Non-Criterion Boutique Home Video Discussion (Kino, Warner Archive, Arrow, Indicator, Vinegar Syndrome, Code Red, etc.)

The notion was floated a while back of starting a thread to cover the myriad of non-Criterion boutique physical media distributors, and this bit of (potentially sad? although opinions are divided as to what it actually means) Warner Archive news finally prompted me to undertake the daunting process of clicking 'New Question':

QUE SERA SE-SAVINGS!
2021 is here, and with it comes change. So we and our friends at the Araca Group that manage WBShop wanted to say thank you for your support with a final 4 for 44 sale! Start your lists and get ready to save on the weekend of March 12th, 2021! See you then!

Oh good, that sale's still like three weeks away.

Olive Films puts out a lot of good stuff. Can't seem to find a proper home page.

https://www.deepdiscount.com/olive-films/b236587

A small and arthouse-centric Kino sale started today alongside Criterion's: https://www.kinolorber.com/list/view/code/feb-brrr-ary-sale_2021

xpost I appreciate the titles that Olive releases but I'm not crazy about the fact that they're mostly bare-bones releases (usually just the film itself).

Agreed. Olive releases tend to make me frustrated Criterion or someone else didn't get them.

Sometimes I stream from Kino Now, does that count?

Weekend before last I watched some Hungarian mind game thriller that I liked, title is really long and hard to remember.

Huh, I didn't even know they had their own streaming service. It seems like a lot of their physical releases wind up streaming on Criterion Channel.

Wait, I misspoke. Kino Lorber does have its own streaming service called Kino Now, but I streamed PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME from Film Forum.

Really hope that's not really the final Warner Archive sale! I didn't buy that often, but it was a nice thing to have around.

Streaming the latest Philippe Garrel from Film Forum now before it goes away.

xpost My understanding is that WB is parting ways with the company that runs WB Shop. There has been speculation running the gamut from 'so this is just the final 4 for $44 with that particular distributor' to 'so this means that WB is shuttering Warner Archive altogether'. Given that WB often demonstrates the sound business acumen of a downed power line whipping madly across a roadway, the real answer could fall anywhere within that continuum.

I recommend this Philippe Garrel film.

I'm sad about the possible demise of WB Archive but to be honest I could never be bothered with bare bones releases, even if the transfers are very good. Without the contextualization I'd rather just stream it or, in the before times, wait until it hits a repertory cinema.

Can heartily recommend the first volume of Indicator's Columbia Noir boxes. Bought it kinda expecting scraps, but the overall level is actually pretty good, and Drive A Crooked Road might make it on a hypothetical list of my all-time fave noirs.

Second Run is another one to look out for - they specialise in Eastern European cinema, so I end up giving them less of my money than I should because I'm just not very savvy on that topic yet. But a recent release that I loved is Tomorrow I'll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea, which is a nazi time travel comedy (!) from Czechoslovakia. Very much official state cinema, not a Czech New Wave kind of thing, but really clever with its time travel conceit; can't think of another movie that uses it so well this side of Back To The Future.

Finally, 88 Films, headed by Nicky Wire in a banana suit, have just had British censors refuse them permission to release a blu-ray for some Italian nazisploitation orgy thing, which is dumb but also very funny if you immediatley think of dude's ilx days.

i've been eyeing up the Second Run dvds for a while now, always meaning to buy more, but i only have the Jancso box.

(and Daisies. but then everyone has Daisies)

I'm sad about the possible demise of WB Archive but to be honest I could never be bothered with bare bones releases, even if the transfers are very good.

Huh. Are the latter regular Warner DVD releases that went OOP?

Some are. They just released Curse of Frankenstein which I think got a crummy snapcase DVD release 20 years ago in the US but was otherwise only ever available in multipacks. The new blu-ray is a two-disc set with the film in three different aspect ratios and a whole lot of new features.

Looking over my recent purchases (Curse, Shop Around the Corner, Meet Me in St. Louis, Best Years of our Lives), only Best Years is fairly stingy with the extras.

Second Run's Goodbye Dragon Inn might be my favorite release of the last year. Or at least my favorite movie that finally got a decent set.

Didn't realise Nicky Wire Bananaman actually ran 88 Films, but did watch one of his documentaries on a release - might have been Massacre In Dinosaur Valley? - so it makes sense.

