Found Footage Classic To Park Chan-Wook Arrow Video Unveil January Slate!

2020 may not be the happiest of years, Arrow Video want to make sure the new year will start with a bang. with a truly terrifying Spanish horror, a pair of films from a visionary auteur including a bona-fide contemporary masterpiece,  to more Gamera box sets packed to the gills with extras, and a timely and darkly comic epic.

In January, Arrow Video presents [REC], the original 2007 “found footage” phenomenon that spawned a hit franchise and US remake. It’s 28 Days Later meets The Blair Witch Project as a mysterious virus turns the inhabitants of an apartment building into a horde of frenzied, bloodthirsty ghouls. Fusing the zombie genre with the “found footage” format to throw the audience right into the midst of the action, [REC] is a terrifying, relentless rollercoaster ride which builds to one of the horror genre’s all time bone-chilling climaxes. The Blu-ray comes with a new commentary track and a host of behind-the-scenes extras.

Also 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.

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.

Towards the end of January comes a limited edition two-disc Blu-ray of Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales, his follow-up to the cult 2001 hit Donnie Darko. This ambitious and even more beguiling sophomore effort, in which forces of totalitarianism and anarchism collide against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic, near-future world, is beguiling and baffling – a darkly comic futuristic epic that speaks as presciently to our turbulent times as it did to the American socio-political climate in 2006. Southland Tales receives a fresh – and timely – lease of life with this new, director-approved restoration, including a new feature-length retrospective documentary on the film, and a limited edition collector’s booklet.

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.

[REC]
On Blu-ray, 4 January

A television film crew, documenting the night shift of a Barcelona fire brigade, get much more than they bargained for when they attend an apparently routine call-out. Upon arrival at an inner city apartment, the firefighters are viciously attacked by the elderly female occupant, who appears to be in the throes of some sort of viral infection. Before long, the virus has taken hold of the entire building, which is cordoned off by the authorities. Trapped inside, the television crew – using their cameras to capture the events as they unfold – and the other remaining survivors find themselves pitched into a nightmare of unimaginable proportions.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• High Definition Blu-ray presentation with two viewing options: the “theatrical version” (24fps, 1080p, 78 mins) as shown in cinemas, and the “production version” (25fps, 1080i, 75 mins) as originally filmed
• Original Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 audio options on both versions
• Optional English subtitles
• New audio commentary by film critic and historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, author of Found Footage Horror: Fear and the Appearance of Reality
• Archive commentary by directors Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza
• The Making of [REC], an archive featurette examining the process of production featuring interviews with cast & crew
• How to Shoot a Horror Movie, a French-language featurette presented by directors Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza
• Archive interview with Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza looking back on the film
• The Fantastic Four, an archive panel discussion with [REC] directors Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza and new wave Spanish horror contemporaries Gonzalo Lopez Callego and Juan Antonio Bayona
• On set footage of the cast & crew at work on key scenes including “the attack on Mrs. Izquierdo” and the “climb to hell”
• Archive interview with director of photography Pablo Rosso
• Archive interview with sound supervisor Xavi Mas
• Archive interview with sound designer Oriol Tarragó
• Confidences, a video diary by star Manuela Velasco
• Deleted and extended scenes, including “Fire Station Redux”, “The Secret Archive” and “Corridors of Nails”
• Casting, original video footage from the audition process
• Trailers and TV spots
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet with new writing on the film by Xavier Aldana Reyes

2007  | SPAIN | 78 MINUTES | HORROR | COLOUR | 1.85:1 |SPANISH|ENGLISH SDH

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.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation
• Original lossless Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 stereo soundtracks
• Optional English subtitles
• New audio commentary by writer and critic Simon Ward
• Isolated music and effects track
• Newly recorded video interview with Asian cinema expert Jasper Sharp
• The JSA Story and Making the Film, two archival featurettes on the film’s production
• About JSA, a series of archival introductions to the film by members of the cast
• Behind the scenes montage
• Opening ceremony footage
• Two music videos: Letter from a Private and Take the Power Back
• Theatrical trailer
• TV spot
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Kieran Fisher

2000  | SOUTH KOREA | 109 MINUTES | ACTION / THRILLER | COLOUR | 2.35:1 |KOREAN|ENGLISH SDH

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!

PG | JAPAN | 690 MINUTES | ACTION / ADVENTURE | COLOUR | 2.35:1/ 1.85:1 |JAPANESE |ENGLISH SDH

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.

12  | JAPAN |399 MINUTES | ACTION / ADVENTURE | COLOUR | 2.35:1/1.85:1 |JAPANESE |ENGLISH SDH

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.

15  | JAPAN | 145/158 MINUTES | SCI-FI / THRILLER | COLOUR | 2.35:1 |JAPANESE|ENGLISH SDH

Southland Tales
On Limited Edition Blu-ray, 25 January

Los Angeles, 2008. As the city stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental chaos, the fates of an eclectic set of characters – including an amnesia-stricken action star (Dwayne Johnson, the Fast & Furious series), an adult film star developing her own reality TV project (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Cruel Intentions) and a police officer whose identity has split in two (Seann William Scott, TV’s Lethal Weapon) – intertwine with each other and with the whole of humanity.

2-DISC LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• New 2K restoration by Arrow Films, approved by director Richard Kelly and director of photography Steven Poster
• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentations of both versions of the film: the 145-minute theatrical cut and the 160-minute “Cannes cut”, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006
• Original lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 stereo soundtracks
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary on the theatrical cut by Richard Kelly
• It’s a Madcap World: The Making of an Unfinished Film, a new in-depth retrospective documentary on the film, featuring contributions by Richard Kelly and members of the original crew
• USIDent TV: Surveilling the Southland, an archival featurette on the making of the film, featuring interviews with the cast and crew
• This is the Way the World Ends, an archival animated short set in the Southland Tales universe
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jacey
• Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Peter Tonguette and Simon Ward

2006  | USA | 145/158 MINUTES | SCI-FI / THRILLER | COLOUR | 2.35:1 |ENGLISH SDH

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…

4K UHD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION STEELBOOK CONTENTS

• Two-disc edition featuring a new restoration of Oldboy on 4K UHD Blu-ray, and the acclaimed making-of documentary Old Days on Blu-ray
• Limited Edition Steelbook® packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin
• Fully illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Simon Abrams and archival articles

DISC ONE – OLDBOY (4K UHD BLU-RAY)

• Brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative supervised by director Park Chan-wook
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 stereo
• Original Korean and English soundtracks
• Music and effects track
• Newly translated, optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• Newly translated English subtitles for the Korean soundtrack
• Audio commentary with director Park Chan-wook
• Audio commentary with Park Chan-wook and cinematographer Jung Jung-hoon
• Audio commentary with Park Chan-wook, and actors Choi Min-sik, Yu Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jung
• New audio commentary with critic Jasper Sharp and writer Simon Ward
• Out of the Past, new video appreciation by Asian film expert Tony Rayns
• Deleted scenes with optional director commentary
• Behind the scenes featurettes
• Extensive cast and crew interviews
• Trailers and teasers
• Image gallery

DISC TWO – OLD DAYS (BLU-RAY)

• Old Days: An Oldboy Story, the acclaimed feature-length 2016 documentary about Park Chan-wook’s masterpiece
• Autobiography of Oldboy, a three-and-a-half-hour video diary of the making of Oldboy

2006  | USA | 145/158 MINUTES | SCI-FI / THRILLER | COLOUR | 2.35:1 |ENGLISH SDH