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I've been checking on this set on Radiance's site almost daily for the past couple of weeks (it's been sold out, but "temporarily out of stock"), and happy to share it's now back in stock (and for ~£12 less than it is on Amazon UK) in case anyone else is hoping to pick it up.

WrathOfAguirre wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:43 am I've been checking on this set on Radiance's site almost daily for the past couple of weeks (it's been sold out, but "temporarily out of stock"), and happy to share it's now back in stock (and for ~£12 less than it is on Amazon UK) in case anyone else is hoping to pick it up.

I see Radiance is selling this set for £74.99 GBP. That's pretty much what it has been available for from launch, so no real reduction in price really. I'll probably wait til it goes down a little bit more.

Marwood wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:03 pm

WrathOfAguirre wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 4:43 am I've been checking on this set on Radiance's site almost daily for the past couple of weeks (it's been sold out, but "temporarily out of stock"), and happy to share it's now back in stock (and for ~£12 less than it is on Amazon UK) in case anyone else is hoping to pick it up.

I see Radiance is selling this set for £74.99 GBP. That's pretty much what it has been available for from launch, so no real reduction in price really. I'll probably wait til it goes down a little bit more.

Well that’s odd. I just checked again on their site and I’m seeing it for £62.49 GBP (“tax included”), same as I saw earlier when I posted about it. FWIW I’m viewing their page from Singapore, though I wouldn’t expect them to have different prices based on geolocation.

Removing VAT from £74.99 would indeed result in a figure closer to £60, so it’s probably that.

74.99 was the sticker price in store but I wasn’t charged that when I bought it (it was a few pounds less for some reason)

I was going to suggest getting a VAT refund at the airport, but apparently the UK stopped that several years ago.

Everything I bought that wasn’t part of a 2 for 15 pounds promotion was charged less than sticker price. I guess they tagged me as American right away

WrathOfAguirre wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 6:51 pm Well that’s odd. I just checked again on their site and I’m seeing it for £62.49 GBP (“tax included”), same as I saw earlier when I posted about it. FWIW I’m viewing their page from Singapore, though I wouldn’t expect them to have different prices based on geolocation.

Yes, they have different prices based on geolocation.
I am In Norway, but when I select the UK store, I get the UK price. (BTW I order from the UK store and get my order shipped to a friend in the UK, who then ships it to me or bings it when she visits me in Norway)

Cracked open this set today. The Catch has a tone not unlike from what I can remember of my viewing of Cruel Story of Youth when the MOC disc came out years ago, with a pointed critique of Japan post-World War II, and especially their treatment of those they initiated aggression against. Based on how the extras are described, Oshima opts to tells the story from a broader point of view than the source novel's telling of it from the children in the village, though the final shot in the film certainly could be Oshima trying to depict the line "And I was no longer a child.."

Admittedly I wasn't fully drawn into the picture throughout, but Oshima's style of long takes and taking the camera in unexpected directions won me over. There are some really mesmerizing shots and scenes, as when a boy is tied to a pole by his fellow townspeople and especially during the burial of a character. The film's back-half certainly grabbed me more powerfully than the beginning of the film, though.

THE CATCH / 3 out of 5 stars

My overall feeling while watching this was how little patience I have these days for simple-minded, tribalist idiots (no doubt a symptom of the times we’re living in), and nearly every one of the characters in this film fall under such a label. Because of this, it was kind of a chore for me to sit through.

Set in a Japanese village in summer 1945, in the final days of the war, it starts with the villagers escorting their new prisoner—a downed, Black American pilot—back to their village. They’re to hold him captive and “keep him alive” while awaiting the military police to show up and question him. This “prisoner in the village” aspect of the plot winds up serving more as a background element to the conflicts and power dynamics among the villagers themselves. And every time a conflict comes to a head, the characters at fault blame whatever their problem or situation is on “the Negro,” and his presence in the village, with none of them ever taking responsibility or admitting fault.

