Bluray

Tetsuo (Hideki Takahashi, Fighting Elegy), a low-level yakuza is double-crossed by his boss and attacked. His younger brother Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto, This Transient Life), an aspiring artist with no connections to crime, comes to his aid and kills Tetsuo's assailant. Fearing repercussions from the yakuza they flee to Manchuria where they risk coming under suspicion of rival gangs. Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill) remains loyal to the conventions of the yakuza film, but Tattooed Life contains flashes of his later creative genius, including a final act of explosive visual excess that has become one of the director's all-time classic scenes.

Documentary Documentary by the great American photographer and counter culture filmmaker William Klein on the backstage of the French Open of tennis of Roland-Garros. Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, 1982.   William Klein, the legendary American photographer and filmmaker, has put together a body of work as thrillingly eclectic as any living artist. In his 1969 film Muhammad Ali, the Greatest, Klein found a subject that combined his interest in sport and social criticism, and much the same combination can be seen at work, in a very different cultural context, in The French. Klein was the first person to be granted full, exclusive access to the tournament in its 90-year history, and using that doorway into locker rooms, TV studios, and players’ boxes, he shot the ultimate behind-the-scenes look at the 1981 French Open—a crucial moment in a crucial year in the history of a game, and its iconic players Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Chris Evert, Yannick Noah, and Ivan Lendl. With Klein’s customary eagle eye and whirlwind energy, The French captures the noisy bedlam that accompanies any major sporting event, while also revealing a level of candor from his subjects that is impossible to imagine in today’s secretive media-trained world.

When 93-year-old Thelma Post (June Squibb) gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her. A story exploring aging, family and autonomy (and uniquely inspired by action movies like Mission: Impossible) – Thelma is based on a real-life experience of writer/director Josh Margolin’s grandmother, and marks Squibb’s first leading film role of her 70+ year career.

The contemporary American auteur Michael Mann's bold artistic sensibility was already fully formed when he burst out of the gate with Thief, his debut feature. James Caan (The Godfather) stars, in one of his most riveting performances, as a no-nonsense ex-con safecracker planning to leave the criminal world behind after one final diamond heist-but he discovers that escape is not as simple as he'd hoped. Finding hypnotic beauty in neon and rain-slick streets, sparks and steel, Thief effortlessly established the moody stylishness and tactile approach to action that would also define such later iconic entertainments from Mann as Miami Vice, Manhunter, and Heat.

The Threat is a gritty crime drama in the vein of Kurosawa's High and Low, set against the backdrop of a rapidly modernizing Japan that has left many of its citizens behind. Misawa (Rentarō Mikuni; Fugitive from the Past, Vengeance is Mine) appears to lead a charmed life, the very model of Japan's post-war economic miracle. His position as the account manager of a prestigious advertising agency is enough to pay the mortgage on the spacious modern house he shares with his wife (Masumi Harukawa, Intentions of Murder) and their two young boys, kitted out with all the latest mod-cons. Then one day, the fragility of his existence is revealed when two violent jail-breakers turn up on his doorstep seeking refuge and threatening to embroil Misawa in their criminal activities. Arrow Video presents this little-seen early masterpiece from Kinji Fukasaku, the future director of Battles without Honor and Humanity and Battle Royale, for the very first time outside of its own country in a stunning new transfer.

The world of Gilbert and Sullivan comes to vivid life in this extraordinary dramatization of the staging of their legendary 1885 comic opera The Mikado from Mike Leigh. Jim Broadbent and Allan Corduner brilliantly inhabit the roles of the world-famous Victorian librettist and composer, respectively, who, along with their troupe of temperamental actors, must battle personal and professional demons while mounting this major production. A lushly produced epic about the harsh realities of creative expression, featuring bravura performances and Oscar-winning costume design and makeup, Topsy-Turvy is an unexpected period delight from one of contemporary cinema’s great artists. DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION: * Director-approved digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Dick Pope (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)* Audio commentary featuring director Mike Leigh* New video conversation between Leigh and the film’s musical director, Gary Yershon* A Sense of History, Leigh’s 1992 short film written by and starring actor Jim Broadbent* Deleted scenes* Featurette from 1999 including interviews with Leigh, stars Broadbent and Allan Corduner, and other cast members* Theatrical trailer and TV spots* PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Amy Taubin

From two-time Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne comes the story of seventeen-year-old Lokita and twelve-year-old Tori, two immigrants to Belgium—from Cameroon and Benin, respectively—whose siblinglike bond is the only resource they can depend on in their struggle for survival on the margins of European society. The pair work as performers in a cheap trattoria, dealing drugs on the side, while balancing the demands of an indifferent bureaucracy. When Lokita is held captive in a marijuana grow house, events spiral out of control. Winner of the Seventh-Fifth Anniversary Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the latest humanist drama from the Dardenne brothers is a heart-stopping thriller that casts an unflinching eye on the trials of the young and dispossessed. INCLUDES • Meet the Filmmakers, a new interview with directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne • Trailer

A feverishly inspired take on Franz Kafka’s novel, Orson Welles’s The Trial casts Anthony Perkins as the bewildered office drone Josef K., whose arrest for an unspecified crime plunges him into a menacing bureaucratic labyrinth of guilt, corruption, and paranoia. Exiled from Hollywood and creatively unchained, Welles poured his ire at the studio system, McCarthyism, and all forms of totalitarian oppression into this cinematic statement—one of his boldest and most personal, and the film that he himself considered his greatest. Dizzying camera angles, expressionistic lighting, increasingly surreal locations—Welles unleashed the full force of his visual brilliance to convey the nightmarish disorientation of a world gone mad.BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack• New audio commentary featuring film historian Joseph McBride• Filming “The Trial,” a 1981 documentary about the film’s production• Archival interviews with Welles, actor Jeanne Moreau, and director of photography Edmond Richard• Trailer• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing• PLUS: An essay by author Jonathan Lethem