If you’re planning ahead for your cinematic viewing this month then we’ve got the guide for you. Arrow Video’s new streaming service, also called Arrow, has a huge array of indie, cult and genre cinema at your fingertips. Today we’re taking a look at everything which is coming to the service over the next four weeks…
Key highlights this APRIL on the essential, alternative streaming service ARROW include the exclusive premiere of Justin McConnell’s revealing filmmaking documentary CLAPBOARD JUNGLE, a spotlight on the works of Takeshi “Beat” Kitano, Season 3 of the acclaimed Italian crime series GOMORRAH, unmissable noir, a Cronenberg classic, and so much more….
NEW TITLES – FROM APRIL 1
Gomorrah Season 3
Skull World
Enemy
Death Has Blue Eyes
Switchblade Sisters
Alps
Ashes of Time
The Dark Mirror
Secret Beyond the Door
Force of Evil
The Big Combo
NEW TITLES – FROM APRIL 9
24 City
A Touch of Sin
Mountains May Depart
NEW TITLES – FROM APRIL 12
Naked Lunch
Ashes of Time
Slaughterhouse
Ending the Eternal
Open Invitation
Eviction
Damned Selfie,
Cat Lover
She Haunts Me
NEW TITLES – FROM APRIL 16
Mirror Mirror
Hana Bi
Getting Any?
Dolls
Kikujiro
A Scene At The Sea
Kids Return
Do You See What I See?
Soul Contact
NEW TITLES – FROM APRIL 19
Clapboard Jungle
NEW TITLES – FROM APRIL 26
Battle Royale (Director’s and Theatrical cuts)
Battle Royale II (Requiem and Revenge cuts)
NEW SEASONS – FROM APRIL 1
Four Film Noir Classics – Dark urban locales, sultry femme fatales, doomed protagonists and a brooding atmosphere of danger. These quintessential aspects are strikingly demonstrated by the four consummate examples of the genre presented in this collection. Films in the collection: The Dark Mirror, Secret Beyond the Door, Force of Evil, The Big Combo
NEW SEASONS – FROM APRIL 9
Keeping It Reel – Sit back and get real as we take a peek behind the cracked and bloody lens to see what lurks beneath… Films in the collection include: Clapboard Jungle, The El Duce Tapes, That Guy Dick Miller, Hellraiser: Evolutions
Three Films by Jia Zhangke – ARROW presents three extraordinary films from the award-winning Chinese director, widely regarded as one of world cinema’s most accomplished filmmakers. Films in the collection: 24 City, A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart
NEW SEASONS – FROM APRIL 16
Takashi Kitano Collection – Powerful, moving and provocative films from the enormously talented Japanese director. Films in the collection: Hana Bi, Getting Any?, Dolls, Kikujiro, A Scene at the Sea, Kids Return
NEW SEASONS – FROM APRIL 26
Battle Royale Collection – The newly restored HD version of Battle Royale, a turbo-charged hybrid of Lord of the Flies and The Most Dangerous Game, directed by Kinji Fukasaku (Battles without Honor and Humanity, Graveyard of Honor); and the blood-splattered and brilliant sequel Battle Royale II plus a host of ARROW Stories.
EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE APRIL 19th: CLAPBOARD JUNGLE
A warts-and-all exploration of what it takes to get a film made and released, Clapboard Jungle follows five years in the life and career of independent filmmaker Justin McConnell (Lifechanger). This fascinating documentary features interviews with a range of industry luminaries – including Guillermo del Toro (Crimson Peak), Tom Holland (Fright Night) and George A. Romero (The Crazies), alongside a host of others. The feature will be accompanied by a wealth of over 50 exclusive ARROW Stories including commentaries, and almost 30 extended interviews! A collection of 8 short films by filmmaker Justin McConnell will also be showcased throughout the month of April.
