28 January 2008

Tartan Video have announced the following four titles for an May 2008 release on UK DVD. Technical specs and some of the extras are awaiting confirmation. Box artwork will hopefully follow shortly.

Poison / Dottie Gets Spanked
Todd Haynes' landmark fir feature Poison explores modern alienation and sexual identity in three different stories.  One tells of the disappearance of a schoolboy after his father's murder; the second looks at a scientist's sex-drive experimentations; and the final story explores a prisoners' unrequited love for a fellow prisoner. Accompanying the feature is Haynes' short film Dottie Gets Spanked about a young boy's obsession with a TV character.  One of the leading figures of the New Queer Cinema, Haynes has become a unique visionary with movies such as [Safe], Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven and the soon-to-be released I'm Not There.

I'm a Cyborg (Saibogujiman kwenchana)
Having made a serious international impression with his Vengeance Trilogy of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance, Park Chan-wook surprised just about everybody by making a madcap romantic fantasy whose US title is I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK, a film Park saw as a palette cleanser after three such dark films. Young-goon is admitted to a mental institution. Believing herself a cyborg, she refuses to eat, and charges herself with a transistor radio. Il-soon is a fellow inmate, who wears masks, has the ability to steal people's personality traits, and believes he is fading and will one day turn into a dot. When Young-goon faints because she refuses to eat, Il-soon decides it's his job to get her on her feet again. Charming, and visually arresting, with bizarre comic touches of Terry Gilliam and The Happiness of The Katakuris.

Verhoeven Collection: 5 Disc Box Set
A five-film collection of early films by the Dutch master before his move to Hollywood. The set includes Business Is Business, Turkish Delight, Katie Tippel, Solider Of Orange and The Fourth Man. All of the films have been digitally remastered with commentaries by the director himself.

Bloody Mallory (Grindhouse)
A French comedy horror film clearly inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Resident Evil. Olivia Bonamy plays the leader of a group of demon-slaying commandos, who are recruited after the Pope is kidnapped by a bunch of demons. Exploding nuns and killer transvestites are just two of the attractions in a film described by bisforbrains.com as "a rockin-satanic-cyberpunk-vampire-zombie-laugh-fest from start to finish."

Asia Extreme: Ghost School Horror 4-Disc Box Set
Four films set in an all-girls' high school where it's not just students that stalk the classrooms. Each tale is haunted by supernatural happenings and curses. In a country where pupils will attend school from dawn 'til nightfall, there's not surprise it breeds disturbing levels of competitiveness or jealousies. Whispering Corridors, Memento Mori and Wishing Stairs have been brought together with the fourth title, The Voice, amongst Korea's most successful box-office smashes to date.

All of the above titles will be released on UK DVD by Tartan on 26th May 2008 at the RRP of £19.99, with the exception of Bloody Mallory, which will retail at £12.99, and the Asia Extreme Box Set, which is priced at £24.99.