Arrow Video and Arrow Academy have announced four new titles to join their collection on 4K UHD and Blu-Ray this December: Tremors (1990), Cinema Paradiso (1988), Versus (2000) and Survivor Ballads: Three Films by Shohei Imamura (1989). These represent an Oscar-winning Italian favorite, a wicked Japanese bloodfest, a cult favorite monster flick and three films from one of the leaders of the Japanese New Wave. Details on these films can be found below:
Tremors (4K UHD & Blu-Ray)
Street Date: December 15, 2020
Synopsis: A pulse-pounding love letter to 1950s creature features that delivers horror and humor in equal measure, Tremors is a bonafide cult classic that has grabbed audiences’ affections ever since its release and spawned a successful franchise that continues to this day.
Good-ol’-boy handymen Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) are sick of their dead-end jobs in one-horse desert town Perfection, Nevada (population: 14). Just as they’re about to escape Perfection forever, however, things start to get really weird: half-eaten corpses litter the road out of town; the phone lines stop working; and a plucky young scientist shows evidence of unusually strong seismic activity in the area. Something is coming for the citizens of Perfection… and it’s under the goddamn ground!
Bursting with indelible characters, quotable dialogue and jaw-dropping special effects, Tremors is back and bigger than ever in this 4K-restored and fully loaded collectors’ edition.
4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- New 4K restoration from the original negative by Arrow Films, approved by director Ron Underwood and director of photography Alexander Gruszynski
- 60-page perfect-bound book featuring new writing by Kim Newman and Jonathan Melville and selected archive materials
- Large fold-out double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Frank
- Small fold-out double-sided poster featuring new Graboid X-ray art by Matt Frank
- Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproduction artcards
- Limited Edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Frank
DISC 1 – FEATURE & EXTRAS (4K UHD BLU-RAY)
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Restored DTS-HD MA original theatrical 2.0 stereo, 4.0 surround, and remixed 5.1 surround audio options
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- New audio commentary by director Ron Underwood and writers/producers Brent Maddock & S.S. Wilson
- New audio commentary by Jonathan Melville, author of Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors
- Making Perfection, a brand new documentary by Universal Studios interviewing key cast and crew from the franchise (including Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross, Ariana Richards, Ron Underwood, among many others) and revisiting the original locations
- The Truth About Tremors, a newly filmed interview with co-producer Nancy Roberts on the film’s rocky road to the screen
- Bad Vibrations, a newly filmed interview with director of photography Alexander Gruszynski
- Aftershocks and Other Rumblings, newly filmed on-set stories from associate producer Ellen Collett
- Digging in the Dirt, a new featurette interviewing the crews behind the film’s extensive visual effects
- Music for Graboids, a new featurette on the film’s music with composers Ernest Troost and Robert Folk
- Pardon My French!, a newly assembled compilation of overdubs from the edited-for television version
- The Making of Tremors, an archive documentary from 1995 by Laurent Bouzereau, interviewing the filmmakers and special effects teams
- Creature Featurette, an archive compilation of on-set camcorder footage showing the making of the Graboids
- Electronic press kit featurette and interviews with Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross and Reba McIntire
- Deleted scenes, including the original opening scene
- Theatrical trailers, TV and radio spots for the original film as well as trailers for the entire Tremors franchise
- Comprehensive image galleries, including rare behind-the-scenes stills, storyboards and two different drafts of the screenplay
DISC 2 – INTERVIEWS & SHORT FILMS (BLU-RAY – LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE)
- Extended hour-long interviews from Making Perfection with Ron Underwood, Brent Maddock, S.S. Wilson, Nancy Roberts and creature designer Alec Gillis
- Outtakes with optional introduction and commentary by S.S. Wilson
- Three early short films by the makers of Tremors, remastered in high definition, including S.S. Wilson’s stop-motion horror/comedy classic Recorded Live (1975)
Cinema Paradiso (4K UHD & Blu-Ray)
Street Date: December 8, 2020
Synopsis: A CELEBRATION OF YOUTH, FRIENDSHIP, AND THE EVERLASTING MAGIC OF THE MOVIES A winner of awards across the world including Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, 5 BAFTA Awards including Best Actor, Original Screenplay and Score, the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival and many more. Giuseppe Tornatore’s loving homage to the cinema tells the story of Salvatore, a successful film director, returning home for the funeral of Alfredo, his old friend who was the projectionist at the local cinema throughout his childhood. Soon memories of his first love affair with the beautiful Elena and all the highs and lows that shaped his life come flooding back, as Salvatore reconnects with the community he left 30 years earlier. The original award-winning theatrical version of Tornatore’s classic is presented here for the first time on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. This edition also includes the expanded Director’s Cut, which delves deeper into Salvatore’s backstory [Blu-ray].
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of the 124 minute theatrical version
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the 174 minute Director’s Cut
- Uncompressed original stereo 2.0 Audio and 5.1 surround sound options
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary with director Giuseppe Tornatore and Italian cinema expert critic Millicent Marcus
- A Dream of Sicily – 52-minute documentary profile of Giuseppe Tornatore with interviews with the director and extracts from his early home movies and interviews with director Francesco Rosi and painter Peppino Ducato, set to music by Ennio Morricone
- A Bear and a Mouse in Paradise – A 27-minute documentary on the making of Cinema Paradiso and the characters of Toto and Alfredo, featuring interviews the actors who play them, Philippe Noiret and Salvatore Cascio as well as Tornatore
- The Kissing Sequence – Giuseppe Tornatore discusses the origins of the kissing scenes with clips identifying each scene
- Original Director’s Cut Theatrical Trailer and 25th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer
Street Date: December 8, 2020
Synopsis: A relentless one-of-a-kind sensory assault chock-full of hyper-kinetic fight scenes, gangster shootouts, sword-slashing violence and gory zombie horror, Versus was a key title amongst the barrage of innovative horror and action movies that appeared as if from nowhere from Japan at the turn of the millennium, leading to a new wave of appreciation for Asian extreme cinema.
