the director's 'anti-melodramas'. Yoshida's singular visual flair and revolutionary exploration of film codes place him as one of the finest Japanese filmmakers of the postwar period. Radiance Films is proud to present A Story Written With Water on Blu-ray for the first time in the world.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Suzhou River
Description: Mardar is a small-time crook who delivers packages without asking questions. Until he is asked to deliver MeiMei, the daughter of a shady smuggler. Looking exactly like his long-lost love, Moudan, who threw herself into the Suzhou River, Mardar becomes convinced she is his dead lover. Set within the murky wastelands of Shanghai, Ye Lou's award-winning re-tooling of Hitchcock's Vertigo is a visual treat that features the kinetic style of Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express. A unique take on the neo-noir genre, Suzhou River is newly restored in 4K and made available on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Tony Arzenta
Description: Alain Delon (Le Cercle Rouge) stars as efficient and ruthless mob assassin Tony Arzenta. With a young family, Tony wants to leave his life of crime to ensure his young son will not get caught up in the revenge killing that so often accompanies people in his position. But the bosses don't make it easy and Tony finds himself on a bloody mission that takes him across Europe to eradicate his former employers. Delon delivers a haunted performance that is as stoic as the iconic assassin role he played for Jean-Pierre Melville in Le Samourai though firmly within the Italian crime film poliziottesco framework, Tony Arzenta delivers thrilling set-pieces and an emotional core that carries the narrative trajectory to the final nail-biting frame. This underseen crime classic from genre master Duccio Tessari (A Pistol for Ringo, Death Occurred Last Night) features an incredible supporting cast of poliziotteschi regulars including Richard Conte (The Boss), Umberto Orsini (Violent City), Corrado Gaipa (Illustrious Corpses), and many others. Now newly restored it is finally released in the UK for the first time.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- NEW 4K RESTORATION, presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK
- Uncompressed mono PCM Italian and English audio options
- Archival interview with Alain Delon from 1973 discussing his work as an actor and producer and his future career
- A new interview with Eurocrime authority Mike Malloy on the film's place within the poliziottesco canon
- Select-scene commentary with critic Peter Jilmstad on the incredible supporting cast of the film
- Trailer
- Newly translated English subtitles for Italian audio and English SDH subtitles for English audio
- Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by scholar Leila Wimmer
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy
Description: Before he made his name in Lone Wolf and Cub Tomisaburo Wakayama starred in this triptych of violent samurai spectacles that draw on James Bond and Spaghetti Westerns for inspiration yet feature the familiar style and blood-spattering action of the period. Wakayama stars as Doctor and spy-for-hire Shikoro Ichibei who in Shigehiro (The Streetfighter) Ozawa's Killer's Mission is hired to prevent the sale of firearms to a hostile Shogun. In Eiichi (13 Assassins) Kudo's follow-up, The Fort of Death, Ichibei is hired on a Seven Samurai-style mission to protect a village of farmers from a ruthless Lord. The final film sees Ozawa return for Eight Men to Kill, in which Ichibei is hired to recover a cache of stolen gold from the government's mine. Featuring an array of weapons and gadgets that would make Q proud with Ichibei supported by a band of helpers including fellow spies, ronin and female ninjas, the Bounty Hunter films deliver action thrills galore and deserve to sit alongside the celebrated action epics that followed.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- High-Definition digital transfer of each film presented on two discs, made available on Blu-ray for the first time in the world
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Audio commentary on Killer's Mission by Tom Mes
- Interview with film historian and Shigehiro Ozawa expert Akihito Ito about the filmmaker
- Visual essay on Eiichi Kudo by Japanese cinema expert Robin Gatto
- Series poster and press image gallery
- Trailers
- Optional English subtitles
- Six postcards of artwork from the films
- Reversible sleeves featuring artwork based on original posters
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by samurai film expert Alain Silver, an obituary of Eiichi Kudo by Kinji Fukasaku and an interview piece on Shigehiro Ozawa after his retirement from filmmaking
- Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
UK STREET DATE: MARCH 25.
A Story Written With Water
Description: From one of the leading lights of the Japanese New Wave, Kiju Yoshida (Eros + Massacre) broke with studio filmmaking for A Story Written With Water, his first independent production and the start of his signature style. Telling the story of a man torn between his fiancee and the familial bond of his mother, Yoshida creates a dazzling narrative that uses flashbacks to tell its story of obsession and desire. With the luminous Mariko Okada as the mother, the celebrated star of such masterpieces as Floating Clouds and Late Autumn, she would become Yoshida's muse across a series of the director's 'anti-melodramas'. Yoshida's singular visual flair and revolutionary exploration of film codes place him as one of the finest Japanese filmmakers of the postwar period. Radiance Films is proud to present A Story Written With Water on Blu-ray for the first time in the world.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- High-Definition digital transfer
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Archival interview with director Kiju Yoshida (2008)
- New interview with star Mariko Okada (2023)
- Interview with scholar Jennifer Coates, author of Making Icons: Repetition and the Female Image in Japanese Cinema, 1945-1964 (2023, 22 mins)
- Trailer
- Newly translated English subtitles
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by scholar and author Alexander Jacoby
- Single pressing of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
Suzhou River
Description: Mardar is a small-time crook who delivers packages without asking questions. Until he is asked to deliver MeiMei, the daughter of a shady smuggler. Looking exactly like his long-lost love, Moudan, who threw herself into the Suzhou River, Mardar becomes convinced she is his dead lover. Set within the murky wastelands of Shanghai, Ye Lou's award-winning re-tooling of Hitchcock's Vertigo is a visual treat that features the kinetic style of Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express. A unique take on the neo-noir genre, Suzhou River is newly restored in 4K and made available on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
- 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Newly filmed interview with critic and programmer Tony Rayns
- In Shanghai - a short film documentary portrait by Lou of his home city (2001, 16 mins) - TBC
- Original trailer
- Optional English subtitles
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Josh Slater-Williams and a newly translated archival interview with Ye Lou
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
