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Sanjuro wrote:The Bandai Visual DVD (like all Japanese DVDs) is Region 2 NTSC, not PAL.

Thank you for the information. So the details for the Bendai Visual (being Region 2 PAL) on the DVDBeaver Kikujiro comparison's page is a mistake ?

Yes. I have my Bandai Visual Kikujiro DVD (5000 yen...) in my hand right now, same cover, menus etc. as shown on DVDbeaver but clearly says NTSC on the back.

Japanese TVs use NTSC not PAL so it wouldn't make much sense for it to be a PAL DVD. I guess they got mixed up with Region 2 UK which is usually always PAL.

Looks like it has a retail price of 3999 yen which is expensive for people not used to Japanese prices I guess, but a damn sight better than the 5000-6000 yen we've been having to pay for pre-Zatoichi Takeshi films. Pre-order at Amazon is 2993 yen, same price as Kantoku Banzai. Or get the lot (up to Takeshis') for 35,910 yen! For a grand saving of nothing at all (but you do get a nice box...) Not that they've added subs to any of the pre-Hana-bi titles, which is shame.

The Bandai Visual DVD (like all Japanese DVDs) is Region 2 NTSC, not PAL.

Kitano's new film Kantoku Banzai played at Venice and Toronto. I don't know who has picked the film up for distribution. Did anyone catch this at any of the festivals?

Trailer, Reuters & Time Out.

Looks a little Miike-y.

David Bordwell wrote:[...] my admiration for Kitano Takeshi has been so great since I saw Sonatine back in the 1990s that I can't let Glory to the Filmmaker! pass without a little comment. His previous foray into fake autobiography, Takeshis', seemed to me pleasant enough in a casual way. Unless I'm missing something, however, Glory to the Filmmaker! is an unmitigated embarrassment. Gone are the surprising compositions and subtly daring cuts; gone too the elliptical narrative that has time for adolescent digressons. Glory! is nothing but adolescent digressions, sketches and skits that either cling to an unfunny premise, like the dummy Kitano that pops up now and then, or abandon their premises halfway through. The pastiches of Ozu and Kurosawa are slapdash and inexact, while the more purely Kitanoesque stretches work at very low wattage.

I seriously think that this is Kitano's worst film. When Tony Rayns prizes the ninja episode as his favorite, we know that he is running out of good things to say just as Kitano is running out of ideas. I really want to know what dvdane thinks.

ben d banana, on the other hand, enjoyed the movie

franco wrote:I really want to know what dvdane thinks.

I don't want to speak for Henrik, but from what I remember the times I talked to him in chat on the previous forum he really didn't like Getting Any?, which sounds like the nearest point of comparison to these latest films.

Thanks for reminding me of Henrik's dislike of Getting Any. Most of what he says about the movie could definitely be applied to Kantoku Banzai:

Henrik wrote:So [Getting Any] is really more a film by "Beat" Takeshi than Kitano Takeshi, in the sense, that it is incoherent, crude, immature and authority defiant to the point of defying even his own persona.

It seems that the DVD is coming out next month

I caught Kantoku Banzai at TIFF and though it started off really strong, it soon descended into one of the most frustrating movies I've ever watched. I agree with Bordwell's description that the "pastiches of Ozu and Kurosawa are slapdash and inexact," but this appears to an intentional choice by Kitano and actually results in some of the more successful portions of the film. Meanwhile, Kitano's intensions for the rest of the film are utterly baffling. I don't think I've ever watched a film that was so content to disappoint the audience, while being completely aware that it is failing. It seriously takes guts to sustain that level of awful comedy for so long. Somehow, I'm confident Kitano has ulterior motives with this film, possibly as some sort of exercise in meta-filmmaking regarding audience expectations and filmmakers learning humility, but this project is exasperating or torturous... so it makes perfect sense that ben would like it.

Japan Times review of Kantoku Banzai by Mark Schilling and DVD Times review.

New film project from Takeshi Kitano. Sounds interesting: Achilles to Kame

Picture here.

Sanjuro wrote:Picture here.

Wow, Kitano is really looking old.

Review of Achilles and the Tortoise by Geoffrey Macnab at the Guardian blogs.

Kitano going back to jidai-geki?

Kitano says it wouldn't be another Zatoichi but rather a "Kitano-style period film," whatever "Kitano-style" means at this point. ("Aggressively audience-baiting," maybe?)

