May 27, 2008 will mark a sad, sad day here in the States as it was announced by Variety Asia Online that Tartan Films USA has officially closed their doors. "This came in Monday. The lawyers have spoken and Tartan USA has been closed," the site writes. If you weren't keeping score, Tartan was the US distributor for OLDBOY, ELECTION, ELECTION 2 (aka TRIAD ELECTION), SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and a bunch of other titles. Almost 101 of them, in fact. Watch for some acquisitions and re-released over the next year or so. This news really blows as Tartan was about to launch Blu-ray and already gave us OLDBOY in the new format.
Having reviewed dozens of Tartan films and owned many more on them...I can categorically say this is tragic news. No one was putting out Asian Horror with the quality and love that Tartan was. This goes right up there with last years shuttering of CasaNegra as a major blow for international horror fans.
this is truly terrible! I own 24 of their titles and rented/own several others. Hopefully www.tartanvideo.com (in the UK) can pick up the unreleased movies and I'll be shifting my support to them now
I have been following this for the last few weeks, its really too bad. Tartan was one of the few quality Asian horror distributors in the US. A sad day for Asian/Horror cinema.
if i have to get them from the UK, please tell me they won't be shitty PAL to NTSC converts...
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