gekats

Being on a Rollin spree myself recently, I tried hard not to post this and derail the discussion, but couldn't restrain myself:

Gandahar is great (and the Le Chat 4K excellent - not English friendly though). Couldn't help mentioning Gandahar is designed by Philippe Caza, one of the top bande dessin�e artists of the 80s who has fallen somewhat out of favour since.. I grew up with his comics, so still have great esteem for him.

Also painted the poster of Rollin's L�vres de sang (and Indicator cover); the best of the lot currently available from Indicator (along with La nuit des traqu�es), if anyone's curious.

Guernica78

Oh wow, I saw Time Masters as a little kid on the BBC and was moved to tears. I�ve been deseperate for this to get a new release for years. You think this is a possibility?

rapta

Could be if someone was up for it, but like Yami mentioned, it wasn't a particularly strong seller for Eureka so they didn't upgrade their DVD release (of both Time Masters and Gandahar).

That being said, both fetch fairly high prices on the resell market which says to me there are plenty of English-speaking collectors who would be interested in these. I myself would love to get hold of them as I never did get hold of the DVD editions before they went OOP.

I think this is a similar situation to Naruse, Mizoguchi etc where a label might have been put off by weak sales a decade or so ago but these are films people clearly want now, whether they did before or not.

DukeTogo84

Miyamoto Musashi HAS been restored and looks great. I saw it online recently.

Ghost of Oiwa would be great and surprised Radiance didn't go for it with the first batch of his films as horror sells and it has a HD master.

Also hoping for Beast in the Shadows.

Guernica78

I would have thought Time Masters would only grow in appeal and become a strong seller if marketed correctly as the animation was done by the great M�ebius. So they need to highlight that element!

gekats

Yeah, I have been wondering about that myself. This alone should be a major selling point.

Are these great BD-masters (M�ebius, Druillet, and Caza) not that well-known in the UK, Guernica? They used to be huge in the 70s/80s. (Well, Mobius still is, I guess?) Or are BD/European comics in general not that popular in the UK?

Phlippe Druillet did the posters for Rollin's first 3 features (Viol, Nue and Frisson), by the way..

EDIT. Inspired by your comment, will revisit Les Ma�tres du temps soon, as I found this the least of Laloux' features on my initial viewing. You've made me curious!

Yami

I don't think you can say that people clearly want them now - there's obviously a limited supply of an OOP release and an even smaller number of those are going to come up for sale at any one time. I don't think you can extrapolate the price they sell for to the level of demand there would be for a more widely available, commercial release (at least until it ends up OOP again!).

Guernica78

I would say not, at least historically- we had a lot of our own comics, and outside if that it was probably American rather than European

However�. Moebius is the one that would breakthrough now certainly, with his work with Alejandro Jodorowsky and stuff like Silver Surfer. A lot of his books are being published here now so there�s more awareness.

DukeTogo84

The brief mention of Goyokin on the description of Tokijiro makes me really hope Radiance might be able to license this and Hitokiri someday as I honestly think they are easily two of the best samurai films ever made. They are with Fuji TV now, and I know some labels license anime from them, so I'm hoping Radiance can make a deal with them at some point.

Cinematt

I think that's a very good sign. Radiance definitely note films they'll be releasing later. For example, if you go back and look at Big Time Gambling Boss you'll see Tomisaburo Wakayama noted as the star of Lone Wolf and Cub and The Bounty Hunter Trilogy.

rapta

Not necessarily always the case, but for a bit of fun, let's see what films are mentioned in the blurbs for each title (I'll bold titles of interest):