I have never understood what "nicky wire in a banana suit" means and had no idea he was a poster...is there some reasonable reason his company has that name?

Big Hitler fan and cinephile

One of those more believable than the other.

ugh hitler stans are so annoying

Just did a nostalgic search through thread titles started by his most frequent identity and that was a wild ride. I didn't realise there were just so many of them.

In actually relevant news I went to order that Czech film from Second Run but I can't check out the shopping cart. Oh well.

yeah sorry for derail (also embarrassingly realized I've figured this out before)

still, I would probably avoid releasing nazisploitation movies with that company name

I wasn't having a go except at myself because I thought I was derailing.

there are lots of WB Archives Blu-Rays with extras. Off the top of my head, a couple Michael Curtiz movies (Dodge City + Adventures of Robin Hood) have newsreels, cartoons, short films (by Curtiz!), trailers, and multiple radio broadcasts of the film in question. Usually some contemporary interviews with scholars/critics, too.

Dunno about entire extra films though, I've only ever encountered that with Criterion. They should really emphasize that more imo, I mean the Stranger Than Paradise disc for example: it has Permanent Vacation! That's hardly an extra. Stranger Than Paradise is an extra on that disc!

Gaslight at least has both the 1940 and 1944 versions of the film. I could swear I have at least one other with a bonus film.

But yeah, Criterion (and others who do likewise) should make a bigger deal about that. I bought The Front Page from Kino not realizing that it was included on Criterion's release of His Girl Friday.

Most (if not all) of the Warner Archive Blu extras are ported over from the original DVDs.

The first Gaslight with Anton Walbrook is grebt.

Wow, I had no idea about Gaslight. Yeah, I had the same reaction with His Girl Friday, tbh I didn't even know it had the extra movie when I bought it. I went to watch HGF again like 2 years ago and was like "what's this extra disc...? ...oh..... wtf?!!"

It Happened One Night has a feature length Capra silent (haven't watched yet), and the Stagecoach release has one of the best Ford silents I've seen, Bucking Broadway.

Killer's Kiss included with The Killing...The Report included with Certified Copy...yeah...

I'd imagine with Criterion that it has to do with them gatekeeping what gets the official "prestige" of being included in the Collection, which kinda makes since for stuff like De Palma's Murder A La Mod (bonus for Blow Out) or the 30s version of Magnificent Obsession on the Sirk disc, but is pretty baffling choice when it comes to Permanent Vacation.

Killer's Kiss included with The Killing...The Report included with Certified Copy...yeah...

― Motoroller Scampotron (WmC), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:24 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

YO

I'VE HAD THE REPORT THIS WHOLE TIME.....?

xxp Yeah that does make sense, it just feels like they should advertise them more, I mean I had NO idea Certified Copy came with The Report-- and I've had that disc for years!

But, then again, I don't read stickers!

My birthday present to you!

I love you

The studio killed the original UK Gaslight in various ways such as renaming it so as not to compete with the US remake, iirc..

Okay, MGM destroyed the negative at the time, and one or both versions were variously known as Angel Street and The Murder in Thornton Square.

Bonus films are indeed an awesome feature, though tbh I'm not sure I'll ever get around to the earlier version of Holiday

I haven't looked at the Warner Archive site in years, but I remember being wary because the DVDs (and maybe the blu-rays?) were sometimes DVD-Rs/MOD. The fact that a even some factory-pressed Warner titles from about fifteen years ago became unplayable over time helped sour me on buying Warner releases. But I also just rarely watch physical discs any more, unfortunately.

xxp Another bonus feature IIRC is The Traveler on Criterion's Close-Up.

Well, I'm in the B area, so Duel To The Death is not overlooked for me - Eureka already put out a lovely blu (great film tho agreed!). And ofc I got all the Shawscopes.

yea, 88 films rules! and their prices are still pretty sane too, which is nice.

similarly, third window films is very well-curated for japanese stuff. anything they put out is worth a look imo. tho a good chunk do end up overseas on other labels.

Every 88 release I've bought so far has been a dud, both in quality of film and features (the guys they got to talk about Italian crime cinema, urgh). But I'll admit they haven't been many.

