Shôhei Imamura double feature The Insect Woman and Nishi-Ginza Station hits DVD and Blu-ray next year

THE INSECT WOMAN
Masters of Cinema

is to be released in the UK in a new Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition on 20 February 2012


SYNOPSIS:

"My heroines are true to life - just look around you at Japanese women. They are strong, and they outlive men," director Shôhei Imamura once observed. And so an audacious, anthropological approach to filmmaking came into full maturity with the director's vast 1963 chronicle of pre- and post-war Japan, The Insect Woman [i]Nippon-konchûki, or An Account of Japanese Insects].

Comparing his heroine, Tome Matsuki (played by Sachiko Hidari, who won the "Best Actress" award at the 1964 Berlin Film Festival for the role) to the restlessness and survival instincts of worker insects, the film is an unsparing study of working-class female life. Beginning with Tome's birth in 1918, it follows her through five decades of social change, several improvised careers, and male-inflicted cruelty.

Elliptically plotted, brimming over with black humour and taboo material, and immaculately staged in crystalline NikkatsuScope, The Insect Woman is arguably Imamura's most radical and emphatic testament to female resilience.

Widely recognised as one of the most important films of the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s, the Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present The Insect Woman alongside Imamura's rarely seen 1958 feature Nishi-Ginza Station in a special Dual Format edition, released in the UK on 20 February 2012.



SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT EDITION FEATURES:

• Newly restored high-definition master of The Insect Woman
• New progressive transfer of Nishi-Ginza Station, a 1958 feature by Imamura
• Newly translated optional English subtitles for both films
• A video conversation about The Insect Woman between Imamura and critic Tadao Sato
• A lavish booklet featuring essays by film scholar Tony Rayns on both films, rare archival imagery, and more!


DETAILS:

Label: Eureka Entertainment Ltd

Cat. No: EKA70041 (RETAIL ONLY)
Barcode: 5060000700411
RRP: £25.52
Release Date: 20 February 2012
Certificate: TBC
Run Time: 123 min. / 52 min.
Format: 2.35:1 OAR/ B&W
Genre: World Cinema
Director: Shôhei IMAMURA
Year: 1963 / 1958
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English (Optional)