Vengeance Is Mine

This DVD, from Eureka's The Masters Of Cinema Series, is a (very crisp) newly restored high-definition anamorphic transfer of Vengeance Is Mine, released for the first time for the UK home video market. There are optional English subtitles with a new translation.

Alex Cox's introduction (6min) covers Imamura's "improper vision" of Japan, his past as a blackmarketeer, the film's Old Testament title and its mysterious ending, while the full audio commentary by Asian film expert Tony Rayns is full of insights into Imamura's style and background.

Best of all is the 36-page accompanying booklet, featuring an essay by Jasper Sharp that contextualises the film within Imamura's career and oeuvre, another by Alistair Phillips that focuses on Imamura's cinematography and mise-en-scène, and reprints from the 1979 Japanese and international press packages, including a succinct statement from Imamura himself, and some particularly lurid publicity stills.