2 Seven Samurai

[Anonymous]

Thanks, guys! I review Criterion discs occasionally, so I'll provide links as I finish them...aside from regular posting, of course.
I've got a review for Brazil coming in the next few days, but it's only the one-disc version.
The new anamorphic transfer looks very nice, so take that for what it's worth...

[Gigi M.]

Back cover and spine

[Greathinker]

Release day, here's some more reviews:

DVD Verdict

digitallyOBSESSED!

[daniel p]

Anyone heard any mention of a possible re-release of the Kurosawa Samurai Box, with this and the re-issues of Yojimbo and Sanjuro? I'd hate to purchase this b4 hearing any such rumblings, to find that it is on the cards... I've emailed Mulvaney Lipson, or whatever that contact's name really is, with no reply...

[Matango]

I'm going to Japan on Friday and taking over my old version of Seven Samurai (and High and Low) to give a Japanese friend who has never seen Kurosawa (yeah, really). Is it safe to give Yojimbo and Sanjuro too, do you reckon? Or is there still a doubt about their re-release?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Criterion confirmed re-releases of both Yojimbo and Sanjuro last year. I'm not sure they'll actually meet the 2006 release date they promised (I doubt it), but I can't imagine they won't come out eventually. (Indeed, I believe both titles are out of print, which makes a re-release inevitable.) Giving him High and Low is more of a risk since Criterion hasn't confirmed a re-release of that one.

[Matango]

Thanks for that. I guess I'll hang on to them for now. I'm giving High and Low because I have the BFI edition which is marginally better than the CC.

[Greathinker]

According to Gary Tooze both Sanjuro and Yojimbo are cropped, especially Sanjuro, and have only decent transfers, not to mention no extras. I think it's a very safe bet that they will be re-released.

[Travis]

It's so beautiful I don't even want to open it. I just want to cradle the packaging. Forever.

[King of Kong]

By box arrived today - my, what an attractive package. Can't wait to watch the film and sample the extras.

[Napoleon]

Viewing on a tube the transfer is a revelation. The extra detail and richness of the blacks adds a real sense of depth to the composition of seemingly every single shot. The film looks absolutely beautiful.

Plus Mifune still calls the kids piss-pants.

[Sekoya]

@Nick

How come you're listed in the "Special Thanks" section? What kinds were your involvements of?

Incredible set!

[jmj713]

This is indeed a beautiful package. Am about to start watching it.

One question though. This is not a complaint against this likely DVD of the Year, but about the soundtrack, Criterion says:

The new 4.0 mix was created from original optical track recordings, original stereo music masters, and original production sound effects masters.

So if they have the music masters, why couldn't they go all out and give us an isolated music track? It's a feature that's all but dead in DVD production. Sad.

[Saarijas]

I must admit as much as I love the new transfer and all the special features, I value the Booklet more then any of that other stuff. I absolutley love the thick booklets with great info in it, like the one with M or here with Seven Samurai. I think criterion should try to make nice booklets like this more often, since a lot I find skimpy, with just a simple essay.

[peerpee]

So if they have the music masters, why couldn't they go all out and give us an isolated music track? It's a feature that's all but dead in DVD production. Sad.

It's in Toho's contract that the music must not be supplied in isolation.

[jmj713]

Thanks for the info, peerpee. It wasn't a complaint at all, just an observation. Went through everything on this release over the weekend. Definite DVD of the Year!

[leefarber]

Just watching the new transfer now. Amazing!

[Kristoffer4]

Just got this beautiful dvd! Very Happy. Picture and sound are very good. Gonna watch it soon, but I think I will watch it with the 1.0 sound option, since this sounds more like I remember it
The new sound makes voices seem very harsh in my opinion.
What are everyone elses takes on the new mix?

[HerrSchreck]

Yea the 4.0 sounds very rattly & harsh-- almost a faint buzzsaw going thru a tin can during speech consonants-- on a Sony Wega (the first place I managed throw it onto)... I put the 4.0 on just to see what it sounded like (usually always stick w monaural), on. One would hope that it simply needs a genuine surround sound rig for it to sound normal. Bizarre phenom either way.

