It may not seem like a major update/upgrade to the site -- no new titles or anything -- but you wouldn't believe the number of people that email and complain about SuperHappyFun.com not being on a secure transaction server.

The thing is... SuperHappyFun.com transactions have always been secure. The problem seemed to stem from the site being in outdated Frameset code which effectively hid the URL of our retail provider. This lack "https" and the all-important "golden lock" on pages really threw nubes for a loop.

Why frames? Because our retail provider won't allow linking to images or anything else that's not hosted by them to provide protection to users. This put a crimp in our styling of the site. So, users on IE might notice that things don't look as pretty as they once did but at least they'll see the golden lock. :)

JapaneseNewWave.com will be closing its virtual doors on January 20, 2007.

First: The engagement of the JNWC members is constantly declining. The initial enthusiasm is rapidly dwindling.

Second: The sales numbers are not high enough that we could ever hope to legalize our work by buying any licenses. At an amount of $35,000 for an average single restricted region license we have no chance whatsoever.

Third: P2P download numbers on sites like karagara.net and asiandvdclub.org along with unsanctioned eBay auctions exceed our sales by far.

Fourth: Infighting amongst JNWCC members over financial arrangements has reached a fever pitch.

JNWC titles will no longer be produced and will not be available via bootleg operations such as SuperHappyFun.com (under threat of lawsuit). The japanesenewwave.com website will remain available for a shirt while longer until our hosting agreement expires but all "Buy" buttons will be removed.

All questions and concerns should be forwarded directly to info@japanesenewwave.com

Thank you to everyone for their support. We regret that our operation couldn't continue indefinitely and implore that DVD companies must give more attention to this under-appreciated cinematic movement.

This year Santa should be saying "Hai, Hai, Hai!" to the titles at Japanese New Wave Cinema Classics. Perfect for the cinephile in you or your snooty friends, JNWCC make great stocking stuffers and, with our snazzy cover art, they're terrific conversation pieces.

Get your orders in today for Chrismas or even Boxing Day.

And, for a limited time, we're offering all five Oshima or all five Imamura films in our catalog for a bargain rate: buy four and get one free.*

All Current Nagisa Oshima Titles

All Current Shohei Imamura Titles

Good news, Terayama fans -- there's a new box set of his shorts and experimental work coming out in Japan -- this means that we'll be upgrading and re-adding EMPEROR TOMATO KETCHUP to our catalog until Japanese New Wave decides to stock the flick (rumour has it in late 1007, early 2008).

Thanks to everyone for their patience. WORLD OF WIRES Part 2 has been given English subtitles. Other recent upgrades include MAN ON THE ROOF and THE BIG STEAL and an upgraded picture for Jean-Pierre Melville's MAGNET OF DOOM, a subtitled version of RUE BARBARE, and THE BIG MESS. We may also be upgrading SILVER GLOBE in the near future.

You've seen "Little Superstar" on You Tube.com or BestWeekEver or a ton of other web sources. We tracked down the movie from which these amazing scenes of Indian lunacy are from, Adisaya Piravi. For more info visit: http://smallsuperstar.blogspot.com/

Be sure to check out the latest issue of Shock Cinema for reviews of scads of SuperHappyFun.com titles!
http://www.shockcinemamagazine.com

There are also dozens and dozens of informative film, video and DVD reviews, covering such titles as Norman Mailer's trio of indulgant underground features Wild 90, Beyond the Law and Maidstone; Michael Gough and Gina Bellman in Dennis Potter's Blackeyes; Wojciech Has' hallucinogenic The Hourglass Sanatorium; Agnes Varda's Black Panther documentary Free Huey; Vanessa Paradis in the gory sci-fi comedy Atomik Circus; Jean-Louis Trintignant and Robert Ryan in Rene Clement's And Hope to Die; Toho's '70s sci-fi adventure Espy; Rex Warner's Orwellian parable The Aerodrome; the Russian blockbuster Day Watch; and many more...Let's not forget the book & 'zine recommendations, original ad slicks, and a handy Video Distributors guide (so you can locate many of these titles for your own library).

You may have noticed some changes going on at Superhappyfun.com. Recently our web host received a threat letter from the MPAA with a list of about 250 titles and 400 URLs (some to tha aforementioned titles, some to others) that we were instructed to remove under penalty of law. Oddly, of those 250 titles, we only carried about 100 of them at one time or another. There were a ton of titles that we never carried -- some things that aren't even out at theaters yet! Bizarre.

Thank you for your patience. If there's a title that you saw on our site that isn't around anymore, that's the reason. We're hoping that everything the MPAA asked us to remove is coming out on DVD legitimately but we doubt it.

