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Mizoguchi on DVD in France w/English subs

From Films sans Frontieres --

Two double header sets -- the first with "Crucified Lovers" and
"Sansho", the second with "Princess Yang Kwei Fei" and "Street of
Shame". Both Alapage and FNAC list these -- but Alapage sems to be
cheaper (at the moment).

Michael Kerpan wrote:From Films sans Frontieres --

Two double header sets -- the first with "Crucified Lovers" and
"Sansho", the second with "Princess Yang Kwei Fei" and "Street of
Shame". Both Alapage and FNAC list these -- but Alapage sems to be
cheaper (at the moment).

Not a big surprise since I believe there was a fairly bitter battle over rights between Films Sans Frontieres and Opening over the Mizoguchis.

It will be interesting to see if FSF uses the same masters/transfers (based on the fights over rights, maybe not for the transfer to dvd, they use the same masters). FSF is not the best label out there for quality unfortunately, although they did an ok job with the previous Mizo they put out last year.

Arn777 wrote:Not a big surprise since I believe there was a fairly bitter battle over rights between Films Sans Frontieres and Opening over the Mizoguchis.

Apparently this release is limited to 1,000 copies. Difficult to find any hard info on 'em though. I'm not convinced they actually have English subs either. It looks like maybe the first set has been released, but not the second (ships in 2-3 weeks isn't a good sign in my experience).

Jeff LeVine wrote:Apparently this release is limited to 1,000 copies.

I ordered these sets - though only the first actually shipped. There are indeed English subtitles. The transfer quality seemed very good. Most importantly - the films are GREAT.

Arn777 wrote:It will be interesting to see if FSF uses the same masters/transfers (based on the fights over rights, maybe not for the transfer to dvd, they use the same masters). FSF is not the best label out there for quality unfortunately, although they did an ok job with the previous Mizo they put out last year.

Indeed! Are there any reviews online? I searched the French net, but couldn't find anything. Not even for last year's Mizo.
I have the 2 Opening boxsets, and would only doubledip, if FSF would offer upgrades

Jeff LeVine wrote:Apparently this release is limited to 1,000 copies.

I just received both of the FSF Mizoguchi boxed sets, and based on brief glimpses of all of the films I would say that they are anywhere from good to outstanding transfers. All of the films have English subtitles. Not sure if the films were transferred progressively or not, but considering Mizoguchi's filmic style, I believe it not to be a factor.

Sansho the Bailiff looks fantastic (as good as anything Criterion could come up with), very sharp elements and exceptional contrast (minimal amount of boosting). The only weak link to the transfers are the subtitles, as they are not as thorough as they should be, i.e., some dialogue passages go untranslated.

All of the other transfers look quite good, too: Yang Kwei Fei, Chikamatsu Monogatari, Street of Shame.

The Chikamatsu set is accompanied by a very handsome 75 page booklet about the history of the film and Mizoguchi's career, though written in French.

These Mizoguchi films are now among the most cherished in my collection, especially the staggeringly beautiful Sansho the Bailiff and Yang Kwei Fei.

If it is true that there were only 1,000 copies of each of these sets produced, I would jump on them if you are even remotely interested in Japanese cinema in general, and Mizoguchi in particular. They are available from either the FNAC.com or Alapage.com websites (I chose Alapage).

Considering what a towering figure Mizoguchi is within cinema history, and how much attention is heaped on the Criterion versions of Ozu, Kurosawa and Suzuki films, I am miffed as to why these very good editions of essential works by one of the greatest filmmakers has not been reviewed by the likes of DVDBeaver.

Don't know if they are the same as the Opening ones, from what I understand FSF is quite 'cheap', so I doubt they would have invested a lot of cash to do redo existing transfers.

Here's a review (in French) of the Sansho set. Looks like a winner!

Anyone know if Sansho is going to be release by Criterion anytime soon?

After the resounding success of CC's UGETSU I would be surprised if they didn't have more coming down the turnpike in the next few months.

Just out of curiosity Nick, do you happen to know numbers on this? Discs sold, profit margins etc? It would be interesting to see.

I don't have any figures for any other companies' sales, no. It's not the sort of thing that companies like to discuss on public fora.

Tim wrote:Has anybody noticed this forthcoming collection of Mizoguchi films from the forties?

Michael Kerpan wrote:This seems to be a French port of the films released in Japan by Shochiku.

I think "Five Women Around Utamaro" and "Love of Sumako the Actress" are really excellent. I found "Women of the Night" and "My Love is Burning" pretty disappointing overall (though not lacking in interest). "Famed Sword Bijomaru" is surprisingly bad -- given the good cast it had. "Miyamoto Musashi" would have been a far better pick for the set.

Tommaso wrote:Damn brilliant news! I assume, though, that there will again be only French subs...

davidhare wrote:A friend has just pointed this out, otherwise I would have missed it.

These titles virtually round out the complete post war Mizo, when added to the earlier two volumes from GCTHV (and the forthcoming MoCs?) Not forgetting of course the two Tartan titles from a couple of years ago, Life of Oharu and Lady Musashino (Michael I revise my opinion to nominate this as Mizo's worst post-war movie.)

