The Buddhist Trilogy

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

What are other worth ATG films? (aside from Imamura and Funeral Parade)

ATG filmography

My favorites, aside from the four Jissojis, the Oshimas, Mastumotos, and Terayamas, are Hani's Inferno of First Love (68), Shinoda's bizarre (Jissoji-esque?) Himiko (74), and, one of the last ATG films, Morita's Family Game (83). I've seen 34 of the 71 titles listed there, and every one of them was at least "of interest".

Himiko is excellent. I saw it when Criterion was still on Hulu so god knows when that will see a release.

[kindaikun]

I've seen Poem listed under two different running times- 119 min and 136 min. Does anyone know anything about this?

According to amazon.co.jp, this (the Japanese ATG 4 blu-ray set) is the first time the longer cut (what it refers to as 137 mins.) has been released so it's certainly not the most common version in Japan. Apparently Jissoji was forced to bring the film in at 2hrs (hence the theatrical version which it lists as 120mins.) but that his preferred cut was the longer version. The longer version included on that blu-ray (which I don't own to check) is described as a special feature following the 'miraculous discovery' of 'material that was digitised for preservation'. Since it doesn't mention restoration or anything being done to this material I assume it isn't of particularly high quality and isn't a replacement for the 'main feature', the shorter, theatrical version - it may even be in SD (hopefully someone who owns these discs could check and confirm at some point).

It also describes the cuts as being, rather than one or two large scenes being removed, many small cuts made for economic reasons (presumably so the film could be shown more times a day).

So obviously it would be best if this version could be included too, however it may not be as simple as both versions having been included in similar quality on the Japanese blu-rays. They do, however, include Asaki yumemishi [Faint Dreams], and that film's exclusion here is certainly unfortunate.

[dda1996a]

Is that set English friendly?

[L.A.]

Yes, it was definitely made in 1988.

The film was available through ADV Films on DVD in the US but that was a number of years ago and that company has since folded. I'm not sure if anyone has picked the film up for Western distribution since, but it apparently got a Blu-ray edition in Japan a couple of years ago. I remember Manga Video put the film out in the UK on VHS back in the 1990s, but I am not sure if they ever revisited it for the DVD era, let alone Blu-ray.

I have not yet had the opportunity to see the live action version but a couple of years after Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis was made in 1988 the same source material was also adapted into a 4 part OVA anime called Doomed Megalopolis which is certainly quite an experience (I suspect that it is also one of the reasons that the live action film did not receive too much attention in the UK, as the anime adaptation got much more traction here and sort of overwhelmed it. Channel 4 even broadcast Doomed Megalopolis in 1995! I remember it being quite the talking point amongst my friends in the school cafeteria for days after each episode aired!). The anime at least plays like a slightly tamer (though these things are relative) version of a story in a similar vein to the notorious Urotsukidoji series (though the heroine giving birth to a giant maggot through her mouth seems more primarily inspired by Poltergeist II!), and quite a lot of the action is based around the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, layering an occult, apocalyptic context on top of a historical natural disaster.

Apparently (at least according to Wikipedia) both Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis and Doomed Megalopolis are only adapting the first four parts of a twelve volume novel, so they both end rather inconclusively, though it seems that the live action film got a sequel the following year that adapted the eleventh book of the series, which at least provided a little bit of closure.

Very helpful information. Thanks for this.

[swo17]

Is that set English friendly?

No

[yoshimori]

Don't know how the Japanese blu-ray of the 137 minute version of Poem is presented, but I have a DVD dupe of the long version. It looks like a transfer from a perfectly nice print (some speckling, some visible defects at cuts). I suspect that the long version on blu-ray is a transfer of this (pretty good, but probably inferior) print and not a composite of the (hopefully pristine) transfer of the 120 version and the "extra bits" from the longer print.

[kindaikun]

Don't know how the Japanese blu-ray of the 137 minute version of Poem is presented, but I have a DVD dupe of the long version. It looks like a transfer from a perfectly nice print (some speckling, some visible defects at cuts). I suspect that the long version on blu-ray is a transfer of this (pretty good, but probably inferior) print and not a composite of the (hopefully pristine) transfer of the 120 version and the "extra bits" from the longer print.

That's certainly the impression I got from the Japanese. Presumably the number of tiny cuts would make creating a composite cut very difficult.

Interestingly, it describes the long version as having been digitised for his archives during his lifetime (he apparently kept everything and it was discovered amongst his materials), and since he died in 2006, that would imply a pre-2006 quality digitisation and not necessarily a brilliant quality copy (possibly a DVD). Due to the large amount of materials he left, it's not impossible that a physical print of this version may appear at some point in the future, but this doesn't appear to be what is available now.

