Third Window Films Discussion Thread

[deepbreathsanddeath]

If Ichi The Killer gets a proper transfer with an abundance of special features, you can count me in for a definite buy! Any more Sono or Miike would be appreciated too.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

He used to be very big in the UK, and probably would still do well, though I think he'd work a lot better through a company like Artificial Eye whose audience would be much more up for those titles. For us, even directors like Lee Chang-dong don't do as well as we don't have the 'arthouse' audience like Art Eye of other similar companies do. They have their shops inside all their cinemas and direct access into the BFI, but we don't unfortunately so it would be a lot harder for us to release, especially if they're already available with english subtitles as you say. Plus the rights to a lot of his titles are quite hard to deal with as I recently spoke to a french distributor who had mountains of problems trying to get his titles

It's such a shame that no UK distributor has been interested in Iwai during the DVD era (unless the rights have been difficult to negotiate like you allude to). It's interesting to read that specific 'genres' (if you could even call arthouse a genre) do better with different companies as I'm one of those people that don't collect titles from specific companies - I'd just as quickly buy a Blu-Ray of Maborosi from Shameless (not that that's going to happen!) as I would from Milestone, provided they were of similar quality. Obviously each company has their niche but I would like to think that a film would sell regardless of who was behind the release but perhaps I'm just being idealistic! Though there are obviously differences with regards to advertising budgets and marketing, which, as you allude to, could make a difference.

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

since you mention eyes of the spider / serpents path.. how is the releasing doing? are sales good or more like vulgaria/ for loves sake?

in terms of company size.. how "big" are other labels like Terracotta compared to thirdwindow films? or rapid eye movies?

it must be really impossible to for small labels these days to get "big movies" at all? saw a while ago that WARNER BROTHERS is going to release the kenshin movie in the UK ;D

eyes of the spider doing well in terms of numbers sold, but the two films together weren't cheap so will have to hope it stays selling well... For Love's Sake had good 1st month sales, but then fell drastically, so awaiting my october report to see if Eyes did the same.

Terracotta are a little smaller in terms of output, but have a better infrastructure. They have an office and multiple staff (i think about 5 people) plus many interns and they release more genre titles and aim for supermarkets with genre-fare, so they're a different setup to ours. We're going for the 'label' setup with a strong fanbase of dedicated fans, while they're more on a title-by-title basis, but they sell well as release a lot of genre titles. Great company though.

Rapid Eye Movies have been going for 15 years with about 150-200 films released including a massive Bollywood section, so setup-wise are the most established of all, but still run incredibly independently and with a great structure. Best Asian film distribution company in the World for me, much better than Tartan ever was.

Any company can get any film, but it's about having the ability to get it out there, which companies like Artificial Eye can easily as they own cinemas and companies like Arrow have direct links to theatrical booking. Soda and other independent companies have staff of 15-20 people so have the manpower and connections and can accomplish a lot more

[samdvd1]

Your mention of Rapid Eye reminds me I still need to get a better DVD of Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl. Now that is a release I would love to see from you guys on Blu-ray. I don't think it has ever been released in the UK on any format.

I'd also love it if we ever saw Masanori Tominaga's Vengeance Can Wait, Shôsuke Murakami's Train Man and my most wanted Eastern film on Blu-ray would be Attack the Gas Station. Can you ever see any of these getting a BR release in the UK?

I wish I lived somewhere near London sometimes so I could go to more film events (I live in the highlands) like Terracotta's film club. I also missed out on seeing Police Story at the PCC a few months back which I'm gutted about as that is in my top 5 of all time.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

lets see how this new project works out. (co-production between UK , japan , taiwan , germany...)

So the mentioned movies are coming to bluray in 2014? Is that correct? https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12468

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

So the mentioned movies are coming to bluray in 2014? Is that correct? https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=12468

Pluto probably going to blu-ray, but not sure yet on Bleak Night. DVD only for Behind the Camera

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by samdvd1

Your mention of Rapid Eye reminds me I still need to get a better DVD of Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl. Now that is a release I would love to see from you guys on Blu-ray. I don't think it has ever been released in the UK on any format.

