Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of February 2024. This update features 8 anime releases, 12 manga volumes, 8 physical video games, 5 live-action Asian Cinema releases and 6 live-action European Cinema releases.
We pick up the remaining 2023 World Cinema titles from Radiance, receive another batch of Crunchyroll & Sentai releases and managed to get more Seven Seas manga volumes!
Radiance Films World Cinema Haul Part 1
We’re starting off the month’s haul with a batch of World Cinema films from distributor Radiance Films. I’ve been expanding my horizons in terms of the type of films I would get for my shelf and while I have watched and owned international films here and there, I concluded that Radiance’s line-up of films is strong enough to capture my interest. It began with the Italian films and eventually I decided to go for the rest of their European catalogue.
In this batch, which I ordered direct from Radiance Films, contains three French films. Like the others before, these are all limited edition first print editions which are presented in Scanavo packaging with an obi-strip inside the case as well as a reversible cover and booklet.
François Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black (La Mariée était en noir) is the one that had my interest the most, but Radiance Films had only seven remaining on their webstore and is what sparked my decision to pick up these films as soon as possible. This is now sold out but other retailers may have stock, but I haven’t checked in a while. Interesting to see MGM’s logo on the spine.
Another film that had a lot of interest from the Blu-ray community was Alain Cavalier’s Fill ‘er Up with Super (Le Plein de Super) which I didn’t bother with initially, but the overall reception helped motivate me to check it out.
And then there’s Jean-Denis Bonan’s A Woman Kills (La Femme Bourreau), which is an older film, once considered lost then rediscovered not long ago, and is one of the first releases by Radiance Films. Now the film’s reception isn’t as strong as the others in the catalogue but I figured I’ll own it to see how it is and its short films from my perspective.
Akai Katana Shin & Deathsmiles I & II
Last year I picked up a few Cave bullet hell shoot em up games which were given physical releases by Limited Run Games. But this time we have two more from the same developers that were actually published by Clear River Games, the same folks who also brought over Ys Origin.
That’s right I now own Akai Katana Shin and Deathsmiles I & II, which is great because I am familiar with both of these because they were released in the west on Xbox 360. Now the former I was able to buy through Amazon without issue since it was half a year old at this point, though eBay sellers are trying to charge £60-90+ telling people its rare when its not. That can’t be said for Deathsmiles I & II which is an oddity.
Deathsmiles I & II was released in the west physically by Strictly Limited first, before receiving another physical release through Clear River Games. But for some reason, the Nintendo Switch version for this game has been out of stock for many months at this point and the publisher hasn’t said anything about a reprint. I decided that I didn’t want to take the risk of waiting any longer, especially with the Switch nearing the end of its lifespan, and decided to find a copy on eBay.
Radiance Films World Cinema Haul Part 2
After sorting out the previous haul, that just left me with only three films left to get from their 2023 line-up in terms of European and Asian films. These three were available on Amazon, especially one of them which is already sold out on the distributor’s webstore.
Juanma Bajo Ulloa’s The Dead Mother (La madre muerta) is the most interesting of this batch. It’s a 1993 Spanish film that according to Fran (the founder of Radiance Films) on his commentary unboxing video it was recommended to him by none other than Guillermo del Toro himself! This limited edition also includes the film’s original soundtrack CD which was available in the licensing agreement.
Next we have a newer release with Alain Cavalier’s Le combat dans l’île, a 1962 French thriller with a good premise and it was helped by Radiance Films adding trailers for their titles on their social media. Radiance Films also released his 1976 film Fill ‘Er Up with Super which I received earlier in this haul.
And last but not least is Rudolf Thome’s Red Sun (Rote Sonne), a 1970 German film with a pretty decent concept though it’s apparently one of the weaker films that Radiance Films have released in their catalogue. This limited edition sold out late last year but there was stock left on Amazon so I ordered it from there.
That now concludes my mini Radiance Films haul for backlog, since going forward what’s left are their 2024 releases. I have yet to order any of the 2024 releases but I plan to sort it out sooner, especially as some of them seem to be more popular than others.
Blue Thermal
Next we have a new Anime Limited collector’s edition release which only just started their early bird a week prior from arriving in the post, which is Blue Thermal. I saw the visual a year ago and figured it would be picked up eventually and here we are. This does use the Shout! Factory disc so I have no clue if its theatrical or home video masters here.
