Boutique Blu-ray

[Terasawa]

40% Off Kino Films at Barnes & Noble

Right when I need to buy a new computer, of course.

But thanks for the link, I might take advantage of this anyway.

[tbeasley]

^ No problem.

40% Off Kino Films at Barnes & Noble

Some titles of interest -
Konga
Dinosaurus!
Ape
One Million Years B.C.
The People That Time Forgot
The Land That Time Forgot

[UltramanGoji]

Today via Criterion, The Human Condition.

This mammoth humanist drama by Masaki Kobayashi is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three installments of two parts each, the nine-and-a-half-hour The Human Condition, adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji—played by the Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai—from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet prisoner of war. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals to be an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of Japan’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.

This looks amazing. I'll have to check it out when the annual sale happens at B&N.

[Terasawa]

Today via Criterion, The Human Condition.

This looks amazing. I'll have to check it out when the annual sale happens at B&N.

Yeah, I'll be picking it up during the next sale. In the meantime, the three parts are on Criterion Channel.

[Angilasman]

88 Films, a UK label, is (like Arrow before it) branching out into the US. Let's pray that some of their Jackie Chan and Shaw Brothers releases will be ported over here!

[Angilasman]

Speak of the devil! Arrow is hyping up some big Shaw Brothers announcement on July 9.

[Angilasman]

Good God! Arrow is killing it.

Sam Katzman set (The Giant Claw! The Werewolf - the first horror film I ever saw, btw!), and the classic Daiei folklore flick The Snake Girl and the Silver Haired Witch (which has some familiar faces in the special features!).

[JAGzilla]

Good God! Arrow is killing it.

Sam Katzman set (The Giant Claw! The Werewolf - the first horror film I ever saw, btw!), and the classic Daiei folklore flick The Snake Girl and the Silver Haired Witch (which has some familiar faces in the special features!).

Very nice. Arrow will be getting a lot of my money in the next few months...

[tbeasley]

No announcement yet but the Yokai Monsters trilogy has pretty much been confirmed as well.

And based on these posts by Terasawa in the Arrow Daimajin thread we could very well see some of these titles -

Nichiren and the Great Mongol Invasion (1958)
The Demon of Mount Oe (1960)
Ghost Story of Kasane Swamp (1960)
Buddha (1961)
Kaidan kakuidori (1961)
The Whale God (1962)
Wind Velocity 75 Meters (1963)
The Snow Woman (1968)
The Bride from Hades (1968)
Yotsuya Kaidan (1969)
Tokyo Blackout (1987)
The Great Yokai War (2005)

So if you're keeping count so far -

Spoiler:

The Invisible Man Appears (1949)
The Invisible Man vs. the Human Fly (1957)
Warning from Space (1956)
Gamera (1965)
Gamera vs. Barugon (1966)
Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967)
Gamera vs. Viras (1968)
Gamera vs. Guiron (1969)
Gamera vs. Jiger (1970)
Gamera vs. Zigra (1971)
Gamera: Super Monster (1980)
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995)
Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (1996)
Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999)
Gamera the Brave (2006)
Daimajin (1966)
Return of Daimajin (1966)
Daimajin Strikes Again (1966)
The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch (1968)
Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (1968)
Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare (1968)
Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts (1969)

[Terasawa]

Those are all Daiei titles; additional *Kadokawa* genre titles that we could conceivably see through Arrow include Time Slip (1979), Virus (1980), and Legend of the Eight Samurai (1983).

[Angilasman]

I'm down for pretty much all these titles - especially Whale God!

BTW, those Katzman films are classic Columbia titles licensed from Sony! Can you imagine a Arrow set of all the Columbia Harryhausen flicks?

[Terasawa]

Can you imagine a Arrow set of all the Columbia Harryhausen flicks?

I think those are all with Indicator, which has released all of the Columbia Harryhausens except Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. They're all still in print except for (apparently) Jason and the Argonauts.

[Angilasman]

^ Arrow has done a few North America exclusive releases when the UK rights are already taken.

... ooh, that opens up Night of the Demon, too! (Still haven't picked up that region free Indicator release)

[Angilasman]

It occurs to me that we're on the verge of Daiei's library of classic sci-fi/fantasy films being more available in the US than Toho's! Certainly a change from the last... err, 60 years!

