Variety reports that Emperor Motion Picture has picked up sales rights to two restored classic films of modern Asian cinema: Devils on the Doorstep and Takashi Miike’s ultimate classic Ichi the Killer.

EMP has restored and revived Ichi the Killer, one of the most challenging, violent and iconic films to emerge from Japanese auteur Miike Takashi. The film was released in 2001. EMP was one of its original co-producers, alongside Japan’s Omega Project.

In the film, as sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.

As exciting as this is, there’s a bit of bad news:

“Miike is prolific, but ‘Ichi the Killer’ stands out as something special,” says EMP’s head of international sales May Yip. “Unfortunately, the materials were in very poor condition as it was shot in Beta and only later converted to 35mm.”

Good news? Yip does add this juicy morsel:

“So, given that there was enduring interest and licenses expiring, we took the decision to restore it. The result will be better, even gorier.”

Restoration work on Ichi was handled by L’Immagine Rittrovata Asia, the Hong Kong branch of the Bologna, Italy-based laboratory and restoration group headed by Davide Pozzi. In recent years, the company has found that restoring Asian movies is a flourishing business as demand grows from online video and archive sources. It opened its Hong Kong unit in 2015.