Third Window Films Discussion Thread

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

I'm wondering if TWF licensed the anime film Redline. In a recent Anime Ltd Q&A, it was mentioned that somebody snagged the UK rights recently.

The film is included with Spectrum Film's upcoming Katsuhito Ishii box along with 'Party 7' and 'Shark Skin Man and Peach hip Girl'.

It's a popular anime title, so it's likely that a popular anime distributor have acquired it. Not me

[Yami]

A new episode of the Third Window podcast came out on the usual platform(s) today, which is a Q&A episode from questions submitted on social media.

One tidbit revealed is that Third Window will be releasing two films made under the now-defunct Director's Company that was founded by young directors in the 80s. I'm guessing that one (or both?) of them will be the Kiyoshi Kurosawa film that was mentioned a page or two ago; The Guard from Underground was the final film from the Director's Company. As for the other...who knows. Maybe a Somai that isn't with Toho?

[Rutger Lundgren]

Any chance for Believers? I read the pretty disturbing manga ages ago, and I just found out someone adapted it into a film last year.

[Ranger517]

Third Window is teasing Isao Yukisada's 2001 film Go

https://twitter.com/thirdwindow/stat...02513248575488

[Killer Meteor]

Originally Posted by Eibon

Well, I don't think anyone suggested otherwise and nobody's saying it's not a better option than the DVD but I was simply asking for others to comment and share their experience. We do have to be careful to be very fair to Third Window who do broadly sterling work (although they are not perfect, for example typos in the subs of Stardust Brothers) and probably have limited resources. Adam has kindly shared insight into the provenance of the master and that's great to know. It's a given, as CelestialAgent has said, that the blu is better to have than the DVD but the simple fact is that this is much darker and the grain resolution is not very well managed. My only comment in regard to comparing SD and HD was that I had wanted to examine the resolution improvement in a scene (where the twilight-lit room was bathed in light) and I had fixed a point of comparison on the wall containing Japanese script. I was surprised to find the wall was not visible in this lit room on the overly darkened blu-ray so there was no text to compare. Furthermore, just ahead of this scene, the pan from Yukio's mother includes a wide wall-mounted scroll of text which is clear in the DVD but is just a black panel in the blu-ray (3:18). There's a delicate houseplant in the scene at 4:13-4:15 behind Rin that is shrouded in darkness so that only the few petals hover above her head like a solar flare, disembodied from anything.

The blu ray may benefit from some richer colours but all of the black shadow is clumpy and noisy in my setup, so I merely want others to share their valid opinion. I am not suggesting the disc is faulty or messed up, just different. I wondered if Tsukamoto oversaw this and now it's been confirmed that he didn't, I can assume it's probably not 'correct'. Was the earlier Japanese DVD with more visible image sanctioned by Tsukamoto? Who can say? What I do know I'd hoped for a higher resolution version of a perfectly serviceable legacy DVD. A lot of the scenes in the blu ray look terrific so I am trying really hard not to discourage people from getting this wonderful film. It's fine, simply different from what people might expect if they already have a copy of another release.

EDIT: I just took a look (further back in release timeframe) at my Hong Kong VCD (which is abysmal by comparison), but I'm happy to report it appears identical to the blu ray in terms of colour palette so I'm going to take the view that it's probably more likely to be a direct transfer of the film print (with burned in subtitles) and probably indicates that indeed the blu-ray is more likely to be the most accurate representation of the director's intentions. It also seems reasonable to assume the Japanese DVD was brightened artificially to reveal more info unnecessarily. I mean, if two of the three releases I have to hand are like this, they must be right.

So in summary, EVERYONE here is to buy this and let me know what they think of the movie, the colours and the grain. The movie is amazing, the commentary is probably worth the price alone and the supplements are great (the Japanese DVD didn't have the behind-scenes video).

The black scenes on the TW BD of GEMINI do look very blocky and noisy to me. I wonder how the MM BD compares. Wasn't FIM involved with one or both of the releases?

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Rutger Lundgren

Any chance for Believers? I read the pretty disturbing manga ages ago, and I just found out someone adapted it into a film last year.

