>> Warrior King | Serial Experiments Lain & Paranoia Agent | Vengeance in a Box | Ju-On: The Grudge 2 | CSA - The Conferderate Sates of America | Marebito

Warrior King in October
20 September 2006

Ong-Bak fans have been eargerly anticipating the second collaboration between director Prachya Pinkaew and dynamic new martial arts star Tony Jaa (especially those of us who were unable to make it to the preview screening, dammit!), but the wait is almost over, as Warrior King (Tom Yum Goong) arrives on UK DVD as a 2-disc special edition in October, courtesy of Contender Entertainment. Retaining Jaa's "no wires, no CGI, no stunt doubles" mantra, the film promises to be another action delight, even if it's also best to turn a blind eye to the plot.

Release date is set for 30 October 2006 at the RRP of £19.99. And yes, we will be reviewing it. Eagerly.

Serial Experiments Lain and Paranoia Agent in October
10 September 2006

Two of the most acclaimed anime series of the past few years are on the way as complete series box sets in October from MYM.

Don't let the cover artwork fool you on Serial Experiments Lain, this is no cutesy schoolgirl anime, having been described by SFX magazine as "an anime cousin to such left-field fantasies such as Donnie Darko." The story concerns young Lain Iwakura, who is startled when she receives an e-mail from a friend who only recently committed suicide. Her investigations into its source involve her updating her home computer so that she can directly interface with the wired world, which becomes increasingly blurred with reality, a development that can't help by recall the early works of William Gibson. Previously available as seperate volumes, the box set will feature the entire series, in anamorphic widescreen and Dolby 2.0 stereo in Japanese or English.

Also coming as a complete series box set is Paranoia Agent, an intelligent, smartly structured and beautifully animated study of interconnecting lives, the pressures of modern life and a mysterious assailant known as Lil' Slugger. As different personal stories unfold, the identity and even existence of Lil' Slugger is repeatedly called into question, and lives are changed forever, often positively, by his attacks. This is the sort of thoughtful, adult anime that could bring the genre to a wider audience, and has scored 5 star ratings in a range of publications, including Total DVD, DVD review and SFX. The anamorphic widescreen presetation and English and Japanese Dolby 2.0 soundtracks are supplemented by the Japanese opening and ending, creditless opening and ending, trailersw and DVD credits.

Release date for both box sets is 2nd October 2006 at the RRP of £39.99 each. Expect full reviews of both series soon.

Vengeance in a Box in October
10 September 2006

If you kept meaning to buy Park Chan-wook's Vengeance trilogy but just never got round to it well there's good news, as Tartan have announced Vengeance in a Box - Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy for an October release. But this is slightly more than just stuffing the previous releases into a nice new box, with all three films remastered and are presented as two-disc special editions. Upgrades to the previous editions include:

Release date is set for 23 October at the RRP of £49.99. RRP for the Deluxe edition, released the same date, is £79.99.

Ju-On : The Grudge 2 Collector's Edition in October
9 September 2006

Before Takashi Shimizu exported his super-creepy horror film Ju-On: The Grudge to Hollywood, he fashioned a direct sequel on home soil (itself a remake of his earlier TV version). Containing a number of now familiar J-Horror elements - the ghostly child, the investigation into a supernatural legend - and even a touch of Wes Craven-style postmodernism (the lead character is a horror film actress), Ju-On: The Grudge 2 maintains the unsettling atmosphere and ability to get right under the skin of the audience that so distinguished the first film.

With the Shimizu's own American funded sequel awaiting release, this is the perfect time to catch up with the original, and ever obliging, Premier Asia have announced a 2-disc collector's edition DVD for UK release in October with the following special features:

Disc 1

Disc 2

Release date is 9th October 2006 at the RRP of £19.99

CSA - The Confederate Sates of America in November
8 September 2006

Ever wondered what America might have been like if the South had won the Civil War? That's the question writer-director Kevin Willmott poses in his intriguing and sometimes disturbing mockumentary, CSA - The Confederate States of America. Here we are show a 21st Century America in which slavery still exists, Latin America has been conquered as part of the cotten empire expansion, and a state of cold war exists with anti-slavery Canada. Inevitably prompting memories of Kevin Browlow and Andrew Mollo's It Happened Here, which reflected on how life might have been had the planned Nazi invasion of Britain in WW2 been successful, the film is shot in pseudo-BBC documentary style, and includes clips from alternate reality D.W. Griffith films such as 'The Hunt for Dishonest Abe', TV's Slave Shopping Network and a reality TV show in which black fugitives are hunted down, challenging the audience to examine its own attitudes to racism and slavery.

Tartan Video have announced a UK DVD release of the film for November, with the following specs:

Release date is set for 13th November 2006 at the RRP of £19.99.

Marebito in September
8 September 2006

Director Takeshi Shimizu has of late being showing signs of George Lucas syndrome, seemingly devoting his career to a single franchise. For those not familiar with the name, he directed a TV version of Ju-On back in 2000, then a TV serquel Ju-On 2, then the film version Ju-On: The Grudge, then the sequel Ju-On: The Grudge 2, then the Hollywood remake The Grudge and the sequel The Grudge 2, then returned to Japan to work on Ju-On: The Grudge 3. Those wondering if he knows how to tell any other stories will be relieved to know that between making Ju-On: The Grudge 2 and the first American remake he created Marebito, the story of Masuka, a cameraman obsessed with the nature of fear who ventures into the Tokyo subways, video camera in hand, in search of the ghostly creatures that that dwell beneath.

Featuring cult director Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo, Tokyo Fist, Bullet Ballet, A Snake of June) is a rare lead role outside of his own films, Marebito in some ways recalls Tsukamoto's early Hiruko the Goblin, while its low budget and 8-day shooting schedule look forward to Tsukamoto's first digital feature Haze.

The film is set for a UK DVD release later this month from Tartan as part of the Asai Extreme series, and will contain interviews with Interviews with director Takashi Shimizu, lead actor Shinya Tsukamoto, and producer Hiroshi Takahaski, plus a trailer.

Release date is set for 25 September at the RRP of £19.99.

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