Frustratingly, it seems almost impossible to find Japanese reviews of the blu-ray (or pretty much any blu-ray) with accurate screenshots, apparently for copyright reasons, making it hard to determine the quality on disc.

[andyli]

I can offer some info re: the Japanese disc. The longer version is indeed from an HD transfer and is different in PQ from the main version. The disc is a BD-50 because of having these two versions in HD (each taking up about 20 GB of space).

[dda1996a]

Also why are these Japanese Blu ray sets so damn expensive? 140 dollars for 3/4 films is a lot

[kindaikun]

I can offer some info re: the Japanese disc. The longer version is indeed from an HD transfer and is different in PQ from the main version. The disc is a BD-50 because of having these two versions in HD (each taking up about 20 GB of space).

Thanks for the info, that's good to know. Hopefully Arrow will update the extra to include this version too before release, since it's the director's preferred version. If it's not included, I'll consider importing the Japanese version too, for that and the extra film.

[McCrutchy]

After reading this thread, I am now very excited for this release.

Arrow have really been on a roll with Japanese cinema lately--I love it!

[zedz]

For the benefit of anybody who didn't know what they had to look forward to:

[What A Disgrace]

Both Amazon UK and Arrow are listing this as being delayed until August 27. This is definitely an Arrow Academy boxed set, through and through.

[dwk]

Anyone hear anything about what is going on with this release? It no longer appears on Arrow's site and no longer appears on MVD's site.

[longstone]

the following update was just emailed to me ,

Arrow pride itself in the quality of every release that we work on. Within the Akio Jissoji – The Buddhist Trilogy (FCD1757) we’ve set about tracing the very best materials available. Unfortunately tracking these down has proven more difficult than we initially thought, which has had a knock-on effect on our production schedule. While we recognise that this will cause disappointment, during the production process we have managed to secure the rights to another film that we will be adding to the collection. This is Jissoji’s 1974 feature It Was a Faint Dream, which will expand and improve the set. The release date has now been pushed back to 31st December 2018.

[tenia]

They posted it on FB a few minutes ago.
It's very good they managed to add another movie to the set, the delay will be of good use, but I'm surprised they're announcing a 4-months delay less than a week before the release date. I suppose they're not even at the check disc stage yet, and if you're not there a week before release, that's not a very good sign, and the usual reviewers were already expecting a significant delay since a couple of weeks.

[Ribs]

I don’t think it’s particularly uncommon for the Academy line, though - for whatever reason, Arrow’s approach tends to be waiting until you’re as close to release as possible before announcing a delay, instead of the several weeks ago this was probably determined. And surely no one can be upset at this news.

[zeroism]

I'm not sure what kind of trouble they could've had with materials given how gorgeous the films look on the Japanese set, but the addition of Asaki yumemishi / It Was a Faint Dream tops just about any other stated reason for the delay of a home video release I can remember. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'll be eternally grateful to Arrow for going the extra mile.

Of course, if this is on the table, I can't help but wonder if adding the longer, Jissoji-preferred cut of Poem is also a possibility. That would make the set complete (reproducing everything in the Japanese release) and truly definitive.

[tenia]

I don’t think it’s particularly uncommon for the Academy line, though - for whatever reason, Arrow’s approach tends to be waiting until you’re as close to release as possible before announcing a delay, instead of the several weeks ago this was probably determined. And surely no one can be upset at this news.

There are good reasons for this delay, I'm not arguing this, but I would advice not waiting so long to inform about so important delays. We've entered the point where you usually can get early copies, but instead one got a 4-months delay. A few weeks are fine to learn late, but 4 months are a lot, that's more than a full announcement circle. Especially if they knew before, I don't see what they have to gain from waiting so late to tell people, while I certainly can picture people thinking "wow, that's a huge delay to learn just before the release date ! how come you're only letting us know now !" (especially for those who've ordered on websites that charge at the order and not at dispatch).

Again, I understand the reasons for the delay, but here, logistically speaking and marketing-wise, it looks like a very late communication. But hey, it's no big deal as a whole and this is not a rant, I'm more curious about the last-minute announcement than anything.

[Adam X]

If I were to guess, I'd imagine this announcement came so close to the previous release date, so they could get all their ducks in a row and confirm a new date (however far out), rather than potentially announcing multiple short delays over the same period.

[swo17]

Presumably this will affect the price so I wonder if Target will still honor my preorder

[Ribs]

But 12/31 is also almost definitely a temp date.

[tenia]

I suppose so too, but also suspect it shouldn't be too far off the expected updated release date.

[What A Disgrace]

This is the ideal reason to delay a release.

[Cronenfly]

I look forward to seeing what new name they give the set (at least one assumes they will not leave it as a trilogy anymore).