On April 8, Arrow Video releases The Long Kiss Goodnight, the amnesiac spy thriller from acclaimed director Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea, Die Hard 2) and screenwriter Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Iron Man 3). The limited-edition release features a brand new 4K restoration approved by Renny Harlin in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) on 4K UHD with hours of special features.
Samantha Caine (Thelma & Louise’s Geena Davis) appears to live a normal life in a small Pennsylvanian town as a schoolteacher with a daughter (Yvonne Zima, Our Flag Means Death) and a nice boyfriend. The only problem is, she can’t remember anything beyond eight years ago when she washed up on a beach, pregnant with her daughter. Her past is about to catch up with her when private investigator Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson, Pulp Fiction) uncovers a major clue to her real identity. It turns out Samatha had an extraordinary life before her big blackout and it’s all coming back to her during the Christmas holidays.
The special features include audio commentaries with Walter Chaw, Drusilla Adeline, and Joshua Conkel; video interviews with stunt coordinator Steve Davidson, make-up artist Gordon J. Smith, and actress Yvonne Zima; visual essays by film scholar Josh Nelson, critic/filmmaker Howard S. Berger, and film scholar Alexandrea Heller-Nicholas; deleted scenes; archival interviews with Renny Harlin, Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, and Craig Bierko; an archival making-of featurette; the theatrical trailer; an image gallery; a Thin Ice sticker; a seasonal postcard; and an illustrated collector’s booklet.
Watch the trailer for The Long Kiss Goodnight here:
On April 29, Arrow Video delivers a definitive collection of iconic Japanese crime films with V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal, a 5-disc, nine-film set on Blu-ray. Starting in 1989, the legendary Toei Studios began producing movies for VHS and other home video formats under their V-Cinema label. By avoiding the ratings board process for a cinematic release, filmmakers working in V-Cinema had creative freedom to be extreme when it came to violence, gore, and eroticism. The Limited-Edition release features nine of the best titles of the era presented in 1080p, and packed with special features – making this the perfect primer for the best genre you didn’t know.
Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage was the first V-Cinema release and introduced the studio’s new approach to films. A rogue cop looking to avenge the death of his police partner teams up with a gun-packing nun that wants the same killer for ripping off her church’s collection plate.
Shô Aikawa (Takashi Miike’s Rainy Dog) is the newest member of a yakuza family who is ordered to take part in a retaliatory hit job but is faced with a big decision when his fellow family members abandon him in Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet. The movie also stars Joe Shishido (Gate of Flesh) as his uncle.
Stranger, directed by Shunichi Nagasaki (Shikoku), pumps up the paranoia as a female taxi driver is being followed by a stranger in an SUV during her late shift and fears it has something to do with her nefarious past.
Carlos features a Brazilian-Japanese crook under the impression that he can outsmart rival yakuza families and pit them against each other, but he doesn’t quite cover all the angles. Burning Dog centers on a thievery ring eager to pull off a major heist on the U.S. military base on Okinawa, but the one thing they didn’t plan for was the betrayal of each other.
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat revives the hit movie series with a female assassin hired to go undercover in a prison to release the infamous Scorpion from a subterranean cell.
When his girlfriend is turned into a human shield during a yakuza shootout, a man submerges into the underground for revenge in The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses. The film was directed by the legendary Teruo Ishii who also helmed Shogun’s Joy of Torture, Orgies of Edo, and Abashiri Prison.
Danger Point: The Road to Hell stars Shô Aikawa (The Eel) and Joe Shishido (Branded To Kill) as a pair of contract killers who find their partnership in question after their most recent hit. Makiko Kuno (Mari’s Prey) has been trained by a blind priest to be a contract killer for the church, but her latest target awakens her in XX: Beautiful Hunter.
The special features include introductions on all films by Japanese film critic Masaki Tanioka; newly filmed interviews with Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage director Shundo Okawa, Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet writer-director Banmei Takahashi, Stranger writer-director Shunichi Nagasaki, Carlos writer-director Kazuhiro Kiuchi; and XX: Beautiful Hunter screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi; brand new video essays; original trailers for most of the films; nine postcard-sized art cards; and an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Earl Jackson, Daisuke Miyao, and Hayley Scanlon.
Watch the trailer for Burning Dog here:
