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artfilmfan wrote:Did you check the audio track on the Shochiku Blu-ray of Late Spring to see whether the higher frequencies were cut off in a similar manner as on the Early Summer track? I went back to watch a couple early sequences in the film and now realized how poor it sounded.

I did, and they have been. The BFI sounds much, much better, unfortunately...

I'm assuming not, but does anyone know if the JP blu ray releases of BURST CITY and CRAZY THUNDER ROAD have subtitles? I've only seen the former and can see that subtitles aren't really even necessary it for it, but what about the latter?

L.A. wrote:Regarding Isao Takahata's The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun, I understand Discotek Media had plans to release this on Blu-ray. Any word if this is still happening?

Finally.

I believe it's the same master as the Japanese disc though, which looks terrible and in need of a new scan and restoration (like the other Toei Doga films).

Doesn't seem all that different from the (now rather aged) DVD.

Is the OAR 2.35:1? The discs are not that ratio.

Anime Ltd is bringing Momotaro, Sacred Sailors + The Spider and the Tulip to the market on October 9th (hopefully). Their edition of Belladonna of Sadness came out in late June.

Other than the 120page book by Clements, I'm curious to see what is different from the Japanese and US editions.

Shochiku will release three more films by Yasujirō Ozu on July 4th, 2018: The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952), Early Spring (1956) and Tokyo Twilight (1957).

All three films have been given 4K restorations, and will include both Japanese and English subtitles:

The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) (Amazon)

Early Spring (1956) (Amazon)

Tokyo Twilight (1957) (Amazon)

McCrutchy wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 5:43 am Shochiku will release three more films by Yasujirō Ozu on July 4th, 2018: The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952), Early Spring (1956) and Tokyo Twilight (1957).

All three films have been given 4K restorations, and will include both Japanese and English subtitles:

The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) (Amazon)

Early Spring (1956) (Amazon)

Tokyo Twilight (1957) (Amazon)

Anyone got these? Also, Kadokawa released a 4K remaster of Floating Weeds, but apparently this one doesn't have English subs. I only have the Japanese Early Summer and Late Spring, but I was hoping more color films might get Criterion releases (only Autumn Afternoon and Good Morning got the Criterion treatment so far).

I have Early Spring and Tokyo Twilight, but I haven't watched them yet.

Unfortunately, thus far, only Shochiku have released any Japanese classics with English subtitles. Kadokawa never does.

The detail on the Tokyo Twilight restoration is pretty stunning, but there's a significant amount of information loss on the bottom of the screen compared to the Eclipse DVD. The sound is also much more muffled, especially noticeable on the musical interludes. (This seems to be a troubling trend with restorations of films in this era).

Kon Ichikawa's The Wanderers is getting a domestic blu-ray release from King Records. Also, the same director's The Outcast is coming from Kadokawa.

andyli wrote: Fri May 24, 2019 12:18 am Kon Ichikawa's The Wanderers is getting a domestic blu-ray release from King Records. Also, the same director's The Outcast is coming from Kadokawa.

No subs, of course?

Probably no English subs. The only studio that care to include English subs in their blu-rays is Shochiku, I'm afraid.

None of the Kadokawa releases have Eng subs unfortunately.

As promised, Shochiku has given us news for a gigantic set containing all 49 Tora-san movies, fully restored in 4K and supplemented by two discs of bonus material. The individual pages seem to suggest there will be English subtitles at least for the main features. The price for the full gift set is 209,000 yen (about 1900 USD), still cheaper than a bitcoin though. :-"

Matsumoto Toshio's Dogura Magura comes to BD with English subs in February.

In January, the assured debut film of now 23-year-old Okuyama Hiroshi, winner of best director at San Sebastian IFF, comes to BD. Though the Japanese title translates as "I Hate Mr. Jesus", in the West it's being called simply Jesus.

The Matsumoto and Okuyama films are now available.

Also coming on Japanese blu-ray with English subs are Morita's Shitsurakuen [Lost Paradise] (Feb 28) and Makoto's We Are Little Zombies (today).