The Working Class Goes to Heaven - A Fistful of Dollars, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Deep Red
Yakuza Graveyard - Graveyard of Honour, Lady Snowblood, Battles without Honour and Humanity
Welcome to the Dollhouse - Happiness
The Sunday Woman - Day for Night, The Conformist, 8�, Big Deal on Madonna Street, The Organizer, Misunderstood
Miami Blues - Grosse Pointe Blank, Single White Female, Tremors, Something Wild, Married to the Mob
Red Sun - Kings of the Road
A Woman Kills - The Beast, Hiroshima mon amour
The Man on the Roof - The French Connection
Fill 'er Up with Super - n/a
The Bride Wore Black - Jules et Jim, Kill Bill, Rear Window, Psycho
Big Time Gambling Boss - Battles Without Honour and Humanity, Lone Wolf and Cub, The Bounty Hunter Trilogy
The Hot Spot - Miami Vice, Candyman, Requiem for a Dream, Easy Rider, Out of the Blue, The Shawshank Redemption, The Untouchables, Eraserhead
Cosa Nostra - A Bullet for the General, Illustrious Corpses, Todo Modo, Rabid Dogs, Tenebrae
Thieves Like Us - Nashville, 3 Women, M*A*S*H, The Long Goodbye, They Live by Night, McCabe & Mrs. Miller
O.C. and Stiggs - Animal House, Third Rock From the Sun, Sixteen Candles, Hot Shots!, Blue Velvet, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
Commedia all'italiana - Bitter Rice, Lost Soul, The Conformist, Sideways, Master of None
The Iron Prefect - The Untouchables, The Climber, The Day of the Owl, Sorcerer, The Working Class Goes to Heaven, Once Upon a Time in America
A Moment of Romance - Infernal Affairs, The Killer, The Barefooted Kid, Throwdown, City on Fire
The Dead Mother - Timecrimes
Scream and Scream Again - Witchfinder General, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, The Oblong Box
Visible Secret - Boat People, Millennium Mambo, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Iron Monkey
Messiah of Evil - American Grafitti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Howard the Duck, Night of the Living Dead
Le combat dans l'ile - Il sorpasso, La piscine, Jules et Jim, Fill ’Er Up with Super, Army of Shadows, The Conformist
The End of Civilization - n/a
World Noir Vol 1 - The Valachi Papers, Les diaboliques, Le Samourai, The Railroad Man, The Day of the Owl, Il sorpasso
Elegant Beast - Red Angel, Ikiru, Lone Wolf and Cub, Naked Island
The Sting of Death - n/a
Goodbye & Amen - The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, How to Kill a Judge, The Day of the Owl, The Case is Closed: Forget It, The Heroin Busters, Torso, Keoma
Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza - Goyokin
By A Man's Face Shall You Know Him - n/a
Eighteen Years in Prison - By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him, Sympathy for the Underdog, Big Time Gambling Boss, Battles Without Honour and Humanity
I, the Executioner - By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him, Psycho
Black Tight Killers - Tokyo Drifter, Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Modesty Blaise, Danger: Diabolik
Allonsanfan - La dolce vita
A Story Written with Water - Eros + Massacre, Floating Clouds, Late Autumn
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy - Lone Wolf and Cub, The Streetfighter, 13 Assassins, Seven Samurai
Suzhou River - Vertigo, Chungking Express
Tony Arzenta - Le Cercle Rouge, Le Samourai, A Pistol for Ringo, Death Occurred Last Night, The Boss, Violent City, Illustrious Corpses
L'amour fou - Weekend, Out 1
Misunderstood - The Sunday Woman, The 400 Blows, The Spirit of the Beehive, L'enfance nue, Lawrence of Arabia
The Shape of Night - Cruel Story of Youth, Sword of the Beast
Planet of the Vampires - Blood and Black Lace, Alien, Pitch Black
Shinobi - Sleepy Eyes of Death, Conflagration, Lone Wolf and Cub, The Bounty Hunter Trilogy, Elegant Beast, Red Angel
Bandits of Orgosolo - n/a
Sympathy for the Underdog - Big Time Gambling Boss, Yakuza Graveyard
The Agitator - The Trial, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, After Hours, Green Room, Denti, The Hunger, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Trenque Lauquen - Twin Peaks, The Endless
Tchao Pantin - Possession
The Landlord - Harold and Maude, Ganja & Hess, The Godfather
Mississippi Mermaid - Breathless, Belle de Jour, The Bride Wore Black
Viva la muerte - n/a
World Noir Vol 2 - Le trou, Classe tous risques, La piscine, Tell No One, La grande illusion, Branded to Kill, The Killing

Of the titles I've bolded, these are what I know might be available from studio licenses...