Third Window otoh have been consistently quality, would be somewhere in the upper half of my list.

re: 88 films extras, I think the HK stuff is prob where they shine there too. frank djeng in the lineup is always a good sign.

re: third window, special shout out to the director's company releases, love a lot of these:
https://thirdwindowfilms.com/genre/directors-company-2/

even the ones that don't really work (like kiyoshi kurosawa's pink godard knock off) are interesting curiosities but crazy family, door, typhoon club, mermaid legend... sooo good

Djeng suffers from overexposure imo, feels like he has a commentary on every HK release by every boutique label in existence and some of them you can really tell he's running on fumes.

Where he really excels I think is in cultural context, dude actually grew up in Hong Kong and is excellent at explaining wordplay, references to then contemporary culture (ads, tv dramas), demographics, etc.

As a critic I rate him less, I remember in one of the Mr Vampire sequel commentaries his co-host mentions people disliking a certain actor's character and Djeng just goes "well that's how he's written!", as if that puts the matter to rest.

I checked out several of 88's roman porno releases and didn't find them especially memorable, sorry to say. Was hoping for something a bit more stylish. 88 Films really needs to do more trailers on youtube but I know these films present a bit more of a challenge. But really it's still very do-able to make a short trailer.

Every fan of weird-ass japanese films needs to see Pinocchio 964, I don't have their recent release but definitely get it if you haven't seen it.

They released Mika Ninagawa's two most famous films: Helter Skelter and Sakuran. They look really striking but I've been slightly hesitant, I don't know why, they have good reputations.

Them releasing Jane Campion's Holy Smoke is a little head scratching.

Also, Stanley Kwan's Center Stage.

Did anyone see Gate Of Flesh?

Djeng does seem to be all over these things. He is to HK cinema commentaries what Kim Newman is to horror. But Djeng seems good when he's pared with someone else, though, like F.J. DeSanto on some of those 88 sets.

I'm not a fan of commentaries that come from people with a nebulous pedigree, at least to me. Like, "James Mudge, Hong Kong Film Critic At easternKicks," that means nothing to me, though his commentary on "Armour of God 2" seemed fine, and he wasn't afraid to point out the long boring stretches of nothing, or inappropriate jokes or whatever. Lots of youtubers, podcasts hosts, bloggers show up offering commentaries, but I just don't recognize them by name. Unlike, say, Ian Christie or David Kalat or Stephen Prince or some of those Criterion standard bearers.

this thread has prompted me to check radiance website and they've got a sale on at the moment. i've been holding off for a while rather than buying full price films that i then don't watch so i had quite a few on my list... 6 in fact, £52 total

I checked out several of 88's roman porno releases and didn't find them especially memorable, sorry to say

curious if you tried girl hell (1977) ? that one is pretty stylish and even moving imo

i also like the watcher in the attic, mostly because watching in the attic is such creepy concept, one soon perfected in gary busey’s hider in the house (not really don’t watch that one lol)

Girl Hell might have been the highlight of the bunch but I didn't feel strongly about it

fair enough

i also like the watcher in the attic, mostly because watching in the attic is such creepy concept,

Is this based on that Edogawa Rampo book? Cause that's creepy as fuck, indeed.

I think it's a blend of a few Rampo stories, it has the human chair in it too.

Like, "James Mudge, Hong Kong Film Critic At easternKicks," that means nothing to me, though his commentary on "Armour of God 2" seemed fine, and he wasn't afraid to point out the long boring stretches of nothing, or inappropriate jokes or whatever

Saw this guy talk about Taoism Drunkard for twenty minutes on the Eureka disc yesterday. Seems to know his stuff and has a pleasant scottish voice, good enough for me!

Anyway, I do think it's an interesting discussion, and something I think about whenever I read/hear *any* translation. What am I missing? How close is it getting?

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, June 27, 2026 12:35 PM (two days ago)

so hi i have Opinions lol

(i like "le ton beau de marot" and hofstadter isn't a linguist, his understanding is limited and flawed in certain ways... his perspectives are interesting, but he doesn't represent a mainstream academic view of translation, i'll just say that.)

this is a particularly interesting topic because there are concepts that are constructed within a certain cultural context liiiiike, uh... gender

the way gender is understood is something that's changed significantly over the past 30 years in the US, and the way it's understood in other cultures is _very often distinct_ from western understandings. one of the reasons i am patiently waiting for a boutique label to release the mandarin print of Swordsman II in the US (there's a German blu-ray with a copy) is because of Brigitte Lin's character, Dongfang Bubai. Bubai is the villain of the film - I wouldn't say it's, like, a positive representation of gender non-conformity or anything - but it's INTERESTING and Brigitte Lin is, I mean, she's fucking awesome.