I'd also love it if we ever saw Masanori Tominaga's Vengeance Can Wait, Shôsuke Murakami's Train Man and my most wanted Eastern film on Blu-ray would be Attack the Gas Station. Can you ever see any of these getting a BR release in the UK?

I wish I lived somewhere near London sometimes so I could go to more film events (I live in the highlands) like Terracotta's film club. I also missed out on seeing Police Story at the PCC a few months back which I'm gutted about as that is in my top 5 of all time.

In theory Vengeance Can Wait and Attack the Gas Station have possibilities, though I'd be very surprised about material for Attack the Gas Station as many pre-2000 Korean films have very poor material. I'm sure they'd only have a digibeta which means would need to go to original prints to make a blu-ray, and that is totally out of our price range.

Shark Skin Man another possibility too, but that's another complication with it being owned by a big company who can't be bothered with dealing on a catalogue title. Most companies nowadays don't like doing any deals on catalogue titles unless you buy a few titles together to make it worthwhile. Hence the 3 new Korean films (all from CJ Entertainment)

[samdvd1]

You are probably right about the Attack the Gas Station sources. The Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock USA DVD and the Korean Spectrum DVD were not great looking.

Such a shame that these big companies do not appear to care about their catalogue titles.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

Pluto probably going to blu-ray, but not sure yet on Bleak Night. DVD only for Behind the Camera

Thanks for that. Was hoping for bleak night too. Here's hoping.

[mimurph1]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Thanks for that. Was hoping for bleak night too. Here's hoping.

just in case, there is a limited edition blu-ray of bleak night from cj entertainment that's still available at kimchidvd

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by mimurph1

just in case, there is a limited edition blu-ray of bleak night from cj entertainment that's still available at kimchidvd

Thanks for that

[bizarre_eye]

I'm just throwing this out there, but is there any chance of releasing any Yoshihiko Matsui films; in particular Noisy Requiem (Tsuitô no zawameki)?

[Pooch]

Hi,

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

Would Ichi the Killer get through UNCUT next time round?

Unlikely. BAISE-MOI's controversy was in two, short sequences, which were "contextually justified", and it was female-on-male violence, which is rare and which the BBFC said was unlikely to be easily copied by viewers.

ICHI's violent and sexually-violent content is purely about shocking people and pushing boundaries. It's also male-on-female violence, and has a deliberately grubby and perverse tone to it, where the women characters are debased. It would probably pass with less cuts than back in 2002, but it's almsot certainly still going to lose 90-120 seconds, as most of the violence and sexual violence is deliberately gratuitous. Scenes involving people having their skin pierced with metal hooks, and/or having boiling oil poured over them, are scenes that have the potential to be copied by viewers.

So, it's not going to pass through the BBFC's halls uncut, anytime soon, I'm afraid, in my view.


Pooch

[Sinthetic]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

the reason we have been able to do so much with the Tsukamoto films is because of Tsukamoto himself. Actually he's one of the ONLY filmmakers in all of Japan whose films are independent in all aspects. His films are financed and produced by him and he owns all rights to his films which means that the normal film committee nonsense doesn't need to be dealt with as per other films.

[Show spoiler]Most people ask for independent films or older cult classics to be release or restored, but most people don't understand the sheer madness of the film committee system in japan which is created to share burden on film investors and producers, but means that films, even low budget and independent ones, are usually created by multiple companies, and therefore permission from all companies is required before release elsewhere. For older titles this becomes even harder as it's harder to reach older producers or committees, so releasing films like Eyes of the Spider / Serpent's Path was a real pain, and if you want to restore such works getting access to original materials can be hell and comes with no participation and nothing but stress and you'll rarely get the chance to work directly with the director.

With Tsukamoto's works, we worked with the director from the beginning and directly in contact at all times, so it was such a simple process and came from both our desires to have the films out in new versions. Most directors usually have no idea their films have been released overseas as usually the ball stops at the producers or film committee members who don't care about overseas due to the lack of major money.

