Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years

[knives]

If I had the money, space, and time.

[Lowry_Sam]

Perhaps they meant The Taisho Trilogy, which is gone from their website, but still available from other retailers.

[Ribs]

As expected, Arrow’s confirmed on Twitter they mixed up some numbers and this set is currently only 35% sold out.

[tenia]

Considering how slowly most Academy titles are selling, it would have been indeed quite a surprising selling speed for once !

[Ribs]

This was also delayed to Jan. 29, though the US version is currently ~$37 on Amazon!

[Ribs]

Delayed to February 12

[DeprongMori]

My understanding is that the release of Volume 1 has been delayed because of a recent BBFC demand for a compulsory cut of 28 seconds of a scene of cockfighting in Born Under Crossed Stars. I have an inquiry in to them about whether the US release will be similarly cut.

[xxnomad]

I just saw these in person (they got them in Friday) at the Vinegar Syndromes brick and mortar shop The Archive, so maybe it’s just a UK thing.

[senseabove]

And just in case anyone missed it, Volume 2 is coming in April:
https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/s ... at/FCD1731" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'BOUNDARY-BREAKING EARLY CRIME THRILLERS, MOB DRAMAS AND ACTION MOVIES FROM LEGENDARY CULT DIRECTOR SEIJUN SUZUKI

Includes: Eight Hours of Terror (1957), The Sleeping Beast Within (1960), Smashing the 0-Line (1960), Tokyo Knights (1961), The Man with a Shotgun (1961).

Available for home-viewing for the very first time ever outside of Japan, this collection of bleak crime thrillers, brash mob dramas and exuberant action movies, made across the first five years of Seijun Suzuki’s career within Nikkatsu’s Borderless Action (mukokuseki akushon) line, presents a heady mix that laid the ground for what was to come.

The Sleeping Beast Within (1960) is a gripping crime thriller that sees a newspaper reporter’s search for his girlfriend’s missing father lead him into heart of the criminal underworld of Yokohama’s Chinatown. Its companion piece, Smashing the 0-Line (1960), follows two reporters’ descent into a scabrous demimonde of drug and human trafficking. In Eight Hours of Terror (1957), a bus making its precarious way across a winding mountain road picks up some unwelcome passengers. In Tokyo Knights (1961), a college student takes over the family business in the field of organised crime, while The Man with A Shotgun (1961) marks Suzuki’s first entry into the territory of the “borderless” Japanese Western.'

[Ribs]

Ahead of this releasing in the next few weeks, the full specs of the first set have revealed one new bonus feature: a commentary for Born Under Crossed Stars by Jasper Sharp.

And the US set's order for the first set has been reduced down to 1500 as well. It's possible this is always what it was (1500 US, 1500 UK meaning LE of 3000) and they've just changed the way they've been telling us about it.

[DeprongMori]

My understanding is that the release of Volume 1 has been delayed because of a recent BBFC demand for a compulsory cut of 28 seconds of a scene of cockfighting in Born Under Crossed Stars. I have an inquiry in to them about whether the US release will be similarly cut.

I finally got a response back from Arrow Academy. They stated that the US copies of the set, unlike the UK copies, will include the uncut Born Under Crossed Stars.

[dwk]

That is good news. I wonder if the disc is going to be like the first release of the Conan the Barbarian Blu-ray (which had both the censored UK version and the uncut version and depending on which language was selected) and play the cut version if it is played on a region B machine and play the uncut version if played on a region A machine or has Arrow authored two separate discs?

[tenia]

That is good news. I wonder if the disc is going to be like the first release of the Conan the Barbarian Blu-ray (which had both the censored UK version and the uncut version and depending on which language was selected) and play the cut version if it is played on a region B machine and play the uncut version if played on a region A machine or has Arrow authored two separate discs?

It might make sense, financially speaking. If seamless branching this based on the player zone is feasible, it'll probably be cheaper than having to divide in 2 a single disc batch size and have to handle the different logistic afterwards.