There are a LOT of ways that representation can be handled in translation. One of those ways would be to, like, treat Bubai as being "transgender" and lean into a bunch of transphobic tropes. Well, this would be bad, but it would also be a misrepresentation of the film! There is this tendency to want to impose Western norms on films where it doesn't apply, and even when well-intentioned, I don't think it's necessarily good. There's a 2013 Japanese film that's translated into English as "The Clan's Heir is a Trans Woman". Well this translation is ABSOLUTELY not accurate - the Japanese title is "Nidaime wa Newhalf". Newhalf is... I'd call it a slur, others might disagree, but it's _not_ a value-neutral term. The Japanese word for "transgender" is, uh, "transgender". There's not really any other word in Japanese that represents that concept.

This was... particularly in manga fan-translation circles, this was a BIG deal in the early 2010s, when the term "trap" was widely used as a translation for, I think, "otokonoko". A number of people put a good deal of effort into pointing out that "trap" is just not an accurate translation of that word. The term "trap" carried a connotation of deceit which is simply not _present_ in the original term.

So yeah, it comes up a lot, and it comes up not just in terms of translation, like Dongfang Bubai in Swordsman II, but simply dealing with, for instance, how to understand Lou Reed's partner Rachel Humphreys in relation to gender. Hell, it's something that's directly affected my life - when I was young, I didn't really have access to any words that described my gender identity.

Well, I mean, all of this is just one _tiny_ minor subset of the issues that crop up in the process of translation (which, as Casey Brienza argues, persuasively IMO, is better termed "domestication").

I can't speak to the specific case being discussed above... it's just a really important and interesting topic to me!

huh, I've only heard the term "newhalf" in passing and didn't know it had negative associations. I just assumed it came from the same place as "newtype" from Gundam that describes people who've developed psychic abilities & are seen as the next evolution of humans, so "newhalf" were the next evolution in gender

Djeng suffers from overexposure imo, feels like he has a commentary on every HK release by every boutique label in existence and some of them you can really tell he's running on fumes.

I remember when he was the public face of Tai Seng, and hence subject to all the slings and arrows of the Asian movie newsgroups. Not undeserved: Tai Seng had some really dubious business practices, like splitting up a 90-minute movie over two tapes and selling it for double the price (I have a Jeff Lau movie – his maudit Out of the Dark – in that format).

curious if you tried girl hell (1977) ? that one is pretty stylish and even moving imo

Definitely more palatable than the only other Masaru Konuma I have seen, Wife to be Sacrificed, which I found thoroughly repellent, if impeccably framed.

oh man, i used to really covet those tai seng releases but they were _way_ outta my price range at the time and i made do with bootlegs. probably for the best. and had no idea djeng worked for em!

There's a 2013 Japanese film that's translated into English as "The Clan's Heir is a Trans Woman". Well this translation is ABSOLUTELY not accurate - the Japanese title is "Nidaime wa Newhalf". Newhalf is... I'd call it a slur, others might disagree, but it's _not_ a value-neutral term.

oh this is interesting. ive seen this one but assumed it was fansubbed or similar? a flawed film in ways outside of the title translation, i thought… but it had a lotta heart

Arrow has a new sublabel - Toy Robot - and the spiel is that it wants to "evoke the feeling of being in a video rental store" or something along those lines.

It's a little confusing to me. Arrow used to have Arrow Academy as its sublabel for artsier fare, and that made sense from a brand perspective - some of the genre audience Arrow cultivated wouldn't be interested in Elio Petri or Czech New Wave films. Then they closed that down, and Radiance sorta took over that space. But the Toy Robot releases - a slasher, a Sonny Chiba vehicle, the original Masters Of The Universe film - these are absolutely releases that could be announced by Arrow proper and no one would think it strange.

On another forum someone suggested it's basically playing on the psychology of collectors - the larger a label becomes the less ppl will try to keep up with it, but if you keep creating sublabels collectors will give in to the "gotta catch 'em all" impulse more readily.

I mean, how many sub-labels does Vinegar Syndrome have? 20? More, lol?

VS only have about 5 sub labels, the rest are partners labels that they distribute via their sister company OCN Distribution - Deaf Crocodile & Fun City for example used to be partner labels but left. heard some vague gossip that the terms for partner labels aren't that great, but I don't think anyone has gone on the record about it.

