New York-based arthouse distributor Film Movement has an exciting batch of releases in store for the month of October starting with a couple of films from Japanese actor/director Takeshi Kitano on October 11th. Kitano’s Violent Cop and Boiling Point are both arriving on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time and they’ll be loaded with bonus content included original artwork from comic book artist Ben Marra.

Film Movement will keep the good times rolling two weeks later on October 25th when they release Vampire Ecstasy and Sin You Sinners, both films from sexploitation pioneer Joe Sarno. The Sarno films will be available on DVD and Blu-ray and come as a double feature.

VIOLENT COP & BOILING POINT

In his breakthrough classic, VIOLENT COP, “Beat” Takeshi directs and stars as vicious rogue homicide detective Azuma who takes on a sadistic crime syndicate only to discover widespread internal corruption within the police force. Kitano’s debut feature marks his transformation from motor-mouth comedic star of stage and screen to art house auteur – consciously playing with the schizophrenic nature of his public persona, both in his films and in public. The San Francisco Chronicle called VIOLENT COP “exhilarating,” and Lawrence van Gelder of The New York Times said the film “packs a punch,” when it was released in the U.S. in 1999, ten years after it was made and following the success of Kitano’s other films, HANA-BI (FIREWORKS) and SONATINE. VIOLENT COP was in the official selection of the Yokohama Film Festival, where Kitano won the Best Director award; Karlovy Vary; and Moscow Film Festival.

BOILING POINT, the second film from Renaissance man Kitano follows two members of a junior baseball team who get mixed up with yakuza gangsters, haphazardly stumbling into a journey for revenge. For the first time Kitano wrote as well as directed, carving out his unique genre blend of crime, action and comedy. The Chicago Reader observed that “Takeshi Kitano’s handling of tones, which range from the grimly depressive to the irreverently hilarious, is amazing,” and Time Out called it “the funniest film to date from a key ’90s filmmaker.” BOILING POINT received a Special Mention at the Torino International Film Festival and gained recognition at Karlovy Vary and Mumbai International Film Festivals.

Blu-rays and DVDs of VIOLENT COP and BOILING POINT, which will be available on October 11th, will each include an essay by Tom Vick of The Smithsonian Institution, as well as a 20-minute bonus featurette. THAT MAN IS DANGEROUS: THE BIRTH OF TAKESHI KITANO will be paired with VIOLENT COP, and OKINAWA DAYS: TAKESHI’S SECOND DEBUT will be included with BOILING POINT. The featurettes will include interviews with the filmmakers, actors and producers; clips from the films; and a survey of graphic images and posters.

VAMPIRE ECSTASY & SIN YOU SINNERS

Called “an undercurrent of poetic melancholia and surrealism” (Offscreen.com) and dripping with gothic atmosphere, VAMPIRE ECSTASY is Joe Sarno’s mesmerizing foray into the horror genre. When a trio of beautiful young women journey to their ancestral home to claim an inheritance, they fall prey to a coven of witches, intent on trying to reincarnate their deceased vampire leader. Meanwhile, SIN YOU SINNERS, from the first wave of sexploitation films by Sarno, the “Chekhov of soft-core” (The Village Voice) is a hypnotic noir about a medallion forged in a voodoo ritual that preserves an exotic dancer’s youth and beauty. When the dancer’s jealous daughter and employer hatch plots to steal the amulet for themselves, it sets off a chain of events ending in murder.

“SIN YOU SINNERS….finds (Sarno) already occupying the unconscious position of a genuine grindhouse auteur,” wrote film critic Tim Lucas. This inaugural home video release will also include a bonus essay by Lucas.