[PianoMan88]

My understanding is that the release of Volume 1 has been delayed because of a recent BBFC demand for a compulsory cut of 28 seconds of a scene of cockfighting in Born Under Crossed Stars. I have an inquiry in to them about whether the US release will be similarly cut.

Do you think Arrow knows at this point how they will handle the difference between the two versions? Meaning, as the guys above speculated, perhaps use the same disc but depending on the Region of the Blu-ray player have the extra material coded into the disc for both US and UK.

Do you guys know if Arrow would be willing to let us know in advance how they will handle it? I have pre-ordered a copy via Amazon UK and if they are only releasing the cut version for the UK, I would happily change to the US version.

Thanks for the input by the way!

[tenia]

The UK release physically already exists, so Arrow definitely knows how they handled it.
My guess is that they seamless branched the 2 versions (cut and uncut) on the disc so that if your player is Region B, the cut version will play and if you're Region A, the uncut version will play instead.
It would seem the most financially sensible (since it avoids having to press 2 different discs, with the logistics that goes with it) but also technically allows for the UK disc to possess the uncut version for those who are region free / region A compatible.

[swo17]

Would that be in violation of the law?

[MichaelB]

Would that be in violation of the law?

Technically yes, since it would count as distribution. But making it unplayable in all unmodified British machines might constitute a legitimate defence.

[perkizitore]

[Ribs]

I’d imagine that the US discs went ahead and were sent to press on schedule with the full uncut versions as both region A and B, so don’t really see why Arrow would go to the trouble of making it seamlessly branch when they had to create a whole new master anyway

[tenia]

I’d imagine that the US discs went ahead and were sent to press on schedule with the full uncut versions as both region A and B, so don’t really see why Arrow would go to the trouble of making it seamlessly branch when they had to create a whole new master anyway

It would probably be cheaper and easier to handle to have 1 disc seamless branched than having to handle having different discs.

[Ribs]

But if the first disc was done and could be sent to the printers in the US, surely there's no sense in holding off, and therefore there's be no reason at all to want to do seamless branching when none of the discs are theoretically going to end up in the US? I assume the US discs are physically printed elsewhere, which might be wrong. I just think it'd be better off to assume it won't work out in the best possible way, as it's really not worth it for Arrow to get into trouble over. I already ordered the UK version and won't be canceling it, and would of course prefer it to stay the uncut version, but don't think it seems very likely.

Hope this doesn't mess up the commentary any, too.

[TMDaines]

Would that be in violation of the law?

Technically yes, since it would count as distribution. But making it unplayable in all unmodified British machines might constitute a legitimate defence.

I don't think it would somehow. Illegal content is illegal content.

[MichaelB]

I don't think it would somehow. Illegal content is illegal content.

It's the kind of thing that would need to be tested in court, because I'm not convinced it's as open and shut as that. After all, the law doesn't criminalise possession except in cases of "extreme pornography" and anything infringing the 1978 Protection of Children Act, which clearly doesn't apply here, so a clever lawyer might well be able to argue that Arrow has taken all necessary reasonable steps to ensure that the disc is unplayable in Britain and that it's not their fault if unscrupulous customers find a way round this.

Although I think it's overwhelmingly likely that Arrow did indeed author a separate disc for the UK.

[senseabove]

It's been confirmed by a poster on the blu-ray.com forums that the screen goes black during a certain scene when played on a region B player, but plays normally on a region A player: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... ount=39842" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Drucker]

***SEIJUN SUZUKI: THE EARLY YEARS. VOL. 1 UK STOCK UPDATE***

Our UK edition of SEIJUN SUZUKI: THE EARLY YEARS. VOL. 1 has now sold out via the Arrow Store! If you haven't yet, you can pre-order the UK edition via Amazon.co.uk here: http://amzn.to/2nQdfFD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;