Kani Releasing

06/12/2023

Lawrence Lau’s SPACKED OUT is coming to the big screen in New York City & Montréal, Canada from Dec. 29th! Check your listings and look out for Dallas, LA, Philly, Kansas City, Washington DC, Toronto & more screenings, in 2024. 🍭

19/11/2023

This month's new release: Journey to the West

The years have worn out Tang Zhijun (Yang Haoyu, Dead Pigs), the editor-in-chief of the foremost space exploration magazine in China. His entire life is now a paean to a space age long gone. When he hears of a collective UFO sighting in a remote village called Burning Nest, he glimpses a possibility for redemption. Flanked by a cynical staffer, a drunk and an insomniac groupie, he journeys westward to the Daliang Mountains of Sichuan to face the truth about the universe and himself!

‍Journey to the West transposes the classical tale referenced by its title to a group of new-age eccentrics fit for the times: seen here going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of their own convictions. Unfolding in the great tradition of the workplace mockumentary, Kong’s film is a delightfully deadpan road movie and a bold counterpoint to the recent blockbuster films of Frant Gwo (Wandering Earth I & II) – who serves here as an executive producer.

KANI RELEASING - Journey to the West The years have worn out Tang Zhijun (Yang Haoyu, Dead Pigs), the editor-in-chief of the foremost space exploration magaz...

05/09/2023

Last two hours of the labour day sale & always slightly sad to see slipcovers, especially this beautiful one by Tony Stella, go out of print 🌶 Get yours today while still on sale!

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/kani/products/cain-and-abel-kani

20/07/2023

Now available on Sakka! 😘😘💆‍♀️

03/07/2023

If you picked up ONCE A MOTH (and even if you did not!) Lino Brocka's CAIN AND ABEL is at the deepest discount it's ever been 🥲 Bring this melodrama-action baby home ❤️

Will pair perfectly with the Brockas to come 😘

21/06/2023

New newsletter out! Enjoy🎡

The difficulty with writing these things is that, by the time a film is announced/ released, we’re knee / neck deep in upcoming releases, to the point where I have a hard time keeping track of time... but this month brought both Spacked Out and A New Old Play into the forefront of our attention. O...

01/06/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grr-8DVhhho

Out Now 🥳

012 KANI RELEASING - SPACKED OUTIn the godforsaken satellite city af Tuen Mun. 13-year-old Cookie suspects she's pregnant. Lately things have not been going ...

31/05/2023

Playing hooky, c u tomorrow 👏💜

26/05/2023

Some great reviews (many from folks who took a leap of faith on ODE TO NOTHING during the 10 for $10 sale earlier this year). If you missed your chance then, grab this macabre gem from Dwein Baltazar now for $14.99+ 💀🎂🖤

Available here: https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/ode-to-nothing-kani

26/05/2023

🐢 Sharing some reviews on Tadashi Nagayama's BEING NATURAL, now on sale for Vinegar Syndrome's Half Way to Black Friday sale (ends Monday 29th) & we promise no turtles were hurt in the making of this movie 🐢💫

Get it here: https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/being-natural-kani

12/05/2023

Teaser Drop for Daisuke Miyazaki's PLASTIC, coming soon from Kani Releasing.

03/05/2023

Just in, act quick, a few Limited Edition Slipcovers are back on sale now. 💡💡💡

02/05/2023

All the kids: https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/kani

01/05/2023

Available for pre-order on Vinegar Syndrome https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/a-new-old-play

010 KANI RELEASING - A New Old PlayQiu Fu, the most renowned clown of Sichuan opera, has reached the netherworld. Welcomed by Ox-Head and Horse-Face, shephe...

01/05/2023

Somewhere between the obsessive formalism of Roy Andersson and Wes Anderson; the exuberance of Federico Fellini; the historical realism of Jia Zhangke and the absurdity of Bertolt Brecht, sits the intoxicating, handcrafted world of Qiu Jiongjiong. We're delighted to be bringing his first fiction feature, the masterful A NEW OLD PLAY (2021) to Blu-ray for the first time.
🤡
Qiu Fu, the most renowned clown of Sichuan opera, has reached the netherworld. Welcomed by Ox-Head and Horse-Face, shepherds of the dead, he recounts his life with the “New-New” opera troupe before his turn at the Bridge of Forgetfulness. Starting in the 1920s, Qiu’s tale melds with China’s tumultuous century into the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Great Leap Forward, and other socio-political revolutions.

Inspired by his own grandfather’s life, Qiu Jiongjiong’s A New Old Play is a sumptuous intermingling of personal and national history. It transforms China’s many pivots into a vaudevillian theater of its own, culminating in a spiritual rumination on the passage of time and the role of the artist forced to weather the storm of history. Drawing from his background as a visual artist, Qiu arrives at a masterful, painterly style: flowing tableaux, carefully art-directed sets and ingenious hand-made miniatures bringing the act of remembrance into a delightful, phantasmagorical realm.

