Who wants more film news?
Hopefully all of you good people, because Arrow have announced their slate for June and to no one's surprise have continued their John Woo releases, going for the hard hitting Bullet in the Head in both blu-ray and 4K.
Then I did a double take, after all Arrow have had Audition out for years but here is Takashi Miike's infamous, notorious, Audition in glorious 4K. What better excuse to return to the film that really made people in the UK stand up and pay attention to Miike's varied filmography.
88 Films are entering the sports arena with a release of Ping Pong.
Moving over to the Arrow Player, they have, drum roll, Anime April including the inclusion of Bubblegum Crash, Time of Eve and Riding Bean. Mid-April brings us Eichi Kudo's The Great Killing and13 Assassins. Finally, Macoto Tezka's Legend of the Stardust Brothers (otherwise available on blu-ray from Third Window).
Bullet in the Head
Set during the Vietnam war, the film follows B, Fai and Wing (iconic actors Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Jacky Cheung and Waise Lee), three best friends fleeing from Hong Kong to seek their fortune as smugglers. In Saigon, they join forces with fellow expat Lok (Simon Yam) and double-cross the ruthless gangster Luong to steal his gold and rescue nightclub singer Sau-ching (Yolinda Yan) from his clutches. The gang must fight their way out of the country in a nightmarish odyssey where each new battle pushes them beyond their limits and threatens to destroy their friendship.
Audition
When recent widower Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi, American Yakuza) is advised by his son to find a new wife, he seeks the advice of a colleague having been out of the dating scene for many years. The two men decide to take advantage of their position working at a film company to stage an audition to find the perfect partner. Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu soon becomes enchanted by Asami (Eihi Shiina), a quiet, 24-year-old woman, who is immediately responsive to his charms. However, events quickly take a very dark and twisted turn as we find that Asami isn't what she seems to be...
Ping Pong
Punkish ping pong prodigy Peco (Yosuke Kubozuka; Go, Silence) is on a losing streak, not helped by his friend since childhood, Smile (ARATA; After Life, United Red Army), intentionally letting him win in their practice sessions. As tournament day draws near, it is up to Peco to regain his mojo to take on such fearsome opponents as China (Sam Lee; Made in Hong Kong), who has fallen off the Chinese national team and wound up, bitter, in Japan, and Dragon (Nakamura Shido), their arch-nemesis from the rival Kaio Academy team, who approaches the table with an almost militaristic fanaticism.