This disc represents the outer limits of digital cleanup at a dvd co, the extreme possibilities represented by a digital team picking up the ball from the outer limits of laboratory film restoration, and running with it to take the image the rest of the way, post telecine, to bring it to a simulation of the film at original release. Imagine taking the print on the original late 90's disc, or any of those fine grains we've all seen in the cinema a zillion times, and manually removing every single scratch and dust speckle and splice, until there were absolutely none left. That's what they literally did here. Pretty darned impressive-- obviously a very long term-- and high budgeted-- project, labor intensive I'm sure. Also the contrast has been stabilized on a by-scene basis, and then heavily enriched far beyond what the fine grains provide on this film. But the end result is quite nice. What an endlessly rewarding film-- like RULES OF THE GAME, each time I watch it I feel like something different might happen.. just feels so authentic.

PS: are we silently deleting posts for considerations of emotional delicacy now, ie "his response to my post made it sound like I meant something just slightly different from what I meant, so please delete his"? A bit above someone said it was "sad" that this bounteous release did not include the isolated music score as an option, whereby I'd posted in response "Thereby & heretofore proving that you simply cannot always please everyone, ever , ever..." No curses, no bukkake, nothing... and my post has been silently deleted.

[HerrSchreck]

Criterion "expert" gaffe Dept.: Stephen Prince, in the new doc, on Mifune's character-- (paraphrasing)

"Mifune's character has the biggest sword of them all, suggesting that he wants to be the biggest samurai of them all... but if you look closely at him you'll see the clue that he's not a samurai, and hasn't devoted his life to the service of anything: just as important as the broadsword is the smaller sword, which is always on hand for a samurai should he need to commit seppuku ata moments notice for reasons of his code & honor, and duty. Mifunes Kikuchiro has no short sword, which is Kurosawa's code for telling us that he is not a real samurai."

Where in the brain does this kind of stuff appear out of nowhere and then take root as fact? And how is it that a numbnuts like me catches it on his first casual glance, but the whole of the CC didn't over months of production & post, catch the fact that Mifune's character absolutely positively does at all times have a shortsword, or large tanto knife, tucked into his robe sash at all times? And if it's not actually a shortsword/tanto, that's one odd looking fanny pack Kiku takes with him to go jogging. This is like when on JIMI PLAYS MONTEREY it's alleged that Hendrix opens Like A Rolling Stone with Wild Thing's chords.

[kinjitsu]

Mifune's character absolutely positively does at all times have a shortsword

Caught that while listening to the commentary, and while I knew he was wrong, was compelled to switch on the monitor to make sure my memory wasn't playing tricks on me.

[TheGodfather]

Great package, the new transfer looks brilliant. So much better than the old one. The extra`s and the booklet are superb also. I`m a happy camper with this one \:D/

[soma]

PS: are we silently deleting posts for considerations of emotional delicacy now...

Unrelated to yours but my post in this thread was also deleted. Merely expressed an admiration for the quality of this release and my desire to double dip immediately... followed by the possible flogging off of my old and inferior Seven Samurai Criterion to a friend

[Matango]

Does anyone know what the "More!" on the CC website pertains to on the new Seven Samurai? Looking at the back cover of mine, I can't see anything there that's not mentioned on the website list. Are there Easter eggs, or what?

[colinr0380]

@Nick

How come you're listed in the "Special Thanks" section? What kinds were your involvements of?

Incredible set!

My guess is something to do with Humanity and Paper Balloons? I'm interested in finding more out about Terry Gilliam's contribution, also listed in the special thanks section.

Just finished the set today and thought it was a magnificent update. The commentary complements, rather than supercedes, the Michael Jeck track. I don't know how much special care has to be made to avoid duplication by approaching the subject from a different angle, but I loved how some of Jeck's wonderful asides, such as pointing out the end of the circular camera track, were only covered in his commentary.

