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The start of an ongoing series, this first volume of Radical Japan explores the films of new wave icon Nagisa Oshima (Cruel Story of Youth, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence). One of the most vital, challenging and admired bodies of work in cinema history, this boxset presents Blu-ray premieres of Oshima’s finest features across seven discs.

In The Catch (1961), a village in World War II is shaken by the capture of a pilot; in Death by Hanging (1968), a failed execution throws the justice system into disarray; Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969) strikingly captures Tokyo’s 1960s counter-culture; Boy (1969) is a vivid portrait of a family surviving through scams; The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970), Oshima’s reaction to the protest movement; The Ceremony (1971), a meditation on how traditions oppress the young; and Dear Summer Sister (1972), which questions Japan’s colonial relation to Okinawa.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES

4K restorations of Death by Hanging, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, Boy, The Man Who Left His Will on Film and The Ceremony
High-Definition digital transfers of The Catch and Dear Summer Sister (exclusive to this edition)
Uncompressed mono PCM audio for each film
Audio commentaries by Samm Deighan on Death by Hanging, Tony Rayns on Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, and Jasper Sharp on The Ceremony
Introductions and appreciations of the films by film historians and scholars Luk Van Haute, Jennifer Coates, Rie Tsukinaga, and filmmaker Yang Yong-hi
Archival interviews with Oshima (1986 & 1995)
Interviews with actors Tadanori Yokoo and Kazuo Goto (2025)
Interview with critic and author Junichi Konuma on composer Toru Takemitsu (2025)
Extensive interview with critic Tony Rayns on Oshima’s life and career (2025)
Yunbogi’s Diary - Oshima’s short film about street children in Seoul (1965, 25 mins)
100 Years of Japanese Cinema - Oshima's documentary celebrating the centenary of cinema (1995)
Japanese Cinema: New Territories - a documentary by Hubert Niogret on the Japanese cinema of rebellion and renewal, charting the emergence of independent filmmakers of the 1960s to the 1990s featuring interviews with Oshima, Kiju Yoshida, Shohei Imamura and others (2011)
Newly improved English subtitle translation for each film
Reversible sleeves featuring original and new artwork based on designs by distributor ATG’s magazines
Limited edition 160-page book featuring new writing by Rea Amit, Espen Bale, archival articles by Donald Richie and Alexander Jacoby, plus writing by and interviews with Oshima
Limited Edition of 5000 copies, presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings


Released in the UK: 17th November

What a release! They're debuting five 4K restorations (the one for Death by Hanging might be the same as Criterion's) and hopefully the other four films look at least as good as what current editions/streamers have to offer.

Oh thank God.

Though can we add a commentary for The Man Who Left His Will on Film, please?

No overlap with the Eclipse set, I wonder if Radiance anticipates that box getting an upgrade (he says with fingers crossed)? Hated Man Who Left His Will on Film and Shinjuku Thief and cautiously appreciated Death by Hanging, but I’ll prob still pick this up because Oshima is nevertheless a rewarding director on the whole, especially in the period coveted by this (huge!) box

Cautiously expected more than 4 films but didn't expect 9 in total (technically 7 features, 1 documentary feature and 1 short film). Incredible efforts from the Radiance team, and apparently the start of a series of Japanese sets which is equally as exciting an announcement as this set is. We thinking ATG directors perhaps, such as Terayama, Matsumoto, Wakamatsu, Hani, Hasegawa, Takabayashi...perhaps even Shinoda, or Okamoto?

Sounds like The Catch and Dear Summer Sister are exclusive to the box set, so those considering waiting for standard editions might want to factor that into their decision. Of those two I'm particularly intrigued to see The Catch, the earliest of the films in this set.

domino harvey wrote: Fri Aug 08, 2025 11:21 am No overlap with the Eclipse set, I wonder if Radiance anticipates that box getting an upgrade (he says with fingers crossed)? Hated Man Who Left His Will on Film and Shinjuku Thief and cautiously appreciated Death by Hanging, but I’ll prob still pick this up because Oshima is nevertheless a rewarding director on the whole, especially in the period coveted by this (huge!) box