Yeah I guess there are 8 or so official sub-labels, and 40+ partner labels, but that seems like a distinction without a difference.

Speaking of Shout, this is wild/weird, not just the fuck up but that people caught it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IGcBEnq1eY

Guess I'll be hanging onto my old Anchor Bay DVD...

rip

https://variety.com/2026/film/obituaries-people-news/tony-rayns-dead-east-asian-cinema-champion-1236804242/

Dude put in the work for sure.

new radiance announcement today has a big shohei imamura box for £75, due in november

https://www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/radical-japan-radical-japan-survival-and-desire-six-films-by-shohei-imamura-le

i have most of those in the eureka box, and i'm not sure i enjoyed all of them.

but that being out in november suggests no Daiei Gothic 3 in time for halloween

elsewhere though, the big Bela Tarr box got a reissue

https://hmv.com/store/film-tv/blu-ray/bela-tarr-a-curzon-collection-444f386

I think I saw that Curzon just released 4Ks of Satantango and Damnation, but supposedly the transfers are not noticeably better than the already good blu-rays that Arbelos released (in the US, at least).

Werckmeister in 4K as well. Of course I bought the blu box

Eureka/Masters of Cinema having a summer sale. Just ordered all four serials by Louis Feuillade: Les Vampires, Fantomas, Judex, and Tih-Minh. Marked down from £19.99 or £16.99 to £12.99 or £11.99. I have the Kinos of the first two, but these are supposedly big upgrades. Region B.

Werckmeister in 4K as well

This one has been available in 4k for a while now, in a couple of editions. Those other two Tarrs are new to 4K.

the best miike is finally getting an upgrade, and man, this looks great:
https://newwavevideo.myshopify.com/products/gozu-deluxe-box-4k-uhd-blu-ray-limited-edition

per the label, the usual US-based stores should be getting copies too.

Jean-Pierre Mocky's Solo is not bad but that theme music by Georges Moustaki becomes a real pain in the ass because it plays something like 20 times. Apparently many viewers find it haunting but it really annoyed me.

Dag

https://hammerfilms.com/products/dracula-limited-collectors-edition

Hammer is doing way too many of these, there's a fair few releases I'd pick up if they were single discs and not 5 disc + random tat.

That being said Dracula is one that deserves the deluxe treatment.

Flicker Alley has just made two incredible announcements: The Art of the Benshi (https://flickeralley.com/products/the-art-of-the-benshi-limited-edition) and The Crowd (1928) (https://flickeralley.com/products/the-crowd).

Severin has been teasing a Grand Guignol box for a couple of weeks, to be announced today and has the potential to be their most amazing and/or daft project of all.

Speaking of whom, I finally finished their Suzzanna box last night which was much more of a chore than it should have been and by god, Ghost Ambulance sucked so much.

Arrow A Better Tomorrow box has Dylan Cheung subs for the first film and non-speaking AI guy for two and three, for those keeping track.

https://severinfilms.com/products/the-grandest-guignol-bundle

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that so many of these films will have a Region A-friendly release. But Maurice Tourneur's Accusé, levez-vous (1930) is much more crime procedural than horror.

I've sort of given up on pointing out these genre disparities, considering how much stuff gets flogged as noir these days.

Anyway yeah this box is insane, it's like box sets within box sets - a standalone Maurice Tourneur or Vernon Sewell box would already by itself be reason to get hyped.

A bit too daunting tho frankly, feel like if I buy that I won't have time for anything else for 2027.

Steve Severin doing a soundtrack for Severin gave me a sensible chuckle

Sampling and looping Lou's "Severin severin" line

https://www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/fantastique-the-dreams-and-nightmares-of-french-cinema-le
this looks really promising but I cant £75 this

A bit too daunting tho frankly, feel like if I buy that I won't have time for anything else for 2027.

kinda where I'm at too... tbh I'm still working thru those folk horror sets!

Radiance releasing a bunch of Taiwanese New Wave next year including early films by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Chang Yi’s “Kuei-Mei, a Woman” (1985) and Yang Li-kuo‘s “The Dull-Ice Flower” (1989).
https://variety.com/2026/film/global/hou-hsiao-hsien-tsai-ming-liang-films-radiance-1236913905/

Good stuff!

nice! I'd love to get hou's "the puppetmaster" sometime, which I believe is stuck in some kinda rights purgatory