Blu-ray release: ‘J-Horror Rising’
By Phil Mills | Oct 17, 2024
Arrow Video are bringing ‘J-Horror Rising’, a collection of seven Japanese horror movies, to US and UK Blu-ray on October 28/29, 2024.
Vengeful ghosts returning from beyond the grave, young women with supernatural abilities, investigative narratives, a terror of technology, and an ominous aura of urban alienation and isolation mark the wave of horror and mystery films that emerged in Japan at the turn of the millennium, collectively labelled as “J-Horror”. Remastered from the best available elements and packed with a host of new and archival extras, ‘J-Horror Rising’ presents seven of the genre’s most distinctive titles.
In the ghostly pastoral horror of ‘Shikoku’ (死国), a young woman returns after many years to her rural birthplace, only to find her best friend from childhood has died by drowning when just sixteen. The dead girl’s mother, the local Shintoist priestess, has embarked on the region’s famous pilgrimage – but why is she walking backwards? The aftermath of the devasting Kobe Earthquake of 1995 creates fissures in the already fractured mind of a high-school girl in ‘Isola: Multiple Personality Girl’ (ISOLA 多重人格少女), allowing an unwelcome intruder to set up home in her head and leaving a volunteer worker with psychic powers to determine which of her personas is the fake one. Shikoku also provides the mystical backdrop to ‘Inugami’ (狗神), as a teacher from Tokyo finds himself drawn to a local papermaker, only to find himself the subject of some hostility from her extended family, who have long ties to the region and are rumoured to be the descendants of the guardians of ancient evil canine spirits.
Megumi Okina plays the art designer for a horror-themed videogame in the innovative ‘St. John’s Wort’ (弟切草), who is forced to confront her childhood traumas when her colleagues ask her to gather visual materials from the creepy gothic mansion she has inherited from her estranged artist father. ‘Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman’ (口裂け女) features the titular predatory murderess drawn from urban legend, where it turns out home isn’t the safest place for her potential child victims in this disturbing supernatural horror. A new craze for wearing ceramic masks sweeps the students of a high school, unleashing a wave of anonymous juvenile delinquency amongst the literal fashion-victims of ‘Persona’ (仮面学園), which boasts early appearances from ‘Battle Royale’ stars Tatsuya Fujiwara and Chiaki Kuriyama. Last but not least, the chilling ‘Noroi: The Curse’ (ノロイ) adopts a pseudo-documentary format as an investigative reporter into paranormal phenomena is forced to confront horrors beyond his wildest imagination after learning about an ancient folkloric demon.
Features:
• HD (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all seven films
• Original lossless stereo audio for ‘Persona’
• Original lossless 5.1 and lossless stereo sound options for the other six films
• Optional English subtitles for each film
• Illustrated collector’s booklet
• Double-sided foldout poster
• Limited Edition packaging
• New audio commentary on ‘Shikoku’ by Tom Mes
• New audio commentary on ‘Isola: Multiple Personality Girl’ by Jasper Sharp and Amber T.
• New audio commentary on ‘Inugami’ by Jonathan Clements
• New audio commentary on ‘St. John’s Wort’ by Amber T.
• New audio commentary on ‘Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman’ by Zack Davisson
• New audio commentary on ‘Noroi: The Curse’ by Julian Singleton
• The Aftermath featurette
• How to Protect Yourself Against Curses featurette
• Urgent report! Pursuing the Truth about Kagutaba!! TV Special
• New video essay on ‘Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman’
• Two new video essays on ‘Noroi: The Curse’
• The Making of St. John’s Wort
• New interview with ‘Shikoku’ director Shunichi Nagasaki
• New interview with ‘Inugami’ director Masato Harada
• New interview with ‘Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman’ director Koji Shiraishi
• New interview with ‘Persona’ director Takashi Komatsu
• New interview with ‘Noroi: The Curse’ director Koji Shiraishi
• New interview with ‘Noroi: The Curse’ producer Taka Ichise
• Archive interviews with Shunichi Nagasaki, Chiaki Kuriyama and Yui Natsukawa on ‘Shikoku’
• Archive interview with Yoshino Kimura and Yu Kurosawa on ‘Isola: Multiple Personality Girl’
• Archive interviews with Megumi Okina, Koichiro Saito, Reiko Matsuo and Koji Okura
• On-set footage of the filming of ‘Shikoku’
• On-set footage of the filming of ‘St. John’s Wort’
• Over half an hour of ‘Noroi: The Curse’ deleted scenes
• Image galleries
• Original trailers and TV spots
‘J-Horror Rising’ is available to pre-order now from Amazon.com, Terracottadistribution.com and Arrowfilms.com.
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