Not from me

[DukeTogo84]

If anyone is a bit disappointed that Third Window Films is no longer releasing Suicide Club, the US pre-order is now up.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Suici...lu-ray/326267/

[CelestialAgent]

So Third Window lost the people doing extras and now the Discotek release is barebones. But a disc is much better than nothing. Any other Sono films not on Blu-ray?

[Grethiwha]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Any other Sono films not on Blu-ray?

Tons.

If you look at the movies he made after 2007, most (more than half) are on blu-ray, but there's still about 9 missing, depending how you count.

Pre-2007: Suicide Club is the first Sono film to get a blu-ray release. Most films from this period don't have HD masters though and would require some work done to get released, as happened for Suicide Club.

In my opinion Sono's best year was 2005: in which he released the sequel to Suicide Club – Noriko's Dinner Table: probably his most ambitious film after Love Exposure – as well as my personal favourite film of all time: Hazard. Not to mention Strange Circus which is also one of his 5 best movies IMO, and the very underrated Into a Dream. This is just 2005. There are tons of other movies of his I'm dying to see released from the early 2000s, and going back to the 1980s.

And my optimism that any of these movies will see the restoration or remastering work needed to receive blu-ray releases now is at an all time low.

[Foggy]

Why Don’t You Play in Hell? is a pretty big one that never really got any sort of release over here, I believe it’s always been held up by massive rights issues.

[Cinematt]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Why Don’t You Play in Hell? is a pretty big one that never really got any sort of release over here, I believe it’s always been held up by massive rights issues.

I think the issue with that at the time was it cost too much for the rights, don't know if that has changed since but it has had a few English friendly releases outside the UK.

[Sinedd]

Any chance of getting Linda Linda Linda or It's a Summer Film?

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

But a disc is much better than nothing.

That's what I would think. At the end of the day, the film is the most important part and since this is getting a remaster, I would imagine it would have still gotten a release in the UK.

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Sinedd

Any chance of getting Linda Linda Linda or It's a Summer Film?

It’s a Summer Film, i had sorted out a price and was good to go with its sales agent last year, but they couldn’t clear the rights of any of the bonus features, and it’s not the stature of film for a barebones release, so had to end the negotiations.

[azadkanjo]

Hi, is there any news about future Takashi Miike yakuza old movies getting a new remaster or digital transfer and chances to see any of them in the western?
I’m thinking on great movies such as Agitator, The Man in White, City of the Lost Souls and similar cult movies from the earlies 2000s, most of them straight to Video but I think a majority of them shot on film (35/16mm).

Thanks and Kind regards

[Sinedd]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

It’s a Summer Film, i had sorted out a price and was good to go with its sales agent last year, but they couldn’t clear the rights of any of the bonus features, and it’s not the stature of film for a barebones release, so had to end the negotiations.

Hopefully this gets resolved somehow in the future and it sees a release

[Yami]

GO original trailer (directed by Isao Yukisada, Japan 2001) - YouTube

Third Window have confirmed that they will be releasing Isao Yukisada's Go on Blu-Ray in the Spring.

It's not a film that I've seen but it looks great; I read some high praise for it when reading around films focusing on Zainichi Koreans after seeing Kohei Oguri's For Kayako (which is also superb, like all of Oguri's films - I'm really hoping that they get released here soon)

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by azadkanjo

Hi, is there any news about future Takashi Miike yakuza old movies getting a new remaster or digital transfer and chances to see any of them in the western?
I’m thinking on great movies such as Agitator, The Man in White, City of the Lost Souls and similar cult movies from the earlies 2000s, most of them straight to Video but I think a majority of them shot on film (35/16mm).

Thanks and Kind regards

Think City of Lost Souls was remastered.
Though these are all probably Radiance/Arrow/Eureka type releases

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

It’s a Summer Film, i had sorted out a price and was good to go with its sales agent last year, but they couldn’t clear the rights of any of the bonus features, and it’s not the stature of film for a barebones release, so had to end the negotiations.

Such a shame. I hope that another opportunity arises one day.

[thenexus6]

Shame with "It’s a Summer Film". That was a really fun and easy watch.