Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

LOL that is the perfect definition of arty.

If one were to buy only ONE of the Taiwanese films on sale today which one would you pick? I really dig neo-noir, 70s-90s film, like learning about history, and don't mind J Horror for a reference point. At first I thought Neon god would be the choice. Reading up on Detention a bit might make me pick that one. Oh also, I love films that have "the city" as a main character, so that would seem to be a point in Rebels favor.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Let Brian make the suggestion on Detention or Neon God; I've seen neither.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

This music lives rent free in my mind.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Totally hear you on this. This aspect is, unfortunately, what sets a certain segment of Taiwanese cinema apart from the other ‘Chinese’ cinemas in the perception of a lot of people in the west, and it’s also come to define Taiwanese cinema to westerners. And it’s such bullshit, frankly. I probably shouldn’t say this after you placed an order, but Tsai Ming-liang is a poster boy for it. I still love his films, but they’re best watched in a certain frame of mind. And that’s the one big issue I have with Taiwanese cinema: their most famous exports — Tsai, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Ang Lee (pre-Hollywood) — along with the festival programmers and boutique Blu-ray companies who keep jizzing their pants over them, have created this entirely skewed impression of the island’s cinema as arthouse and ponderous.

Maybe you can loan it to them, see what they think.Personally I think it leans more commercial like most modern Taiwanese cinema. And if neither of you like it, try some like these to see what people in Taiwan actually watch while they’re sending all their navel gazers over to us. :lol: (the first one says “Malaysia official” in the title, but it’s definitely a TW film)

That last one, incidentally, was one of the highest grossing films in Taiwanese history. It’s an LGBTQ-friendly film, too, which is something you’ll never see in China (or Hong Kong now, probably), and something you’d never see from Taiwan if China forcibly takes over the place. In fact, the Taiwanese make more successful (and accessible to straight people) LGBTQ comedies and dramas than any other Asian country right now, and with a fraction of the “sex angle” that seems to hang over a lot of this cinema in the west (I say that as a straight person, so my perception may be a little off, don’t know).

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Only ten bucks each. ;););)

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Oh wow, I see from Dex's video that it's the same director as What Time is it There, a movie I actually own but haven't gotten around to watching yet. I think I found it at a super cheap DVD sale (DVD, not Blu, by the way) for like a buck or two and thought it would be interesting.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Similarly enough, my first run-in with one of his films was with a bargain store DVD of his 1997 move THE RIVER, which I found for $3 over 15 years ago. I’d heard about his movies for ages, though mostly through film fest reviews that made them sound artsy and slow (to me, anyway). Finally got around to watching it a few years after that and really enjoyed it. I’d seen a few other, more mainstream Taiwanese movies by then, so I could see how his comparative uniqueness would mark him as a film fest / arthouse darling. I think I found REBELS, his first feature, shortly after that, which really drove home the point.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

A few on todays list that I don’t think were in the last versions of this sale (I’m in for eight). Digging through my orders, though, I see the slip version STEEL AND LACE and the slipcase + slipcover SCARY OF SIXTY FIRST (ugh) were both only $10 in last January’s sale.

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collecti...week-2024-sale

Has anyone actually bothered with those FUCK THE DEVIL movies? I generally don’t trust Bleeding Skull’s releases, as I think they scrape pretty close to barely-released (or not even released?) home movies made by people who never did anything else, and these seem to exemplify that to the extreme.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

The best film (imo) today already sold out in Knife+ Heart. I already picked that up via Hamilton books. I usual avoid those SOV/Home Video types that Vineagar likes to put out. It's just not my thing.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

I'm considering Scared to Death. Psychotronic Encyclopedia refers to it as "lots of low budget fun"

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Didn't get anything today.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Got four in today’s new batch.

They repeated a few from earlier days this week: BOGGY CREEK 2, which I’m pretty sure was sold out yesterday just as it is today, plus EXPECT NO MERCY and SCARY OF SIXTY-FIRST, which was half the price in last year’s $10 sale. They also put a limit of 1 on TALONS OF THE EAGLE, which, fair enough, is nearly one-third the SRP.

