Third Window Films Discussion Thread

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Yami

It's DVD-only but how did Isn't Anyone Alive do? I'd love to see some of Ishii's other works get a release.

UNBELIEVABLY bad

I think it's just a film which is misunderstood to be honest. The people who 'got' the film loved it, but too many others either didn't get it, or many attacked it for it not being like his other films. But those who know Sogo Ishii should have understood that he isn't the type of director who always does the same thing, hence him reinventing himself and changing his name time and time again.

One could argue that if people don't get the film that it's a failure, but history has always shown that many films have not initially be understood and later gone on to be loved. Don't want to say that it will go on to be some sort of classic, though i believe it could become a cult hit. Oddly enough many people criticise the film for being the very things that it's set out to do, so I do think that many just didn't understand it.

Oh well... I thought it was great and knew that nobody would ever have the chance to watch it otherwise as it wouldn't ever have gotten a release outside of Japan and didn't play many festivals, so I wanted to make it available to people to judge it either way, but that blew up in my face...

For his other works, I had been speaking to him about bringing back some of his classic titles onto blu-ray or the such, but there are some huge rights issues with some of his older titles and it's actually impossible to release them. Other ones have already been released, but the ones which haven't been released haven't for a reason.

[thirdwindowfilms]

By the way, the Third Window shop is up for a limited time of 2-3 weeks, which some new stock added.

Cheap prices and FREE UK shipping (flat-rate elsewhere)

http://shop.thirdwindowfilms.com

[darry]

Im just grateful we're getting Korean films again from third window.
Any chance of getting Belly, Go South, An Ethics Lesson, Boomerang Family, Namyong Dong 1985 (National Security), 26 Years, Juvenile Offender or Azooma?

To be honest, a lot of my Korean movies are either downloaded illegally if I can't find a copy to buy, and when I do find it, I pay up to $30US for a copy.

[darry]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

By the way, the Third Window shop is up for a limited time of 2-3 weeks, which some new stock added.

Cheap prices and FREE UK shipping (flat-rate elsewhere)

http://shop.thirdwindowfilms.com

Pretty skint this month but just bought three blus: Kotoko, Himizu and Love Exposure.

[SimBelm]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

UNBELIEVABLY bad

I think it's just a film which is misunderstood to be honest. The people who 'got' the film loved it, but too many others either didn't get it, or many attacked it for it not being like his other films. But those who know Sogo Ishii should have understood that he isn't the type of director who always does the same thing, hence him reinventing himself and changing his name time and time again.

[Show spoiler]One could argue that if people don't get the film that it's a failure, but history has always shown that many films have not initially be understood and later gone on to be loved. Don't want to say that it will go on to be some sort of classic, though i believe it could become a cult hit. Oddly enough many people criticise the film for being the very things that it's set out to do, so I do think that many just didn't understand it.

Oh well... I thought it was great and knew that nobody would ever have the chance to watch it otherwise as it wouldn't ever have gotten a release outside of Japan and didn't play many festivals, so I wanted to make it available to people to judge it either way, but that blew up in my face...

For his other works, I had been speaking to him about bringing back some of his classic titles onto blu-ray or the such, but there are some huge rights issues with some of his older titles and it's actually impossible to release them. Other ones have already been released, but the ones which haven't been released haven't for a reason.

It's very sad to hear that, I'd like to thank you especially for releasing it as it's my second favourite TWF release after Love Exposure, the

[Show spoiler]"I DON'T WANT TO DIE LISTENING TO THIS GUY'S WEIRD SONG!"

scene was achingly hillarious, the hardest I'd laughed last year. I think you nailed it when explaining the film's polarity, at the time I watched it there were two IMDb reviews, one 10/10 and the other 1/10, the negative reviews I read just didn't seem to get the absurdist dry humour. It's a shame his older works can't happen on Blu-ray, The Crazy Family is a personal favourite.

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by darry

Im just grateful we're getting Korean films again from third window.
Any chance of getting Belly, Go South, An Ethics Lesson, Boomerang Family, Namyong Dong 1985 (National Security), 26 Years, Juvenile Offender or Azooma?

To be honest, a lot of my Korean movies are either downloaded illegally if I can't find a copy to buy, and when I do find it, I pay up to $30US for a copy.

Actually, we picked up Boomerang Family earlier this year with plans to release it early next year, but then pushed it back as a bunch of people attacked the film for looking like a generic korean comedy, which it is actually not (I think the people who attacked it have probably not seen it), so it's put us on the backburner for now with Korean titles. It's hard to find the right things at the right price. National Security and a couple others we were looking at, but trying to negotiate good prices.

