Cruel Tale of Bushido & A Surprise Imamura Release

Recently Eureka announced their March release of Tadashi Imai's Cruel Tale of Bushido, a film you often see requested for release, so I suspect some significant rejoicing at it. Eureka previously released Imai's Revenge.

The second announcement of note is one made almost accidentally. Radiance have collaborated to restore and release Shohei Imamura's The Pornographers. Not sure it's ever had a UK physical release before. It looks like it'll be doing the film festival circuit ahead of it's Blu-ray release. So far no details as to when it will hit the shelves except it should be within 2026.

Cruel Tale of Bushido:
Kinnosuke Nakamura (Miyamoto Musashi) stars in multiple roles, playing seven generations of men belonging to the same family. In the modern day, salaryman Iikura is devastated by his wife’s attempted suicide. To distract himself, he begins working through his recently discovered family records. As he traces his personal history across 350 years, he discovers tale after tale of men who have suffered, debased themselves and made untold sacrifices in the name of bushido, or the moral code of the samurai.

Featuring Eijiro Tono (Seven Samurai) and Masayuki Mori (Rashomon) in supporting roles and boasting a foreboding score by the celebrated composer Toshiro Mayuzumi, Cruel Tale of Bushido won the Golden Bear Award at the 1963 Berlin Film Festival for its uncompromising deconstruction of the all-too-often romanticised concept of bushido. The Masters of Cinema Series is honoured to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

Pre-order it here directly from Eureka.