Come on by the site and check out the carnage and our latest titles. And, a good URL to visit is this one.

Caught a newspaper ad for THE PROTECTOR today. "QUENTIN TARANTINO PRESENTS..." it said, bigger than the title. And, big as life, was a blurb announcing "with music by RZA!" Yupper, it's happened again. Another foreign film has been re-cut and "urbanized" to appeal to... someone. I'm not sure who's enjoying these chopped up chop sockey films but it keeps happening.

I'm curious if "Jet Li's FEARLESS" will be mangled when it hits the US in a few weeks. For uncut versions of both of these visit http://www.superhappyfun.com -- The original title of THE PROTECTOR was TOM YUM GOONG.

And, for folks not on the Japanese New Wave mailing list, be advised that a whole slew of new titles is out over at http://www.japanesenewwave.com

• Tom Yum Goong
• Fearless

We're never satisfied with the quality of our films, always looking for an upgrade in picture or subtitle quality. Usually this happpens when the titles we carry are released legitmately in the United States -- at which time we take them out of our inventory. Other times we scour the web and locate obscure foreign releases of our titles on DVD or find better-translated subtitles. This has happened recently with two films. MOEBIUS, a taut Argentine sci-fi film, has recently been released in Italy on DVD. We upgraded to this better picture quality and added English subtitles. Meanwhile, our copy of THE LOVED GUN had subtitles which were completely useless. We've re-added the subtitles to a set that actually makes sense -- fancy that!

Coming soon: A few titles include RAMPO NOIR, BLAST OF SILENCE, and the Pang Brothers' RE-CYCLE. Future upgrades/subtitling projects include RUE BARBARE and THE SILVER GLOBE. Stay tuned, folks!

• Moebius
• Loved Gun

Unexpectedly, we have another upgraded title available at SuperHappyFun.com! It's Francis Girod's 1986 adaptation of David Goodis's book, The Wounded and The Slain. Filmed as DESCENTE AUX ENFERS (DESCENT INTO HELL), this stars Claude Brasseur and a constantly naked Sophie Marceau as the doomed couple on vacation in Haiti. We are happy to finally offer this film with English subtitles, translated courtesy of our friend Patrick Lambert.

Speaking of "descending", I read this weekend that the original ending of the new horror film, THE DESCENT, will not be seen in US theaters upon its release. That's a shame. If you're curious to see this ending and not have to go to a crowded theater to see the rest of the film, you can pick it up at superhappyfun.com. For more on this ending thing, visit Eat My Brains

• Descent Into Hell
• The Descent

Fans of sci-fi rejoice! Our good friend from Germany, murmelwurmel, has provided us with subtitles to the first part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's German TV adaptation of Daniel F. Galouye's SIMULCRON-3, WELT AM DRAHT (WORLD OF WIRES). The basis for quite a few modern day sci-fi films such as THE MATRIX, DARK CITY, EXISTENZ, THE CELL, and OPEN YOUR EYES (THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR was another direct adaptation), WORLD OF WIRES is a must-see flick. We hope to have the subtitles to Part 2 done in the fall. But, for now, part one is availble individually for a reduced price. Enjoy!

For more info on WORLD OF WIRES, please visit http://www.superhappyfun.com/forsale.cfm?whereme=1917

Listen up, film fans. In the last month we've upgraded two classic Jean-Pierre Melville films -- SECOND BREATH and TWO MEN IN MANHATTAN. And now we have one final update (at least we think it's final). We're happy to annouce that we've recently added subtitles to MAGNET OF DOOM -- the most rare Melville film. There is not DVD-quality source for this film and the visual quality of this flick is nowhere near what we'd like it to be but, hey, now English speakers can finally see what Jean-Paul Belmondo is saying!

More Good News... MAGNET OF DOOM will be released on DVD in Germany in early September, meaning that our picture quality will be improved then!

This means that only Melville's WHEN YOU READ THIS LETTER remains as the only non-translated title of his oeuvre. If anyone's interested in taking that on, please drop me a note.

For more info on MAGNET OF DOOM, please visit http://www.superhappyfun.com/forsale.cfm?whereme=196

It's a great time to be a Jean-Pierre Melville fan!

SECOND BREATH is a highly touted gangster film of the classic Melville stripe. A terrific tale of loyalty, betrayal and redemption, this is a must-see for Melville fans. With this movie we originally started with the less-than-satisfactory VSOM subtitles -- these were especially poor as the VSOM print was missing several shots and scenes including the first three minutes of the movie. These subtitles have been verified by a French speaker and compared against a fan-subber's work in hopes of getting the most accurate translation possible. And, picture quality? This is straight from the Russian DVD release (same as the more expensive French release).

