103 / BD 13 The Burmese Harp

[denti alligator]

Beautiful. I can't wait. I actually held off on the Criterion, then forgot about it. Now I'm glad I did.

[What A Disgrace]

Specs on the website.

• New, restored high-definition 1080p transfer officially licenced from Nikkatsu
• Newly translated optional English subtitles
• Exclusive video interview with scholar and filmmaker Tony Rayns
• Original Japanese theatrical trailer
• 40-page booklet with an essay by Keiko I. McDonald and rare archival stills

Eh, I'll bite.

[manicsounds]

It's great that MoC is releasing all these Ichikawa films, but I'd kill for an "Inugami Clan" (1976/2006) double feature special edition to be released.....

I've asked Criterion, and the obvious no answer.... Moc???

[ccfixx]

To: Kevin @ Eureka; Nick @ MOC... and, anyone else that has acquired "The Burmese Harp" blu-ray...

So, I received my copy of "The Burmese Harp" yesterday and immediately watched it. Another excellent job from MOC & Eureka!

Here's my question, though... in the booklet, I'm wondering if there is some text missing in the article from page 23 to page 25 (page 24 is a production still)?

The last sentence on page 23 ends mid-sentence with the first sentence on page 25 starts mid-sentence. All seems well except it just doesn't seem to me that those two sentences are part of the same cohesive thought. Am I right or wrong? I don't know. So, I'm hoping that someone could look into it. Thanks.

CC

[John Edmond]

Beaver

[manicsounds]

I dunno... why do so many Japanese film masters look so gray? It's like "Black" doesn't exist...

[Finch]

I've been wondering about that, too. Still, the MoC Blu looks very good as was to be expected from them.

[evillights]

To: Kevin @ Eureka; Nick @ MOC... and, anyone else that has acquired "The Burmese Harp" blu-ray...
Here's my question, though... in the booklet, I'm wondering if there is some text missing in the article from page 23 to page 25 (page 24 is a production still)?

The last sentence on page 23 ends mid-sentence with the first sentence on page 25 starts mid-sentence. All seems well except it just doesn't seem to me that those two sentences are part of the same cohesive thought. Am I right or wrong? I don't know. So, I'm hoping that someone could look into it. Thanks.

It's painful to say, but (without going into the technical/InDesign and workflow ins-and-outs) this was indeed a slip-up on our part.

We've posted the entirety of Keiko I. McDonald's essay online on the Burmese Harp page at the MoC website — it contains the small portion of text that went missing in the booklet. You can read it here.

Please accept our embarrassed apologies!

[ccfixx]

Okay, thanks for the clarification. I knew something didn't read correctly, so I'm glad you've confirmed it.

CC

[RobertB]

Watched it yesterday. It's my first Kon Ichikawa film. I've been holding off, wanting to start with this one. Excellent pacifist film! I liked it a lot. Didn't feel very japanese to me. Singing soldiers in the jungle, and all that. More brittish perhaps. Had David Lean seen this when he did River Kwai? Might be interesting watching them one after the other. What is the next Ichikawa I should watch? Something different from this, to give me another perspective on his film-making.

The blu-ray itself I have mixed feelings about. I haven't seen the Tony Rayns interview yet, will probably watch it tonight. But the film itself has great detail as it should. A few scratches but not too many. It has some burned-in japanese sub-titles on the side of the picture. I have never seen that before. They are so few that they don't annoy me. I even liked them. But the greyness mentioned above spoils it a bit for me. I'm usually against Criterions habit of enchancing black, but this would have needed it. As it is now the picture feels rather flat. Is this really how it would have looked in the cinema?

[bigP]

What is the next Ichikawa I should watch? Something different from this, to give me another perspective on his film-making.

You really can't go wrong with An Actor's Revenge if you want to catch another side of the many styles and themes Ichikawa put his hand to. It's a very theatrical film, and along with Tokyo Olympiad, the most stylistically New Wave of Ichikawa's work that I have seen, feeling closer to the stage-like work of Suzuki, Masumura and Nakagawa.

I'm very much an Ichikawa newbie, having only a handful of his films on my watched list, but An Actor's Revenge and The Burmese Harp are superb films and great starting points in his large oevre [my first of Ichikawa's was An Actor's Revenge, my second The Burmese Harp and I adored the accute change in style between these films].

[Michael Kerpan]

So little Ichikawa is currently available on DVD -- most of his best films are nowhere to be seen.

Actor's Revenge and Fires on the Plain are probably the other best works one can find. Alone on the Pacific is also worth seeing.

His great black comedies (including but not limited to Ten Dark Women and Crowded Streetcar) are still missing in action (except for possibly o/p unsubbed Japanese DVDs).

[manicsounds]

The Inugamis, both the original 1976 and the remake from 2006.
I really wish Criterion or MoC or someone would release these in better editions outside of Japan....

[Opdef]

It's painful to say, but (without going into the technical/InDesign and workflow ins-and-outs) this was indeed a slip-up on our part.

We've posted the entirety of Keiko I. McDonald's essay online on the Burmese Harp page at the MoC website — it contains the small portion of text that went missing in the booklet. You can read it here.

So... when this is rereleased on Dual Format, will the booklet 'slip-up' be rectified?

[peerpee]

Oh yes. Thanks for the reminder.

[Calvin]

Would it be possible to get replacement booklets? I realise it's a bit OCD of me so I would be willing to pay if necessary.

[peerpee]

Depends how strong your OCD is - the catalogue number on the new booklet will be different.

I'm sure if you send Kevin your old booklet with a note, he'd be happy to send you a new one when they're ready.

[Gregor Samsa]

Watched this the other night and thought it was quite good--hardly the first to say this, but I particularly liked the use of music and the impressionistic way its set on the margins of the war. There was one thing I was wondering after listening to the Tony Rayns piece on there, however. Has anyone here read the original novel? The

Spoiler

cannibals

section Rayn mentions sounds so absurdly differently in tone to the rest of the story that I wonder if it sticks out like that in the novel too, or if the tone between the novel and the film are just very different.