Logboy reported about this release not too long ago. We got the DVD details today. Synapse Films and Panik House Entertainment join forces to bring you a groundbreaking pair of cult film rarities from the vaults of Toei Studios!
Press Release - Cult film fans around the world can finally rejoice, for the greatest hidden treasure of cult cinema is coming in a fully uncut, completely re-mastered edition. Director Teruo Ishii's astonishing Horrors of Malformed Men, long suppressed in its home country, is making its worldwide home video debut in a supplement-laden DVD from Synapse Films. After escaping from an asylum, young medical student Hirosuke assumes the identity of a dead man in order to solve the mystery of a weird doppelganger whose picture he sees in the newspaper. Traveling to faraway Panorama Island, he discovers a mad scientist surgically remaking normal human beings into misshapen monsters but that is only the beginning. Hirosuke soon learns the horrible truth about the island and his own family's shameful past, and finds himself plunged into the depths of incest, murder, and madness.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New, fully restored anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) transfer mastered in High Definition
- Japanese language with newly-translated, removable English subtitles
- Audio commentary by film critic and 2003 Ishii retrospective programmer Mark Schilling
- New documentary featurette on the film, featuring interviews with cult film directors and Ishii fans Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo the Iron Man) and Minoru Kawasaki (The Calamari Wrestler)
- Ishii's video introduction from the 2003 Far East Film Festival
- Original Japanese theatrical trailer
- Teruo Ishii and Edogawa Rampo biographies, plus poster galleries and trailers from other Ishii and Rampo films
- Reversible cover with original Japanese poster artwork
- MORE Extras TBA!
ITEM# SFD0064
SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE: $24.95
STREET DATE: AUGUST 28, 2007
superb. nice looking specs, beautiful artwork, good choices of films. these are easily the most important DVD releases of the year for me, and i hope many at least pick up teruo ishii's ‘horror of malformed men', and hopefully ‘snake womans curse' too.
Yeah, this is a great selection of titles. A shame that Panik House overdid it and ruined themselves in the process of licensing them. That's what you get for grabbing a batch of Toei films for $30.000-$50.000 each. These may yet turn a profit some way down the line since they are all the first ever DVD releases in the world and there will be worldwide interest from fans but for the company it seems to be too late.
Very impressive list of DVD extras! This definitely looks like a keeper. I'm also glad for the reversible cover as I'm not too crazy for this new artwork (original Japanese poster art was definitely better).