Believe me, the stress of dealing with such things as a foreigner is unbelievable, and working in a film committee (as I am now for Fuku-chan and did before for Land of Hope) is like being in the 'computer says so' comedy sketch of Little Britain or an absurd Monty Python act.

The guy who does the designs is at: https://www.facebook.com/theartoftimwillis

please like his page if you're on facebook!

Thanks for the info Adam, very interesting stuff (as always). I'm really grateful for all of your hard work as I've said numerous times. I take it this may be the last of the Tsukamoto work you will release? No chance for Snake of June or Goblin?

I'm really happy with the Korean additions to the lineup. If you ever need a pal to tag along to these screenings with you, let me know!

All the best mate!

P.S - Kevin Lambert from Eureka was plugging you on the Thread at the top of this section. Have a look!

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Sinthetic

Thanks for the info Adam, very interesting stuff (as always). I'm really grateful for all of your hard work as I've said numerous times. I take it this may be the last of the Tsukamoto work you will release? No chance for Snake of June or Goblin?

I'm really happy with the Korean additions to the lineup. If you ever need a pal to tag along to these screenings with you, let me know!

All the best mate!

P.S - Kevin Lambert from Eureka was plugging you on the Thread at the top of this section. Have a look!

With Snake of June, think I've said it many times, but the rights are still owned by Tartan and I can't do anything about that until rights lapse and then would still need the sell-off period to end and give it time before starting anything else again, so it would be a while before anything can be done. For Goblin, in theory, but because Third Window is not a big company I can't really devote too much time to the same director as that would mean less time on others and therefore would just turn the label into a Tsukamoto or Sono or someone else label, which defeats the whole purpose of the label trying to show variety within Asian cinema. That's the reason why we release comedies, dramas, independent films along with the Sonos, Nakashimas, Tsukamotos, is that people come in for the established and then hopefully try out the independent or non-genre fare and hopefully can open up all aspects of Asian cinema so that in the future Asian cinema as a whole has a better chance of reaching the West, and not just 'extreme' or genre cinema.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

[...] many pre-2000 Korean films have very poor material.

It only relates tangentially but I thought I'd take the time to plug the Korean Film Archive YouTube channel for any Third Window fans reading this. Most, if not all, of the films have English subtitles and a few are in HD. A varied selection.

[Mansinthe]

received "see you tomorrow everyone" today. along with some other stuff

watched yesterday "adrift in tokyo" . thirdwindow films has really a fine line up of movies.

[SimBelm]

Originally Posted by Yami

It only relates tangentially but I thought I'd take the time to plug the Korean Film Archive YouTube channel for any Third Window fans reading this. Most, if not all, of the films have English subtitles and a few are in HD. A varied selection.

x2. The Kim Ki-young films they have are astonishing, they also look great in HD even with the stained print damage (which I actually think benefits his colour melodramas, as if those films have came straight out of hell). I'd love to see more of his work available.

[logboy]

i don't imagine we'll ever see the focus on the violence in japanese cinema go from the west's understanding - we had a similar incident to tartan's debacle in the 90s with manga video… people still refer to anime as 'manga films' and focus on the gore and tentacle aspect of it all.

that's why it's so necessary for labels and fans to be careful both in how they understand and describe films and in how they interpret what other write about them. for me, 'ichi the killer' is a great example of a film i've rarely read anything intelligent about, and i happen to think it's a very good take on the whole masochistic aspect to human nature - just one that's taken as enjoyable because it's also done within a typically miike form, using compromise to talk about something unusual within an entertaining framework.

doubt you'll ever see it uncut in the UK.

mind you, i don't think contemporary comedies are the be all and end all of j film's value. there's too many dimensions to it, even if a lot of recent stuff has been bilge, as it's never intended to be viable as complete picture to even a domestic audience. you take what you want and can from it as it appears, and you just keep an eye out to see if anything you missing catches your eye in retrospect.

[Mansinthe]

j-cinema has so much stuff to offer.. and thirdwindow offers a nice mix of it


(ordered bit tits zombies from terracotta aoi sola )