Yoshi’s Crafted World
So last January a whole bunch of fans over in North America noticed a select number of Nintendo first-party games were delisted or out of stock entirely, suggesting the Nintendo Selects budget label is making a return. Granted we have no clue if that will even happen so I wanted to ensure I have those original copies sorted as soon as possible. Last month I picked up four games that were among the ones listed and today we have another one.
Yoshi’s Crafted World is a platformer that has honestly caught my eye ever since it was first revealed. Looked like a good time to check out and the last time I played a Yoshi game was probably Yoshi’s Island DS over a decade ago. Now while the US are panicking about their stock, the UK/Europe side of things are mostly fine but both Paper Mario: The Origami King and Yoshi’s Crafted World are both very limited in terms of availability and has been like this for about almost half a year. Retailers don’t have them so it’s down to the second market, so I paid retail price for a used copy though it’s in pretty good condition. I did find a copy at CeX when I went into town but the condition was not as good and the price was £42 which is more than what I paid here.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
The second instalment in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy is almost here but I have yet to order it and on top of that, I also wanted to revisit the first game again because it’s been almost four years since I had played the original PlayStation 4 version and there’s added content exclusive to the PlayStation 5 remaster.
So with that said, I ordered and received Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade. To recap, this remake adapts the first disc of the original PlayStation version and expands it a lot with new content, stories and much more. I probably will start over the game from scratch than use the trophy/save transfer idea to be honest.
Cursed to Golf & Persona 3 Portable
Around late January, retailer VideoGamesPlus revealed another batch of new stock from Limited Run Games which included Cursed to Golf and Persona 3 Portable. I had to wait patiently for payday before placing the order but they are both still in stock at the time of this post which is good.
Cursed to Golf looked like an intriguing golf roguelike game and while it is available on multiple platforms, Switch felt like the way to go for its style. As for Persona 3 Portable, I have played the Persona 3 FES game first but that was a digital copy on the PlayStation 3, so I had wanted to own a physical version for at least one of the games related to the original. This version is beloved by many so it’s great to see a physical version made available once again.
Paper Mario: The Origami King
In my earlier haul post I mentioned that I had picked up Yoshi’s Crafted World. To recap, that was one of two Nintendo first-party games that were much harder to find in Europe and the other was Paper Mario: The Origami King which I found on eBay. Surprisingly the prices were cheaper than the former so I figured I’ll get it now whilst I found it fairly affordable.
In terms of my experience with the franchise, I’ve finished the original on Nintendo Wii and the platformer type Super Paper Mario also on Wii, but I never played any of the others (so seeing Nintendo remaster the Gamecube game Thousand Year Door is great). I heard the reception for the games post-Wii were not particularly great but some have said the Switch one is better than the Wii U and 3DS ones.
The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Vols 1-6
Shoutout to Birdie Num Num on Anime UK News for recommending Scifier, as I received the first six manga volumes for The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You. It feels surreal to find another retailer that has manga available as there’s a lot of Seven Seas manga volumes that I want to pickup but the prices just aren’t there. Blackwells has been good but Scifier had each of these for solid prices, and there was a 10% discount code to help with the £1.99 per item cost.
It was also packaged really well with a big box that had a lot of bubble wrap, so while each volume wasn’t sealed there were no damages or dents from what I can see which is a good first impression.
Early Hou Hsiao-hsien: Three Films 1980-1983
Eureka Entertainment announced they had a few titles going out of print and available on their store for a decent discount before its too late. One of them was Harmonium which I thankfully got sorted last November, but the other which is what I needed was Early Hou Hsaio-hsien: Three Films 1980-1983 collection which features three Taiwanese films by the director – Cute Girl (就是溜溜的她), The Green, Green Grass of Home (在那河畔青草青), and The Boys from Fengkuei (風櫃來的人).
The Blu-ray collection was part of the Masters of Cinema range and did have a slipcover for its first print run but that was many years ago at that point. At least the range keeps the booklets which is neat.
Sentai Filmworks Store Blu-ray Haul
It’s a Stackry haul time and split into two parts because we have two different packages that I consolidated together.
First I want to talk about my small Sentai Filmworks Store haul which only covers three Blu-rays because the main focus was getting Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle which was going out of print due to licensing expiration. I made this order in mid-January so it’s been at Stackry for a while. The series was released by MVM years back, however I’ve been focusing on the re-release versions whenever possible which this one was from 2020.