[tbeasley]

StreamOfKaijuness has been sharing some great deals so I thought I'd collect them here -

Barnes & Noble’s 50% off Criterion sale is back on for the month of July, so they’re once again offering the 8-disc Showa Godzilla collection for $112.49.

Amazon is matching that price, and the set is now back up to #39 on Amazon’s list of bestselling film/TV titles. Godzilla vs. Kong is also currently ranking at the #9 (BRD+DVD), #16 (DVD) and #17 (4K+BRD) spots on that bestsellers list.

Arrow’s 4-disc Showa Gamera set is now on sale for $50 on Amazon.

The Heisei set is still $72 but hopefully that will be reduced soon. Considering that the complete collection was available for $130 upon release and these separate Showa and Heisei sets don’t include any of the books or other printed extras, selling these sets for a combined price of $145 really isn’t a better deal, but a combined price of $100 would make sense.

EDIT:
The Heisei set is on sale now too!

Best Buy is currently selling Mill Creek’s Ultra releases at big discounts. Amazon is price-matching them while supplies last.


Ultra Q • $10.99 • Best Buy • Amazon
Ultra Q Steelbook • $13.99 • Best Buy

Ultraman • $10.99 • Best Buy • Amazon
Ultraman Steelbook • $13.99 • Best Buy

UltraSeven • $10.99 • Best Buy • Amazon
UltraSeven Steelbook • $13.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Return of Ultraman • $10.99 • Best Buy • Amazon
Return of Ultraman Steelbook • $13.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman Ace • $10.99 • Best Buy
Ultraman Ace Steelbook • $13.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman Taro • $12.99 • Best Buy • Amazon
Ultraman Taro Steelbook • $15.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman Leo • $23.99 • Best Buy • Amazon
Ultraman Leo Steelbook • $28.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultra Galaxy: Mega Monster Battle Series+Movie • $17.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman Zero Collection • $17.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Neo Ultra Q • $6.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman Ginga Series+Movie • $13.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman X Series+Movie • $10.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman Orb Series+Movie • $10.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga • $5.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman Geed Series+Movie • $10.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

Ultraman R/B Series+Movie • $13.99 • Best Buy • Amazon

[JAGzilla]

Cool. I'll probably take advantage of that sale and grab RoU and Ace. Can't beat that price.

[Angilasman]

Arrow just announced their Shaw Bros. set (12 films, and listed as "volume 1"), GKIDS just announced Future Boy Conan, an Arrow Yokai set is rumored to be imminent, KINO's Kolchak: The Night Stalker set, a lot of major genre classics I hadn't already gotten on disc for whatever reason are getting re-released on UHD... things are getting expensive in the second half of 2021!

[canofhumdingers]

What genre classics are coming up on UHD? I’m so far behind on my film collecting it’s becoming an embarrassment! I’m at that stage in life where I’ve got young kids that keep me busy (and spend most of my money ) and a career that also eats up a big chunk of time. And keeping up with film releases has become an impossible task. I still haven’t even finished my first watch through of the Arrow Gamera or Criterion Godzilla sets yet (much less dived into bonus features)!

Luckily my kids are getting old enough that they can watch a lot of the older films with me and they love them so we’re having family movie nights about once a week and old kaiju and Sci-fi films make regular appearances in the billing!

Also I’m getting close to reaching my first savings goal to start the construction phase of a home theater in the basement! Whenever that gets completed movie watching will become a bigger priority again. And I’ll need an upgraded library of UHD discs to supply it!

[Angilasman]

^ in the last couple of days I've seen pre-order pages for a bunch of UHD's that I knew nothing about: the first 4 or 5 Halloween movies, Carpenter's The Thing, the Scream movies, the first 4 Star Trek movies...

[Terasawa]

Cool that Trek I-IV are getting new transfers but, man, there's so much more of the Trek catalog that needs attention -- e.g., "remastered" versions of DS9 and Voyager or improved transfers of the original series. (And how about the original untouched soundtrack mixes on the latter??)

I know the movies will make bank for Paramount, but would it be such a burden to at least consider the extended edition of TMP from the '80s too? (Wise's director's cut would be great but they foolishly finished that at SD, making an HD release very, very unlikely.) Or how about the original theatrical "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" title, even as an extra? Unfortunately, I think most Trekkies will just buy anything that's out on the market, whether it's a worthy upgrade or not.