FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Andrew R. Preis Director of Media Relations 234 Market Street, 4 th floor Philadelphia PA 19106

P: 215-733-0608 x 249 F: 215-733-0668 E: [email protected] W: www.tlareleasing.com

TLA RELEASING INTRODUCES AMERICAN HOME AUDIENCES TO WILDLY CONTROVERSIAL JAPANESE GORE-FEST SUICIDE CLUB

(Philadelphia, November 18) TLA Releasing’s International series is drenching in teen-age blood with its latest release: the stunningly gruesome and controversial Japanese film by renegade filmmaker Sion Sono, Suicide Club (Jisatsu Circle).

THE FILM : Suicide Club (Japan, 2002, 93 minutes, Japanese with English subtitles) opens with a display of carnage that not even Sam Peckinpah or Brian De Palma could imagine. Fifty-four high school girls, all in crisp white uniforms, gather in a line along a subway platform. Just as the train pulls into the station, they hold hands, say in unison “one, two, three,” and jump together in front of the oncoming engine. Torrents of blood wash over the screaming onlookers as heads crush under the wheels and body parts fly all over the station.

So begins what seems to be an over-the-top but basically “splatter” thriller, where the police, led by Detective Kuroda ( Ryo Ishibashi ), try to discover what is behind the escalating rash of horrific suicides. Yet the storyline becomes increasingly enigmatic as writer-director Sion Sono reveals his true intentions – to make Suicide Club a visceral indictment of the growing despair in current Japanese society and alienation among its increasingly violent young people.

FILMMAKER/CAST : 38-year-old filmmaker Sion Sono began his creative career as a teen poet, getting published by the age of 17. In time he turned to ; he created several award-wining shorts and briefly worked in Japan’s adult industry, directing a film. (Note : The Japanese adult industry is hilariously depicted in TLA Releasing’s Bastoni-The Stick Handlers.) His first commercial feature film was Jitensha Toiki (Bicycle Sighs , 1990), followed by four others before Suicide Club .

Leading the cast is Ryo Ishibashi , a popular rock singer in Japan who has begun a film career specializing in cult and “genre” films. He had the lead role in ’s horror classic Audition , and he has appeared in several films by . The other cast members include another Japanese pop star, Rolly.

DVD/VHS RELEASE: The retail price for Suicide Club is $24.99 for DVD and VHS. It can be purchased at the TLA Video Web site at a discount – www.tlavideo.com – or through such major retailers as .com, Borders Books and Music, Transworld, Musicland, Tower Records and Virgin Megastores. Suicide Club is being released in an R-rated and a non-rated version, in Japanese with English subtitles, and in letterbox format. DVD extras include an image gallery, chapter selection and TLA Releasing trailers. Street date is November 18, 2003.

The International Film Festival series is a division of TLA Releasing, the film distribution label of TLA Entertainment Group. The series brings noteworthy films from the international film festival circuit out on DVD/VHS in pairs every few months, with special attention given to diversity of nationalities and genres. Sion Sono’s Suicide Club is paired with Davide Ferrario’s Italian road comedy Children of Hannibal . For more information, visit www.tlareleasing.com . NOTE TO PRESS : To request a review copy of Suicide Club on DVD or VHS, please contact Andrew Preis. For high-resolution images, go to ftp.tlavideo.com and click on the “ Suicide Club” folder. # # #