A mysterious face-off in a wooded clearing between two escaped convicts and a carload of sharply dressed yakuza holding a beautiful woman captive ends in hails of bullets and showers of blood. The location for this violent encounter is the mythic Forest of Resurrection, the site of the 444th portal of the 666 hidden gates that link this earthly domain to the netherworld – and it didn’t get this name for nothing. As one of the surviving prisoners escapes with the girl into the darkness of the forest, disgruntled gangsters soon become the least of their worries as an earlier battle between a lone warrior against hordes of zombie samurai is carried over from a millennium ago into the present day…
Versus caused a sensation both in Japan and internationally upon its release, launching the careers of director Ryûhei Kitamura (Godzilla Final Wars, Midnight Meat Train) and action star and fight choreographer Tak Sakaguchi (Battlefield Baseball, Yakuza Weapon). Arrow Video is proud to present this mythic cult title in both its original 2000 and expanded 2004 Ultimate Versus iterations, in a brand new, director-approved restoration.
- Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements by Arrow Films, approved by director Ryûhei Kitamura
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray™ presentations of both versions of the film: the original 2000 cut and 2004’s Ultimate Versus, featuring over 10 minutes of new and revised footage
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
- DISC 1: VERSUS
- Original lossless Japanese 5.1 and 2.0 stereo audio and English 2.0 stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary by Kitamura and producer Keishiro Shin
- Audio commentary by Kitamura and the cast and crew
- New visual essay on the career of Kitamura by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp
- Behind Versus, a two-part behind-the-scenes documentary exploring the film’s production
- First Contact: Versus Evolution, a featurette exploring the film’s origins
- Tak Sakaguchi’s One-Man Journey, an archival featurette on the actor’s visit to the 2001 Japan Film Festival in Hamburg
- Film festival screening footage
- Team Versus, a brief look inside the Napalm Films office
- Deep in the Woods, an archival featurette featuring interviews with Kitamura, cast and crew
- The Encounter, an archival interview with editor Shûichi Kakesu
- Deleted scenes with audio commentary by Kitamura, cast and crew
- Nervous and Nervous 2, two “side story” mini-movies featuring characters from the main feature
- Featurette on the making of Nervous 2
- Versus FF Version, a condensed, 20-minute recut of the film
- Multiple trailers
- Image gallery
- DISC 2: ULTIMATE VERSUS
- Original lossless Japanese 6.1 and 2.0 stereo audio and English 6.1 and 2.0 stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary by Kitamura, cast and crew
- Sakigake! Otoko versus Juku, a featurette on the newly shot material for Ultimate Versus
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film and a reprinted interview with Kitamura by Tom Mes, and notes on the making of the film by Kitamura
Street Date: December 8, 2020
Synopsis: Throughout the 1980s, Shōhei Imamura (The Pornographers, Profound Desires of the Gods), a leading figure of the Japanese New Wave era of the 1960s, cemented his international reputation as one of the most important directors of his generation with a series of films that all competed at Cannes to great critical acclaim. This exclusive box set from Arrow Academy presents restored versions of three late career classics from the legendary filmmaker.
Based on an ancient folktale, The Ballad of Narayama (1983) was the first of two works from the director to win the prestigious Cannes Palme d’Or. Imamura’s magnum opus depicts the members of an extended farming family eking out their existence in the mountainous north of Japan against the backdrop of the changing seasons before village lore decrees they make the sacrifice of abandoning their aged mother on the top of a nearby mountain when she reaches her seventieth year. Making its HD debut, Zegen (1987) takes a satirical look at Japan’s prewar colonial expansion through the unscrupulous eyes of its flesh-peddler antihero as he establishes a prostitution enterprise across Southeast Asia. Finally, the harrowing Black Rain (1989) details the precarious existence of a household of atomic bomb survivors as, five years after being caught in the blast of Hiroshima, they struggle to find a husband for their 25-year-old niece.
These three works epitomize the director’s almost documentary style of filmmaking, exposing the vulgar yet vibrant and instinctive underbelly of Japanese society through a sympathetic focus on peasants, prostitutes, criminal lowlife and other marginalized figures to explore the schism between the country’s timeless premodern traditions and the modern face it projects to the world.
- Restored High Definition Blu-rayTM (1080p) presentations of all three films
- Original lossless Japanese PCM 1.0 mono soundtracks
- Optional English subtitles
- Brand new audio commentaries on all three films by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp
- Brand new, in-depth appreciations of all three films by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns
- Alternate color ending to Black Rain, shot by Imamura but removed from the film shortly before its release
- Archival interviews on Black Rain with actress Yoshiko Tanaka and assistant director Takashi Miike
- Multiple trailers and image galleries
- Original Japanese press kits for The Ballad of Narayama and Black Rain (BD-ROM content)
- Limited edition 60-page booklet containing new writing by Tom Mes
- Limited edition packaging featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
