Teruo Ishii's 'Horror of Malformed Men', Nobuo Nakagawa's 'Snake Womans Curse' R1 USA DVDs August 28th 2007.

I don't really care so long as I can finally see MALFORMED. There is certainly a soap opera going on between the small labels with lots of drama, angst, betrayal, shifting alliances and shocking revelations like that you can't sell an obscure Japanese gore flick from 20 years ago to more than a couple hundred people. So yay for MALFORMED hitting DVD at long last in a couple months and my only concern is if Panik House is now basically dead and won't release/license more of the good stuff. Yes, I just wrote above that it's hard to make money with these films but actually Panik House always seemed to be an exception and doing really well because they picked movies that they could sell worldwide, even to fans in Japan since those films were getting their DVD debuts from them due to Toei being a bunch of ignorant bastards who are for the main part sitting on their back catalog with no intention of doing anything with it. At least there's the Toei Channel, I guess, but I have yet to see a lot of the pinky violence stuff on there. It's mostly just jidai geki from the 50ies and 60ies. Not a bad thing per se but if I could have tits, guns and blood instead...

i'm interested in the mechanics behind the activities of companies. i certainly also think that if every japanese DVD had subs on then USA companies wouldn't get away with either tactics or even opinions on the variations in how things might be working in order to either prevent not really being able to know what's entirely going on, it's hard for one companies head to be definitive on how the whole situation is working, plus the lack of some basic consideration for how things seem to actually operate versus the desired / percieved model of operation also - by the very nature of companies secretive behaviour, lack of fan communication - and we would perhaps be making a lot of different choices or exploring stuff more wholeheartedly, adventurously, without the risk of situations being manipulated negatively with the repetition of long-term consequences for years down the line, simply by vertue of having more of a range of choice. i care, simply because i think there's a picture to be built-up as to how things could work better, and it's why i revisit such issues in my mind and what i write about as a result. still, when the preorder listings come up, the dates get firm, and the trailers are (hopefully) online, i will dig up some more background information on these films...

Thank you Logboy for the update on "Malformed Man". Like Caterpillar, I'm also eagerly awaiting the August release date.

It's unfortunate that the market for these great cult Japanese films is so small and that enterprising US companies can't commit to releasing or acquiring the necessary licensing for such films.

In Toei's defense however, they have been trying to release more 70s violence films from their library in Japan (the recent release of the cool "Furyo Bancho" and "Truck Yarou" series for example). Toho also recently released their cult "Nora Neko/Stray Cat" series. Unfortunately, fans like myself are forced to buy the expensive bare bones R2 DVDs at almost $40+ per DVD.

I guess Toei falsely assumes that no foreign audiences would be interested in this stuff (or at least not enough to make it worth their while).

I look forward to Logboy's articles because I think more people outside Japan need to learn about these great films so that more interest can be created...Japanese films shouldn't have to be limited to Kurosawa, Miike Takashi, Beat Takeshi, and Godzilla.

So I'm guessing this whole shake-up is also the reason for Chained Heat not being released last month? A shame, but here's hoping the Synapse deal will prove wise. I too am looking forward to the August release.

'chained heat' is firmly connected to panik house - despite recent news to the contrary, i think panik house still exists and may continue, but i think a large part of their driving force was matt kennedy as he was quite vocal and connected (still remains so) but now i am tending to think the evidence points towards him having licensed these 6 pinky violence films as an individual rather than an employee and that he's gone to the other side of that particular initial arrangement. lets hope both companies are fine, and in the end the most important thing in relation to seeing the films is that at least they have a home and make it to the market...

James, you are actually right about both Toei and Toho having released some very cool 70ies movies on DVD. In addition to what you already mentioned there has also been that awesome box set of Terui Ishii pinky violence films that included PORNO JIDAI GEKI: BOHACHI BUSHIDO, which is one of my favorite films ever. They also released Ikuo Sekimoto's OOKU UKIYO BURO last year, which was most welcome. I guess I'm just greedy and a bit cranky about them not having yet gotten around to some of the titles I'm dying to finally get on DVD, like Teruo Ishii's ZANKOKO IJOU GYAKUTAI MONOGATARI: ZENROKU ONNA KEIZU, the three big budget edo pink films directed by Norifumi Suzuki or the bulk of Yuuji Makiguchi's movies, especially his utterly jaw-dropping ONNA GOKUMON CHOU: HIRISAKARETA NISOU.

Hey Caterpillar...sounds like you also have that "Toei Pinky Violence" Book that came out a couple years back which is like the ultimate sourcebook to these films. I haven't seen "Porno Jidai Geki" but it definitely seems interesting. I'm still waiting on Teruo Ishii films like "Yakuza Keibatsu-Shi: Rinchi-Shikei!" (AKA Yakuza Punishment), "Tokugawa Onna Keibatsu-Shi" (Joys of Torture) and the "Abashiri Bangaichi" series. Have these come out on R2 DVD yet?

"Abashiri" is out on R2. You can also find various episodes, subbed in English, on the gray market.