When nostalgia about college days inspires a group of middle-aged men businessmen to match-make for a widow, played by Setsuko Hara (Tokyo Story), and her daughter they have no idea of the strife their careless interference will cause. Late Autumn's examination of familial upheaval moves effortlessly from comedy to pathos and is amongst Ozu's finest post-war films.
Included here is Ozu's moving silent drama A Mother Should be Loved (1934). Young Sadao struggles to come to terms with the discovery that he is not the son of his father's widow. His fragile acceptance of this is soon disrupted.
Extra Features:
- Dual Format Edition: includes both Blu-ray and the DVD versions of the main feature
- Transferred from best available film elements to High Definition
- Contains full length feature A Mother Should be Loved (1934) (DVD only)
- Newly commissioned score for A Mother Should be Loved by composer Ed Hughes
- Fully illustrated booklet features newly commissioned sleeve notes
- New and improved English subtitles
An Autumn Afternoon
A Film by Yasujiro Ozu
Yasujiro Ozu's captivating final film, An Autumn Afternoon, displays the master director s skills at their consummate best. Ozu regular Chishu Ryu (Tokyo Story) plays Shuhei Hirayama, a concerned father eager to find a husband for his faithful daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita) before she sees out her days caring for him. A cast of colourful characters weave seamlessly in and out of the story, highlighting themes of loneliness and fear for the future with deep poignancy and ironic humour.
Ozu's rarely-seen post-war film A Hen in the Wind (1948) is also included here. In a Japan recently devastated by WWII a devoted but near destitute mother waits for her husband's demobilisation. When her son falls seriously ill she turns to prostitution to pay his hospital bills.
Extra Features:
- Dual Format Edition: includes both Blu-ray and the DVD versions of the main feature
- Transferred from best available film elements to High Definition
- Contains previously unavailable full length feature A Hen in the Wind (1948) (DVD only)
- Fully illustrated booklet features newly commissioned sleeve notes
- New and improved English subtitles
ahh, here, I was gonna predict another two film $40 set for May from criterion with A Mother Should be Loved and A Hen in the Wind, but these being DVD only suggests that's not probable.
movielocke wrote:ahh, here, I was gonna predict another two film $40 set for May from criterion with A Mother Should be Loved and A Hen in the Wind, but these being DVD only suggests that's not probable.
Does it? I don't know how Criterion operates, but perhaps they wouldn't alert other companies to their plans until they have a release date confirmed? Or they might not have the rights or have made HD masters yet. Doesn't matter too much to me as i'll be buying the BFIs anyway.
Watched the "I Was Born But" BFI version, and at first I thought it seemed either framed wrong or zoomed in, and now looking at the Eclipse version, there is a lot more information around the frame.
Sometimes the adults' heads were cut off in the BFI version.
I think adults' heads are also sometimes above the frame line in the Eclipse version (and the Shochiku one as well). Did you compare exactly the same frames from both versions? (still waiting for US Customs to stop sitting on my copy -- so I can't compare this myself).
Fascinating stuff, this is exactly the problem I had with the print of I Was Born But.... that I saw in the cinema as part of the recent BFI Ozu tour, I thought it had just been projected badly but it must be the print BFI used instead. Believe me this cropping of the top of the image was extremely noticeable throughout the film for many mediums and close ups, I'll definitely be picking up the Eclipse set now...
As I recall, the New Yorker videotape of this film was more cropped than the Shochiku DVD (and Eclipse one). The cropping here looks more like what I recall from New Yorker.
Oh well, I'm getting this set for Good Morning (and IWBB isn't HD anyway -- and I already have both the Eclipse and the Shochiku DVDs of IWBB). ;~}
OK, speculation is starting to go into overdrive here, so let's clear a few things up.
The BFI has applied absolutely no cropping, stretching or altering to the image of the new master that was supplied by Shochiku - subtitles aside, the only addition made has been Ed Hughes' score, which is unique to this edition.