Slip version of KANEHSATAKE is sold out, but standard still available (although for Canadian and possibly American buyers, all of Onomsawin’s films are free on the NFB site, and well worth seeing either way). Looks like the slip version of the Filipino movie DEATH OF NINTENDO will sell out momentarily.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Nothing for me today. I already got Trauma at last year's sale for $10.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Damn. Missed out on the slip for Nintendo, looks like an interesting movie. Might pick it up anyway. And I thought Scary of Sixty-First merited an "ugh" from you Brian

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Just looking at stock levels, I'm betting there's a lot of repeaters for the UHD daily deals tomorrow. Both the Beastmaster, Ebola Syndrome have 1000 in stock. Out of Order has close to 700. I'd buy Freeway if it were at the $20 price point though.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Oh it still merits an ugh. I was mainly pointing out its repeat appearance, because I suspect it’s not a big seller and its elaborate packaging is just pretty camouflage. I’m pretty liberal, but that’s a movie made by your 20-year-old kid who thinks they’ve just discovered how the world works and no one else has. Ten dollars last year was somewhat justifiable.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

I added it to my pre-existing order, but was kinda bummed because I thought it was 10 bucks last year. Then when I went to check out, my Honey app found some promo code & it ended up being just $9 and change. ( shrugs ) Go figure.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Pulled the trigger on Black Cat pre-order and Death of Nintendo. Bummed I didn't get the slip for Nintendo, it looks nice. It turns out we showed that at my film festival in 2020. I wasn't aware of the 2020 lineup because I do projection, and that was the year we were "virtual", aka they didn't need me. But it means people I know personally thought it was worthy of inclusion. We rarely show stinkers, and the programmer who selected the stinkers isn't with the organization anymore (she'd choose those boring ass slow films we were talking about the other day, and when the other members of the programming staff would veto the selection, she literally cried until the films were added. Like I said, not with the organization anymore)

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Yeah, I figure I’ll cave on the BLACK CAT set tomorrow. I’ll wait and see if I can get any 4K combos to boost my points a bit higher, then use them on the set. I don’t really care about 4K, but in many cases those are the only way to get the Blu-rays now. I’ve only got a few VS 3K sets now for that very reason — MELTING MAN, EBOLA, GORGO, UNDEFEATABLE, INVISIBLE MANIAC — and there are a couple of others I’d blow $20 on.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Some good UHD deals today, including a few partner label titles. At least some — like Madman and The Werewolf vs. Vampire Woman — still come with slips. (I already have everything that’s really speaking to me, alas.)

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

I think I'm gonna pass on getting anything today, since I spent more than I wanted to with that Black Cat box.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

I ended up purchasing five 4Ks, only one of which I really wanted — TERMINAL ISLAND because the extras are more plentiful than my old Code Red Blu-ray — and the others will most likely be flipped after watching them because they sell for two to three times what I paid on Amazon marketplace up here. These more than doubled my remaining points so I was able to do apply $20 to the BLACK CAT set (which, of course, will be available for that price in a future sale — damned impatience . . . and Paff! :lol:).

I’d post a list of everything, but since I went overboard even more than I did in the BF sale, I’m not sure I want to see it all together like that!

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Sure....in November. That's an awfully long time to wait for a movie that you already know is a must-have.

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Oh, I know I’ll be happy when it gets here. And according to the schedule VS released, there’s more HK stuff coming before then too.

The only hard part about these new HK editions — from all of the boutique labels — is digging through my storage totes full of old Hong Kong editions to pull the ones I don’t need anymore, and wistfully remembering the thrill of the hunt in finding them back in those days. That was half the fun. Now, I just click ‘buy’ every time something comes out. :lol:

Re: Vinegar Syndrome - Subscriber Week Sale
 

Since we don't have a general VS sale thread, I just bumped the most recent one. But several of the titles in the "going out of print" section are down to $10, including the pair of Norman Warren films Prey and Terror. Both get a big thumbs up from me. Prey is rather odd (to say the least), but also a great combination of smut and horror, featuring the lovely Glory Annen (I've probably mentioned in TMI detail about how much I......appreciated....Showtime's frequent late night airings of her Aussie sex romp Felicity when I was in high school). And Terror might be the only non-Chewbacca appearance I know of Peter Mayhew. Both belong in any horror collection.