Sion Sono Films on Region A Blu-rays

[Grethiwha]

Originally Posted by p_cqvist

That's the name of their group in the film.

Heh, well I figured that out from the description.
It's just funny to me, I've been completely avoiding spoilers for the film, so the name had no meaning to me a minute before I determined to buy the "official **** bombers t-shirt".

Originally Posted by p_cqvist

Must say, though, that's quite the package. I really hope someone will release it over here in Europe eventually. Still, nice to have such a good alternative if it turns out to be the only option aside from the Japanese release.

Well, looks like the tables will be turned for the next Sono release: MoC are handling Tokyo Tribe I believe – a fantastic company – and I'm getting worried we won't see a release of that one over here. Plus you guys have Cold Fish and Land of Hope!
But really, I do hope WDYPIH gets a European release – I heard somewhere that some company was basically ransoming off the UK release rights for some exorbitant price, making a release less likely – that sucks if true. I know Sono is more popular in Europe than over here.

[baboonboy]

Sono's next feature will be Kaiju flick called Love and Peace.
He's already shooting another one though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycZENUz_s0A

[Grethiwha]

Originally Posted by baboonboy

Sono's next feature will be Kaiju flick called Love and Peace.
He's already shooting another one though.

A Sion Sono monster movie, eh? That's crazy.

Except Love and Peace isn't really his next movie, cause Shinjuku Swan hasn't come out yet... The man is a machine. I just wish the blu-ray companies could keep up with him.

[p_cqvist]

Originally Posted by Grethiwha

I heard somewhere that some company was basically ransoming off the UK release rights for some exorbitant price, making a release less likely – that sucks if true.

Yeah, this is why I'm not overly optimistic. But you're right, we got some others. Can't have them all.

Originally Posted by baboonboy

Sono's next feature will be Kaiju flick called Love and Peace.

I can't say I'm much into Kaiju stuff. But, with Sono on board, I don't think it'll be anywhere near the usual anyway. Will check it out in due time for sure.

[Grethiwha]

My copy of Why Don't You Play in Hell arrived yesterday, and I watched it last night. Freakin amazing movie! I mean, it was pretty great until the **** bombers finally crossed paths with the yakuza... and then everything after that was just ****ing genius.

I'd rank it below Love Exposure, Hazard, Exte, Strange Circus, and Suicide Club, and about on par with Guilty of Romance (which rose considerably in my estimation on 2nd viewing), but uh yeah, Sion Sono is the best. So good. I had some ridiculously high expectations – I don't think I've ever invested so much into a film I hadn't seen before (I've never watched a movie for the first time whilst wearing the shirt of the movie for example) – but my expectations were, if not exceeded, they were definitely met.

Supplements-wise, all that's written in the booklet is a little blurb from the designer of the fold-out poster, and the only extra on the disc is a 22-minute conference with Sion Sono. But it's hilarious: he talks about the auto-biographical aspects of the film – how he really did run around filming with his friends calling themselves the **** bombers... playing Bruce Lee in the park and being called an idiot by children...

All in all, anyway, it's a neat little package, this blu-ray. Very pleased. Also, **** bombers shirt! Still waiting on the theatrical poster.

[cardiac161]

Just got mine too! So looking forward to watching it again.

And I also ordered his Tokyo Tribe (R3 DVD) and am waiting for it as well. It's the only one with English subs and I don't think an R1/R0 BD is coming out anytime soon.

[Grethiwha]

Originally Posted by cardiac161

Just got mine too! So looking forward to watching it again.

And I also ordered his Tokyo Tribe (R3 DVD) and am waiting for it as well. It's the only one with English subs and I don't think an R1/R0 BD is coming out anytime soon.

Yeah, if we don't hear anything about a Region A BD I might end up giving in and getting the Region B blu when it's released (and picking up the Third Window ones as well) – I have a region-free player, I just don't like buying anything I can only play on that player, cause it's kinda crappy and I know I'm gonna end up double-dipping for the region A version, if announced...

edit: Found a 720p copy of Tokyo Tribe, and English Subs. So excited right now!!

In other news. Sono is releasing not just Shinjuku Swan and Love & Peace this year, but SIX films in 2015. Including also "Hisohiso Boshi", "a Fukushima-nuclear-disaster-themed film", I'm guessing in the same vein as Himizu and Land of Hope. My god Sion Sono.

[Grethiwha]

Originally Posted by Grethiwha

Yeah, if we don't hear anything about a Region A BD I might end up giving in and getting the Region B blu when it's released (and picking up the Third Window ones as well) – I have a region-free player, I just don't like buying anything I can only play on that player, cause it's kinda crappy and I know I'm gonna end up double-dipping for the region A version, if announced...

In other news. Sono is releasing not just Shinjuku Swan and Love & Peace this year, but SIX films in 2015. Including also "Hisohiso Boshi", "a Fukushima-nuclear-disaster-themed film", I'm guessing in the same vein as Himizu and Land of Hope. My god Sion Sono.

Welp, I ended up buying a new region-free player, and all the Third Window releases (including the ones I already had from Olive...), plus Eureka's Tokyo Tribe release... Anyway, I'll try to sort out what I know of these 2015 movies, having not watched any trailers...