Region Free Blu-ray
🦤Short Film ”Ode to Joy” (2008, 31mins)
🍄Making of (2021, 19mins)
📓Booklet Including Behind-the-Scene Photos, Storyboards, and Interview with Director Qiu
🅰️Optional English Subtitles
㊗️Optional Chinese Subtitles

Available on Vinegar Syndrome: https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/a-new-old-play

30/04/2023

Wake me up tomorrow 🌝

29/04/2023

"Stopped for a snack, see you Monday" - Kani 010

03/04/2023

Bullets Over Summer is a buddy cop movie; it's an early Wilson Yip making a big action film on a small budget, it's an early Louis Koo finding his best shade of tan; it's the film that made Helena Law an award-winning actress after decades of hardwork, but above all, it's a food movie (or, more specifically, a movie of Francis Ng acting with food) 🍜🍦🍊🍞

Hear all about it on the commentary from Valerie Soe & Kevin Ma

31/03/2023

🔥

31/03/2023

TONIGHT! 🌱 Robinson's Garden screening for the first time in Canada 🇨🇦 with The Westdale in Hamilton Ontario as part of the "The Way of the Sword⚔️: From boom to bust💨: Japanese cinema in the 1980s✨" series!

😉 March 31, 9:30PM

Tickets available here: https://www.thewestdale.ca/event/robinsons-garden/

30/03/2023

🌒

30/03/2023

THIS WEEKEND 🌱 Robinson's Garden screening for the first time in Canada 🇨🇦 with The Westdale in Hamilton, Ontario as part of the "The Way of the Sword⚔️: From boom to bust💨: Japanese cinema in the 1980s✨" series!

😉 March 31, 9:00PM

Tickets available here: https://www.thewestdale.ca/event/robinsons-garden/

29/03/2023

Alamo Drafthouse NYC is hosting Masashi Yamamoto tonight for to talk about his anti-globalization, mini-epic WHAT'S UP CONNECTION. Here's Yamamoto talking about shooting in the Kamagasaki neighbourhood in Osaka.

🗓️ 9:30PM, March 29
🎟️: http://bit.ly/whatsupconnex

29/03/2023

🌴It's been nice hanging out with the men in Hawaiian shirts, but vacation's over🍹. Back in 3 days.

29/03/2023

Tonight!! ⭐What's Up Connection ⭐ coming to this Weird Wednesday with Masashi Yamamoto calling in from 🗼 Tokyo 🍣

🚗 A Hong Kong teenager wins a trip to Japan and unleashes a chaotic chain of events. Masashi Yamamoto's unhinged globalization mini-epic.

$10 🎟️ https://drafthouse.com/nyc/event/weird-wednesday-whats-up-connection?cinemaId=2101&sessionId=68727&showSeats=true 🐊

28/03/2023

⭐What's Up Connection ⭐ coming to Alamo Drafthouse NYC Weird Wednesday with Masashi Yamamoto calling in from 🗼 Tokyo 🍣

🚗 A Hong Kong teenager wins a trip to Japan and unleashes a chaotic chain of events. Masashi Yamamoto's unhinged globalization mini-epic.

$10 🎟️ https://drafthouse.com/nyc/event/weird-wednesday-whats-up-connection?cinemaId=2101&sessionId=68727&showSeats=true 🐊

27/03/2023

Anyone up for a 🚗 roadtrip 🚲?

March 29, 9:30pm: What's Up Connection Alamo Drafthouse NYC
with Masashi Yamamoto

March 31, 9:00pm: Robinson's Garden The Westdale

Tickets available here: https://www.kani-releasing.com/kani-theatrical

26/03/2023

⭐What's Up Connection ⭐ coming to Alamo Drafthouse NYC next Weird Wednesday with Masashi Yamamoto calling in from 🗼 Tokyo 🍣

🚗 A Hong Kong teenager wins a trip to Japan and unleashes a chaotic chain of events. Masashi Yamamoto's unhinged globalization mini-epic.

$10 🎟️ https://drafthouse.com/nyc/event/weird-wednesday-whats-up-connection?cinemaId=2101&sessionId=68727&showSeats=true 🐊

25/03/2023

🏃‍♂️ We're on our way 💝 New disc dropping in 1 week 💿

24/03/2023

😘😘😘

24/03/2023

🌱 Robinson's Garden screening for the first time in Canada 🇨🇦 with The Westdale in Hamilton Ontario as part of the "The Way of the Sword⚔️: From boom to bust💨: Japanese cinema in the 1980s✨" series!

😉 March 31, 9:00PM

Tickets available here: https://www.thewestdale.ca/event/robinsons-garden/

22/03/2023

⭐What's Up Connection ⭐ coming to Alamo Drafthouse NYC next Weird Wednesday with Masashi Yamamoto calling in from 🗼 Tokyo 🍣

🚗 A Hong Kong teenager wins a trip to Japan and unleashes a chaotic chain of events. Masashi Yamamoto's unhinged globalization mini-epic.