For those interested, La Rabbia have released a BD of the new 4k/2k restoration (4k scan, 2k restoration) of Imamura's Narayama. The result is quite problematic, the picture having been most likely heavily degrained. It looks very strange, since it's clear, because of the overall definition, than the work is recent (it's been actually performed in 2017) but because of its textureless/lifeless aspect, it's not natural at all. I also suspect a very slight touch of EE, but it's negligible.
The closest problematic work I can think of that looks similar to this is Terminator 2 : clearly much finer and more defined than the past master, but degrained to death. Narayama isn't that smooth, though, but not by much.

The picture has also been graded differently. The Eureka disc was quite dark, the new French disc is clearly brighter and reveals much more details. It seemed also to have been partly "neutralised" : the Eureka disc has a quite blue opening in the snow, it's now warmer; there were some shots on the contrary quite warm that are now not that warm anymore; and a shot around 1h31 that was very dull on the Eureka disc is now looking like the rest of the movie.

Sound seems to have been filtered but it doesn't seem extremely egregious both on the "paper" (ie through spectrum analysis via Spek) not during listening.

Amazon Japan just posted release dates for blu rays of two lesser-known Nobuhiko Obayashi films, The Rockinghorsemen, coming out in August, and Chizuko's Little Sister, set to arrive in September. TC Entertainment is the company listed as distributing the films. Unlikely either film comes with English subtitles, though Chizuko's Little Sister has fansubs that can be found online. I think Chizuko's Little SIster is one of Obayashi's better movies, and it's really worth the upgrade. Rockinghorsemen looks very nostalgic, about kids trying to start a rock band back in the old days (the 60s, I think?) So far the blu ray releases of Obayashi films out of Japan have been flawless (though, of course, without English subtitles). Kadokawa has released School in the Crosshairs, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, His Motorbike Her Island, and The Island Closest to Heaven, all in sumptuous quality. King records has released a really nice disc of one of Obayashi's ATG films, The Deserted City. I haven't seen the disc of The Discarnates. The only real fail I've encountered has been Take Me Away!, which is an interlaced transfer I can't seem to synch subtitles to.

There have been some interesting HD streaming sources of Obayashi films, as well. There's a nice quality HDTV version of the crazy Drifting Classroom film, which I've been able to see, and the very fun film Lonelyhearts recently appeared streaming in hi-definition. Curiously, both those films involve mother-son incest themes, which I guess aren't suitable for physical media, only for streaming sources. I'm hoping to eventually see Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast released on blu ray, or Exchange Students. But I can't figure out the rhyme or reason to how these films get released where.

Obayashi's Hanagatami is getting a UK Blu-Ray release via Third Window next week and they have said if it sells well they'll look into releasing his older films. I'm surprised no one else has, given the apparent success of Criterion and Eureka's releases of House. I'd love to see those two you mentioned in better quality than what's up on YouTube.

Well, I'm getting Hanagatami, for sure, though to tell the truth, the only late-era Obayahsi I've seen is The Reason, the mis en scene of which made it incredibly hard to watch. Are these later Obayashi movies with all the weird green screen compositing very good? I'm anxious to see some of them. What I like, though, is the 80s Obayashi. I hope they get there and release something worthwhile. Exchange Students is a wonderful movie, that really deserves be presented looking as good as it can. I have the VAP DVD of the film. I think that one and Bound for the Fields are owned by the same people, and they seem not to be accessible to anybody releasing these blu rays in Japan.

I learned last night that a GoFundMe was just completed to create a translation and fansub for The Island Closest to Heaven. There's a very high-quality blu ray of that film from Kadokawa in Japan, so it looks like one might be able to synch subtitles to that disc in the future. I think if this works out they're planning other Obayashi films coming up, including Ashita from 1995, the one that kind of sounds like a feature film made of just the last few scenes of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

Incidentally, I just learned that Obayashi died in April. I didn't realize that had happened. Such a shame.

Obayashi was given only a few months to live prior to commencing production on Hanagatami. He not only lived to finish that, but also Labyrinth of Cinema

I've not seen any of his recent films so I can't vouch for Hanagatami but I'm looking forward to getting the Third Window release next week and will chip in with my thoughts then. The reviews around, even the ones that lean towards mixed/negative, have sold me on it.