Blu-ray release: ‘V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal’

By   |  Apr 28, 2025

Arrow Video are bringing nine explosive Japanese V-Cinema titles from Toei to US and UK Blu-ray on April 28/29, 2025.

Fast-paced and action-packed, ‘Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage’ sees detective Joe Kawamura out for revenge against the men who gunned down his partner. Along the way he teams up with Lily, a gun-toting nun looking to get back five million dollars that was stolen from her church. Next up, ‘Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet’ sees wannabe yakuza Junko get more than he bargained for when tasked with avenging the murder of a fellow gang member, or face the consequences for betrayal. Meanwhile, in Shunichi Nagasaki’s unbearably tense thriller ‘Stranger’, a late-night taxi driver is stalked by the unseen driver of an SUV, who just might have a connection to the taxi driver’s criminal past. In ‘Carlos’, the eponymous Brazilian-Japanese petty criminal sees an opportunity to play rival yakuza gangs against each other, but bites off much more than he can chew. ‘Burning Dog’ is a gripping heist film where a gang of thieves plot to rob a US military base in Okinawa, but rising tensions in the group threaten to put the plan in jeopardy.

The sequel to one of the most iconic Japanese franchises of all time, ‘Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat’ sees a female assassin hired to infiltrate a women’s prison and search for The Scorpion, a legendary rebellious prisoner hiding in the bowels of the building. After his fiancée is killed in the crossfire of a yakuza turf war, a man on the edge remorselessly hunts down the gangsters responsible in legendary director Teruo Ishii’s ‘The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses’. Meanwhile in ‘Danger Point: The Road to Hell’, duo of contract killers’ fragile partnership is tested when their most recent hit starts to have unforeseen consequences. Finally, assassin and femme fatale Shion rebels against the fanatical religious order who prepared her from birth to be the perfect killer in the pulpy ‘XX: Beautiful Hunter’.

Filled with action, thrills and double-crosses, ‘V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal’ is an electrifying compendium of gems from the Japanese video underworld.

Features:
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all films
• Original lossless Japanese mono audio on ‘Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage’
• Original lossless Japanese stereo audio for all other films
• Optional newly translated English subtitles for all films
• Nine postcard-sized artcards
• Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves with new art by Chris Malbon
• Illustrated collector’s booklet
• Newly filmed introductions by Masaki Tanioka
• Loose Cannon, a new interview with director Shundo Okawa
• Zooming Out, a new interview with writer-director Banmei Takahashi
• Crime Hunter and the Dawn of V-Cinema, a new video essay by Tom Mes
• Original trailers
• Stranger than Fiction, a new interview with writer-director Shunichi Nagasaki
• From Manga to Movies, a new interview with writer-director Kazuhiro Kiuchi
• An Extra Round in the Chamber, a new video essay by Jonathan Clements
• Fire and Ice, a new video essay by Mark Schilling
• Toshiharu Ikeda’s Beautiful Monster of Vengeance, a new video essay by Samm Deighan
• The Versatility of Teruo Ishii, a new video essay by Frankie Balboa
• The Road to V-Cinema, a new video essay by James Balmont
• The Sacred and the Profane, a new interview with screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi
• They Brought Back the Sleaze, a new video essay by Patrick Macias

‘V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal’ is available to order now from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Phil Mills
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