Terracotta's Top 10 East Asian Film Releases of 2022
Here are the Top 10 best selling blu rays on the Terracotta store in 2022.
1. Nobuhiko Obayashi's 80s Kadokawa Years boxset
Four films from the visually unique HAUSU director in this beautiful boxset from Third Window Films. You can see a list of all the films of Nobuhiko Obayashi on the Terracotta store.
2. A Scene at the Sea (dir. Takeshi Kitano)
Beautiful tale of a deaf garbage collector with dreams of becoming a surfing champion
3. Kids Return (dir. Takeshi Kitano)
Two high-school friends take different paths - one becoming a yakuza, the other a boxer; whilst they grow apart, what direction will their divergent paths take them in?
4. Dolls (dir. Takeshi Kitano)
Three visually stunning and deeply touching stories of undying love inspired by traditional Japanese Bunraku puppet theatre
5. Getting Any? (dir. Takeshi Kitano)
A bizarre, over the top and absurd comedy full of slapstick silliness and never ending gags.
6. Kikujiro (dir. Takeshi Kitano)
Sadly now out of print, a wonderful story of the friendship between a small boy and a washed-up yakuza.
7. Funky Forest / Warped Forest Special Edition (dir. Katsuhito Ishii, Shunichiro Miki and Hajime Ishimine)
Patience for fans eagerly awaiting a blu ray release of this bonkers cult-classic is rewarded with Third Window Film's adding also the not-often-seen sequel WARPED FOREST as a two film set.
8. MEATBALL MACHINE Limited Edition (dir. Yudai Yamaguchi, Junichi Yamamoto)
A price drop on this Japanese splatter classic helped to propel this title into the Top 10 as collectors relished the chance to get this re-issue with striking illustrated slipcover at a reduced price.
9. Crazy Thunder Road (dir. Sogo Ishii)
This was the first released on any format anywhere in the world outside of Japan of this Sogo Ishii punk biker classic.
Look out for more Sogo Ishii titles released in 2023 from Third Window Films!
10. The Police Story Trilogy 4k UHD Limited Edition Box Set (dir. Jackie Chan)
With the inclusion of the sought after third instalment of the Police Story franchise, Supercop, in this blu ray boxset, the Jackie Chan Police Story Trilogy boxset from Eureka rounds off our Top 10 of 2022 list.
Which films just missed out on getting into the Top 10?
Third Window Film's release of Nobuhiko Obayashi's 80's Kadokawa boxset was a big hit; despite being released at the end of the year, this managed to top the chart as the best selling blu ray of 2022 on the Terracotta Distribution store.
The release of this boxset also helped to draw interest to the director's other films which all received an uplift in sales, and in particular (as we will see below) the Anti-war Trilogy boxset.
Japanese films dominated the Top 10. 5 of the 10 entries are films directed by Takeshi Kitano, and the Kitano blu ray sale that we ran helped to boost the sales of these films.
If we removed these five titles, then the next five films that would have made it into the Top 10 were:
- Tiger Cage Trilogy Deluxe Collector Edition Boxset
- Supercop Limited Edition slipcase version
- Nobuhiko Obayashi's Anti-War Trilogy Boxset
- The Seventh Curse Deluxe Collectors Edition
- Righting Wrongs (blu ray) Deluxe Collectors Edition
In this tranche of titles, 88 Films and Eureka Entertainment certainly dominated the releases of Hong Kong films on blu ray with 88Film's Deluxe Collector Edition boxsets proving to be extremely popular with the hard bound books and posters included in the set (the year before Story of Ricky blu ray deluxe collector edition sold out immediately on release day!).
Sadly we see an absence of Korean blu ray in the Top 15; Arrow did release A TALE OF TWO SISTERS as a new collector edition set, as well as multiple versions of OLDBOY in various formats over the past couple of years.
Perhaps Korean film re-issues could be the next new wave of physical media releases for collectors!