Late yesterday I was alerted to an exciting update on my favorite—Really! I'm not being hyperbolic!—cult movie, The Legend of the Stardust Brothers:


Very! Big! News!

Until recently, Stardust Brothers wasn't available at all. Originally an epic flop, it was gladly left buried for decades. But this winter, the excellent Third Window Films released it on an all-region DVD/Blu-ray format. Now for a limited time this Japanese musical oddity from 1985 is available to stream through Alamo Drafthouse On Demand.

Director Macoto Tezka, son of the "Godfather of Manga" Osamu Tezuka, was tasked with creating a movie based around an already created campy album about a fictional duo called the Stardust Brothers. The result is a bombastic, inspired, style-forward fantasy. Its basic premise is loungy and loud: two rival singers are contacted by a shadowy organization named Atomic Productions that wants to turn them into legends. There are catches, obviously. The whole thing is the stuff of stars and notably features Kiyohiko Ozaki, a famous crooner with famous sideburns.

Adam Torel, the film producer responsible for Third Window Films and Stardust Brothers' resurrection, calls the movie "the ultimate cult film" in the bonus features available through the Alamo stream. "I think this could be one of THE cult films from Japan," he says, "but I'm just one person." I agree, and I'm another person. That's two people. Please watch and join the cult.