I think the goal was always to go for the ATG period titles which Criterion has been sitting on, I'm not sure the Eclipse titles have been newly restored yet. we know Criterion has had the ATG titles on streaming for eons (my notes show I watched Boy and Diary of a Shinjuku Thief 12 years ago on Hulu), I think it was moreso high time to get these going. The Catch and Dear Summer Sister are interesting surprises. anyway will be interesting to see what route big C goes with these - obviously they did Death by Hanging (and it's a good edition!) but will they actually try to do a credible box? trickle them out individually? dump them on an Eclipse after Radiance went all out here? gonna be amusing to see

I really didn't know just how big this set was gonna be, but truly wow. I am hot and cold on Oshima but this is as convincing as it gets

I think there’s a solid chance that Boy and The Ceremony will be released in 4K by Criterion, given the restorations are available. The rest not so much.

I'd be impressed if either of those got UHD releases before anything else, especially since they're fairly lesser known Japanese titles in this country and don't feature the usual ghosts/guns/swords that Criterion has stuck to so far with their 4K upgrades, up until the two recent Kon Ichikawa ones, which hopefully are a harbinger of what's coming next.

Criterion should focus on doing the early movies cause they're uh, also sitting on those. a good box of

A Town of Love and Hope
Cruel Story of Youth (plays on channel with 4K restoration)
The Sun's Burial
Night and Fog in Japan

would be worthwhile. but they gotta do something about the ATG films

Wow, they even snagged a Tadanori Yokoo interview

I’m so glad that there’s a supplement devoted to to Toru Takemitsu

Release of the year.

Thank you Fran.

I never in my wildest dreams imagined you guys would put out so many Oshima at once. This will be a rare day 1 preorder for me.

I haven’t seen The Catch yet but I love all of the rest. Death by Hanging is obviously a masterpiece but it has a Blu so isn’t worth mentioning right now. Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Ali Baba!!!) is definitely out there and experimental but I loved it, definitely my bag. Honestly I can’t remember much of Man Who Left His Will on film, I think it probably requires a few viewings… Dear Summer Sister is very loose and improvised, rough, light and sunny and darkly comical, such a strange group of characters in a sunny seaside landscape.

The Ceremony is a bit stuffy and formal, very different to Oshima’s early films, but shows him moving into a more literary direction. Yunbogi is short and powerful (and already available as part of the Death by Hanging Blu), Oshima often tangentially touches upon Japanese-Korean relations so it’s interesting to see him tackle Korean issues head on here. Boy is pretty restrained for Oshima, focusing on one impoverished family in this snowy and bleak drama. 100 Years I haven’t seen yet, but I’m very glad I no longer need to double dip by getting the BFI An Actor’s Revenge Blu to get this film on disc!

Anyway, fantastic announcement.

Hopefully it won’t be too long until someone puts out Japanese Summer Double Suicide on Blu! And the Youth Quadrilogy.

I concur that this is likely the best set that we’ll get this year.

I’ve only seen The Catch on a barely a watchable VCD thing. Still really captivated me. Kenzaburo Oe’s story has been anthologized in English language books

Oshima's entry into the BFI's "Century of Cinema" series of films "100 Years of Japanese Cinema" is a great inclusion, and as with Scorsese's entry into the series is one of the few entries (along with George Miller's one on Australian cinema and Sam Neill's New Zealand one) that works satisfyingly simultaneously as both a 'personal journey' structured around Oshima's films and as a great introduction to the wider breadth of Japanese cinema in general, taking things up to the then current works by Takeshi Kitano (with Sonatine); Yoichi Sai's early film All Under The Moon; and notes Masayuki Suo, who was just about to score his international hit with Shall We Dance? the year after. So many films are mentioned in passing using stills and clips that it provides more than enough titles to fill out a wishlist - I particularly remember it introducing me to the existence of films like Twenty-Four Eyes, Typhoon Club or Koji Wakamatsu's Violated Angels decades before I was able to see the films themselves.

