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Amazon.co.jp is announcing on 4/25, Shochiku will release the first 4-disc box of films by director Shimizu Hiroshi. The films included in this set are:

Minato no Nihon Musume (1933 - silent)
Arigato-san (1936)
Anma to Onna (1938)
Kanzashi (1941)

The last three titles will also be available separately on the same day but the first is exclusive to this box as an extra. Some online retailers are stating that this set will have English subs. But since the Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Kinoshita sets from Shochiku did not, it would be unusual if these Shimizu's had English subs.

Wonderful news. Your guess at no english subs is probably correct, but to have more of his films available is a start. Will Criterion be soon to give its full treatment to Ornamental Hairpin (Kanzashi)? Now, when will we get his films about children? I thought an outstanding Eclipse set would contain the following:

Children in the Wind
Four Seasons of Children
Children of the Beehive
Children and the Great Buddha and
Shiinomi School or
Jiro Monogatari

Subtitles or not, this has been a long time coming. I can't wait!

Wow, this is really great news! Shimizu is amazing, and the prospect of these being released with english subtitles is dumbfounding (here's another site that says it has both Japanese and English subs.) The price isn't that bad with the addition of Japanese Girls at the Harbour apparently sweetening the deal. Ornamental Hairpin and Arigato-san are favorites, and Masseurs And A Woman is very good and under-appreciated Shimizu.

I hope this is just the tip of the iceberg, and esl I agree a Shimizu Children's films set would be a must own Eclipse set.

When I met Shochiku's executives (at the Ozu Centeennial kick-off in Boston), I teased them over the lack of English subtitles -- and they promised they would think about subtitles when they finally got around to releasing Shimizu on DVD. That was 5 years ago -- but maybe they are actually delivering on that long-ago promise. ;~}

Great news (even if there aren't English subtitles). Shimizu definitely deserves world-wide recognition.

DiscStation says English subs, as does this place, and this one. Only seems to be Amazon which doesn't mention them yet. So looking pretty good so far!

=D>

Perhaps Shochiku finally listened to Donald Richie and all the cinephiles across the world.

This is a great development, I won't be buying this set as I am not buying much these days but look forward to Shimizu DVDs appearing in the US and UK.

Shochiku confirms that the box will have English subs. Cover art is now posted on their site.

Looking forward to seeing what titles will be in the second set.

According to those specs there are no subtitles for the 'extra disc' (which is also marked as being 78 minutes and having 'no soundtrack (silent)') so presumably that refers to Minato no Nihon Musume. Is that a silent film with no intertitles at all?

Oh. And rather oddly, Shikoku seem to say this is "Barrier-Free" not "Region-Free". I always thought that meant access for wheelchair users...

Is region free confirmed anywhere else? Amazon say Region 2 (but they're usually wrong)

Sanjuro wrote:According to those specs there are no subtitles for the 'extra disc' (which is also marked as being 78 minutes and having 'no soundtrack (silent)') so presumably that refers to Minato no Nihon Musume. Is that a silent film with no intertitles at all?

There are intertitles in Japanese girls at the Harbor. I suspect one can find a synopsis that will tell you anything you absolutely NEED to know about the plot of this film.

Some of Shimizu's later films had synchronized scores when released -- but nothing this early had built-in aaccompaniment.

Ah well, 3 out of 4 subtitled films aint bad. Minato's not a very inter-title intensive film is it?

Barrier Free in this case seems to refer to the fact that it has subtitles rather than it's region coding (can be used freely by those with disabilities, such as poor hearing and not being Japanese...).

Sanjuro wrote:Ah well, 3 out of 4 subtitled films aint bad. Minato's not a very inter-title intensive film is it?

Not as many intertitles as Ozu would have used. ;~}

Preorder information and specs are up at yesasia.

The good news is that this is listed as “the first four-disc boxset in the Shimizu Hiroshi Collection.” The bad news is that the price, as expected from Shochiku, is $128 for four discs. While the three other titles are available separately, Minato no Nihon Musume is available only in the set.

Part 2 (release date not known) is supposed to included:

Kaze no naka no kodomo (Children in the Wind, 1937)
Kodomo no shiki (Four Seasons of Children, 1939)
Nobuko (1940)
Mikaeri no To (1941)

Shochiku's site lists the release as 6/27 (Fri.).

Currently 9324 yen at Amazon (about $95 I guess).

Presumably Yesasia's postage is cheaper though?

Sanjuro wrote:Presumably Yesasia's postage is cheaper though?

YesAsia has budget shipping for free. Amazon Japan currently only offers courier delivery shipping overseas (decidedly NOT free).

Amazon Japan does remove the tax though, which lowers the price to 8800 yen, and with shipping it comes to 10,803, or about $105. That is shipping to the US, it should be noted.

Japanese dvds with English subs? Unbelievable ! =D>

Until now, you could only find a few movies of Shinoda and Yamada with English subs in Japan (from the "old" great directors).

And now we have 4 Shimizu dvds with eng subs (with more to come) and even more incredibly from Shochiku?

I hope this trend will continue (and that they reissue the 6 Kinoshita box sets with English subs).

Fan-of-Kurosawa wrote:And now we have 4 Shimazu dvds with eng subs (with more to come) and even more incredibly from Shochiku?

I hope this trend will continue (and that they reissue the 6 Kinoshita box sets with English subs).

Only the three talkies have English subs (the bonus disc - Japanese Girls at the Harbor -- just has Japanese intertitles).

Not sure if any subs have been confirmed for Box 2 yet.

I'm pretty sure the Kinsoshita boxes won't get reissued (with subs).

This site, Yahoo JP, and Kinokuniya are listing English and Japanese subtitles for the second set as well. By the way, these have really cool covers...

first set:


second set:

Steven H wrote:This site, Yahoo JP, and Kinokuniya are listing English and Japanese subtitles for the second set as well. By the way, these have really cool covers...

Sorry for this completely gratuitous post, but I still can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that we're going to get eight Shimizu DVDs with English subs this year. With those covers!

Those covers are ridiculously awesome.

ltfontaine wrote:

Steven H wrote:This site, Yahoo JP, and Kinokuniya are listing English and Japanese subtitles for the second set as well. By the way, these have really cool covers...

Sorry for this completely gratuitous post, but I still can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that we're going to get eight Shimizu DVDs with English subs this year. With those covers!

I know, its really remarkable. The packaging, the subtitles... it almost makes me start hoping for crazy things (like more Shimizu). I want to find out how many of these things need to be sold for Shochiku to start doing this more often and point a gun at people until they buy enough for it to happen.

Seriously though, this makes my excitement for Yoshida and Digital Meme seem a little pale in comparison. What a year.

Supposedly Japanese Girls at the Harbor will NOT have subs for its inter-titles. As soon as I get these in hand next week, I will check this. I wonder if the bonus film in set 2 will be subbed?

If worst comes to worst, however, we should have (finally) at least 6 subbed Shimizu DVDs. This is barely scratching the surface of his (surviving) output -- as many (most even) of his best films are not included in these first two sets.

In any event, three cheers for Shochiku! (Now if only they would do a silent Naruse box set -- with subbed intertitles). ;~}