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swo17 wrote:The main characters of the film are an old lady and a little boy. Where did anyone get "gentleman" from that?

HerrSchreck wrote:I doubt that will ever happen, since it would more likely to be a source of confusion rather than clarification. Although every here and there it does happen-- The Bicylcle Thief to Bicycle Thieves for example . . . but that's for one of the most revered films ever made which topped Best Of lists for decades.

MichaelB wrote:You'll have to ask them!

reaky wrote:I'm really looking forward to the MoC, though I'm holding on to my Criterion for A Story of Floating Weeds and the two Donald Richie commentaries.

reaky wrote:

MichaelB wrote:You'll have to ask them!

So I did, and have been informed "The End of Summer is not one of the titles we have under license."

Fingers crossed for another MoC.

The Ozu Collection
The Gangster Films
Three silent films by Yasujiro Ozu

The latest volume in the BFI's celebrated collection of the works of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story), released on 18 March 2013, focuses on his gangster-genre films. This 2-disc set contains Walk Cheerfully (1930), That Night's Wife (1930) and Dragnet Girl (1933), all coming to DVD for the first time. Each film is presented with a newly commissioned score from Ed Hughes. Also included is the only surviving fragment of Ozu's A Straightforward Boy (1929).

Ozu honed his craft in the early 1930s, a time when young Japanese directors were experimenting with cinematic conventions. In these rare, silent works, Ozu mixes a Hollywood-infused dynamism with elements of his later unique and poetic style.

Disc One

Walk Cheerfully (Hogaraka ni ayume)
When Kenji 'the Knife' Koyama, leader of a gang of hooligans, falls for the beautiful and virtuous Yasue he faces a tough decision: go straight to win her heart or carry on with his life of petty crime and easy luxury. With its expressionist lighting - reminiscent of Sternberg's Underworld - and distinctive characterisation, Walk Cheerfully sees Ozu combine international cinematic influences with comic touches all of his own.

Japan / 1930 / b&w / silent with music, English subtitles and intertitles / DVD9 / 92 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1

Disc Two

That Night's Wife (Sono yo no tsuma)
In desperation over the illness of his daughter, young father Shuji turns to crime to pay the medical bills. Enter Detective Kagawa (played by Togo Yamamoto) for a tense nighttime stand-off with Shuji's wife, Mayumi. That Night's Wife demonstrates Ozu's masterly handling of drama as the film reaches its emotional climax.

Dragnet Girl (Hijosen no onna)
By day sweet-faced Tokiko (played by Equinox Flower's Tanaka Kinuyo) is an ordinary typist but come nightfall she's a glamorous fun-loving gangster's moll. When her boyfriend Joji starts to stray, Tokiko is forced to confront the effects of her dissolute lifestyle. Hugely popular when it was released, Ozu's Dragnet Girl remains one of Ozu's most endearing silent films.

Japan / 1930 + 1933 / b&w / silent with music, English subtitles and intertitles / DVD9 / 63 mins + 96 mins / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1

Special Features
• A Straightforward Boy (1929, 13 mins): a kidnapped boy gets the better of the baddies in this surviving fragment of the film, directed by Ozu, which shot its child star Tomio Aoki to fame;
• Ozu: Emotion and Poetry (2012, 10 mins): an extract from Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns' 2010 lecture on Ozu's early work;
• Illustrated booklet with newly commissioned essays from Tony Rayns and Michael Kerpan.

Product Details
RRP: £29.99 / cat. no. BFIVD951 / Cert PG