I'm really excited for that doc cause I love the "general overview" kind of docs for the reasons you name, I learn all about movies that I should probably end up seeing. it can come in the form of Czechmate or recent extras by the likes of MichaelB and Tom Mes. I'm game for all of it and I think it's a cool inclusion

Pleased to see this set includes Boy, which is one of Oshima's most moving and least acidic content wise. A genuinely sincere and deeply moving film that somehow, someway even more culturally relevant now than it was when Oshima took the plot from the papers!

Great looking release, though I am disappointed that they are locking Dear Summer Sister and The Catch as an exclusive to this set. It's also interesting that they are reusing the Hubert Niogret doc again since it was also on 'The Sting of Death' release.

yoloswegmaster wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 12:28 pm It's also interesting that they are reusing the Hubert Niogret doc again since it was also on 'The Sting of Death' release.

It’s another part not a repeat. This focuses on the new wave whereas the other part focuses on the 90s.

When they do a box set of this size, it would be good if they released one of the films as a standalone limited edition to give a little taster to those who are unsure about spending the big bucks. Since I'm not a hardcore fan of Japanese cinema and I'm not familiar with this director, there is no way I'm going to blind buy this set, but I would buy a single disc "preview" and it could win me over to purchase the whole box.

Criterion released Death by Hanging on Blu, which is also included here

And Criterion Channel has 18 Nagisa Oshima films, including Death by Hanging (1968), Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969), Boy (1969), The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970), The Ceremony (1971). That's 5 out of 7 features in this set. CC also has Diary of Yunbogi (1965), a short film included in this set as a supplement.

Orbit confirmed this set will be region free

Given the strictness of Japanese studios, I am really curious to how Radiance managed to to that.

I've always felt Oshima deserves a box despite finding his films to be all over the map. Of those I've seen so far my favorites include Cruel Story Of Youth, Death By Hanging, The Ceremony & Taboo, while the only two I had a strong negative reaction to were Three Resurrected Drunkards and Sing A Song Of Sex. It's nice to see this box combine some of his best with ones I haven't seen. I doubt I will upgrade my eclipse set as it contains what I think are some of his weakest and none of his strongest. Seems like I've been waiting forever for an upgrade of Gohatto/Taboo as the New Yorker DVD is letterboxed, maybe we'll get UHD of his latter work? (Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, In The Realm Of The Senses, Empire Of Passion along with Taboo?).

dwk wrote: Sun Aug 10, 2025 11:21 pm Given the strictness of Japanese studios, I am really curious to how Radiance managed to to that.

It's probably best to be grateful & not ask.

sabbath wrote: Sun Aug 10, 2025 3:03 pm And Criterion Channel has 18 Nagisa Oshima films, including Death by Hanging (1968), Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969), Boy (1969), The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970), The Ceremony (1971). That's 5 out of 7 features in this set. CC also has Diary of Yunbogi (1965), a short film included in this set as a supplement.

The Criterion Channel is not available to me, but I may take a look at that Death by Hanging Blu.

dwk wrote: Sun Aug 10, 2025 11:21 pm Given the strictness of Japanese studios, I am really curious to how Radiance managed to to that.

I'm certain that most, if not all, of the films in the set are being licensed from Oshima Productions and not the big studios, so they probably don't care about region locking.

BoltzmannBrain wrote: Mon Aug 11, 2025 12:36 am

sabbath wrote: Sun Aug 10, 2025 3:03 pm And Criterion Channel has 18 Nagisa Oshima films, including Death by Hanging (1968), Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969), Boy (1969), The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970), The Ceremony (1971). That's 5 out of 7 features in this set. CC also has Diary of Yunbogi (1965), a short film included in this set as a supplement.

The Criterion Channel is not available to me, but I may take a look at that Death by Hanging Blu.

as noted up thread, I have a tricky relationship with Oshima (though I do really like Empire of Passion, eye scene aside, and love Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), but I do really suggest Death by Hanging. it really does serve as a great taste test/kick off for this period of Oshima's career, so I do hope you dig. I've thought about it a lot more since watching it for the first time for our 1968 project. that disc also has an (as usual) excellent interview with Tony Rayns, who has always been invaluable when it comes to my understanding and appreciation of Oshima's work

this boxset being region free means anyone who's region A locked and remotely interested in these movies has no excuse really