Interview with Francesco Simeoni, Head of Radiance Films

Written by Richard Durrance on 02 Aug 2024

UKA were lucky enough to snag a bit of time with Francesco Simeoni, a name you may not be familiar with - but if you love Japanese, East Asian or just downright all cinema, you will know his work. Formerly Head of Content at Arrow, we caught up with him in his latest incarnation as head of Radiance, a label he started in 2023. The company has quietly managed to release a startlingly impressive roster of films (and I mean impressive), spanning the continents but especially some Asian gems such as Big Time Gambling Boss, A Story Written With Water, I, the Executioner and The Shape of Night. For anyone truly engaged and interested with cinema Radiance has become a touchstone for what boutique labels can and should be.  
 
Richard Durrance: What inspired you to start the Radiance label, and how daunting – or exciting - was it to go solo?

Francesco Simeoni: I had been with Arrow for 12 years, released many favourite films but I needed a change. The company’s transition from small indie to behemoth and being bought out was a great journey but it signalled a change. I wanted to be small, nimble, fun and most of all focus on small films that would inspire me.
 

RD: January 2023 saw Radiance’s first two releases, Kosaku Yamashita’s 1968 Big Time Gambling Boss (alongside Elio Petri’s The Working Class Goes to Heaven). You mentioned at the time that BTGB had originally been further down the release schedule but you put it first because it symbolised what Radiance was looking to achieve, and I'd be interested to know what that means to you?

FS: I was juggling two Japanese releases for our opening slate - the Yamashita and Yakuza Graveyard. I ultimately decided to go with the more obscure film because while I like the Fukasaku a lot I felt it would just seem a bit too similar to Arrow where I had released lots of his work and I wanted this to be a step change. I knew it was a risk going out with a film that no one knew anything about but I had the killer Paul Schrader quote and I knew I wasn’t the only one who’d seen it. So I trusted that quality would shine through and ultimately it did. It remains one of our best received films.  

RD: Your releases so far have been a mix of premiers (such as A Story Written With Water), re-releases of films that may now be out of print on DVD and vastly spruced up (Shuozhou River or Yakuza Graveyard, for instance), and many of the premiers are quite unknown in the west, how to you go about finding some of the more neglected releases?

FS: I keep a running list and pile of DVDs, screeners, blurays from other countries, bookmarks, screen grabs and so on that I’m continually refining, reminding myself of, periodically emailing people about so it’s all very much down to who is responding, what’s in decent HD material or better yet nicely restored and then whether they want to work with us. What makes the list is down to whether I love it but also whether it feels like a Radiance title. I watch a bunch of films but then also reject things a lot too. Sometimes I watch a film and think this is just fine, it’s a three- maybe four-star film. I don’t really want maybe four stars I want solid four plus. Or if it’s not then it’s got to be doing something else. It’s got to be telling a story about film history or having some other importance like filling a gap in a director’s oeuvre.

 When Radiance was announced the logo was a pen drawing, before settling upon...

RD: You’re releasing four Tai Kato films this year: I, the Executioner, By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him, Eighteen Years in Prison and Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza. When releasing multiple films by the same director, or films that you may see as linked in other ways, is there a rationale for the release order, or is this simply a matter of expediency? I, the Executioner I felt was the perfect entry to Kato’s work because the film is immediately visceral in the ways few films ever are, so it seemed a canny choice to have first up.

FS: Yes I very much felt that I, the Executioner should be first. I thought it would cast the widest net because of the kind of film it is, a noir but also horrific. After that I ran the order in such a way that worked for our deals but that would also allow audiences to soak up his films and build a picture of him as a filmmaker.

 
RD: At the end of 2023 you did something unusual and posted a list of films that you had tried to license but couldn’t, including Miike’s Visitor Q. Are there other East Asian films since that you’ve been unable to license but you’d like folk to try and search out?

FS: Yes, one of the things that people have enjoyed about Radiance is transparency so I thought that was an interesting way to discuss how we release films and what the challenges are. There are films that are difficult. I contacted an old email address for someone who used to represent Edward Yang’s films but got no response. I think they’re with another company so I stopped asking. I was chasing some other films but the company went bust so I have to find out who took on the library, it always an easy task. Along with Visitor Q we also couldn’t get Gozu as it looks to be owned by the yakuza! Ironic as they’re both my favourite Miike films. There are others, many from Toho that have been challenging but I keep trying.

RD: Adam Torel, who runs Third Window, has also been involved in independent film production. As another independent label, is this something you might in the future want to become involved in?

FA: Production sounds great but I have no experience or knowledge of it so it would have to be really at arm's length but certainly I’d like to support new filmmakers. Radiance may do a lot of old films but there’s always space for new filmmakers. Certainly, where the right opportunities come along, we will look at them, as we did with Trenque Lauquen.

RD: Thinking not just about Radiance but your history in licensing and distributing East Asian cinema are there are particular films you are most proud to have had a hand in releasing?

FS: When I think of Asian films I think at Arrow it was easy because I just went for films I knew were great and I’m very proud to have released films like Branded to Kill [RD: a personal favourite and a great release, including as an extra the roman porno remake: Trapped in Lust] or Battles without Honour or The Human Condition [RD: embarrassingly still on my shelves awaiting viewing] but I actually most proud of the work at Radiance in expanding the canon rather than staying within it. I think some people out there are going to watch The Shape of Night or Sting of Death and feel the way I did when I saw my first Yoshida or Imamura. For me discovering new filmmakers or masterworks is the most thrilling part, either of the job or as an audience member.