A boxset from France which will be released by Gaumont Columbia on 20th June at 50 euros and contains the films:

The Famous Sword Bijomaru
Five Women Around Utamaro
The Love of Sumako the Actress
Women of the Night
Flame of My Love

Looks like a very interesting selection, I'm not sure of the quality but I'm sure someone can fill us in. Does anyone else have any more information on this set? As far as I can see no English subs the amazon page here does not say, but this page indicates only French (removable) subs, unfortunately. Shame as it looks like a nice set, those French speakers around the world, however, may be interested.

davidhare wrote:Here are some caps from 5 Women Around Utamaro from the new French Carlotta Coffret of Mizo Annees 40s

I think that, in the case of Utamaro at least, there must be something wrong with the source materials. I've seen three separate 35mm prints of this, one from Janus, one at the Museum of Modern Art, and one at the National Film Center in Tokyo, and they all looked more or less like the image in the screen capture. I doubt it will ever look much better than on the Carlotta DVD (the Raro DVD is considerably worse).

I'm afraid that for almost all of the surviving early Mizoguchi films, the source materials are pretty dire.

Well -- Musashi Miyamoto is an absolutely exquisite little film -- and about 1000% more impressive (as a whole) than "Bijomaru". One of Mizoguchi's best "unknown films".

I doubt we will ever agree on the merits (or demerits) of Utamaro. ;~{

I think Sumako and Madame Yuki are also wonderful films from this period. And Women of the Night has a lot of material that LOOKS great -- even if the story is poorly conceived and presented.

I greatly fear that the prints that were used for the ancient SBS broadcasts have deteriorated irreparably since then.

I'm surprised over your enthusiasm for "Bijomaru" -- as I consider it quite inferior to "Genroku chushingura" and ""Musashi Miyamoto".

"Sumako" shows Tanaka at pretty much the top of her form (at least in Mizoguchi)..

Isn't frame jitter due mostly to film shrinkage? If so, the primary source elements could really have degraded a lot in the past few decades. Short of a M-style restoration effort (something Japanese studios won't pay for), is there anything one can do about this?

davidhare wrote:I have absolutely no explanation for the parlous state of Japanese film preservation.

Except, perhaps, for Toho -- it is not clear that Japanese studios knew or cared much about film preservation until fairly recently. Somehow, the film technology orientation of PCL must have had some continuing influence even after they were merged into Toho. The fact that Toho preserved every single film Naruse made for PCL and Toho, many in reasonably good condition (over the course of over 30 years) is astonishing. Especially when one considers that important films made by Ozu and Mizoguchi during this period are lost or incredibly deteriorated.

I prefer to enjoy Mizoguchi films rather than worship them. I don't even worship Ozu (or Naruse) films. ;~}

I would NEVER describe the mis-en-scene in this film as "impoverished" -- the only late 40s Mizoguchi film I might describe in that way is "Victory of Women".

From MK2 in October: Kenji Mizoguchi : Les 47 ronins - Contes des chrysanthemes tardifs - L'Elegie de Naniwa (Coffret de 4 DVD)

Ronin has supposedly been 'restored', so this is good news, at least not only for those who speak French

You know - I was looking at that last night... I think it's just amazon.fr (which is often messed up). It says "in stock" on the mk2 site. I'm pretty sure it will be showing up in the online stores shortly (fnac has it listed for tomorrow, for example).

Oop - here's a test of the set...

Rewatched three of these 40s films: comments and pictures.

I gave Bijomaru another shot -- and still consider the worst of all the 30 or so Mizoguchi films I've seen (in almost every respect).

Finally got around to watching Lady of Musashino yesterday and actually found it to be a lot better than I expected. The anti-war sentiments expressed in the opening minutes came as something of a surprise. I've been used to seeing these conveyed in a more indirect manner in most of the Japanese films I've watched so far. The allusions to sex were a surprise too. Would this film have been a bit risque for 1951 by Japanese standards? And the opening shots of the skies above Musashino were terrific.

Thought the script was quite thoughtful and engaging too though the story didn't quite sustain itself over the full 85 minutes (and it was never going to anyway as the disc froze just before the end as noted in the DVD Beaver review). I might now seek out Shohei Ooka's novel as his 'Fires On The Plain' was extraordinary.

All in all, this was definitely worth seeing. Though I'd swap it right away for a decent version of 47 Ronin with English subs.

Murasaki53 wrote:Finally got around to watching Lady of Musashino yesterday and actually found it to be a lot better than I expected. The anti-war sentiments expressed in the opening minutes came as something of a surprise. I've been used to seeing these conveyed in a more indirect manner in most of the Japanese films I've watched so far. The allusions to sex were a surprise too. Would this film have been a bit risque for 1951 by Japanese standards? And the opening shots of the skies above Musashino were terrific.

Anti-war sentiments were practically mandatory in the Occupation era (due to the demands of US censors).

Lots of risque stuff (though mild compared to later films) started cropping up after the war. "Bad girl" films were quite popular then.

Many good things about the film (esp. the cinematography) -- but I differ on your assessment of the script -- which I found pretty ineffective (and unbelievable).

Michael, that's interesting background information. But what was it that you found unbelievable? Was it all the extra-marital shenanigans?

Murasaki53 wrote:Michael, that's interesting background information. But what was it that you found unbelievable? Was it all the extra-marital shenanigans?

What was unbelievable is HOW the events played out. Much more like a over-the-top, melodramatic shimpa play of the 20s than anything like real life in the post-war era.

And then there was the almost comically abrupt way the old folk were polished off.