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There was no 'early bird' price for this set. £49.99 was the standard price from Arrow.

I hope some extras are added though. I'm sure we'll get final specs nearer the release.

I see the text of the extras has changed a little:

• Booklet featuring archival interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, and a scholarly essay discussing post-World War II Japanese culture

In place of the earlier:

• Booklet with new writing on the film by David Desser

A bit weird to have removed Desser's name from the listing if he's still involved but the description certainly reads like the kind of thing he'd write so who knows.

He's not still involved - there was a mix-up at the time of the announcement. Hence the edit.

Delayed to 19 September.

I will just sit here and wait patiently for it to arrive together with my Taviani set.

Did you email Arrow? I'm sure they'd be happy to send the earlier set on its own given its now two months between releases.

I said I'm going to be patient! Haven't even touched my Alan Clarke set yet, and I'd hate to put them out the extra shipping costs.

Both good and bad news for me personally. Was actually anticipating the arrival of this next weekend, but now will have to squeeze it into a very busy September schedule (Matinee, Raising Cain, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Panic in Needle Park, A Scene at the Sea, Paths of Glory, Quay Brothers Collection, The Hills Have Eyes etc).

I wonder what the hold-up was? Extras, authoring, or manufacturing of the set (packaging, booklet, discs)? I wonder if Michael could shed some light.

Either way, this is the one set I'm most looking forward to (though do have my eye on a couple of others).

Do we know anything about the masters being used for this release? MichaelB indicated he'd already begun reviewing them a few months ago due to his comments about splicing and the like so I'd guess it's not that, but I was just curious if anyone knew if this had been restored since the HD masters Criterion put out 7 years ago.

I'd like to imagine they're waiting for a green light on some extras they want to add, whether on the disc or written in the book(let). But it's probably just something boring manufacturing fault. I see on the first page the previous delay was due to some clearance issues so maybe this could be the same.

Caps-a-holic has caps of the Japanese BD release from Shochiku (Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3), for a peek at the HD restoration. It looks like it's the same HD restoration Criterion used and is available on Hulu (though I'm not 100% sure), but it looks very good regardless (though obviously encoding will vary).

Ribs wrote:Caps-a-holic has caps of the Japanese BD release from Shochiku (Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3), for a peek at the HD restoration. It looks like it's the same HD restoration Criterion used and is available on Hulu (though I'm not 100% sure), but it looks very good regardless (though obviously encoding will vary).

I'm sure Arrow have their very best people involved in this one. However, the delay to September means I may have to now sell an organ to afford it (same month as several other essential releases from MoC, Arrow, Signal One). Hope it's worth it!

Transfer looking good, but as always with caps, will obviously have to see in-motion to really get as sense of how beautiful this one will be. This could easily be box set of the year (though I've not dug into my MoC Keaton set yet).

Caps-a-holic now has screencaps of the Arrow version somehow(Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3)

It does exist!

Ribs wrote:Caps-a-holic now has screencaps of the Arrow version somehow(Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3)

Somehow? Review discs went out last week...

Still trying to decide whether to get this right away or wait a little bit. Not a huge amount of extras in this set.

I would never discourage extras, but considering each film is at least 3 if not more, and we get all three for the first time in HD, do we really need more?

dda1996a wrote:I would never discourage extras, but considering each film is at least 3 if not more, and we get all three for the first time in HD, do we really need more?

True. Potentially the booklet could be the biggest asset here (other than the films themselves).

Apologies if this has been answered before (I looked but didn't see any info), but will this set be limited?

Yes, and it was 40% sold out as of last week.

Thanks for this--how would I find this sort of information?

Arrow's site?

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Cheers for that.

Now in stock at the Arrow store.

Given there's been surprisingly scant from the usual sources with regards to reviews and the like, here's the more detailed background on what's on the discs:

The films themselves give the option of the six-part Japanese edit or the three-part International version.
The introduction by Kemp is on the first disc, it's 20 minutes long.
The selected-scene commentaries are rather upsettingly very selected; there are just two clips per film, the first film featuring 15 minutes' worth and the last two about ten minutes' worth each. Desser's well-over-an-hour on Eros+Massacre spoiled us!
The piece in the book is a 2002 essay called "Popular Representations of the Past: The Case of Postwar Japan" from 2002 by Naoko Shimazu. The book altogether comes to about 56 pages.

It's also absolutely Region B locked if that impacts anyone.

I've just had a peek at the transfer in motion and it looks fantastic. The package as a whole is gorgeous too - possibly my favorite design-wise from Arrow yet. A fairly slight edition as far as we're used to from Arrow but still one I'm very, very happy to have.

Ribs wrote:Given there's been surprisingly scant from the usual sources with regards to reviews and the like

I guess the usual suspects will soon publish theirs, but in my case, I chose to pass on this one (I bought it but won't review it) because it will just take me too much time compared to how many other titles I already have to review. I'm quite sure other reviewers might be facing the same workload issue.

There seems to have been a similar attitude towards the Taviani box - none of the usual suspects has reviewed it to date, and the only substantial review that covers the discs as well as the films was in Sight & Sound a couple of issues ago. But that takes about thirteen hours to get through the whole thing (not counting reading time for the hefty accompanying book), and most of these people are unpaid, so...