Acclaimed film auteur Miike Takashi’s body of work remains as a peculiar, intriguing and earnest one, still invested with a trio of manga/anime adaptations between now and then, including the upcoming sequel, The Mole Song 2 arriving this December. This week, however, his earlier career in direct-to-video films is getting a highlight courtesy of Arrow Video with the announced DVD/Blu-Ray re-releases of the violent, gritty crime saga, Black Society Trilogy, as of January next year in the U.K., with U.S. releases pending.
A playlist of retro trailers for all three are available above until further notice while Arrow Video are presenting their latest news with the first artwork below along with the announcement:
NEW UK/US TITLE: Takashi Miike’s Black Society Trilogy Blu-ray/DVD
Takashi Miike’s “Black Society Trilogy” arrives on separate Blu-ray and DVD releases
Pre-order your UK Blu-ray here: http://bit.ly/2efHY9y Pre-order your UK DVD here: http://bit.ly/2efFatp North American pre-orders links should be live soon!
UK Release Date: 16th January 2017US Release Date: 17th January 2017
After several years spent working almost exclusively in the direct-to-video world of “V-cinema” in Japan, Takashi Miike announced himself as a world-class filmmaking talent with this trio of thematically-connected, character-centric crime stories about violence, the underworld of Japanese society, families both real and surrogate, and the possibly hopeless task of finding one’s place in the world. His first films made specifically for theatrical release, and his first for a major studio, the “Black Society Trilogy” was the beginning of Miike’s mature career as a filmmaker and they remain among the prolific director’s finest works.
Set in the bustling Kabuki-cho nightlife neighborhood of Tokyo, Shinjuku Triad Society follows a mixed-race cop (Kippei Shiina, Outrage) struggling with private issues while hunting a psychotic criminal (Tomorowo Taguchi, Tetsuo the Iron Man) who traffics in children’s organs. Rainy Dog, shot entirely in Taiwan, is about an exiled yakuza (Dead or Alive’s Show Aikawa) who finds himself saddled with a son he never knew he had and a price on his head after the Chinese gang he works for decides to turn on him. Ley Lines moves from the countryside to the city and back, as three Japanese youths of Chinese descent (including The Raid 2’s Kazuki Kitamura) seek their fortune in Tokyo, only to run afoul of a violent gang boss (Naoto Takenaka, The Happiness of the Katakuris).
Three of the most dramatically moving films created by the director, the “Black Society Trilogy” offers clear proof that Miike’s frequent pigeonholing as a specialist in bloody spectacle is only one aspect of his filmmaking career, and taken as a whole, the films are among the finest works ever to deal with the way violence and brutality can unexpectedly destroy even the most innocent of lives.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
•High Definition digital transfers of all three films
•Original uncompressed stereo audio
•Optional English subtitles for all three films
•New interview with director Takashi Miike
•New interview with actor Show Aikawa (Rainy Dog, Ley Lines)
•New audio commentaries for all three films by Miike biographer Tom Mes
•Original theatrical trailers for all three films
•Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the films
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