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Is there any chance to get some of the classic silent Japanese films like "Soul on the Road" (1921, Ushihara Kiyohiko) or Ito Daisukes Samurai-films on DVD? There is an excessive CD-Rom floating around, but the costs for this DVD are about 200 US. A Criterion release with selected and restored classics of this silent era would be a project for the ages!

Japanese silent film (and a number of films from the 30s in general) is truly in a sad state. There are a handful of silent Ozu films available with english subtitles (here's a related thread), the CD-ROM you mention, and that's about it. I believe there's a little bit more than that available on VHS in Japan (six silent Shimizu Hiroshi films, at least), but I can't find any etailer links (might be out of print.)

As far as I can tell, all the Japanese silent film video releases are out of print.

There are no Shimizu DVDs at all. And no DVDs of any other very early Japanese films.

All of Ozu's silents are out on DVD in Japan -- a few of these have been released with subtitled intertitles in Hong Kong (by Panorama).

What Made Her Do It? (Shigeyoshi Suzuki, 1929) R2 JP

Nani ga kanojo o sô saseta ka

HMV

Considered a lost film for more than 60 years, a surviving print was found is Russia in 1994 of this controversial film. 37% of the film has been lost, and intertitles have been created for the missing elements.



This is the first time the film is available on DVD in the world, and also as a change and hopefully a new trend, English subtitles are provided.

As extras, a 44 page booklet (most likely in Japanese only) and 35 surviving minutes of the director's 1927 film " Yami no Tejina" [Dark Magic(?) I don't know if there is an English title for this film]

Are you sure it has English subs? Amazon and other such places only note Japanese subs.

Edit: Oh, wait. I found one site which mentions English subs. Great!
Edit-Edit: Mind you 10 others disagree...

The film will be released by Edition Filmmuseum, too. This release will certainly have English subtitles.

Just in case any new folk come across this newly combined thread in the top forum decrying the lack of silent Japanese DVDs and get confused here some links:

New Shimizu silent box set discussion is here.
Digital Meme silent Mizoguchi etc discussion is here
And of course, Eclipse Ozu discussion is right over here

Sanjuro wrote:Are you sure it has English subs?

Just got this - it definitely has English subs!

For reference some may be interested in the following report on the Pordenone Festival of Silent Film 2005 which focused on Japanese Cinema:

Midnight Eye Pordenone Report

Chris xx

Teinosuke Kinugasa's A Page of Madness / Kurutta ippeji (1926)

From Aaron Gerow's website:

A colleague informs me that a DVD of the film will be released in 2009, so stay tuned for info on that as well.

Gerow also has a monograph on the film forthcoming from the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan.

the dancing kid wrote:From Aaron Gerow's website:

A colleague informs me that a DVD of the film will be released in 2009, so stay tuned for info on that as well.

Gerow also has a monograph on the film forthcoming from the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan.

I recently heard AG give a presentation on Page of Madness -- he provided some surprising information on this film. The book should be very interesting.

Note to self: pick up copies of Kurutta ippeji book and DVD when available. Take that, Bad Print Available From Unnamed Place in the Midwest!

Now if only Limite would finally come out ...