Virtually all of the characters fall on this scapegoat of “the other,” with most of them calling for his execution at various points throughout the film. Even the poor women, who the audience will surely feel sympathy toward, express their grievances over the mistreatment and abuse (much of it sexual) from the men of the village ALSO turn the outrage on the Black captive. In the end, it’s only some of the children who try to make any effort to protect the prisoner.

It’s all rather outrageous. I suspect this is the feeling Oshima was hoping to elicit from the audience, and in that regard, he succeeds.

I find some of Oshima's work "interesting" -- but none of it "loveable". I feel bad for not supporting the release of classic Japanese cinema releases like this one -- but I am afraid I have de-prioritized (possbly terminally) exploring/collecting more Oshima. Interesting to read others' thoughts about it, however.

I'm the same, not just with Oshima but other art house directors too (not just Japanese, globally as well). Ozu, Tati and Davies are among the few exceptions that I still watch.

Finch -- Ozu made his films for ordinary audiences (as did Naruse and Shimizu, etc). He may have aimed at the high end of that spectrum -- but definitely was not self-consciously "arty" like Oshima. Not sure what YOU consider "art films" -- do Bunuel, (the more accessible) Rivette and Godard, HOU Hsiao Hsien, Kiarostami fall under that? If so, I like/love plenty of "art films" -- yet find others tedious.

Finch wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 5:24 pm I'm the same, not just with Oshima but other art house directors too (not just Japanese, globally as well). Ozu, Tati and Davies are among the few exceptions that I still watch.

I’m not a big fan of Oshima myself, but I can’t not ask why you would be interested in CC in this case. Their films define what most people consider “art house”.

Zot! wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:39 pm

Finch wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 5:24 pm I'm the same, not just with Oshima but other art house directors too (not just Japanese, globally as well). Ozu, Tati and Davies are among the few exceptions that I still watch.

I’m not a big fan of Oshima myself, but I can’t not ask why you would be interested in CC in this case. Their films define what most people consider “art house”.

I'm not sure I understand what Finch means by "art house" given the examples but while CC is often thought of and talked about as an art house label they actually release a lot of films that definitely dont fit that category regardless of how wde a net one casts..

Yeah, I lean towards Criterion's classical Hollywood and general genre titles than some directors like Oshima, Godard etc. From Radiance's Japanese output, I've only bought the samurai and Yakuza films and even then not every single one. Among the directors Michael Kerpan mentioned, I like some Bunuel but only found Breathless and Band of Outsiders from Godard captivating enough to rewatch them.

Finch wrote: Sun Dec 28, 2025 12:53 am Yeah, I lean towards Criterion's classical Hollywood and general genre titles than some directors like Oshima, Godard etc. From Radiance's Japanese output, I've only bought the samurai and Yakuza films and even then not every single one. Among the directors Michael Kerpan mentioned, I like some Bunuel but only found Breathless and Band of Outsiders from Godard captivating enough to rewatch them.

Okay, fair enough, I guess I probably lumped classic/reparatory films in with arthouse, because that is where they’re usually publicly screened. CC certainly still does a lot of that for sure.

I just wanted to emphasize I'm not mad at Radiance for releasing this set. On the contrary, I think objectively it is one of the best releases of this year and I hope they do more. I do regret that these sets aren't my thing because they need support but I can't justify spending money on something that would at best be a one and done matter for me, and I want to focus on films that I already know I'm going to or very likely revisit often for the rest of my life. At least I can support Radiance through other titles. Hope everyone that was looking forward to the Oshima set is getting everything they hoped for and some.

