Cinema Epoch has taken over US distribution of Takashi Miike‘s head-trippy 2003 film Gozu, essentially replacing the Pathfinder Home Entertainment version released back in late 2004.

Plot: When yakuza Ozaki (Show Aikawa) is deemed insane by his crew, his boss Mr. Azamawari (Renji Ishibashi) gives Minami (Hideki Sone) the order to eliminate his yakuza brother before he becomes a liability. Minami is expected to drive Ozaki out to a disposal facility in Nagoya to do the deed, but his loyalty to his friend has him greatly conflicted. Before he’s forced to make a decision, however, a strange sequence of events causes Ozaki to seemingly vanish into thin air. On his quest to find his friend before the Azamawari crew does, Minami meets a strange cast of characters and experiences events that would make anyone question their own sanity.

Region 1, NTSC, anamorphic widescreen. Japanese audio with English subtitles. Features include audio commentary, documentary: “Takashi Miike Goes To Cannes”, and film essays. Possibly more TBA.

Available at the following retailer(s) on June 1, 2009:

• Amazon.com

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Tags: cinema epoch, gozu, harumi sone, hiroyuki nagato, hitoshi ozawa, kanpei hazama, kazuyoshi ozawa, keiko tomita, kenichi endo, kimika yoshino, masaya kato, renji ishibashi, sakichi sato, shohei hino, show aikawa, susumu kimura, takashi miike, tamio kawaji, tetsuro tamba, tokitoshi shiota, yakuza, yoshiyuki yamaguchi, yuta sone