Director Nobuhiko Obayashi`s will be released on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom by Third Window Films. Photo courtesy of Third Window Films. © Karatsu Film Partners/PSC2017

Source: Third Window Films press release Special Thanks to Adam Torel UK distributor Third Window Films brings HANAGATAMI (??, 2017) to Blu-ray on July 6th.

Blu-ray cover art. Photo courtesy of Third Window Films. © Karatsu Film Partners/PSC2017

In 2016, Nobuhiko Obayashi, the director of the cult Japanese horror film HOUSE (???, Hausu, 1977), was diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a few months to live. Despite not much time left, for what was supposed to be his final film he adapted Kazuo Dan’s 1937 novella Hanagatami, his passion project 40 years in the making. In the spring of 1941, sixteen-year-old Toshihiko leaves Amsterdam to attend school in Karatsu, a small town on the western coast of Japan, where his aunt Keiko cares for his ailing cousin Mina. Immersed in the seaside’s nature and culture, Toshihiko soon befriends the town’s other extraordinary adolescents as they all contend with the war’s inescapable gravitational pull. With his memories as a survivor of World War II echoing in the uncertainty of world events unfolding today, director Obayashi returns us to 1941, a pivotal time for Japan, as the unstoppable momentum of war forcibly seized the lives of youth away to battlefields where they disappeared forever. In dazzling, full-bloom Obayashi style, HANAGATAMI captures the passion, innocence and struggle of the end days of youth in a country consumed by the flames of war. HANAGATAMI Blu-ray Product Number: TWFBD050 Region: B Number of Discs: 1 SRP: £19.99 (Approximately $25.08 US) Release Date: July 6, 2020 Running Time: 169 Minutes Rating: 15 Audio: Japanese Subtitles: English Audio: Stereo 5.1 Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Bonus Features Making Of Interview with director Nobuhiko Obayashi Trailer · Preorder: arrowfilms.com/product-detail/hanagatami-blu-ray · Preorder: amazon.co.uk/dp/hanagatami

Photo courtesy of Third Window Films. © Karatsu Film Partners/PSC2017

About Third Window Films

The Third Window Films brand was born in 2005 when its film-loving founders grew bored of the stream of worn-out shock horror vehicles from the Far East. Third Window Films works hard to bring you the wonderful world beyond long-haired ghost films and mindless Hollywood action copies, sourcing the finest works in new Far Eastern cinema. We strive to represent a rich variety of film genres, be they dramas, comedies, political satires, action or anything else in between. Expect everything from the unknown and cult to the off-beat and even the occasional mainstream masterpiece... or expect nothing but quality Asian cinema! Let Third Window Films be your window to the East!