Alongside the series are two more re-releases with Rail Wars and Triage X. Now you can probably tell by the image, but yes my copy of Rail Wars was unfortunately damaged by what appears to have been a knife that was used to rip open the package at Stackry. I didn’t want to risk being banned so I essentially asked them to be more careful going forward which they have responded by adding a permanent note for any of my packages going forward. I was able to rescue the artwork (Sentai don’t provide inside artwork which helps in this case) and the discs survived the slice as the cut didn’t go through the case other than a big scratch.
Anywho I have watched both of these shows. I am a big fan of Highschool of the Dead and the artist so I did enjoy Triage X. The manga is so out of print at this point so I wasn’t able to collect those volumes but I am happy to own the anime now, especially as this re-release is now on 2 discs instead of 1. Animatsu released it in the UK but this re-release came out last year.
Rail Wars was never released in the UK on home video, which I believe is partly because Animax UK had exclusive streaming rights by TBS so it was one of those that got caught up in the mess for licensing. One of the first shows I also simulcasted and it delivers, especially with the disc art oh my goodness.
Crunchyroll Store Blu-ray Haul
Next we have our Crunchyroll Store haul which consists of four more titles that were released throughout the past year. There was no sale so the prices were pretty much on par with the UK versions.
We have A Couple of Cuckoos, another romance harem series that I missed out on for simulcast watching but got both parts together. The series is from the creator of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches as well which helped.
Next we have The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody, another fantasy harem series that managed to get released on home video so I decided to pick it up. Silver Link adapted the series so that’s a good sign as I do like their work.
And of course we round it up with The Quintessential Quintuplets the Movie, the conclusion to your romance harem pouting saga. I haven’t watched the film yet so I am very intrigued to see how it ends. This release also comes included with the art card. The harem adventure may have come to a close, but in return we got ourselves Sentai Daishikkaku (Go Go Loser Ranger) to look forward to.
But yes I will recap what I said – these do have UK releases but I don’t like Crunchyroll UK’s current setup as it stands. I have no problem picking up some of their titles here and there, but I review each one on a case by case basis. I vote with my wallet on what I want to support at the end of the day.
Evil Dead Trap, Evil Dead Trap II & So Close
Next is our 88 Films February pre-orders which consists of one Hong Kong film and two Japanese films, the latter is part of their new Japanarchy line-up.
First we have the two Japanarchy films with Toshiharu Ikeda 1988’s J-Horror film Evil Dead Trap (死霊の罠) and Izo Hashimoto’s 1992 film Evil Dead Trap II: Hideki (死霊の罠2ヒデキ). Both of these are from the Director’s Company production which Third Window Films, despite managing to find the original masters, missed out on licensing by a few days to my recollection which is a shame.
Next we have the Hong Kong 2002 film by director Corey Yuen with So Close (夕陽天使). This got the same treatment as The Medallion in terms of packaging where it’s a basic standard release with a reversible cover and slipcase. I did notice the Columbia Pictures logo on the back cover so I wonder if this one may have a shorter licensing window than the others.
2.5 Dimensional Seduction Vols 1-6
Arriving close to the end of the month is another manga haul from retailer Scifier after the success of the first order. Much like The 100 Girlfriends there was another series that I had wanted to own volumes for but there had been stock issues or pricing wasn’t great from time to time. Fortunately the retailer had the first six manga volumes available for 2.5 Dimensional Seduction, which is a Shonen Jump+ series that Seven Seas is releasing under their Ghost Ship label. It’s also getting an anime adaptation soon by J.C. Staff so that’s another motivating factor to chasing up the volumes since The 100 Girlfriends had its early volumes sold out numerous times due to its anime as well.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
The final item for the month arrived at the very last second which is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second instalment in the remake trilogy that Square Enix are doing. With the first part remaking the first disc of the original PlayStation game, this one remakes the second disc where a bunch of the game’s content is located which includes the open world content, more environments and activities as well as major story development.
As this is one of the most anticipated games of the year I decided to pre-order it and play it as soon as possible.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Blue Thermal (CE Blu-ray)
What’s to Come for the Hauls
March 2024
For March we have more items ordered and expected to arrive in this timeframe, including another Discotek Media haul. One of the items has actually arrived today so I’ll be unboxing that very soon.
- Black Summoner (Blu-ray)
- Girly Air Force (Blu-ray)
- Granbelm -The Two Princeps- (CE Blu-ray)
- Great Pretender (DE Blu-ray)
- Gundam Build Fighters Try Part 1 (CE Blu-ray)
- Kiss x Sis: The OVA Series (Blu-ray)
- The Law of Ueki (SD-BD)
- Magical Girl Ore (Blu-ray)
- Re: Cutie Honey (Blu-ray)
- Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo (Blu-ray)
April 2024
We have one item so far for the month of April but expect more to show up as we get to the month.