It's also demonstrably incorrect to claim that the source master is cropped "on all sides", as all the grabs (and the Beaver's accompanying text) make it clear that while there's a small amount of cropping at the top and bottom, the framing at the sides differs between editions, with the Eclipse set revealing more on the right and the BFI more on the left. In other words, no current edition presents the complete negative area.
It's an irritating but nonetheless inescapable fact of DVD production and indeed cinema projection that silent films are often presented with wildly different maskings - and without direct access to original film source materials, this is impossible to get around.
An articulate answer, anyway I suppose most strking are the significant differences on the RHS of frame... On the plus side, I greatly prefer the Ed Hughes ensemble on the BFI, to Donal Sosin's rather annoying tinkling on the CC... And nothing takes away from my pleasure of seeing the main feature, GOOD MORNING, in wonderful HD... Like MK, I am happy to have both BFI & Eclipse of IWBB on DVD, the first doubling of the extra feature, that is not replacing an infintely inferior Panorama disc in my collection...
Both the NY Yorker video and the Shochiku DVD of IWBB were utterly (and at first, disconcertingly) silent -- so I am now so used to viewing this musically unaccompanied that hearing _any_ score would probably annoy and distract me. ;~}
High praise for BFI's "There Is A Father". Frankly, I never expected to see this film look so goo )and to sound mostly passable). Old and battered this may look, but infinitely better than the first version I saw (and very significantly better than the Shochiku DVD). Also previewed "Good Morning" -- and am totally pleased with what I've seen so far -- a vast improvement over the mis-begotten Criterion release.
Michael Kerpan wrote:High praise for BFI's "There Is A Father". Frankly, I never expected to see this film look so good )and to sound mostly passable). Old and battered this may look, but infinitely better than the first version I saw (and very significantly better than the Shochiku DVD).
You are 100% accurate about the quality of the restoration, never has sadomasochistic and fascist propaganda looked so good!(The really sickening thing is that despite the quasi-mystical "spiritism" propagated by Ryu Chishu's character the film is still another Ozu masterpiece.)
I think Ozu's basic point is that the Father (though admirable in a purely abstract sense) was terribly wrong-headed. Ozu presents the son as placing far greater value on family affection (and presents Mr. Hirata as a neutral observer who clearly shares the son's perspective). While Ozu had to be a bit careful in getting this point across -- as he had to get this past the censors based on its surface message -- I think it is clear that he agreed with the son and Hirata, and not with the stubborn Father.
Michael Kerpan wrote:I think Ozu's basic point is that the Father (though admirable in a purely abstract sense) was terribly wrong-headed. Ozu presents the son as placing far greater value on family affection (and presents Mr. Hirata as a neutral observer who clearly shares the son's perspective). While Ozu had to be a bit careful in getting this point across -- as he had to get this past the censors based on its surface message -- I think it is clear that he agreed with the son and Hirata, and not with the stubborn Father.
Wholly agree. Ozu always favored the children, even when they are wrongheaded. In this film, the son is right from beginning to end.
Does anyone else has problems playing their Equinox Flower Blu-ray on a region free Oppo? I always get a wrong region screen although set on code B. I have to put in Late Spring first (where the screen also appears but vanishes after a few seconds). Afterwards Equinox Flower works. Seems a bit strange to me. :-k
Will Barks wrote:Does anyone else has problems playing their Equinox Flower Blu-ray on a region free Oppo? I always get a wrong region screen although set on code B. I have to put in Late Spring first (where the screen also appears but vanishes after a few seconds). Afterwards Equinox Flower works. Seems a bit strange to me. :-k
I live in the US and have the Oppo BDP-83 which is region free with a hardware upgrade. I don't have Equinox Flower but I do have the BFI BD of Late Spring, and it always works fine for me (no screen pop up warning about the wrong region). Does your Oppo have a software or hardware upgrade to unlock the region coding?