I remember that quote Criterion put out when they were beginning saying that the first spine numbers were going to be the foundation of the collection, and I think this update does a magnificent job of introducing Kurosawa to a new audience who would be more likely to pick this up as his most familiar work, although I also found a lot to enjoy from the perspective of having seen a lot of the other Kurosawa releases.

As well as an introduction to Kurosawa, it felt like a great introduction to the commentators who, in the context of the spine numbers, will reappear to talk about the other films or in Tony Ryan's case to talk about other non-Kurosawa films. I really liked the structure of the commentary - I don't know whether it is because they are becoming more familiar but it was fun to recognise certain idiosyncrasies of particular commentators such as Stephen Prince discussing historical details, David Desser on framing and shot composition, Tony Rayns on sexuality and placing the film in a wider Asian film context (is it possible Criterion could ever release A Touch Of Zen?) and Donald Ritchie on his first-hand knowledge of Kurosawa and anecdotes of the production, all were excellent and as well as not clashing with the Michael Jeck commentary, seemed to each bring a unique perspective (I wonder how much of a logistical problem creating the commentary was?)

This combined with the essay booklet (with another Peter Cowie essay - hopefully he will get to do another commentary track soon), provided so many different views as well as a lot of different ways of approaching the creation of the film from Kurosawa's early influences to the interaction with the Western - there didn't seem to be any overlap in any area.

I left Joan Mellen from my praise for the other commentators since this was her first commentary but I think she did a great job - being a big softy I had a few tears in my eyes by the end of her eloquent discussion!

I think the choice of documentaries was well made too - the usual high standard of the It Is Wonderful To Create! episode providing cast and crew interviews, complimenting perfectly the two hour Kurosawa discussion. I especially liked the way the discussion was wide ranging providing more information about films like I Live In Fear, The Bad Sleep Well and The Idiot that adds to the DVDs I already have of those films.

This is one of the aspects of Criterion (and also of Warner) that I most admire - the ability to include material that the audience for their discs will find fascinating, but which might relate to films put out by other companies or that aren't released at all. Warner perhaps is able to do this because they have such an extensive library of titles, so I'm much more impressed that Criterion, which I guess is supposed to be in competition with other independent DVD companies, is non-parochial in its approach to cinema. It is one of the reasons why I prize this company above all others as discussion is not constrained by an obvious kind of company policy not to talk about non-Criterion released films (although I don't know what kind of copyright clearance they have to go through to mention titles or show stills from Stagecoach or The Searchers for example). It shows the love of the medium of the film and classics from whatever company, although the Collection is getting extensive enough that they can do a stills montage of pictures from Harakiri, Samurai, Sword of Doom, Yojimbo etc without it seeming too much like an advert for Criterion - especially when there are also mouth-watering pictures from Sanshiro Sugata, The Men Who Tread On The Tiger's Tail, Life of Oharu, Story Of The Late Chrysanthenums, Gate Of Hell etc. (Familiar to most forum members, but my first view of many of these exciting films beyond just hearing their title!)

I know there has been some discussion about a 'rivalry' between Masters of Cinema and Criterion. I think some of this is probably forum created, since I haven't changed my view of it as a semi-partnership since my comments on Flowers of St Francis (since rivalry doesn't make any sense when they are releasing in different territories, under different DVD regions - the multi-region collector has a choice but overlaps are understandable to get a film out in their particular country), and I think the section where the critics discuss Humanity and Paper Balloons and Sadao Yamanaka is both a wonderful nudge to the audience towards checking out the MoC disc, as well as completely being in the context of a discussion about the samurai tradition and values.

I've mentioned it before in other discussions but I also particularly like the combination of documentaries created specifically for this release and 'non-Criterion' or purchased documentaries. It gives yet another perspective on a film, one not bound by the context of having to discuss Seven Samurai for the DVD, but one where you can have a talk with Kurosawa about his whole career for example. Or you can see how the Japanese approached discussing the film in the It Is Wonderful To Create series. It creates a nice sense of distance from just having to stick to the film in question.

And how great was the silent film material on the 'Seven Samurai: Origins and Traditions' documentary! Does anyone have more information on the films - are these films that have been lost and only fragments such as those on the DVD survive?