MGM - Illustrious Corpses, The Oblong Box
Surf Film - Todo Modo, The Railroad Man
RAI - Lost Soul
Toei - 13 Assassins
Shochiku - Sword of the Beast
Kadokawa-Daiei - Sleepy Eyes of Death, Conflagration

I thought Happiness might still be with Universal, but someone else said the rights have now reverted back to Solondz himself (or at least the producers). Danger: Diabolik is with Paramount, AFAIK, so may not be available until they stop being so unresponsive to the UK market. Some of the others might be tied up with Criterion or at least the materials are (in some cases Criterion have paid to restore a title, so probably get to veto any licensing requests).

DukeTogo84

I hope so. Goyokin is regarded as one of the very best the genre has to offer, so it would be nice to have an HD release of this outside of Japan. I just love the snow setting in this.

thesmark88

I would love a Kudo set of 13 Assassins, The Great Killing & 11 Samurai since they don't have English language blu-rays anywhere. They mention all 3 in the Kudo special feature on the Fort of Death blu-ray and have clips of at least a couple of those.

logboy

watched it on its USA dvd release many years ago, and have long wanted to see it reappear. it went largely unnoticed back then. one of the best i�ve seen.

if there�s a chance of former criterion USA releases being worthwhile in the UK, that sixties swordplay box set wants looking at too.

Guernica78

Watched a Bigas Luna film last night. The DVDs are surprisingly poor quality. Do we think there’s any likelihood Radiance would consider him or would it not be a fit for the lable?

logboy

it seems accepted that radiance are avoiding what�s been released in the UK before, so if that�s the case �

anyway, there�s a danger that radiance becomes another label that people treat like criterion, and the fantasy licenses keep being mentioned - this is to the detriment of everyone if not simply a case of mentioning or explaining good films in the relevant thread.

Aunt Peg

Thrilled about Viva La Muerte being released. Great film.

Here's hoping I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse & L'arbre de Guernica aren't far behind.

Guernica78

Really looking forward to World Noir vol 2. Was there a rough idea as to what is potentially going to be in Comedy Italia vol 2 ? Or when that’s likely to come out. Certainly impressed with how fast Radiance have been with releasing everything from scratch. Truly impressive for such a young company

Cinematt

I think what stands out about The Bounty Hunter trilogy was that it was basically unknown, so definitely feels like a little breadcrumb they dropped. Also BTGB was brought forward in the schedule because Yakuza Graveyard got delayed, and Bounty Hunter was likely delayed (I'm not sure Fran ever mentioned it specifically, but he said that Italian titles got brought forward because the Japanese ones were taking longer to sort contracts on) so likely those two were planned to come out much closer together and the blurb would have been a bit of cross promotion.
And the vast majority of titles they use as examples are well known, usually with UK releases already, which makes sense because they want people to read them and think 'oh I like that one, so I might like this' so dropping in unreleased ones feels even more likely to be a hint to their future plans because they know one day those will be on sale at the same time.

I guess time will tell but there are some great ones on that list if they are teases. The Spirit of the Beehive stands out, because way back when the Sight and Sound list came out Fran did tweet to say Radiance had one of the titles on the list and it hasn't materialised so far, but that was on there.

I'd also love to see Radiance tackle Sleepy Eyes of Death, though that might be a tough one because it's such a long series and it's generally accepted that the first two entries aren't so good, and the series took a turn with the third one and got pretty great, so if they mirrored the approach to Shinobi no Mono they might risk people being a bit underwhelmed and not getting a good enough response for follow on sets.

the13thman

I would kill for a Girl Boss / Delinquent Girl Boss box set.