Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:48 pm
No firm details on this one as yet, but the BFI have just revealed on their Twitter feed that an Early Kurosawa set (of titles not previously released by themselves) is due in March.
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Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 3:13 pm
Packshot:
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 3:51 pm
Does it contain the same titles with the Criterion set?
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:21 pm
Disc One
Sanshiro Sugata (Sugata Sanshiro, 1943)
Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (Zoku Sugata Sanshiro, 1945)
Disc Two
The Most Beautiful (Ichiban utsukushiku, 1944, 85mins
They Who Step on the Tiger’s Tail (Tora no o o fumu otokotachi, 1945)
Disc Three
No Regrets For Our Youth (Waga seishun ni kuinashi, 1946)
Disc Four
One Wonderful Sunday (Subarashiki nichiyobi, 1947)
Sanshiro Sugata (Sugata Sanshiro, 1943)
Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (Zoku Sugata Sanshiro, 1945)
Disc Two
The Most Beautiful (Ichiban utsukushiku, 1944, 85mins
They Who Step on the Tiger’s Tail (Tora no o o fumu otokotachi, 1945)
Disc Three
No Regrets For Our Youth (Waga seishun ni kuinashi, 1946)
Disc Four
One Wonderful Sunday (Subarashiki nichiyobi, 1947)
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:48 pm
Michael, sorry to ask so early, but do you have any knowledge of whether these will receive individual releases?
Thanks
P
Thanks
P
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:58 pm
There are no plans to release these titles individually, and that's unlikely to change.
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:02 pm
Thanks for the info.
p
p
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 8:56 pm
I take it this is DVD rather than Blu? Please prove me wrong?
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:12 pm
Excellent collection for sure. If you don't have the two Eclipse sets, this is the way to go, as it avoids double-dipping on the two excellent MoC releases of "Scandal" and "The Idiot", and I would assume that the BFI will provide some informative booklet texts, too. And for the completists: the BFI disc of "I live in fear" is quite fine, too. I surely would have taken this route if this edition had only come three years earlier...
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 7:59 am
Excellent release!
Will the deleted scenes from Sanshiro Sugata 2 be included? They were previously on the Madman DVD if I don´t misremember.
Will the deleted scenes from Sanshiro Sugata 2 be included? They were previously on the Madman DVD if I don´t misremember.
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:27 am
Deleted Scenes (censored by the US occupation actually) were from the first Sanshiro Sugata film.
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 9:38 am
Yes, manicsounds, you´re right. I misremembered.
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:04 pm
Full specs announced:
Early Kurosawa
The unknown films of Akira Kurosawa
Released on DVD for the first time in the UK, these six films from legendary auteur Akira Kurosawa were made at the start of his career and demonstrate the emergence of a profoundly influential directorial vision, whose endless admirers range from Fellini and Bertolucci to Spielberg and Lucas.
This fascinating collection, which contains six films across four DVDs, spans 1943 to 1947 and features Sanshuro Sugata, Sanshuro Sugata Part Two, The Most Beautiful, They Who Step on the Tiger’s Tail, No Regrets For Our Youth and One Wonderful Sunday. The films have been transferred to High Definition from the best available film elements and are packaged with a fully illustrated booklet featuring essays by Philip Kemp.
Disc One
Sanshuro Sugata (Sugata Sanshiro), 1943, 79 mins
Kurosawa’s assured debut about a young man’s spiritual journey through the study and practice of judo.
Sanshuro Sugata Part Two (Zoku Sugata Sanshiro), 1945, 83 mins
This sequel reunites most of the principal cast from the original and follows Sanshiro face a new set of enemies whilst continuing his quest to become a judo master.
Disc Two
The Most Beautiful (Ichiban utsukushiku), 1944, 85 mins
An artful propaganda film that anticipates the social realism of Kurosawa’s post-war films, The Most Beautiful provides a fascinating portrait of female volunteer workers in an optics factory manufacturing lenses for binoculars and gunsights.
They Who Step on the Tiger’s Tail (Tora no o o fumu otokotachi), 1945, 58 mins
Adapted from Noh and Kabuki theatre, this classic tale of deception sees a lord and his bodyguard disguise themselves as monks to bypass an enemy roadblock.
Disc Three
No Regrets For Our Youth (Waga seishun ni kuinashi), 1946, 110 mins
Kurosawa’s first post-war film stars Ozu regular Setsuko Hara as Yukie, a privileged daughter of a professor who takes a soul-searching journey through rural Japan and comes to question her values.
Disc Four
One Wonderful Sunday (Subarashiki nichiyobi), 1947, 108 mins
A bitter-sweet story of young love set in the devastation of post-war Tokyo reminiscent of Frank Capra’s social realist comedies.
Release date: 28 March 2011
RRP: £39.99 / cat. no. BFIV905 / Cert 12 TBC / 4-disc box set
Japan / 1943-1947 / black & white / Japanese with English subtitles / 523 mins /
original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / region 2
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:46 pm
Excellent news! It'll be awhile before I can get this set, but I'm glad to see the BFI showing such a committment to it.
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:43 pm
Transfered TO High Definition.... so what is the likelyhood of this set being out on BD? Still unlikely?
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:21 pm
Five deleted scenes, totalling 11m 31s, for Sanshiro Sugata have just been classified by the BBFC.
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 8:59 am
Thanks antnield! And thanks BFI for taking care with the deleted scenes.
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:36 pm
As much as I applaud BFI for releasing the set with the deleted scenes (which Criterion should have done, but they really had to streamline that Eclipse set with their 'no extras ever' line), I really had hoped that BFI would've included the Toho documentaries on the Toho titles... but one can't complain at this point...
Re: Early Kurosawa
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 3:13 pm
Well, you're getting six complete features plus deleted scenes for your money - which at the current online price amounts to less than a fiver per film.