- A Place Further Than the Universe (CE Blu-ray)
Other Tidbits
Work continues to be packed with stuff not yet being sorted, but I was rewarded in some way for the hard work in January. That reward will be put towards a new multi-region Blu-ray player since I need to sort that out.
Also just a fun note, yes this post was incomplete when I published it. I was unwell during that evening and wanted to make sure it was out on the first day of the month, but at least most of the items were covered beforehand.
Anime: Anime Limited
So we have more Anime Limited titles announced over the past month from another livestream, though not only did the livestream break itself but they never bothered to keep a recording available and also promised a blog post going over the reveals which they just did not bother to setup. Honestly communication at Anime Limited has been an absolute shitshow this past year and it’s not a good look.
For those who have missed the news (and so did I but as I am part of a community who did watch the stream I was able to be caught up to speed on the facts), I will note down here what was announced!
Brand new licenses revealed were B: The Beginning: Succession, Babylon, Beautiful Bones: Sakurado’s Investigation, Golden Time, Gundam Build Fighters Try, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Season 1, and Rental Magica. All of them will be receiving collector’s edition releases as well as standard edition Blu-rays. It does look like the collector’s editions will be exclusive to Anime Limited’s storefront as there are no listings available for other retailers and the standard editions are being listed much sooner to the usual 3-6 month waiting period.
In terms of their early birds, the pre-orders are now open for Blue Thermal (which shipped out pretty fast), Granbelm -The Two Princeps- (scheduled for early March, this was made available sooner as there were delays with Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution), Gundam Build Fighters Try Part 1 (scheduled for mid-March), A Place Further Than the Universe (scheduled for mid-April), and most recently both Somali and the Forest Spirit (scheduled for mid-March) and Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It Season 1 (scheduled for mid-March).
So as you can see, we have a lot of Sentai Filmworks titles and Crunchyroll sub-licensed titles that Sentai Filmworks also distributed, plus one from Netflix and another from Nozomi. This does mean we are more than likely to get titles like Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! and Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun! Season 1 under Anime Limited since Sentai has also released those from Crunchyroll, but who knows what may happen. Outside of that, Rental Magica is a pretty neat surprise given this is a Nozomi license, and if this acquisition was done post-Crunchyroll merger then it’s a good sign we may see more El-Hazard and other titles under that distributor that can still be brought over, like Sound of the Sky and Please Teacher & Twins series.
Outside of these announcements, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom has been picked up by Anime Limited which is the first new Gundam to be picked up in a while, since Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury were distributed by Crunchyroll, though they’re not yet released on home video so nobody knows what’s going on there. Meanwhile Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway is with Netflix which has a better chance of being licensed over here. On a different note, if you didn’t want to spend twice as much on Gundam Build Fighters via their collector’s editions, the standard edition is a complete series set which does make me question how poorly handled that series has been from the distributor. At least the discs are solid but still it was unnecessary to split it up.
Anime: Crunchyroll
Meanwhile Crunchyroll UK has been stepping it up a bit and pretty much every single anime that was announced for the US May slate are all going to be released in the UK, which is really surprising because they normally skip a lot of them. I suppose they realised they have to do this to avoid poor sales, which makes sense because they have made poor decisions in the past like not initially bothering to release The Quintessential Quintuplets which was one of the biggest shows of that year (and when they finally did, no surprise it sold poorly because everyone imported, but at least they got the rest now for the UK).
So what we have incoming to the UK this June are both the standard and limited editions for both Mob Psycho 100 III and Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! Season 2, and regular releases for BLUELOCK Season 1 Part 2, Dr. STONE: NEW WORLD (Season 3) Part 1, A Galaxy Next Door, The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague, KONOSUBA – An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Punch! (bizarrely without the first season being released over here), and My Home Hero. Some of these may get pushed back into July.
The multi-language titles are also heading to the UK this June/July; Dead Mount Death Play Part 1, The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World, KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World, and Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement. These have French & German dubs (sometimes either one may not be included) but they have the subtitles. It’s good for the European fans, however this does mean the prices are much higher and artwork is modified to reflect the German market so if you want a 1-on-1 version of the US release, unfortunately you’re not going to be getting that here.