1. Shinjuku Swan is a manga adaptation and Sono's biggest budgeted film ever.
2. Love and Peace is a crazy but family friendly monster movie.
3. Tag is a gory schoolgirls-on-a-bus movie or something.
4. The Virgin Psychics is another manga adaptation, and the feature film version of a 12-episode TV series he made that I also need to watch.
5. Whispering Star is an arty low-budget sci-fi movie, that is also the Fukushima-themed film I mentioned.
6. The second movie after Whispering Star under his new production company, Sion Productions. To be shot in August. I don't think anything is known about it yet.
7. Shinjuku Swan 2. A 2016 release I assume, or maybe this will come in 2015... I really didn't think he was actually going to make 6 movies in 2015, but here we are half way through the year... and he's got 5 done already and now I'm hearing about a seventh...

Anyways, no word yet I don't think on any region A releases for any of these. Third Window is releasing Love & Peace in region B though... At this point I just hope we get all (or most) of these films between all regions... As for catalogue releases, as discussed in the Third Window thread, there currently aren't any HD materials for most or all of his pre-Love Exposure movies, so better not hold out much hope for them on blu-ray any time soon...

[Grethiwha]

News! I get to bump this thread and talk to myself some more.

Tag was released this week on blu-ray!



It only finally turned up on Amazon US/Canada in the last day, through third-party seller Rarewaves... It's also available at Barnes and Noble. I was thinking if it didn't come available through Amazon, I'd order it through them along with a couple Criterions in the sale next month (and save on shipping by ordering multiple titles together). Well, it came on Amazon.ca for like $40, so I decided to compare with B&N. B&N estimated the shipping at $4, but usually when I say I'm from Canada it changes to like $7. With any other item that's what happens. But for some reason with Tag the shipping changed to free. So that's weird. But I ordered it, and saved about $7 compared to the Amazon.ca price. Well, that's my story about mysterious free Canadian shipping on Tag from B&N.

Anyways, Tag I think is the best of the movies I mentioned in my last post:

Originally Posted by Grethiwha

1. Shinjuku Swan is a manga adaptation and Sono's biggest budgeted film ever.
2. Love and Peace is a crazy but family friendly monster movie.
3. Tag is a gory schoolgirls-on-a-bus movie or something.
4. The Virgin Psychics is another manga adaptation, and the feature film version of a 12-episode TV series he made that I also need to watch.
5. Whispering Star is an arty low-budget sci-fi movie, that is also the Fukushima-themed film I mentioned.
6. The second movie after Whispering Star under his new production company, Sion Productions. To be shot in August. I don't think anything is known about it yet.
7. Shinjuku Swan 2. A 2016 release I assume, or maybe this will come in 2015... I really didn't think he was actually going to make 6 movies in 2015, but here we are half way through the year... and he's got 5 done already and now I'm hearing about a seventh...

1. Shinjuku Swan is decent, but Sono's lack of involvement in the writing is pretty plainly apparent. Not a great Sono film. 7/10
2. Love & Peace is awesome. Family-friendly kaiju Christmas movie. There's a great Region B release from Third Window. 9/10
3. Tag is Sono at Strange Circus levels of insanity. It's amazing. 9/10
4. The Virgin Psychics movie is not as good as the TV series, but has some charm. 7/10
5. The Whispering Star is wonderful. It has more in common with his early film "The Room" than anything he's made since, being a slow-paced minimalistic sci-fi art-film. I didn't like The Room much, but I think he's able to pull off this kind of film now through sheer mastery over the medium. It's a visually stunning and fascinating, engrossing film. 9/10
6. This never happened.
7. Shinjuku Swan 2 came out in Japan this year.
Also, his new film from 2016 is "Anti-porno" (which looks great). He did one sixth of the omnibus film "Madly". And his new 9-episode Amazon Original Series "Tokyo Vampire Hotel" was just released in Japan.

Anyways, the new Tag release is an over-priced BD-R, but this movie is totally worth it.

I don't know if there are any special features. I'll report back.

Is the US Tokyo Tribe release OOP already or something? It's like $100 on amazon.ca now. Since I already bought the nicer region B release, and since the US release was more expensive and had forced subs and no special features, and since this isn't my favourite Sono film, I didn't bother to pick up that version just for its region free-ness. But it's a shame if it's already becoming hard to get.

Oh, and Tag is on Netflix now. So check it out there if you want. Tokyo Tribe's also been available there for ages now.

[Lyndor]

can i ask where you ordered the US release of TAG? theres only 3rd party amazon sellers and best buy says backordered last i checked.

Edit: nevermind i missed the first part of your post. looking forward to hearing how the disc is

[Grethiwha]

Originally Posted by Lyndor

can i ask where you ordered the US release of TAG? theres only 3rd party amazon sellers and best buy says backordered last i checked.

Edit: nevermind i missed the first part of your post. looking forward to hearing how the disc is

My order still hasn't shipped from B&N, and now even the Rarewaves/3rd Party Amazon listing has disappeared. Maybe I should have ordered from them while I had the chance, or maybe it wouldn't have shipped from them either. I don't know wtf is going on with this release... If anyone has any proof it actually exists, I'd love to see...