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by SimBelm

It's very sad to hear that, I'd like to thank you especially for releasing it as it's my second favourite TWF release after Love Exposure, the

[Show spoiler]"I DON'T WANT TO DIE LISTENING TO THIS GUY'S WEIRD SONG!"

scene was achingly hillarious, the hardest I'd laughed last year. I think you nailed it when explaining the film's polarity, at the time I watched it there were two IMDb reviews, one 10/10 and the other 1/10, the negative reviews I read just didn't seem to get the absurdist dry humour. It's a shame his older works can't happen on Blu-ray, The Crazy Family is a personal favourite.

Glad to hear that!

Crazy Family can NEVER be released in any format outside of Japan. Neither can Crazy Thunder Road. Rights issues with TOHO for some reason.

[Yami]

It's a shame to hear that about Isn't Anyone Alive? but I suppose it isn't the best indicator for how Ishii's previous works would sell. Hopefully those rights issues get rectified eventually (I also seem to recall you mentioning some unfortunate issues with Juzo Itami's works). Out of interest, what title(s) has done best for you? I'm guessing Love Exposure...

[Aunt Peg]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

Glad to hear that!

Crazy Family can NEVER be released in any format outside of Japan. Neither can Crazy Thunder Road. Rights issues with TOHO for some reason.

That's a real shame about Crazy Family, it's a great film.

Two recent Japanese films I would love to see with English friendly releases are Cut directed by Amir Naderi and Dendera by Daisuke Tengan which is a demented version of The Ballad of Narayama.

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Aunt Peg

Two recent Japanese films I would love to see with English friendly releases are Cut directed by Amir Naderi and Dendera by Daisuke Tengan which is a demented version of The Ballad of Narayama.

To be honest, much of this recent forum discussion has been on the fact that we're not doing well as we've been releasing too many films such as Isn't Anyone Alive which many would call 'uncommercial'

Those 2 titles are probably some of the most unaccessible and uncommercial titles to come out of Japan in the past few years, so in all honestly I can't see many giving them a release in the UK. Cut has a better chance due to its arthouse pedigree and the fact that it's being sold by a well-known international sales agent, but at the same time it's a VERY hard sell

[Yami]

I'm not a fan of the commercial/uncommercial tags that have been banded around because it's not an easy thing to judge - as you said earlier Vulgaria was the highest grossing Hong Kong film in its year but I gather it has done quite badly for TW. Assuming Love Exposure has sold quite well, I would say that it's running time would have placed it in the 'uncommercial' category. These things aren't black and white.

I think it's just assumed that comedies sell badly and horror/thriller etc. sells better, which may be true but I think this view also comes from the fact that fans of the latter are more vocal. As people are concerned with the future of Third Window, the 'uncommercial' comedies that people here generally aren't huge fans of become scapegoats and whether that's a fair assessment or not I don't know (one that I'm guilty of making myself, I'll admit).

I mean, look how Cine Asia and Tartan did with releasing "commercial" films. There obviously needs to be some successful titles to pay the bills but I don't envy Adam's position as, ultimately, every film is a risk and he just has to wait and see if it pays off. Theoretically speaking, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons - the top grossing Chinese movie of the year so far - could perform terribly here and a well advertised release of Shinji Somai's Typhoon Club (well, I can hope!) may perform above expectations. It's all down to a bit of luck.

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Yami

I'm not a fan of the commercial/uncommercial tags that have been banded around because it's not an easy thing to judge - as you said earlier Vulgaria was the highest grossing Hong Kong film in its year but I gather it has done quite badly for TW. Assuming Love Exposure has sold quite well, I would say that it's running time would have placed it in the 'uncommercial' category. These things aren't black and white.

I think it's just assumed that comedies sell badly and horror/thriller etc. sells better, which may be true but I think this view also comes from the fact that fans of the latter are more vocal. As people are concerned with the future of Third Window, the 'uncommercial' comedies that people here generally aren't huge fans of become scapegoats and whether that's a fair assessment or not I don't know (one that I'm guilty of making myself, I'll admit).