APRIL 1st: FOUR FILM NOIR CLASSICS
Dark urban locales, sultry femme fatales, doomed protagonists and a brooding atmosphere of danger, cynicism and anxiety. These quintessential aspects of film noir are strikingly demonstrated by the four consummate examples of the genre presented in this collection. In The Dark Mirror (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak, a man is murdered and there’s an obvious suspect, but she has an identical twin sister (both played by Olivia de Havilland, Gone with the Wind), and one of them has a cast-iron alibi; In Secret Beyond the Door (1947), Fritz Lang (The Big Heat) adapts the Bluebeard legend with a dash of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca; In Abraham Polonsky’s Force of Evil (1948), an unscrupulous lawyer (John Garfield, The Postman Always Rings Twice) scents a personal fortune when he concocts a plan to merge New York City’s numbers rackets into a single powerful and unbreakable operation; and in Joseph H. Lewis’s ultra-stylish The Big Combo (1955), Lieutenant Diamond (Cornel Wilde, The Naked Prey) is determined to bring down mob boss Mr Brown (Richard Conte, Thieves’ Highway), even if it means jeopardising his own career.
APRIL 9th: KEEPING IT REEL
Digging into the stories behind everything from George A. Romero’s game-changing Night of the Living Dead, the enduring popularity of VHS and an extreme shock-rocker. Sit back and get real as we take a peek behind the cracked and bloody lens to see what lurks beneath…
APRIL 9th: THREE FILMS BY JIA ZHANGKE
Jia Zhangke has become widely regarded as one of world cinema’s most accomplished filmmakers, and a leading figure of the Sixth Generation movement of Chinese cinema. This collection includes 24 City (2008), that records the social impact of transforming a military hardware factory into a complex of luxury flats; Cannes prize-winner A Touch of Sin (2013), focusing on four people living across China who are driven to acts of violence; and Jia’s eighth feature film, Mountains May Depart (2015), an intimate and moving drama spanning several decades which charts the impact of China’s capitalist experiment on the lives of one family.
APRIL 16th: TAKESHI KITANO COLLECTION
Six films from the enormously talented Japanese director Takeshi Kitano, including the downbeat and brutal crime thriller HANA BI, directed, written by and starring Kitano; the bizarre, over the top and absurd comedy GETTING ANY? full of slapstick silliness and never ending gags; DOLLS, featuring stories about a failed suicide, an ageing yazuka and a disfigured pop star; KIKUJIRO, about a young man’s search for his long-lost mother; A SCENE AT THE SEA, a heart-rending masterpiece that has a sharp eye for human frailties and a love for the courage of the underdog; and KIDS RETURN, another underdog story about the lives of two school friends, one who becomes a boxer, the other a gangster.
APRIL 26th: BATTLE ROYALE COLLECTION
Presenting an alternate dystopian vision of turn-of-the-millennium Japan, the shocking and highly influential Battle Royale follows the 42 junior high school students who are dispatched to a remote island, each given individual weapons and ordered to go out and kill one other – an extreme method of addressing concerns about juvenile delinquency. Overseeing the carnage is ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano (Sonatine, Hana-bi, Zatoichi). In the thrilling sequel, Battle Royale II, a new class of delinquents are recruited by the government to hunt down the survivor of the deadly games of the first film. Both films will be presented with alternative cuts and the collection will be joined by a host of ARROW Stories including behind the scenes featurettes, interviews and more
ALSO SHOWING IN APRIL
David Cronenberg’s superbly disturbing adaptation of William Burroughs’ classic novel Naked Lunch, and cult Karen Black horror gem Mirror Mirror. Plus! Enemy, Death Has Blue Eyes, Switchblade Sisters, Alps, Ashes of Time, Slaughterhouse, Gomorrah Season 3, Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape, Video Nasties: Draconian Days, ARROW Essentials collections of Action films, Japanese Cinema much more…
WHERE TO GET IT
Try the alternative – head to ARROW and start your 30-day free trial. Available on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV; iOS devices, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at www.ARROW-Player.com. Subscriptions are available for £4.99 monthly or £49.99 annually
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