BFI: 32 Ozu Films

[Cash Flagg]

The Three Films by Ozu set has been 3rd-party only at Amazon since (or right after) release - does anyone know the story?

[fdm]

If it's their UK website, and you are not in the UK, that seems to be the way they often do things these days.

[TMDaines]

The Three Films by Ozu set has been 3rd-party only at Amazon since (or right after) release - does anyone know the story?

Annoying we in the UK cannot order virtually any Blu-ray releases from Amazon UK to UK addresses, and that has started happening for Amazon DE too.

[filmyfan]

Two more Ozu being released in April

I Was Born, But... / There was a Father

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/two-films-by-ya ... u-ray.html

[ryannichols7]

and Adrian Martin is doing tracks for both films, truly excellent. so with this release, the Japanese box of the five films they put out last year is unnecessary for the English-friendly buyer. I don't see the BFI re-releasing titles like Early Summer or Late Spring that they already released on BD (albeit with older transfers), but I do really hope Ozu has been successful enough for them to release Early Spring and Tokyo Twilight, neither of which they ever put on BD initially. granted, there are English-friendly releases from Shochiku, but both films can use some extras and insight

I have been surprised to not see David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson not called in for any of these releases. and obviously the wish is that the BFI could release the Toho (The Munekata Sisters, The End of Summer) and Kadokawa (Floating Weeds) titles, all of which have new 4K restorations, but no English subs to be found. but that's a tall order I'm sure

[TMDaines]

If one was finally to get round to buying and watching some Ozu, are we best just buying the recent, 2020 and later releases of the two individual films, the 3-film, and the 2-film sets, then waiting for the older titles to be reissued?

[Maltic]

I have been surprised to not see David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson not called in for any of these releases.

Bordwell has been battling cancer, I believe.

The other grand old emeritus would be David Desser, but there's plenty of capable people around these days, surely. And so far, I'm not complaining, with the Martin commentaries.

[andyli]

the wish is that the BFI could release the Toho (The Munekata Sisters, The End of Summer) and Kadokawa (Floating Weeds) titles, all of which have new 4K restorations, but no English subs to be found. but that's a tall order I'm sure

With BFI getting Toho's Floating Clouds and Carlotta releasing Kurosawa UHDs, I don't think Toho's new restorations are that out of reach for Western labels anymore. Kadokawa's known to be more cooperating. For example, BFI has dealt with them before for the Ichikawa and Arrow the Masumura's.

[Blip Martindale]

Two more Ozu being released in April

I Was Born, But... / There was a Father

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/two-films-by-ya ... u-ray.html

I'm unclear if this version of I Was Born, But... is a new restoration, or new scan, or in any substantial way different than the version on Criterion's Good Morning disc?

[Matt]

The disc info does say “two newly remastered films” as well as “newly restored” but no details beyond that. It seems like they’re only putting out new restorations with the Ozus, which explains the rather haphazard and frustrating “3 by” and “2 more by” selections.

[tenia]

Well, they could have directly gone with "5 by"...
Anyway, There Was A Father is a recent 4K restoration by Shochiku and is a longer version than the previous HD restoration thanks to censored propagandist scenes having been retrieved on a Russian print, while I was born but should also be the most recent 4k restoration.

[Blip Martindale]

Thanks Matt & Tenia.

It's kind of amazing how imprecise most labels can be when writing the ad copy for these discs. It's not like they're selling them to unsuspecting rubes, they must know (or do they?) their audience is partially if not largely tech-savvy, or at least interested enough to note such facts and do some investigation. And they must be aware that at least a small percentage of buyers are region-free, and are judging their discs against existing product from other labels. Half the time it actually seems like the labels are obfuscating whatever info they have.

Still, it's OZU, so I'll buy the dumb thing regardless. Maybe that's what they count on? Suckers like me.

[tenia]

I actually doubt the majority of buyers are tech-savvy. I mean, even on dedicated boards, most people aren't (or only know very superficial things).

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

TWO FILMS BY YASUJIRÕ OZU
I Was Born, But…
There Was a Father

Released on BFI Blu-ray on 15 April 2024

From his early silent films to his final features in the 1960s, Yasujirố Ozu perfected a style that stripped away unnecessary plot mechanics and camera movement. In doing so, he produced a cinema whose surface simplicity belies character studies of depth, warmth and on occasion, humour. This latest release of his work from the BFI features two newly restored films, presented on Blu-ray, I Was Born, But… and a longer, previously unreleased version of There Was a Father.

I WAS BORN, BUT… (1932, 91 mins)
As brothers Ryoichi and Keiji struggle to outwit the local bully and scale the pecking order in their new neighbourhood, they find out that injustice does not end with school. Ozu’s silent masterpiece prefigures themes from his later, colour classic Good Morning, but with a darker edge.

THERE WAS A FATHER (1942, 93 mins)
Shuhei Horikawa sacrifices his teaching career after an unfortunate accident but refuses to sacrifice the education of his only son.