Has anyone taken a look at the Zatoichi Blu-Ray?

A whole stack of definitive Kitano special editions were in the works for Region 1 release this year - HANA-BI, VIOLENT COP, BOILING POINT, KIDS RETURN, SCENE AT THE SEA and others - all with feature-specific docos, commentaries and new interviews with Kitano and his cast and crew members prepared in collaboration with Kitano's production company, plus with new transfers to boot. All this is now up in the air following the reshuffle/closure of BCI Eclipse. Along with the DOA 2-DVD S.E of Kim Je-Woon's A BITTERSWEET LIFE, lost the very week of its release when Tartan UK went down the plughole, this is the most distressing almost-there DVD news I've recently encountered. Hopefully the Kitano S.E's will land somewhere else, but who can say?

Anthony Thorne wrote:A whole stack of definitive Kitano special editions were in the works for Region 1 release this year - HANA-BI, VIOLENT COP, BOILING POINT, KIDS RETURN, SCENE AT THE SEA and others - all with feature-specific docos, commentaries and new interviews with Kitano and his cast and crew members prepared in collaboration with Kitano's production company, plus with new transfers to boot. All this is now up in the air following the reshuffle/closure of BCI Eclipse. Along with the DOA 2-DVD S.E of Kim Je-Woon's A BITTERSWEET LIFE, lost the very week of its release when Tartan UK went down the plughole, this is the most distressing almost-there DVD news I've recently encountered. Hopefully the Kitano S.E's will land somewhere else, but who can say?

All of the special features for the Kitano DVDs were created by Outcast Cinema. When BCI Eclipse announced that it was being dissolved and all of its assets brought back into the parent company, Outcast Cinema's website indicated that everything was in limbo. However, they posted this on Sunday (Jan. 25th):

BCI / Eclipse DVDs - sadly, as mentioned in a recent post, BCI was shuttered by parent company Navarre because of poor sales and overspending. The good news is that we've recently made contact with someone at Navarre handling the transition, and he told us that they're currently considering what to do with all the unreleased titles in the BCI vaults; Navarre has several other sub-labels that could wind up releasing them. One thing in our favor is that all the supplemental work for these titles has been completed, and they'd be very easy to finish up for release. They said they'll stay in contact with us about the future of these titles - which include Go for Broke, Karate Wars, Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Rikyu and more - and we'll bring you the news here as soon as we hear it.

As for Tartan, all of its assets in the UK and US were purchased by Palisades back in July. They have been working on increasing the library and venturing into theatrical distribution (picking up Park Chan-Wook's THIRST for UK release and Carlos Reygadas' SILENT LIGHT in the US).

Anthony Thorne wrote:A whole stack of definitive Kitano special editions were in the works for Region 1 release this year - HANA-BI, VIOLENT COP, BOILING POINT, KIDS RETURN, SCENE AT THE SEA and others - all with feature-specific docos, commentaries and new interviews with Kitano and his cast and crew members prepared in collaboration with Kitano's production company, plus with new transfers to boot. All this is now up in the air following the reshuffle/closure of BCI Eclipse. Hopefully the Kitano S.E's will land somewhere else, but who can say?

Does anyone know of any updates to this?

All I know is that Hana-Bi was a New Yorker property, so that's probably off. I don't know about the others.

Second Sight, a UK company, have released a series of early Kitano films on R2 DVD. Pretty much all those asked about.

kaujot wrote:All I know is that Hana-Bi was a New Yorker property, so that's probably off. I don't know about the others.

I believe that Hanabi is a Milestone property so there is still chance that an SE edition is in the works, especially considering that they have been reworking some of their other properties lately, e.g. I am Cuba, Why has Bodhi-dharma Left for the East, etc.

He'll always be "MXC" co-host Vic Romano to me.

First still from Kitano's new film, Outrage. It's his first yakuza film in over a decade.

Hi folks. I'd like to show either BOILING POINT or A SCENE AT THE SEA to an Intro to Film class. Despairing of ever finding these films to rent on 35mm (neither were commercially distributed in the USA, to my knowledge), I'm curious what the optimal home-video versions are. Would the UK Second Sight DVD of A SCENE AT THE SEA be the best option (that includes English subtitles)? As for BOILING POINT, I get the impression that all of the English-subbed discs have compromised image quality. But if there's any news to the contrary, I'd welcome it. Thanks in advance!