$10 🎟️ https://drafthouse.com/nyc/event/weird-wednesday-whats-up-connection?cinemaId=2101&sessionId=68727&showSeats=true 🐊

12/02/2023

Our edition of Derek Yee & Lo Chi-Leung’s « Cat III BOOGIE NIGHTS » VIVA EROTICA, starring Leslie Cheung, Karen Mok and Shu Qi, is on sale at Vinegar Syndrome dot com through the weekend for Valentine’s Day 💕💦🥵 Covert art by Derek Gabryszak with calligraphy by Leo Mak! Limited edition, half sold, will not be reprinted.

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/v-day-2023/products/viva-erotica-kani

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Beloved Hong Kong icon Leslie Cheung (Happy Together) stars as Sing, an ambitious out-of-work filmmaker with two flops to his name. When his producer secures funding for his next project from a freshly cleaned-up Triad financier, he is saddled with the sexy Taipei starlet Mango (Shu Qi). Tasked with being more "Wong Jing than Wong Kar-wai" and encouraged by his long-suffering girlfriend (pop diva Karen Mok), Sing gets to work on his first softcore p***o.

Featuring a star-making performance from the stunning Shu Qi (Millenium Mambo) as the production’s stubborn ingénue, alongside her S*x & Zen II co-star Elvis Tsui, Viva Erotica offers an electrifying behind-the-scenes look at the sleazy world of Category III filmmaking in a declining industry. Inspired by the career of Bosco Lam (A Chinese Torture Chamber Story) and Lo Chi-leung’s arduous experiences as an assistant-director-from-hell, the film is replete with tongue-in-cheek references and guest cameos from the likes of Anthony Wong (Ebola Syndrome) and Sean Lau Ching-wan (Running Out Of Time). Viva Erotica is an ode to artistry and perseverance that now stands as one of the defining Hong Kong films of the 1990s.

directed by: Lo Chi Leung, Derek Yee
starring: Shu Qi, Leslie Cheung, Karen Mok, Elvis Tsui
1996 / 99 min / 1.85:1 / Cantonese DTS-HD MA 2.0

Additional info:

Region A Blu-ray
High definition presentation
Interview with director Lo Chi-leung
Commentary by film scholar Brian Hu and journalist Ada Tseng of the podcast “Saturday School”
Booklet with new writing by Ross Chen
Optional English subtitles
Optional Chinese subtitles
New art by Derek Gabryszak & Leo Mak
Limited Edition of 3000 copies

05/01/2023

It's Subscriber Week Vinegar Syndrome and both BEING NATURAL and ODE TO NOTHING are on sale for 10$ for the next 15 hours or so!
🐢
In Tadashi Nagayama's bizarro comedy BEING NATURAL, carefree Takashi would rather play the bongo under the starlight... until a Tokyo family moves in, determined to open a countryside café in his home.
🌱
In Dwein Baltazar's ODE TO NOTHING, lonely, alienated Sonya struggles to keep her family-owned funeral home afloat. Until an unexpected co**se lands illicitly at her doorstep.
🧟‍♀️
A perfect introduction to our label, and a deal that won't happen again!

11/04/2022

New post on our Substack! Subscribe to get it directly to your inbox.

Can you believe it’s April already? Our third release — of Dwein Baltazar’s melancholic art-horror hybrid Ode to Nothing (2018) — completes our inaugural duo of Filipino releases. Along with with Lino Brocka’s Cain and Abel (1982), our hope is to give a taste of the exciting work coming ou...

17/03/2022

DVDBeaver reviews our edition of CAIN AND ABEL.

"'Wow' is all I can say - with machine guns, sniper rifles and indiscriminate exploding violence. It's classic of Filipino cinema with the impressive direction of Lino Brocka. I was so pleased to see this as it was 'a first-time film experience' for me. The Kani / Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray reveals a valuable piece of world cinema with a 4K-restoration and solid extras from a video appreciation, interviews and a booklet. I'm very happy that this was brought to the format with supplements and handsome case. A keeper for me. Absolutely recommended!" 💓

Firstborn Lorens (Phillip Salvador) toils the land by buffalo while Ellis (Christopher de Leon), the apple of his mother's eye, is given a university education in Manila. When the latter returns to the family's hacienda with a metropolitan fiancée in tow (Carmi Martin), the domineering Señora Pina...

08/03/2022

This , Kani Releasing celebrates Dwein Baltazar, director of Ode to Nothing (Oda Sa Wala) starring Filipina comedian Pokwang Marietta Subong. Here's a snippet of the interview she did with us for the release of Ode to Nothing!

Ode to Nothing is now available on home video in North America. Pre-order now! >> https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/kani/products/ode-to-nothing-kani

07/03/2022

Now available in North America, at Vinegar Syndrome and participating retail stores.

Sonya (Marietta Subong a.k.a. Pokwang) is a living ghost, struggling to keep her family-owned funeral home afloat. Lonely and thoroughly alienated by an insistent bailiff, she wanders inside her own house, leaning heavily on her favorite Chinese song, recorded on a broken cassette tape, to get through the hours and days… Until an unexpected co**se lands, rather illicitly, at her doorstep. Developing a unique relationship with the unclaimed body, she becomes fascinated by the cadaver’s absorbing mystique.