London, UK – Arrow Video is excited to announce the November 2023 lineup of their subscription-based ARROW platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.
November 3 continues ARROW’s acclaimed curation with the US/CA release of The Iron-Fisted Monk. Rice Miller Luk (Sammo Hung) is just a simple man trying to live a quiet life, until one day the Manchu Bannermen bully their way through town, killing his uncle in the process. When a nearby Shaolin monk, San De (Chan Sing, The Shaolin Plot), easily defeats them and sees the fallen Luk, he offers him a chance to learn martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. However, Luk’s impatience with his training sees him return to his town to witness an even more ruthless organization of Manchus, led by a depraved official (Fung Hak-An, Warriors Two) who has a nasty and violent habit of taking whatever (and whoever) he wants. Will Luk’s incomplete Shaolin teachings, combined with the skill set of San De, be enough to put an end to the Manchu stronghold plaguing their people?
Predating The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’s variation of the story of San De and Miller Luk by a year, and notorious for its uncensored version receiving a retroactive Category III rating in Hong Kong (the equivalent of the American NC-17), The Iron-Fisted Monk pulls no punches, literally or figuratively, explosively marking the beginning for one of the greatest martial arts film directors of all time!
On November 6, actor, director and magician Andy Nyman shares the titles that inspire his art and illusions: “Dear ARROW viewer. I’m delighted to share my choices with you. As I look again at my list I realize there is a common thread, they all illicit a gut reaction from me. For the most part it’s shock and astonishment, with the occasional nightmare – but in two cases unstoppable tears – I’ll let you work out which those movies are. You’re in for a treat.” Titles Include: Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Ringu.
On November 10, lace up your shoes to Dance with Death (UK/ IRE/ US/CA)! Beware busting a move! Shaking it can lead to snuffing it in this curated collection of foxtrotting flicks where getting down is likely to get you killed. Titles Include: Enter the Void, Showgirls, The Escapees.
Next on November 10, enjoy a pair of Paul Joyce documentaries, continuing ARROW’s commitment to highlighting the history of those who have shaped the arts. David Hockney, famed painter and photographer, traces his personal and professional story in Hockney on Photography and Other Matters (UK/IRE/US/CA) and Growing Up with John Waters (UK/IRE/US/CA) explores the singular voice behind Hairspray, Female Trouble, Serial Mom and many others.
On November 17, dig into Lonanorama: The Brian Lonano Collection (UK/IRE/US/CA) including the streaming debut of his and Blake Myers’ brand new film, Content: The Lo-Fi Man. ARROW are proud to showcase a collection of weird, wonderful and downright insane award-winning short films from director Brian Lonano.
Led by the festival decimating Content: The Lo-Fi Man, Lonanorama also includes the utterly outrageous Gwilliam (winner of the ‘Most Effectively Offensive’ award at the Boston Underground Film Festival), gruesome comedy-horror Crow Hand!!!, a superhero story like no other in BFF Girls, the Halloween-themed nuttiness of Gwilliam’s Tips for Turning Tricks into Treats, chilling demon opus The Devil’s Asshole, and much, much more, even including some exclusive extras! Titles Include: Content: The Lo-Fi Man, Gwilliam’s Tips for Turning Tricks into Treats, BFF Girls.
Go deep into the minds behind these shorts with Brian Lonano & Blake Myers Selects (UK/IRE/US/CA). They shared their thoughts on ARROW and filmmaking. Blake Myers: “It is really kind of ARROW to let me select 10 films from their amazing library to share with you. Many of these films have shaped me as a filmmaker. They are great examples of how to push boundaries and expand the language of cinema.” Brian Lonano: “I’ve chosen 10 films that I believe to be excellent examples of persistence of vision, wild unhinged storytelling and underdog outsider filmmaking.” Titles Include: Children of the Corn, The Boxer’s Omen, Basket Case.
On November 20, see what inspired the man behind The Void and Psycho Goreman. Steven Kostanski Selects (UK/IRE/US/CA). “Choosing my favorites from Arrow’s weird catalogue of movies is a welcome nostalgia flashback to my video store days when I’d shove all sorts of sci-fi and horror nonsense into customers’ faces. After reviewing my list, it’s clear that my tastes have not changed in 15 years: I’m forcing Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 on people just as passionately as I was back then, and in these tumultuous times that gives me a certain level of comfort. Enjoy!” Titles Include: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, Dead or Alive.
ARROW heads into the end of the month with a big finish for subscribers across the globe. Starting November 24th, stream Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe: Part One (UK/IRE/US/CA). Cultural icon, anti-establishment statement, sadistic lord of carnival horror! With his iconic long fingernails, top hat and cape, Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe) was the creation of Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who wrote, directed and starred in a series of outrageous movies from 1964 to 2008.
An unholy undertaker in search of the perfect woman to propagate his bloodline, Zé do Caixão made his screen debut with the first Brazilian-produced horror film, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul. Three years later, his quest would continue in This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse, with Zé embarking on an even more brutal campaign of terror, aided and abetted by his hunchbacked assistant.
The Strange World of Coffin Joe, meanwhile, is an anthology of three short horror films featuring a strange dollmaker, a necrophiliac balloon seller with a foot fetish, and a psychotic professor involved in sadistic rituals. Sex, perversion and sadism abound in The Awakening of the Beast as a psychiatrist experiments on four volunteers with Lsd in this surreal examination of 60s drug culture.
Diverging from horror toward satirical black comedy, The End of Man sees a naked stranger emerge from the sea to perform miracles in a nearby town and become a modern messiah whose deeds will affect the whole world.
Newly restored from the best available elements and packed with new and archival extras, Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe is a love letter to one of the great iconoclasts of horror, who forged his films in the face of military dictatorship and religious censorship to become Brazil’s national Boogeyman. Titles Include: At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul,. This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse, The End of Man.
Finally, the November lineup ends with an ode to one of the most enduring genres in the world of horror: Found Footage (UK/IRE/US/CA). From terrifying and troubling events caught on camera by our heroes (or villains), to forbidden footage that when uncovered and viewed spells doom, to seldom-seen peeks at the unseen lives of everything from slime mould to the stars of Barbarella, Found Footage is a collection of the unearthed, the dangerous, the forbidden and the behind-the-scenes. Titles Include: The El Duce Tapes, Phantom, Kolobos.