Black Tight Killers is one of Radiance's most entertaining, and brilliantly bonkers, releases

RD: As I understand it (and I may be very wrong here so please use this as a chance to disabuse me of my ignorance if need be) many of your releases are produced by collaborators, like Tom Mes, can you talk us through this process? Also, how you go about choosing, and approaching, people to produce your releases?

FS: Yes we work with a team that contributes in various ways to the releases. Tom produces a lot of our Japanese releases and that involves him selecting people for extras, filming, editing, subtitling, booklet and so on. But there are also people who do some of these jobs, who pitch to us even and the Radiance team deal with things technically from ensuring the master is in good shape and looks as it should, that things are fixed or restored where possible, that everything plays and works as it should and so on.  

People are chosen for a release based on their knowledge, historical writing or otherwise. For example we got Will Carroll to do a commentary on Tattooed Life because he wrote a book on Suzuki so knows the subject inside out and could give insight that would be challenging for anyone else who doesn’t have that level of research behind them.

RD: Over the last decade there’s been a lot of talk about the death of physical media due to streaming. In the last year or two physical media has made a resurgence (not just in film but music, etc.). Where do you see yourself and Radiance in the ongoing battle to keep physical media alive, and what do you see of the value of it over streaming? Are there other benefits that perhaps are not visible to the casual person, e.g. the value of physical media allowing the restoration and by extension preservation of film?

FS: I think this is very complex because we’ve got a lot of things going on between the pandemic, the writers strike, the economy all contributing to how films were consumed in a short space of time being thrown into a panic which caused studios to go for streaming in a way that was not measured by normal standards. As such they’ve completely devalued their distribution chain which means that audiences are going to struggle to go back to how things were and maybe never will. This does pose a long-term threat to the physical media industry as if there are not the supply chains in place to prop everything else up then it will stop or become untenable. However it’s not doom and gloom because people are buying physical releases. I think things are fine for the moment but it’s certainly going to be an interesting time ahead.  

Radiance will continue to do what we’ve been doing. I think the argument has never really changed but audiences have become momentarily blinkered by the on-demand boom though it is easing off. The same was true with recordable VHS, when you could record a film off the TV it didn’t mean that all sales plummeted following a broadcast, if anything sales would go up because it would get people talking. The same is true with streaming. Streaming doesn’t stop people buying physical media they’re not competing with each other.  Some people want to buy and that’s it. What is silly is not to give those consumers the option.  

I think the argument that physical media is better than streaming is a weak one. Most people can’t tell the difference so that’s not going to convince them. Though it’s plainly true it won’t garner new fans of physical media, not in the masses anyway. I think physical media fans will always be interested in it because what is physical has a dimension that no other delivery service can offer. You put it on your shelf and say “this is me. I like these films” they reflect my personality, they say something about me and my at home curation. When people come to my house they all look at the wall of discs. It invites question and discussion. What country is this from, what year is this, what do you recommend. No one is impressed that someone is subscribed to ten streaming services.

The full set of Radiance's 2024 Tai Kato releases (which are highly recommended, by the way)

 

RD: I appreciate this has focussed more on the East Asian releases that Radiance have distributed, but Radiance of course has a much wider roster of films that it has made available, including hosted labels, so thinking about the wider Radiance slate, which films in particular would you recommend to our readers to see (and dare I say buy – disclaimer, I’m not on a commission, honest)?

FS: Recommendations are very difficult because I think recommendations should be tailored. If someone likes Fukasaku’s films I’d say try Tai Kato. If someone likes Wong Kar-wai I’d say try The Shape of Night. If you like James Bond try Black Tight Killers or The Bounty Hunter Trilogy and so on. I think what is incredible now and perhaps why Radiance is striking a chord is we’re seeing a flattening of criticism. Films released now are just as likely to garner one-star reviews as they are five. The canon has been flipped upside down. Citizen Kane isn’t the best film ever made. We now have avenues with which people can make a claim for anything they want and nothing is off limits; there is no highbrow or low-brow anymore. Genre films are appreciated in such a way as they have struggled to in the past. So I think this is brilliant for film culture because it allows everyone to get their freak on. Whether you’re a yakuza freak, a samurai freak or whatever it’s more likely now your taste is going to be catered to. And this is what really excites me because we’re digging deeper and making some exciting discoveries in the process. [RD: it's true, I'd recommend all these films]

 
RD: Any possibility of teasing us with some confirmed or potential upcoming East Asian releases?

FS: We have some very cool films coming up. I am really happy that we are taking some more deep dives in later this year and into 2025 but I can’t reveal anything as yet.
 

RD: When talking about film and your work, is there a question you want to be asked but never are? If so, what is it and what is your answer to that question?

FS: Hmm, nothing springs to mind. But should something I'll let you know! (RD: my fault for asking a smart-arse question, but I had to try – and I can be trying...)
 

RD: Many thanks, Fran for your insight and really all we can ask of you is to please keep releasing so many truly unusual, sometimes unknown films. It’s been a pleasure, and it will continue to be a pleasure to watch Radiance unfold.

Now it falls to me to finally direct you to the Radiance website, to further investigate the myraid films available, including some excellent releases by hosted labels - it's a true cinephile's treasure trove. Venture forth.

A very fine shelf of films by any standard.