Arrow Made Mine! The Game Trilogy Edition

Don’t they know MMC! has been retired! Why do they keep pulling me back in! And especially without spinenumbered contribution to their releases!?! Nevertheless, it’s the end of the month and that means new Arrow Video announcements and another case of spine number wish fufillment. This time it’s Toru Murakawa’s Game Trilogy, a trio of films MMC! stumped for way back on October 5, 2015. This looks like a great package and June 2023 can’t arrive fast enough! As always, you’re welcome!

(Also, when did WordPress start installing so many ads? Yikes.)

Criterion Made Mine! The Servant Edition!

While MMC! is still officially retired, I just wanted to take a moment to shamelessly take a lap for having called Joseph Losey’s The Servant for a wacky “C” a mere seven years ago! Not much cross-over on the extras though, which is a bit of a loss. Still (and once again, film nerds), you’re welcome!

As an aside, it’s also nice to see potential MMC! proposal candidates Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968) and Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991) each getting wacky “Cs” as well!

Arrow Made Mine! The A Fugitive from the Past Edition

Literally nothing on this blog makes me happier than posting about MMC! titles getting actual spine numbers and Arrow Video has made that happen once again with the announcement that Tomu Uchida’s A Fugitive from the Past will be released in September! A massive film that nicely bookends with his Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (another film also promoted by MMC! and later released by Arrow Video), Fugitive is a masterpiece of Japanese guilt, treating the demand for atonement as a near metaphysical inevitability. Gritty in texture yet profound in its look and sensibility, Fugitive will likely catch many Arrowheads off guard and find the declaring a newly discovered masterpiece. Once again, you’re welcome!

Arrow Made Mine! The Mill of the Stone Women Edition

With a new print of Giorgio Ferroni’s Mill of the Stone Women appearing at the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival compliments of Arrow Video, it was easy to expect a Blu-ray edition to be forthcoming from the label. Then again, an AV release of Mill might have been expected back in 2017 when MMC! imagined an Arrow Video edition of this minor Italian Gothic masterpiece. The forthcoming Arrow Video release newly announced for November 2021 is a stacked limited edition boasting four versions of the film and a plethora of special features. MMC! managed to predict the inclusion of all four versions, anticipate Wolfgang Preiss’s archival interview being included on this latest version, and correctly invented an audio commentary by Tim Lucas. As always, film fans, you’re welcome!

November looks like a winning month from Arrow Video with a 4K UHD standard edition of Battle Royale for the UK, a 4K UHD release of The Hills Have Eyes, an impressive limited edition release of The Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge, and Shinji Somai’s Sailor Suit and Machine Gun. Could we see an Arrow set of Somai’s more dramatic works sometime in the future, providing much needed editions of Moving or Typhoon Club and saving us from solid but region-locked releases of Third Window Films? MMC! can only hope.

Arrow Made Mine! The Dinner in America Edition

Arrow Video absolutely crushed its August announcements today with a stunning array of titles. The crown jewel for many will be 4k UHD, Steelbook, and Blu-ray releases of David Lynch’s Dune (1984). Added to that are releases of The Brotherhood of Satan (Bernard McEveety, 1971), Blind Beast (Yasuzo Masumura, 1969), and a UK-only edition of A Tale of Two Sisters (Kim Jee-woon, 2003), plus their 4k UHD release of The Cat o’ Nine Tails (Dario Argento, 1971), a collection of past Sergio Martino releases, and some restocks. Of course, MMC! is happiest to see Adam Carter Rehmeier’s lovable, irascible, and oh-so catchy Dinner in America (2020) get the Arrow Video treatment. MMC! imagined an AV edition of the film following last year’s Fantasia International Film Festival and we’re pleased to see that FIFF Q&A session make it onto the disc. As always, you’re welcome. Now if only that Arrow Video release wasn’t UK only….

Criterion Made Mine! The Streetwise Edition

It’s another month of Criterion announcements and another example of MMC!’s Collection wishes coming true. This month sees the Criterion Collection announcing the release of Martin Bell’s Streetwise (1984) and Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell (2016) in a collected edition. MMC! imagined this release back in 2015 and it’s good to see we accurately predicted the inclusion of some short film work and Cheryl McCall’s 1983 Life magazine article. Once again cineastes, you’re welcome!

Screenings of Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition (1959) were scheduled at MMC! headquarters in April, but those plans will be delayed to June to coincide with the release of Criterion’s blu-grade in June. Also coming in June will be an upgrade of MMC! favourite and past Top Ten entrant Pickup on South Street (Sam Fuller, 1953), a stand-alone release of the excellent Olympic documentary Visions of Eight (1973), Dee Rees’s queer coming-of-age story Pariah (2011), and an electrifying and exhaustive collection – The Signifyin’ Works of Marlon Riggs.