I have seen photos of some newer UK releases like By the Graces of the Gods Season 2, Handyman Saitou in Another World and Ningen Fushin which have slipcases. If the price is right I will pick them up but for now it’s on hold.
Anime: Discotek Media
Next we have Discotek Media who have decided to give April a break from any new releases due to the production issues and queues going on for various distributors since the holiday season. Fair play and it does give me some time to slowly catch up.
Now let’s go over the bad news. There are more titles going out of print as they had updated their website which is where the information was found. In fact I found out about the latest batch by pure chance and was more prepped before others had been showing it off.
So the ones that went out of print were Crunchyroll sub-licenses Angel’s 3Piece, Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon, Caligula, Kemono Friends, Konosuba Seasons 1 & 2 steelbooks, Magical Girl Ore, Mitchiri Neko, To Be Hero & To Be Heroine, and Yowamushi Pedal: New Generation. I already owned Anti-Magic Academy and Konosuba from Anime Limited’s release as well as To Be Hero & To Be Heroine, which was one of those super limited releases that Discotek had advertised, and Yowamushi Pedal: New Generation, to complete the series that Discotek had put out so far (Crunchyroll owns the license from New Generation (Season 3) onwards so Discotek won’t be able to get them going forward). I actually reviewed what was left in this batch and decided to only focus on Magical Girl Ore as that was the one that I was more than happy to own compared to the others.
Also going out of print were older releases. These were Black Jack the Movie, Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier, Elemental Gelade, The Law of Ueki, Mon Colle Knights (English ver.), Yowamushi Pedal and Yowamushi Pedal: Grande Road. I actually got pretty lucky here because I bought most of these in previous hauls, so the only one left here for me to pick up (again I was happy to own) was The Law of Ueki.
In addition to those, Discotek also revealed that a few more will also be discontinued but not right now, essentially get them sooner to avoid missing out. Those being Chargeman Ken, Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics Season 1, Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics Season 2, Lupin the Third Part V, and Video Warrior Laserion. I already own the Anime Limited release for Lupin the Third Part V which does use the Discotek discs so I won’t need to double dip here. The rest are not to my interest but I may consider Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics, though if its no longer around I won’t regret it.
So what’s next for the Discotek haul? Well I have 6 titles ordered and sorted, some of which were recently discontinued, and there’s room for more to be added which I will sort out on the next payday. Looking into Kyo Kara Maoh! next which is another older isekai series, and there’s about 1-2 Crunchyroll sub-licenses left that I may look into if they are in stock. But again I do want to focus more on older releases because they are the ones that are more at risk compared to newer titles.
Asian Cinema: 88 Films
There’s been some new updates in the Asian Cinema collecting scene, with more new releases and also 4K Ultra HD titles.
From 88 Films they revealed their second quarter line-up! There’s a good selection of titles for home video. First up we have the next two films in this series with The Inspector Wears Skirts III: Raid on Royal Casino Marine and The Inspector Wears Skirts IV. These films would normally be presented in a box set but licensing restrictions prevented that so they instead have individual releases.
Chan Chuen’s Fearless Hyena Part II and Kevin Chu’s Island of Fire are two more Jackie Chan films now scheduled for release in the UK on Blu-ray and one step closer to getting those pre-2000s films starring the actor in the Hong Kong scene completed. The rest are pretty much down to licensing issues but you never know. Stephen Chow’s CJ7 is also getting released on Blu-ray, also a step closer to the actor’s backlog available on home video.
Category III film The Holy Virgin Versus The Evil Dead from Tony Lou Chun-Ku starring Donnie Yen is also getting released in the UK with two versions; one that was rated Category II (and 15 in the UK) and the original Category III (which was rated 18 in the UK). The Category III logo isn’t on the spine but at least we got more of these released to the UK uncut.
For 4K Ultra HD we have Gordon Chan’s Fist of Legend starring Jet Li and a re-release of Lo Wei’s To Kill With Intrigue starring Jackie Chan. The latter was one of the first Jackie Chan releases for 88 Films but didn’t have the best masters, so this is the third title to be re-released from the first batch that were released (Dragon Fist is now the last one left).
What I found interesting with this batch is there’s been more focus on not just Jackie Chan’s filmography but also Jet Li and Stephen Chow because it’s just happened out of nowhere. Perhaps the success of Jackie Chan as well as Sammo Hung and Shaw Brothers ‘s directed films have helped convince Golden Harvest and many others to bring more of their works, whether common or very niche, over to the UK.