I mean, look how Cine Asia and Tartan did with releasing "commercial" films. There obviously needs to be some successful titles to pay the bills but I don't envy Adam's position as, ultimately, every film is a risk and he just has to wait and see if it pays off. Theoretically speaking, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons - the top grossing Chinese movie of the year so far - could perform terribly here and a well advertised release of Shinji Somai's Typhoon Club (well, I can hope!) may perform above expectations. It's all down to a bit of luck.

Yeah you're right about that. Actually some of our biggest sellers have been comedies such as Turtles are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers, Fine Totally Fine and Funuke: Show Some Love You Losers, but in the end it all comes down to the price it costs to buy and the profit margins.

More 'commercial' films cost more, so it can be harder to release (as you said about Cine Asia), though many companies nowadays, such as Metrodome, bypass that by buying cheap and poor quality genre films, then rename them (usually adding 'Assassin' in the title) and redesign the cover to make it look more commercial.

We did incredibly well off Teenage Hooker Became a Killing Machine as it was very cheap and had a good title and artwork, but doesn't mean it's a good film.

Love Exposure was a huge seller, but most importantly it was very cheap as we bought it before it became a big thing, yet while Confessions is our biggest seller, it wasn't too cheap, even though we were the first people in the West to buy and distribute it.

Though those titles CUT and DENDERA are REALLY hard to watch or sell. Very very narrow audiences and more 'unaccessible' then uncommercial, but also uncommercial!

Typhoon Club or Sailor Suit would be good releases and are in the back of my mind, believe me, but with so many other titles to release (all the Tsukamotos, Kurosawas, contemporary films, etc) there's only so much I can do with no staff or budget, but they're definitely up there!

[mimurph1]

finally put in my first order with the new shop

[Sinthetic]

Let me tell you Adam, the best thing you've ever done is release Confessions. I'm not surprised it's your best seller.

What date are we looking at for the Tsukamoto films? Bullet Ballet specifically?

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Sinthetic

Let me tell you Adam, the best thing you've ever done is release Confessions. I'm not surprised it's your best seller.

What date are we looking at for the Tsukamoto films? Bullet Ballet specifically?

Great film, and great director. Luckily got in there early as we bought it before it even opened in Japan, as initially they didn't expect it to be as big of a release as it turned out to be, so we got it at a decent price and before anybody else. Can't wait for his new film!

Tokyo Fist is November 25th. Bullet Ballet is December 30th

Both are new restorations done by Tsukamoto himself, and both come with similar packaging to Tetsuo, with an 0-ring and then new illustrated artwork on the actual sleeve. New interviews with Tsukamoto for both as well.

They look BRILLIANT! Tsukamoto is really happy with the transfers.

[darry]

Not sure if it's been mentioned or not but there is a good review of Eyes of the Spider/Serpent's Path here:

http://www.beyondhollywood.com/kiyos...movie-reviews/

[mimurph1]

great review, can't wait to pick this up

[Yami]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

Typhoon Club or Sailor Suit would be good releases and are in the back of my mind, believe me, but with so many other titles to release (all the Tsukamotos, Kurosawas, contemporary films, etc) there's only so much I can do with no staff or budget, but they're definitely up there!

Good to hear that they're on the radar at least! It's a real shame that Somai is no longer with us to contribute to any potential release, but I hope his work garners greater attention outside his native country as I, for one, have certainly enjoyed discovering the few films of his that I've managed to see.

[Pooch]

Hi,

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

Tokyo Fist is November 25th. Bullet Ballet is December 30th

Looking forward to both of these. Have pre-ordered the first one (now available from Amazon UK for about £12-65) but the other title is not listed yet. However, as soon as it is, I will be pre-ordering it for sure.


Pooch

[Sinthetic]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

Great film, and great director. Luckily got in there early as we bought it before it even opened in Japan, as initially they didn't expect it to be as big of a release as it turned out to be, so we got it at a decent price and before anybody else. Can't wait for his new film!

Tokyo Fist is November 25th. Bullet Ballet is December 30th

Both are new restorations done by Tsukamoto himself, and both come with similar packaging to Tetsuo, with an 0-ring and then new illustrated artwork on the actual sleeve. New interviews with Tsukamoto for both as well.

They look BRILLIANT! Tsukamoto is really happy with the transfers.

Absolutely great stuff mate. Well done on Confessions.

I am a huge fan of the Tetsuo release you did, I think it is one of the best Asian releases out in HD. I've never actually seen Bullet Ballet so I'm hugely looking forward to the release. A good way to end the year!

Have you had direct contact with Tsukamoto? Tell him Sam says hi if you get a chance to speak again haha.