Special features
• Newly restored and presented in High Definition
• Newly recorded audio commentaries on both films by writer and film critic Adrian Martin
•  ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet with essays by Bryony Dixon and Tony Rayns, and by Ed Hughes who composed a new score for I Was Born, But… ; credits

Product details
RRP: £24.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1504 / U
Japan / 1932, 1942 / black and white / 91 + 93 minutes / Japanese with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.33:1, 1.37:1 // BD50: 1080p, 23.98fps, 2.0 stereo, LPCM 1.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)

[manicsounds]

Rewind DVDCompare review of Two Films by Ozu

[Stefan Andersson]

Rewind DVDCompare review of Two Films by Ozu

Thank you very much for this!

An excellent read, with a description of the restored scenes in There Was a Father.

[Roscoe]

The new 4K restoration of I WAS BORN BUT... was screened at the San Francisco Silent Film last weekend. It is gorgeous, crystal clear, and it was curious that it was completely un-announced by the Festival as being a 4K restoration.

[Orlac]

Does anyone have a list of all the films in last year's Ozu retrospective?

[manicsounds]

The trailer for the retrospective lists them all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6z54RvJuRQ

[What A Disgrace]

Has Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family been properly restored? I understand that the Blu-ray of Tokyo Story includes a version that is upscaled from standard definition, but that came out nearly 4 years ago.

[RobertB]

I just watched I Was Born, But... from the "Two Films By" set. Visually a big upgrade from what is on Criterion's Good Morning disc. But I have issues with the scores BFI are using for the silents. These by Ed Hughes will have it's fans I'm sure. But he does treat "I Was Born, But..." as a drama, not a comedy. I prefer the piano score that Criterion used. It works better with the film. Is there any place where I can buy and download an alternate score? I can't rip Blu Ray discs, otherwise I would use the Criterion one for sound. Thankfully the commentary by Adrian Martin is excellent. I instantly rewatched half the film with his commentary. I would much rather watch the film with his comments than with the music. Also if someone can direct me to another score for Dragnet Girl I would be grateful.

[Michael Kerpan]

I initially watched these Ozu non-talkie films with NO accompaniment. In a lot of ways that is the way I still prefer to watch them.

[ryannichols7]

I just watched I Was Born, But... from the "Two Films By" set. Visually a big upgrade from what is on Criterion's Good Morning disc. But I have issues with the scores BFI are using for the silents. These by Ed Hughes will have it's fans I'm sure. But he does treat "I Was Born, But..." as a drama, not a comedy. I prefer the piano score that Criterion used. It works better with the film. Is there any place where I can buy and download an alternate score? I can't rip Blu Ray discs, otherwise I would use the Criterion one for sound. Thankfully the commentary by Adrian Martin is excellent. I instantly rewatched half the film with his commentary. I would much rather watch the film with his comments than with the music. Also if someone can direct me to another score for Dragnet Girl I would be grateful.

watching it now and I immediately came to this thread. the picture quality has really blown me away, I was stunned by just how good I Was Born, But... could look. but this score is very frustrating, it's very pretty and beautiful but really does miss out on how obviously comedic this movie is! a real shame. can't wait for the commentary track, I always love Martin and can't wait to hear him talk about my favorite director

[senseabove]

Do we have an up-to-date "best available discs/versions" list for the extant Ozu filmography anywhere? At this point, I've lost track of which restorations have been released by whom, and I know there are extra factors like audio filtering as well.

[MichaelB]

Given how obscure that film is—it's not as though the title itself is going to draw a lot of customers, as opposed to Ozu's name— you'd think they'd just use a more accurate title for new releases, sort of like how The Bicycle Thief became Bicycle Thieves at some point.

Indicator has just done this with Jean Rollin's Girls Without Shame, a film that's far better known in the English-speaking world as Schoolgirl Hitchhikers.

But when going through all the archival materials, we found a set of English-language credits under the title Girls Without Shame, so it seems clear that that was the originally intended English title - not least because it's much closer to (if not a literal translation of) the French Jeunes filles impudiques. And it's also hilariously obvious that the Schoolgirl Hitchhikers title was plonked in by someone else, as the font and general ambience is completely different - our assumption is that this was the work of its US distributor, no doubt hoping to cash in on the recent hit Teenage Hitchhikers (possibly with a dash of the hugely successful West German series Schoolgirl Report). But it's a ludicrous retitling - they're very obviously in their mid-twenties and they don't hitchhike at any point.

Of course, we've mentioned Schoolgirl Hitchhikers more than once in the packaging, so anyone looking for that specific title will still be able to find it, but I'm glad that we were able to restore something closer to what was clearly intended.

(See also Walerian Borowczyk's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne, although in that case we know for certain that it was Borowczyk's preferred title and were only too happy to be able to belatedly reinstate it in the 2015 Arrow edition.)