Arrow Video has officially announced that they will be bringing two new Blu-Ray releases to their collection this February. This month will see the release of Rodney Ascher and David Lawrence’s “dark and irresistible” documentary The El Duce Tapes and Teruo Ishii‘s euro-guro Shogun’s Joy of Torture on Blu-Ray. Both releases come loaded with special features that should more than thrill fans. Get all the details on both releases below!
The El Duce Tapes
Release Date: February 9, 2021
In the early 90s, aspiring filmmaker (and General Hospital co-star) Ryan Sexton lugged a giant camcorder into some of the seediest clubs and the filthiest apartments in Hollywood. There he filmed hour upon hour of VHS footage of the jaw-droppingly offensive Shock Rock band The Mentors, focusing on their infamous lead singer, “El Duce.” 30 years later, the team behind The Nightmare and Room 237 and the editor of Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist uncover this dusty stockpile of long forgotten – and unseen – footage. They begin to piece together a picture of the man under the black executioner’s hood and what his wilfully offensive act and controversial views might tell us about 21st century America. An Incendiary, tragicomic documentary (midway between The Decline of Western Civilization and Crumb) which has been hailed as “Essential Viewing” by CineVue and called “Dark and Irresistible” by director John Carpenter, The El Duce Tapes will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you floored.
Bonus Materials
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
- Brand new audio commentary with The El Duce Tapes crew
- The Ryan Sexton Tapes – 34-minute illustrated audio conversation between Ryan Sexton and producer Tim Kirk about the shooting of the original VHS footage
- The Nilbog Tapes – Video of the band recording the original score for the film
- More El Duce Tapes – A free-standing alternate assembly of unused material, sort of a sideways sequel
- Tape 2: Hollywood Reservoir – A piece of raw tape providing a peek behind the scenes of the process of shooting the footage and a candid document of El Duce and Ryan’s rapport
- El Duce Stories – A humorous cut-up of a few of El Duce’s famously long aimless stories into one completely incomprehensible and endless word salad
- Return to Rape Rock Mountain – A brand new interview with Steve Broy, aka Dr. Heathen Scum of The Mentors
- Reality Check presents the all-female El Duce tribute band The Womentors
- Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by John Pearson and reverse art by Benjamin Marra
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Manish Agarwal
Shogun’s Joy of Torture
Release Date: February 23, 2021
From the outrageous imagination of cult director Teruo Ishii (Orgies of Edo, Horrors of Malformed Men) comes this infamous omnibus of three shocking tales of crime and punishment based on true-life documented cases set during the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate. The first tale sees the beautiful Mitsu (Masumi Tachibana) going to horrifying lengths to tend to her older brother Shinzō (Teruo Yoshida), a carpenter injured in a work accident, but the law catches up on them and metes out a terrifying retribution after they violate the ultimate taboo. In the second, unfettered passions in a Buddhist nunnery are not allowed to go unpunished after abbess Reihō (Yukie Kagawa) and her attendant Rintoku (Naomi Shiraishi) encounter a virile young monk from a neighboring temple. In the closing segment, a sadistic torturer (Fumio Watanabe) attempts to show a tattoo artist (Asao Koike) how to depict convincing expressions of faces of pain in his work by allowing him to sketch a selection of Europeans as they are tortured for entering Japan with the aim of spreading Christianity. Ishii’s notorious portmanteau of Edo-era excess signaled a change in direction for a director until then regarded for his crime and yakuza films, setting the ball rolling on the run of grotesque historical anthologies for which he is now best remembered. Vehemently denounced by the critics of the day, Shogun’s Joy of Torture set a new benchmark for the depiction of sex, sadism and depravity in Japanese exploitation, with Ishii staging his elaborate torture methods with an unmatched verve and inventiveness.
Bonus Materials
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
- Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary by Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes
- Teruo Ishii: Erotic-Grotesque Maestro – an exclusively newly filmed interview with the author Patrick Macias
- Bind, Torture, Thrill – author and critic Jasper Sharp discusses the history of torture in Japanese exploitation cinema
- Original trailer
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jacob Phillips
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark Schilling
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
