The lone wolf archetype is a figure that has lived on in many samurai and action spectacles — the man who walks alone and walks a fine line of morals and principles, fighting for the common good, and the common… Read More ›
Radiance Films
Adam’s Corner: February 2024 Home Releases
Anytime there’s an opportunity to talk movies, I’m going to take it, and this is no exception. Having been invited to join fellow NC-based film critic Adam Long on his podcast, Adam’s Corner, to discuss the home releases for February,… Read More ›
Radiance Films releases director Yasuharu Hasebe’s debut film, the spy spoof “Black Tight Killers,” in resplendent HD.
A war photographer, a stewardess, and a chance meeting set the stage for an 87-minute technicolor adventure of crime, mystery, and romance in director Yasuharu Hasebe’s (Retaliation) 1966 caper Black Tight Killers (俺にさわると危ないぜ). The first of several collaborations with lead… Read More ›
Radiance Films brings a forgotten “Great” back with “Allonsanfàn” on Blu-ray.
If you’ve never heard of the Italian Napoleonic drama Allonsanfàn before today, don’t worry, almost no one has. I had not heard of it until Radiance Films announced this Blu-ray release, and one of Vulture’s film critics Bilge Ebiri quote… Read More ›
Radiance Films welcome a new Damiano Damiani-directed film to their collection, the spy thriller “Goodbye & Amen.”
During the debut year for physical media boutique Radiance Films, a distributor interested in lesser-available/known international cinema, they released a wonderful three-film collection of director Damiano Damiani’s film dubbed “Cosa Nostra: Franco Nero in three Mafia Tales by Damiano Damiani.”… Read More ›
Radiance Films adds Kōhei Oguri’s “The Sting of Death” to their collection with a first-time Blu-ray limited edition.
It’s 1985 and author Toshio Shimao releases “The Sting of Death” and Other Stories, a collection of works, the primary one being described as autobiographical. Five years later, writer/director Kōhei Oguri (Muddy River) would adapt that central tale into his… Read More ›
Yūzō Kawashima’s grifter dramedy “Elegant Beast” receives the restoration treatment from Radiance Films.
There have always been stories about grifters, liars, and thieves for about as long as there have been heroes and heroines. Sometimes they’re lovable arbiters of chaos, sometimes always in it for themselves. Each time, though, they are often thought… Read More ›
The “Messiah of Evil” devours the screen with Radiance Films’s special edition release.
Featuring not one but two of the great film prologues of the 1970s New Hollywood era, the high-minded horror classic Messiah of Evil (1973) is the latest release from independent Blu-ray distributor Radiance Films. Earlier this year a limited edition… Read More ›
Radiance Films packages three individual Damiano Damiani-directed mafia films into one fantastic thematic trilogy.
For every general genre in storytelling, there’s a subgenre within it that enables a storyteller to narrow their focus, thereby utilizing specific tools to explore their themes. It’s the difference between a chiller or thriller in horror, slapstick or screwball… Read More ›
Joining the Radiance Films collection is director Benny Chan’s first solo directorial debut “A Moment of Romance,” in a 4K HD restoration.
August 23rd, 2020, writer/actor/producer/director Benny Chan passed away from nasopharyngeal cancer, first diagnosed in 2019 while shooting the film Raging Fire with Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse. Raging Fire did eventually get released in 2021, both in China and internationally,… Read More ›
“The Iron Prefect” finally gets the spotlight thanks to Radiance Films.
“Filmmaking is also nation making.” – Pasquale Squitieri, via Domenico Monetti The Iron Prefect (1977) is a nearly perfect limited edition out from Radiance Films. Previously screened in the United States and released on DVD as I am the Law,… Read More ›
Radiance Films adds Rudolf Thome’s “Red Sun” to their collection in a first-time U.S. edition.
In its quest for cinema preservation, boutique distributor Radiance Films has released onto Blu-ray such films as Kōsaku Yamashita’s Big Time Gambling Boss (1968), Luigi Comencini’s The Sunday Woman (1975), Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Doll House (1995), and Amy… Read More ›
Radiance Films releases director Kinji Fukasaku’s crime drama “Yakuza Graveyard” on Blu-ray for the first time.
Photosensitivity Warning: During an interrogation scene late into the film a brief but prolonged flashing sequence occurs. Within crime stories, there is a specific subgenre born from Japan: yakuza films. These stories center on the lives or operations of members… Read More ›
Radiance Films adds director Luigi Comencini’s murder mystery comedy “The Sunday Woman (La donna della domenica)” to their burgeoning collection of restorations.
Comedy is tragedy plus time. – Author Mark Twain Though Edgar Allen Poe’s 1841 story The Murders in the Rue Morgue is widely considered the first detective story, there’s a long standing relationship between murder and storytelling. Whether in dramatics… Read More ›
Lost for 40 years, Jean-Denis Bonan’s thriller “La Femme Bourreau (A Woman Kills)” receives both a restoration and wide release, courtesy of Radiance Films.
Art imitates life when it comes to timing. One can never predict how something will be received and, even things prognosticators think is a shoe-in, could fall flat. Sometimes the politics of the day get in the way, other times… Read More ›
Director Kōsaku Yamashita’s 1968 crime drama “Big Time Gambling Boss” releases on Blu-ray for the first-time via Radiance Films.
In the world of boutique cinema home releases, there is Arrow Video, Synapse, Vinegar Syndrome, The Criterion Collection, and, now, Radiance films. Built by 12-year Arrow Video veteran Francesco Simeoni, Radiance Films is a brand-new boutique, offering films, books, and… Read More ›