New to Rent By Mail for August 6 2024

LIFE IS CHEAP... BUT TOILET PAPER IS EXPENSIVE (1989)

"Exploding a seemingly simple premise - a nameless "cowboy" courier (Spencer Nakasako) arrives in pre-Handover Hong Kong to deliver a mysterious briefcase to a mercurial Mob boss whilst becoming entangled with his femme fatale mistress (Cora Miao) - independent filmmaking legend Wayne Wang's LIFE IS CHEAP... BUT TOILET PAPER IS EXPENSIVE barrels through inspired genre deconstruction, guerrilla docu-fiction and fierce political jeremiad, all with a keen sense of humor and deeply rich visual palette. Tracking the Man-with-no-name's increasingly byzantine mission across every level of the city's social strata, we're introduced to fortune families, cabdrivers, hustlers, butchers and more, each punctuating the high-octane Neo-noir narrative with instantly memorable monologues that capture a now-distant era in Hong Kong history. Multifaceted but never incoherent LIFE IS CHEAP... BUT TOILET PAPER IS EXPENSIVE is among Wang's most unique and bracing contributions to the independent film cannon. Much-loved on the international film festival circuit but unjustly overlooked in North America, this is a maverick tour de force ripe for rediscovery. (BLU-RAY)

THE INSPECTOR WEARS SKIRTS (1988)

A team of high-kicking female super cops prove themselves a match for any man alive as they tackle foes from terrorists to jewel thieves. Action icon Jackie Chan put together a supreme team of lethal ladies including Shaw Brothers icon Wai Yin-hung (‘My Young Auntie’) and American martial arts star Cynthia Rothrock (‘China O’Brien’). The action scenes for these beauties on the beat are delivered by Jackie’s own stunt team, who also co-star in the film. ‘Inspector Wears Skirts’ blends slapstick comedy with high impact action to deliver more fun than should be lawful! (BLU-RAY)

THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE (1983)

It’s the wildest, funniest, fastest moving adventure comedy you’ve never seen! Steve Guttenberg (Police Academy, Short Circuit) stars as Sam Cooper, a minor State Department functionary in Washington D.C., who becomes the object of a frenetic chase when a dying secret agent hands him a vial containing a top-secret formula that can render a person invisible. Sam immediately drinks the formula to keep one step ahead of Soviet spies, American counterspies, the police (who think Sam murdered the agent), thugs and Sam’s estranged fiancée (who was left standing at the altar when this all began)—until he can find the mysterious “Runkelman” and clear this name. H.G. Wells was never like this! Written by Stanford Sherman (Krull, The Ice Pirates); directed by Bruce Malmuth (Nighthawks, Hard to Kill); and co-starring Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), Art Hindle (The Brood), Lisa Langlois (Class of 1984) and William Forsythe (Stone Cold). This special edition of The Man Who Wasn’t There presents the film remastered in 3-D by 3-D Film Archive! (BLU-RAY + 3D BLU-RAY)

STORY OF FILM: A NEW GENERATION (2021)

A decade after The Story of Film: An Odyssey, an expansive and influential inquiry into the state of moviemaking in the 20th century, filmmaker Mark Cousins returns with an epic and hopeful tale of cinematic innovation from around the globe. In The Story of Film: A New Generation, Cousins turns his sharp, meticulously honed gaze on world cinema from 2010 to 2021, using a surprising range of works — including Joker, Frozen and Cemetery of Splendor — as launchpads to explore recurring themes and emerging motifs, from the evolution of film language, to technology’s role in moviemaking today, to shifting identities in 21st-century world cinema. Touching on everything from Parasite and The Farewell to Black Panther and Lover’s Rock, Cousins seeks out films, filmmakers and communities under-represented in traditional film histories, with a particular emphasis on Asian and Middle Eastern works, as well as boundary-pushing documentaries and films that see gender in new ways. And as the recent pandemic recedes, Cousins ponders what comes next in the streaming age: how have we changed as cinephiles, and how moviegoing will continue to transform in the digital century, to our collective joy and wonder. (BLU-RAY)

THE WARRIORS (1979) 

In 1979, fresh from directing bare knuckle boxing movie Hard Times and supercool crime thriller The Driver, Walter Hill delivered his third stone cold classic in a row: The Warriors, a slam-bang, visually kinetic action movie that mixed a heightened comic-book sensibility with a timeless tale from ancient Greece and set them loose in the streets of modern America.

In New York the gangs outnumber the cops by 5-1. Together, they could rule the city. Gang-leader Cyrus has a dream to do just that and calls a summit. The gangs of New York gather in their thousands, Cyrus takes the stage. From somewhere in the crowd a shot rings out and Cyrus falls down dead. In the chaos that follows, a small gang from Coney Island – the Warriors – are blamed. Now everyone is out to get them. On foot, in enemy territory, can they make it through the night to get back across the city to the safety of home turf?

For all you boppers out there, for all you street people with an ear for the action… the iconic cult classic is back in a 4K restoration approved by director Walter Hill. Can you dig it? (BLU-RAY + 4K ULTRA HD)