shirobamba wrote:Would anyone who's seen the NY retro so far care to comment on which of the new 35 mm prints carry the Janus logo?
Definitely Pleasures of the Flesh and Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (both terrific films, if "minor" in comparison to some other '60s Oshimas). A shame they're probably both pretty far down the list for Eclipse-inclusion.
Didn't somebody post a complete list of the Janus Oshimas somewhere on the forum? I can't find it now.
acquarello wrote:FWIW, Sing a Song of Sex and Three Resurrected Drunkards had Janus logos and Dear Summer Sister had a New Yorker logo.
This has made my weekend. I don't really like Sing a Song of Sex, but I would buy a boxed set with it and a dozen Carry On films if it meant getting a Criterion or Eclipse of Three Resurrected Drunkards.
Unfortunately the retro's website doesn't give information on print sources, but I'm thinking perhaps all of the new prints are Janus titles -- that fits with what we know so far.
Unfortunately, because of the distance between the NYFF venues this year, I didn't get to go to as many Oshimas as I would have liked. I'm pretty sure The Man Who Left His Will on Film was a New Yorker logo though.
Almost all the ATG films are New Yorker, although they no longer have prints of many of them (like Boy) so that might be changing. Many of the pre-ATG films - including Cruel Story of Youth and all the ones mentioned above - are now controlled by Janus.
Is Death by Hanging available on DVD? I've seen it only as a torrent download, the quality was very good (better than numerous Yume oshima releases) and it had English subs. Can anyone help?
Also, what about other Oshima films - The Man Who Left His Will on Film, Boy, The Ceremony?
None of them are available with English subs to the best of my knowledge. And incidentally, I think we've seen the same version of "Death by Hanging". The quality was amazing for a bootleg, and the film clearly deserves an official release, like the others you mention. Eclipse, please.
Death by Hanging, and other films like Boy, The Ceremony, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, The Man Who Left his Will on film (and maybe others) were available for some time from a website called Japanese New Wave. Alas, the site has closed down, so I don't know if they are still available somewhere. The quality was indeed amazing for bootleg releases and all had English subs.
Since most of Oshima's movies are available in Japan without subtitles, it is not really a big wonder that the bootlegs look good. The guys just put subtitles on the Japanese disks. But it would be great, if this does not stay the only way these movies are available for people who do not speak Japanese. Hello, is there anybody out there hearing us?
SternDiet wrote:Death by Hanging, and other films like Boy, The Ceremony, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, The Man Who Left his Will on film (and maybe others) were available for some time from a website called Japanese New Wave. Alas, the site has closed down, so I don't know if they are still available somewhere. The quality was indeed amazing for bootleg releases and all had English subs.
call_me_ishmael wrote:can anyone comment on the service notavailableondvd.com provides? i am tempted to take the plunge on some oshima and imamura stuff.
I have done business with notavailableondvd.com, and they are excellent. Beyond excellent, actually. Great service, speedy delivery, and my order actually came with a free gift. Order as much as you can from these guys.
Now if only a few of the more obscure Oshima films had subtitles -- then I could have a complete collection.
Oshima Nagisa's 100 Years of Japanese Cinema is a fascinating whirlwind through Japanese cinematic history. A lot of clips and stills from many, many films. Oshima seems to follow a general rule of showing clips from only one film for any given director, along with sometimes stills from a second film if warranted (he makes a big exception for Oshima Nagisa). He really digs in when it comes to post-1960 and especially various attempts to get away from the studio system and challenge conventions. So it's not the most balanced of docs, but did toss up many names and titles I was unaware of.
Two late 60's political documentaries sounded very interesting. Paruchizan Zenshi aka Pre-History of a Partisan (1969) focuses on a leader of the student rebellion at Tokyo University.
While Nihon Kaiho Sensen: Sanrizuka no natsu aka Summer in Narita (1968) concerns the farmer protests against the new Tokyo airport. Both are unrated at IMDb, an almost certain sign of Dvd unavailability.
There was also a poignant photo of Sgt. Ozu visiting Pvt. Yamanaka somewhere on the mainland shortly before the latter was killed.
I found this doc -- part of bfi's Century of Cinema series -- as a bonus feature on the Carlotta A Street of Love and Hope(Une ville d'amour et d'espoir/Ai to kibo no machi) (Oshima, 1959).
The English subs on Street of Love & Hope are decent, but a little sparse, stilted and ungrammatical. It also has burnt in Chinese subs, and only has narration by William White dubbing into English Oshima's original narration.
Tomb of the Sun and Night and Fog in Japan are also available here in Carlotta editions with English subtitles.
Let me know if anyone is having problems getting them with English.
But for whatever reason, Etsuraku aka Pleasures of the Flesh (1965) only has French and Chinese subs.
Is anyone else keeping track of which films in the touring Oshima retrospective have Janus logos at the beginning. In DC, their print of Cruel Story of Youth did not, but Japanese Summer did. Just Curious.
justeleblanc wrote:Is anyone else keeping track of which films in the touring Oshima retrospective have Janus logos at the beginning. In DC, their print of Cruel Story of Youth did not, but Japanese Summer did. Just Curious.
The PFA played three of his films in December as part of a series they were doing on Japanese cinema. The Ceremony and Boy did not have Janus logos, Violence at Noon did. I enjoyed Violence at Noon, but it was my least favorite of the three.
justeleblanc wrote:Is anyone else keeping track of which films in the touring Oshima retrospective have Janus logos at the beginning. In DC, their print of Cruel Story of Youth did not, but Japanese Summer did. Just Curious.
None of the ones they showed at the National Gallery or the Freer had Janus logos as far as I can recall. In fact, several of the prints came from New Yorker. (I wonder if they have to give those back.) Anyway, I haven't seen anything at the AFI yet, which is obviously where you saw Japanese Summer. If I see any Janus logos there in the coming weeks, I'll post.
Does the absence of a Janus logo mean anything in particular as far as home video rights? The Freer is showing Empire of Passion on Friday night, so I'll see what distributor logo it carries; obviously, if it doesn't have a Janus logo that doesn't mean Criterion isn't going to release it.*
The Empire of Passion (Ai No Borei)
In the Realm of the Senses (Ai No Corrida)
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (Muri-Shinju: Nihon No Natsu)
Violence at Noon (Hakuchu No Torima)
Pleasures of the Flesh (Etsuraku)
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Senjo no merii kurisumasu)
Well depending on how they finally split up the New Yorker catalogue, Janus could very well end up with all the Oshima's. It's certainly not out of the question.
