Arrow Video starts the new year with a bang, with a pair of films from a visionary auteur including a bona-fide contemporary masterpiece, and Gamera box sets packed to the gills with extras
This New Year-brightening lineup includes beautiful steelbook limited editions, including a Zavvi exclusive, HD debuts, brand new audio commentaries, indispensable documentaries and featurettes, as well as exquisite new sleeve artwork, and collectable booklets.
In January comes JSA – Joint Security Area, visionary filmmaker Park Chan-wook's gripping tale of deceit, misunderstanding and the senselessness of war, helmed before Oldboy and The Handmaiden. The recipient of multiple accolades, including Best Film at South Korea's 2001 Grand Bell Awards, JSA – Joint Security Area showcases Park's iconic style in an embryonic form, and demonstrates that humanity and common purpose can be found in the most unlikely places. This hi-def presentation includes an illustrated booklet on the film with the first pressing.
Next up, a double-hit for fans of the original hero in a halfshell, Gamera, with lavish Blu-ray sets of Gamera – The Showa Era, and Gamera – The Heisei Era. The Showa Era highlights the introduction of Gamera to the screen in the 1960s – a character that would be embraced for generations: the giant, flying, fire-breathing turtle, and friend of all children, collected here with eight films on four discs! In The Heisei Era, after laying dormant for fifteen years, Gamera was rebooted for the big screen in a smash hit trilogy masterminded by director Shusuke Kaneko (Necronomicon), writer Kazunori Ito (Ghost in the Shell) and SFX director Shinji Higuchi (who went on to co-direct Shin Godzilla). The four disc set includes an extensive three-part documentary and a bonus Gamera film. Also released is The Heisei Trilogy, the three films in a fantastically designed Limited Edition Steelbook.
Finally, there is Oldboy, on Limited Edition Steelbook 4K UHD, and 4K UHD Blu-ray. Often cited as one of the best films of the 2000s and possibly the definitive example of extreme Asian cinema, this is a brutal, lyrical modern classic of the revenge genre. Directed with immense flair by Park Chan-wook (JSA, The Handmaiden) as the second instalment of his Vengeance Trilogy, Oldboy blazed a trail at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival where it was lauded by the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino. The film went on to become a huge international smash, blowing audiences' minds with its concoction of filmmaking virtuosity, ingenious plotting, violence and pathos. Now, this masterpiece has been restored in 4K and is presented here with the feature-length documentary Old Days, and a massive array of extras.
Arrow Academy – January 2021 – New Releases
JSA – Joint Security Area
On Blu-ray, 18 January
Gunfire breaks out in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, leaving two North
Korean soldiers dead while a wounded South Korean soldier (Lee Byung-hun, The Good, the Bad, the Weird) flees to safety. With the tenuous peace between the two warring nations on a knife-edge, a neutral team of investigators, headed by Swiss Army Major Sophie Jean (Lee Young-ae, Lady Vengeance), is dispatched to question both sides to determine what really happened under cover of darkness out in no-man's land.
Gamera – The Showa Era
On Blu-ray, 25 January
Buried under the Arctic ice for several millenia, the colossal chelonian is unleashed upon Japan, leaving havoc in his wake. After becoming an unexpected box office sensation, Gamera returned several more times, leaping to the world's defence against a motley assortment of evil creatures, from the death-ray-shooting flying terror Gyaos, to the knife-headed alien menace Guiron, to the underwater invader Zigra!
Gamera – The Heisei Era
On Blu-ray, 25 January
Trading the campy kid-friendly surrealism of the earlier films for a darker, more realistic tone and jaw-droppingly innovative special effects, the “Heisei Trilogy” are still regarded today as among the best – and by some, the very best – kaiju films ever made; and a bonus disc features Gamera the Brave, a heartwarming mix of family-friendly adventure and cutting-edge kaiju action.
Gamera – The Heisei Trilogy
On Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-ray, 25 January
Trading the campy kid-friendly surrealism of the earlier films for a darker, more realistic tone and jaw-droppingly innovative special effects, the “Heisei Trilogy” are still regarded today as among the best – and for more, the very best – kaiju films ever made.
Oldboy
On Limited Edition Zavvi Exclusive Steelbook 4K UHD Blu-ray, 25 January
Based on the Japanese manga of the same name, the film tells the horrific tale of Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a businessman who is inexplicably kidnapped and imprisoned in a grim hotel room-like cell for 15 years, without knowing his captor or the reason for his incarceration. Eventually released, he learns of his wife's murder and embarks on a quest for revenge whilst also striking up a romance with a young, attractive sushi chef, Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung). He eventually finds his tormentor, but their final encounter will yield yet more unimaginable horrors..
Oldboy
On 4K UHD Blu-ray, 25 January
Based on the Japanese manga of the same name, the film tells the horrific tale of Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a businessman who is inexplicably kidnapped and imprisoned in a grim hotel room-like cell for 15 years, without knowing his captor or the reason for his incarceration. Eventually released, he learns of his wife's murder and embarks on a quest for revenge whilst also striking up a romance with a young, attractive sushi chef, Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung). He eventually finds his tormentor, but their final encounter will yield yet more unimaginable horrors…