[Leeon0]

Originally Posted by Grethiwha

I don't know wtf is going on with this release... If anyone has any proof it actually exists, I'd love to see...

Have you tried getting in touch with the studio? http://filmrise.com/contact/

[Havok-San]

Originally Posted by Grethiwha

Oh, and Tag is on Netflix now. So check it out there if you want. Tokyo Tribe's also been available there for ages now.

I sincerely thank you for the entirety of that post, especially the quoted tidbit. I re-checked on a whim today to see if Tag was out there yet, and saw the US listing. Freaked out. Sad to know it's a BD-R, sad to know it's just GONE from amazon.com. There IS actually a DVD listing for it, though. Still available, if you absolutely need to have it right now.

I'm going to get to watching it on Netflix and see how much strength I have to keep from getting the DVD until I can get my hands on the blu-ray. UGH, BD-R, but UGH owning everything Sion in a physical format.

Also, Tokyo Vampire Hotel. WHAT. This guy is busy. I feel like he's trying to catch up to Miike. Hopefully he'll get around to part 3 of his Suicide trilogy.

[Zen_Amako]

Was the Tag Blu-ray actually released? It seems to still be available to order from Barnes & Noble, although it's apparently from a third party seller.

I purchased the film on VUDU before I found out it was on Netflix. :P I really enjoyed it, though, and I wouldn't mind owning a physical copy. The VUDU version doesn't have normal subtitles--just CC style subs. I would hope the Blu-ray release has standard English subtitles. Maybe they forgot to include the subtitles and that's why this was pulled?

[Grethiwha]

My order from B&N was cancelled. I'm waiting to see with Amazon.ca now, since it's listed as temporarily out of stock but available to order. Thing is, it's a BD-R. Manufactured on demand. It doesn't make sense that it would be cancelled. All they have to do is burn the bloody disc for the people who want it. I haven't bothered to try and contact the studio. I'm working this month so it doesn't much matter to me right now anyways, but hopefully by August, they'll have bothered to make a few copies. There's no way I'm forking out for their DVD-R though...

[Grethiwha]

Originally Posted by Leeon0

Have you tried getting in touch with the studio? http://filmrise.com/contact/

I tried contacting them at that address, and someone CC'd me that they forwarded it to their team... But I haven't heard back.

That said, **** it! I don't care anymore, because Eureka's releasing it!



Great company, much better cover art, not a stupid BD-R... Amazing news!

...Probably not Region-A-friendly, but... whatever... if you're a Sono fan you gotta have a region-free player, by this point.

[Havok-San]

Originally Posted by Grethiwha

because Eureka's releasing it!

YEAH. GOOD. Thanks for the news. I watched it on Netflix, but I still need it in my life, on my shelf, FOREVER. YEAH.

if you're a Sono fan you gotta have a region-free player, by this point.

Damn straight. I still regret getting that Olive release of Love Exposure. Didn't know there were amazing features elsewhere, and I typically collect Third Window stuff.

[Leeon0]

What are the prospects of seeing a Blu-ray release of



with English subtitles?

Of course there's the newly released DVD with English subtitles, but it's a DVD. (Why for goodness' sake are they still making DVDs?)

[Grethiwha]

Originally Posted by Leeon0

What are the prospects of seeing a Blu-ray release of

with English subtitles?

Of course there's the newly released DVD with English subtitles, but it's a DVD. (Why for goodness' sake are they still making DVDs?)

Why can't the Japanese blu-rays of Sono's films include English subtitles, and why can't the Hong Kong releases be on blu-ray? It's the same thing with so many of his titles now, including The Virgin Psychics which never made it West. So frustrating. Then again, since the blu-ray version and the english-subtitled version are both in circulation... there will be ways available to watch this film in good quality now... so thank you for bringing the HK release to my attention.

Anyways, I haven't seen it but I think this is a bigger-deal-than-average Sono film which I would expect (hope) to get a release in the West eventually. Problem is Eureka and TWF, in the UK, are pretty much the only companies who reliably continue to release Sono's films now, and no title is a guarantee from either of them. It would be nice if Arrow or even Well Go USA or someone would decide to acquire some of his films for once.

[Leeon0]

I saw it online without English subtitles (it had Korean subtitles) and of course didn't understand the dialogue, but it was so visually arresting that my eyes were nailed on the screen during the entire film, even during the dialogue-heavy moments. The movie seemed bizarre as any Sono film is, sporting brilliant, dazzling colors and powerful visuals that warrant nothing less than 1080p. Some scenes will remind you of Guilty (you'll recognize them right away).

So I actually half-saw it; now I'm even more eager to watch it again (with the subtitles) than I was before I saw it online. But I don't want 480p!

Originally Posted by Grethiwha

Why can't the Japanese blu-rays of Sono's films include English subtitles, and why can't the Hong Kong releases be on blu-ray? It's the same thing with so many of his titles now, including The Virgin Psychics which never made it West. So frustrating.

So very much. The price one pays for liking Sono's films.