Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a heads up for all my fellow Japanese Horror nuts out there. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's CURE is finally going to be released in a Special Edition form by Home Vision Entertainment (a sort of lower tier Criterion) in January of next year.
I, for one, hope HVE continues to release these modern horror classics. What I wouldn't give for a JU-ON: THE GRUDGE Special Edition with the extra features being in English or the original RING with more than a trailer on it... that sort of thing.
If HVE wants to really corner the market on these popular cult films, they'll quickly seek out the stuff like JU-ON prior to the titles getting bought up for remakes by bigger studios and trick 'em out with special features. That'd make my day...
Anyway, here's the press release:
Chicago, October 2003--Home Vision Entertainment, known for publishing cult and contemporary genre movies on DVD, is releasing Kiyoshi Kurosawa's haunting masterpiece CURE. Winner of the 1997 Tokyo International Film Festival for Best Actor-Koji Yakusha, CURE focuses on a wave of gruesome murders sweeping Tokyo. The only correlation is a bloody "X" carved into the neck of each of the victims.
Director, Kurosawa (not related to Akira) is an up and coming master of Japanese Cinema. His latest film BRIGHT FUTURE is gaining praise at Cannes. Home Vision Entertainment is in negotiations to acquire his version of SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON simply titled SÉANCE later in the year-TBS. Kiyoshi Kurosawa is famous for using Spartan methods to convey feelings of horror and suspense, using minimalist jump stop techniques as opposed to over the top Computer Generated Images.
There you have it, squirts. Later on in the release they mention that it will be a SPECIAL EDITION, but no specs were mentioned. Pretty cool, though. I'll be looking forward to getting my hands on this disc and seeing how well HVE treats this film. I'm betting they treat it right.
I'll be back soon with a few reviews of upcoming flicks. Until that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
