12 / BD 54 The Naked Island

[Tommaso]

I'm not sure if this is anything at all to do with the 'left-leaning' comment earlier, but for the first half-hour of the film it seemed to me that the whole thing might easily have turned into a paean to communism

Indeed, and what comes to my mind now is Visconti's "La terra trema", another film in the series of 'hard-working, poor people on a lonely archaic island' (well, the coast of Sicily in this case), which quite definitely has an expressed communist stance. The beauty of its images and the slow-going narrative of it very likely influenced Shindo in my view (correct me if I'm wrong, but "La terra trema" was a very highly lauded film at the time). But it never falls into what I perceive to be the trap of Shindo's aestheticism, and has precisely that harshness (and gentleness) I miss in "The Naked island".

[Fan-of-Kurosawa]

I finally saw this magnificent film a few days ago. I liked it a lot. Yes, it is obviously very political but in a way I find this "refreshing" at an age where the average Hollywood film is apolitical and dumb.

And I also liked very much the disc. Bravo, MoC.
I have all 3 of their Shindo releases and they are all wonderful.

But the best part is that my disc has the easter egg which is very surprising considering the fact that I bought the disc from Amazon UK about a month ago. =D>

[swo17]

Our first release of June: a Blu-ray upgrade of Kaneto (ONIBABA) Shindô's gorgeous 1960 film THE NAKED ISLAND.

[Jobla]

I guess I'm bumping this thread. There is an upcoming Blu-ray release of THE NAKED ISLAND which has a street date of June 18th in the UK. I'm definitely ordering a copy, since I haven't seen the film since I showed it for a college film program back in 1974. The score has always been a favorite of mine, and I wish that it was available on CD.

[How rude!]

I guess I'm bumping this thread. There is an upcoming Blu-ray release of THE NAKED ISLAND which has a street date of June 18th in the UK. I'm definitely ordering a copy, since I haven't seen the film since I showed it for a college film program back in 1974. The score has always been a favorite of mine, and I wish that it was available on CD.

I don't have the dvd handy, but I recall it had an easter egg comprising of part, if not all, of the soundtrack.

[manicsounds]

Not the entire soundtrack, but just 4 audio tracks from a French 7" record of the movie's soundtrack, complete with hisses and pops.

[Gregor Samsa]

Beaver

[Jobla]

Looks great, can't wait to receive this.

[Flanell]

Got my copy today and was a little surprised to find that the cover is plagued by what looks like some light grey "digital artifacts" (for lack of a better term), mostly on the right hand side of the cover. I first thought it was a cloud...anyone else who has gotten a botched one or is everybody else's just fine?

[neilist]

Got my copy today and was a little surprised to find that the cover is plagued by what looks like some light grey "digital artifacts" (for lack of a better term), mostly on the right hand side of the cover. I first thought it was a cloud...anyone else who has gotten a botched one or is everybody else's just fine?

I think it's part of the image, rather than 'botched'. Mine has it and they're present on the image from the MoC site.

[Jobla]

I agree. Wonderful to have the film on Blu-ray. I'm surprised that Criterion never released it in the US, as they have released the director's ONIBABA and KURENOKO (sp?).

[Flanell]

Got my copy today and was a little surprised to find that the cover is plagued by what looks like some light grey "digital artifacts" (for lack of a better term), mostly on the right hand side of the cover. I first thought it was a cloud...anyone else who has gotten a botched one or is everybody else's just fine?

I think it's part of the image, rather than 'botched'. Mine has it and they're present on the image from the MoC site.

Oh, i can see that now (if i tilt my laptop). Though the light grey area turned out far more "digital" on the actual copy than the original image. It looks a bit weird with all those small square shapes.

Anyway, of all the Shindo upgrades to blu, this is easily my favorite. What a movie it is.