No worries, Finch. Personally, while I haven’t seen most of these Oshimas, I find his radical 60s work to be oppressive in its didacticism. The films drub you over the head with left wing ideology, and that obvious ideological lense lets down the formal experimentation to a degree since it limits the range of meanings that can be attached to it. Death by Hanging is the most extreme example of Oshima’s stridency, but it’s there in other work like Three Resurrected Drunkards, Sing a Song of Sex, and even Violence at Noon, my favourite of the old Oshima Eclipse set. This kind of moralistic hectoring does little for me, while the formal experimentation, tho’ done with great energy, risks being merely obscurantist rather than profitably ambiguous. I prefer his later films, like Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, which has a clear message about empathy and cosmopolitanism, the necessity of intercultural communication, but doesn’t jam it down your throat. Instead it’s embedded in a story about a psycho-sexual conflict of wills between two totalitarian personalities who destroy each other, while the matched opposing pair alongside them, who do manage a qualified communication and understanding, reach an ambivalent end point. A richer, weirder movie than the more outwardly radical experimental stuff—at least for me.

So I won’t be getting this, either. Not a filmmaker I love. But it’s great to see stuff like this coming out. He may not be my thing, but it’s heartening to see filmmakers like Oshima treated with this kind of care and seriousness.

DEATH BY HANGING / 3.5 out of 5 stars

Well, what a wild ride this one turned out to be. What begins as a very jarring and impactful, procedural opening quickly turns into a completely absurd.. comedy? By the third act, it felt very Buñuel-esque and I was in a full-on “expect the unexpected” mindset, which certainly benefited me. I’ll likely revisit this one again after getting through the rest of the set (and probably with the commentary track, which isn’t something I usually listen to until after I’ve seen a film 3-4 times).

My thoughts are incoherently all over the place with this, which for me usually ends up leading to having a “long life” with a film, by which I mean I revisit it many, many times over many years. Maybe I’ll hold off on the commentary on the second viewing.

I’m very unfamiliar with Oshima, aside from only what I’ve read about his work over the years. It always felt like something I’d likely find very challenging, and for probably a multitude of reasons, there was always something else I’d rather watch. I figured I’d dive headfirst into this set, being completely blind to each of the films (aside from their synopses).

I’d like to weigh in on the comments since that review I posted of The Catch, but frankly I’ve nothing to really go on with this director at the moment. I’ll say, it’s already been refreshing in that I’ve mostly limited myself to samurai films when it comes to classic Japanese cinema (also some Ozu and The Human Condition, which is probably my favorite Japanese film of all time).

With these Oshima films (so far), I’m pleased that such films were even made during this period of Japan’s history.

I’ll likely weigh in later with more confidence after I’ve gotten through the set, but already I kind of get where Finch, Mr. Sausage and the other commenter (sorry, their names are easier for me to remember haha) are coming from.

But I’m extremely pleased and thankful I get to explore a nice chunk of this filmmaker’s work in a greatly put-together set. This is the kind of box I love—not a set of films I already know and love, but those are great in their own way—a primer for a director I’ve long been aware of and have wanted to explore.

I find Oshima's "leftism" very arch -- he really does not seem to really show much empathy with the "downtrodden" in his films (at least in most of what I've seen). I prefer the more down-to-earth (bawdy and usually more humanistic) leftism of Imamura. Ironically, Oshima and Imamura seem to have shared the top spot of having the most privileged (and wealthy) backgrounds. I have always felt that, despite some superficial similarities, these two directors felt a lot like "opposites".

Oshima strikes me as more of a classic intellectual, while Imamura liked to slum it among the down and out in Osaka. Very different sensibilities despite shared backgrounds and political allegiances.

Yeah, I’d almost say Oshima has more in common with Mishima despite the political differences.

I enjoyed Death By Hanging much more than I expected to. I'd watched the Criterion once upon a time but apparently remembered very little from it, and the lukewarm Oshima takes in this thread made me somewhat regret my purchase. But the film easily won me over, by taking its absurd premise to such heights. Yes there are a few moments where the politics of the film start to beat you over the head, but the absurdity I find balances it out quite well (going from trying to explain why rape is wrong to the rooftop chase soon after, for example).

I'm still not 100% what to make of the film's politics, and the link between Japanese treatment of Koreans and R's stripping of identity as explaining his crimes and I may have missed a line or two of dialogue towards the end. But I actually really enjoyed this one.