For more information, visit http://www.superhappyfun.com/forsale.cfm?whereme=435

Although it's often omitted from conversations about Jean-Pierre Melville, his film TWO MEN IN MANHATTAN remains a classic of American film noir reinterpreted through French eyes. The story of a missing diplomat who's persued by a French press officer and shady photographer, the film is a somber tract on fame and friendship.

TWO MEN IN MANHATTAN was one of the first films that Superhappyfun.com was happy to share with the world. Our copy -- a version from British TV -- left something to be desired in terms of quality. We were recently able to upgrade to the DVD-quality release from Japan. From there we painstakingly add the subtitles from the UK print to the Japanese DVD. However, the British translators weren't asleep at the wheel at times. To that end, we verified these subtitles via a few French speakers and they're much more satisfying than our former subtitles.

For more information, visit http://www.superhappyfun.com/forsale.cfm?whereme=25

I just wanted to write and let folks know that there's going to be a delay to any orders placed in the last few days -- John at the SHF "warehouse" had a heart attack on Friday night and is currently hospitalized. He'll be undergoing surgery tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully he'll be back on his feet and duping DVDs soon. :)

PROJECT: BULLET IN THE HEAD
Some people do all the work and we have all the fun. Now in stock is John Woo's composite version of BULLET IN THE HEAD. Here's a link with a lot of details: http://www.impossiblefunky.com/bith.html

THEATRICAL SCOOPS
I've been seeing previews/TV commercials for THE DESCENT and FEARLESS (Jet Li). No sign of THE PROMISE yet but all three of these films, along with TOM YOM GOONG will be hitting theaters in UK and USA soon -- and they've been available on SuperHappyFun.com for a while. We'll pull the titles as they become available in the US on DVD.

And... when you pick up the paper and read about the new Tony Jaa film, WARRIOR KING, coming to theaters just be aware that it's TOM YOM GOONG by another name.

SPEAKING OF PULLING DVDS...
You may have noticed that we haven't pulled the TV version of David Lynch's DUNE, despite the new DVD set. We have to admit that we weren't too pleased with this latest DVD incarnation of Lynch's masterpiece (it's cheesy but we love it). That said, we might be upgrading this TV version soon. Just keep an eye on the site.

Ask and ye shall receive. By request we've gotten in a handful of new Czech films (no arm-twisting involved). Glorious and all with English subtitles, they range from classics like the 1965 THE WHITE LADY (Zdenek Podskalsky) to Roman Vavra's THE DEVIL KNOWS WHY.

Be sure to check out our foreign "coming of age" selections, BLUEBIRD and THE KETCHUP EFFECT and trash classics like MR. T'S BE SOMEBODY OR BE SOMEBODY'S FOOL and the jaw-dropping compilation, WILLIAM SHATNER: ROCK GOD.

BTW, I'm sitting here watching the legit release of BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS from Diabolik DVD. It's such a classic. I can't recommend it enough. And this seems to be the release that this film truly deserves.

With the recent upgrade of EMPEROR TOMATO KETCHUP, we've been asked what other projects loom on the horizon for new, English subtitles. Here's a quick list:

TWO MEN IN MANHATTAN (waiting for a couple friends to translate 20 missing lines)

SECOND BREATH (resubbing the Russian DVD with VSOM subs - will have gaps that need translating)

MAGNET OF DOOM - Going to synch these up properly. Still hoping that someone has an improved picture.

It's a good time to be a fan of Jean-Pierre Melville and a patron of SuperHappyFun.com! :)

CRAZY FAMILY - Synching the English subs from the German fansub to the NTSC version and using the TrashPalace.com hardsubbed version as backup (less "Engrish").

ANESTHETIC SYNDROM - Synching the "two cd subs" to the DVD version.

DESCENT INTO HELL - I have a rough script to work from and I think that the DVD release has Chinese subs that I can work from, for timing.

WORLD OF WIRES - Our German friend of SHF is doing this.

ABELARD: THE CASTRATION - Another project from our German friend, we'll be adding the English subtitles from his script.

There are a few other projects lingering out there but we can't make any promises on those. These are generally in the order that we'd like to get things done but there are times when projects take on a life of their own.

A SuperHappyFun.com Exclusive, we have subtitled our version of Shuji Terayama's art house classic, Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Not only is our picture quality better than other sellers (it'd take you five minutes to figure out who we mean) but now you can take another stab at trying to understand this obtuse work of art.