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I just noticed that the still on Criterion's website for Good Morning is very clearly not from the Criterion DVD:



Upgrade in the works?

Hopefully the upgrade happens soon. I've been wanting it for a while and of course refuse to buy the current DVD out of principle.

Drucker wrote:Sure looks like the BFI blu ray

Sure does!

Upgrade coming in May, including I Was Born, But...!

And that surviving excerpt that they left off the crime films Eclipse set.

I assume this will be the same transfer as the recent Shochiku Blu-Ray... anyone have anything to say about that transfer? And does it sound OK? (I ask b/c Shochiku seems to have botched the "restoration" of some other soundtracks.)

Presumably it all goes back to the BFI restoration which is good.

Shochiku's 4K is brand new and has nothing to do with the BFI. People from this forum seem to have answered before that all four color restorations from Shochiku sound fine.

A while ago, I asked Moshrom (the guy who does the Blah-Ray blog) about the audio on the Shochiku disc, and he said that he preferred it over the BFI audio. I'm assuming that Criterion is going to use that audio, so I think it'll be fine on that front, barring Criterion doing any sort of post-processing.

Well, they did not do anything egregious to Shochiku's An Autumn Afternoon transfer.

I guess this is the first time a previously Eclipse title makes an upgrade to mainline Blu-ray, although as a bonus feature.

It would have been odd if they hadn't included it here, much like how they put Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe on Gates of Heaven despite it already being an extra on Burden of Dreams.

I agree, though I think people sometimes overstate the extent to which Good Morning is a "remake" of I Was Born, But.... In my opinion, it really isn't—more of a repurposing of a handful of plot motifs, which in a sense is what Ozu did with almost every one of his movies.

whaleallright wrote:I agree, though I think people sometimes overstate the extent to which Good Morning is a "remake" of I Was Born, But.... In my opinion, it really isn't—more of a repurposing of a handful of plot motifs, which in a sense is what Ozu did with almost every one of his movies.

Yes, Good Morning is not even remotely a "remake" of "I Was Born But ..." -- just a revisitation of the basic situation of the earlier film -- themes and plots are quite different. I seem to recall that Ozu himself dismissed the notion that Good Morning was a remake -- but alas have no recollection of the source for my belief.

This was the first Ozu I saw (at uni in 1994) and it was how I first discovered Criterion online circa 1999. It's a landmark film for me for those reasons. I didn't get round to watching it again when the BFI released it on Blu-ray a few years ago, so very interested to see the new 4K resto and how the colours have been rendered!

Our family's first Ozu -- courtesy of the HVE VHS tape -- the first non-Ghibli Japanese film I bought.

I'm rather boring in that Tokyo Story was my first Ozu, but I think Good Morning was my second. I'd certainly suggest Good Morning as being a good jumping in point for people new to Ozu, especially if you want something a little less emotionally wrenching! (Its one of the great 'childhood' films, but also goes wider than that and becomes a great 'portrait of daily life in a community' film too)

Apropos of nothing I (fondly now) remember scouring import sites in growing frustration back in the early to mid 2000s to try and find a place that was able to provide a, surprisingly rare seeming, copy of the original Criterion edition, just to have a chance to see the film (I remember getting it at the same time as that first Treasures From American Film Archives set, from the only place that was offering either!). But the work that went into finally getting the darn thing is why I love that disc, even though I agree that picture quality had definite room for improvement on these later editions!

(Though hopefully this Criterion edition should be able to finally fix those soundtrack issues. There's a strange parping noise that sounds like flatulence that occurs all the way through a couple of scenes, that ruins the sombre tone that Ozu was obviously going for! )

So is I Was Born, But... actually getting upgraded or will it be in SD?

Colin - Did you know the farting sounds were not sound effects, but rather played by musical instruments as part of the orchestral score?

This was, I think, the second Ozu film I saw, after (of course) Tokyo Story. The first viewing left me a little puzzled. The film is so indirect and episodic that it's hard to know, at first, what it all adds up to. But once you begin to perceive those things that make Ozu's films special, this reveals itself as one of his richest.

By the way, this was one of the first Ozu films to play in the U.S., initially in festivals, and eventually in a fleeting arthouse double-bill (in NYC) and as part of the earliest Ozu retrospectives (in Los Angeles), all in the early-mid 1960s. Kevin Thomas gave it a very strong review (I believe he first heard of Ozu thanks to his friendship w/ Donald Richie), but if I'm not mistaken, it got an extremely condescending (not to say bewildered) write-up in the New York Times.

My one-liner about Good Morning is that it's certainly the greatest film ever made that contains a shart joke. I'd like to see someone best it in that category.

whaleallright wrote: My one-liner about Good Morning is that it's certainly the greatest film ever made that contains a shart joke. I'd like to see someone best it in that category.

Amarcord is at least in the running and I'm sure Godard or Pasolini have something.

Michael Kerpan wrote:Colin - Did you know the farting sounds were not sound effects, but rather played by musical instruments as part of the orchestral score?

No wonder there has never been a strange smell in the room whenever I watch this film!

It's interesting that this film is the launching pad for two of the greatest and most invaluable Ozu resources in the world: peerpee's website and MEK's walking encyclopedia.

artfilmfan wrote:It's interesting that this film is the launching pad for two of the greatest and most invaluable Ozu resources in the world: peerpee's website and MEK's walking encyclopedia.

peerpee was one of my mentors.