Sorry if this has already been posted, I did a search. I noticed this long OOP DVD popping up more frequently on the Half & Amazon Marketplace. Now I know why - it's being re-released on August 5. It's up for preorder I've never seen it, but the cover art looks good. I'm reluctant to post it here because it's NSFW. Anyone seen this? Is it worth owning or just a rental?

It's definitely worth seeing, alternately engrossing and revolting, overwhelmingly sexual, increasingly surreal and highly critical of Japan's economic boom and the personal emptiness it engendered in a generation, with a fascinating performance by pie-eyed lead Miho Nikaido (surprised she never went further) as the lost soul prostitute whose already rote existence starts to slip into madness. But Amazon lists the upcoming Cinema Epoch version as having a 112 minute run time, which is the same as the old First Run DVD that went out of print. I've only ever seen that version, but I understand the complete film runs 135 minutes, but I'm not sure that version has ever been released on DVD anywhere, or what it includes. The 112-minute version is fairly extreme as it is (one of those 'pink' films that often feels like hardcore without actually showing the evidence, so to speak.

"Tokyo Decadence" was released twice before in R1. I own the '99 snapper release from Image. The back lists a running time of 109 minutes. It's FS and has really bad subtitles, perhaps burnt-in.

It came out again in '03 from First Run Features with the 112 minute run-time, also FS. Back then I wasn't able to verify if the picture was any better, so I didn't upgrade.

IMDB lists a 135 min version with an 1.85 A/R. If the DVD turns out to be OAR, even if it is the 112 minute cut, I may upgrade. Thanks for the heads-up on this. It's a great movie and I hadn't noticed the re-issue.

According to http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID....qx/details.htm, it's 16x9!

They also claim it has a choice of subs or dubbing. That means that the subtitles are likely player-generated, so they may be much better than the '99 version.

I saw this movie way back when during the VHS days.

Me too, I remember blind buying the unrated version on VHS previously viewed at a video store about 12 or 13 years ago. Admittedly, I haven't watched the movie since, but I don't remember it being better than just average, IMO. Maybe I was just expecting something more sordid and depraved, based on what I had heard about it.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably rent it first. I didn't know there was a release in 03. The video store I used to go to had the VHS for years, up until they stopped carrying VHS, but I never had the nerve to bring it up to the check out for fear of being exposed as a perv. (Now I just don't care).

There's a LOT more at work in TOKYO DECADENCE than the sordid/depraved stuff, or the content that would get you labelled at the checkout counter. Unfortunatley, too much of its reputation is based on those elements rather than the social criticisms the film makes, which are not necessarily spelled out the way they might be in an American movie. A certain amount of context is required to really appreciate some of these characters (as it would have been for Japanese audiences - and not just the pervs), but ultimately the age of a viewer and their knowledge of the culture are important factors. Not saying it's an absolute classic, but it is an important work in its own way.

OK. It's been more than a month. Anybody pick it up yet. The back cover says 112 minutes and 16x9 enhanced. I haven't seen it in a store yet.

Here's the DVDTalk review.

I was hoping this was going to be the uncut version but, it appears, it may never been seen.

Thanks, I'd still like to find a review that compares the new release against previous ones.

wow, I feel old, I saw this in the theatre.