Asian Cinema: Eureka Entertainment
I’ve not ordered any of the newer Eureka Entertainment releases from February onwards but they do have some interesting picks in the coming months.
To recap, for February they released Lo Wei’s Slaughter In San Francisco, starring Chuck Norris, and Ryuichi Takamori & Buichi Saitô’s Yakuza Wolf 1 & 2, starring Sonny Chiba. Both of these are on Blu-ray. In March we have Ryuichi Takamori’s Bodyguard Kiba 1 & 2, also starring Sonny Chiba, and Joseph Kuo’s The Swordsman of All Swordsman limited edition release which includes the film The Mystery of Chess Boxing on the second disc.
In April, we have 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray versions for Robert Clouse’s China O’Brien 1 & 2 starring Cynthia Rothrock, and Daniel Lee’s Black Mask, starring Jet Li, which will also be released as a limited edition which includes a second disc for additional versions of the film.
And then recently we got our May line-up which features a 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray versions for King Hu’s The Valiant Ones for Masters of Cinema, as well as a three film collection called Prison Walls: Abashiri Prison 1-3 by Teruo Ishii also going to be released under the Masters of Cinema range. And to wrap it up we have Ting Shan-hsi’s A Queen’s Ransom starring Jimmy Wang Yu and Angela Mao.
This is a lot to get but I am very intrigued to see King Hu return as it’s been a couple of years since we last saw anything from his catalogue make their appearance on Blu-ray by Eureka. Makes me wonder if there are potential plans to re-release his other films that Eureka have already released on Blu-ray onto the 4K Ultra HD format.
Asian & World Cinema: Radiance Films
I’ve been focusing on getting the remainder of the World Cinema titles from 2023’s line-up, so now I have the 2024 titles to pick up. The January and February titles are pretty much now out in the wild but there’s still titles for March and April to look forward too. They do have more titles going to be revealed very soon.
Just to recap the 2024 line-up so far. In January we have Kōhei Oguri’s The Sting of Death (#037), Damiano Damiani’s Goodbye & Amen (#038), and Tai Kato’s I, The Executioner (#042). Two Japanese films and one Italian film to start off the year. I was going to order these at the start of February but ended up focusing on catching up with the 2023 titles instead.
In February which are now available, we have Tai Kato’s By A Man’s Face Shall You Know Him (#040), Yasuharu Hasebe’s Black Tight Killers (#043) and Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani’s Allonsanfan (#044). Once again we have two Japanese films and one Italian film, though this time the latter is a single print release so I’ll definitely be making sure I own that sooner than later.
For March we have more interesting picks and you can tell there’s been more Japanese films in this year’s slate. I recall Fran used to work at Arrow Video so it would make sense for these films to work under the Arrow Academy label if they had kept it going. Anywho we have Kiju Yoshida’s A Story Written with Water (#045), Shigehiro Ozawa & Eiichi Kudo’s The Bounty Hunter Trilogy limited edition box set (#046-047), and Duccio Tessari’s Tony Arzenta: Big Guns (#049). Four Japanese films and one Italian film. There was one other title but it has been pushed back to April due to production issues. Kiju Yoshida’s film is also a single print release.
In April there’s the delayed release for Lou Ye’s Suzhou River (#048), and then there’s Jacques Rivette’s L’amour fou (#050), Luigi Comencini’s Misunderstood (#051) and Noburo Nakamura’s The Shape of Night (#052). More variety here with one Chinese film, one French film, one Italian film and one Japanese film. Each of these actually sound really interesting for different reasons. The one that a lot of people are looking forward to is L’amour fou since it’s a new restoration and considered a classic in the French film scene.
Then we have our May line-up which is even more interesting and it’s why I’ve been more dedicated to Radiance Film’s catalog because it feels more polished with the film choices and also rewarding on the packaging and contents. So here we have Satsuo Yamamoto & Kazuo Mori’s Shinobi Trilogy limited edition box set (#054-055), Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires (#053) and Laura Citarella’s Trenque Lauquen (#062). Three Japanese films, one Italian film and one Argentinan film split into two parts. Planet of the Vampires is the one I’m most interested in watching because it’s apparently a big inspiration for a lot of sci-fi horror films that came afterwards and it’s got an interesting premise as well. Trenque Lauquen also has a interesting mystery to it so I want to watch it and see how it unfolds.
And that concludes the February haul for 2024. I am anticipating a rather large haul for March so look forward to it.
The Normanic Vault 
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