Kurosawa Limited Edition DVD Collection

[Chris Nahr]

Anyone else got this? Mine is no. 2491/5000... nice box in Japanese styling, some cute extras (foldable paper wall -- whatever this thing is called), very short booklet, and three DVDs.

The documentary DVD is surprisingly good: one film of nearly 2 hours outlines Kurosawa's biography, showing various locations where he lived & worked, interspersed with scenes from his movies and interviews with colleagues. In addition, there's a collection of thematically grouped interviews about his various habits & techniques, totalling 90 minutes. Besides his colleagues, family, and film critics, they also interviewed his admirers James Coburn and Clint Eastwood.

The highlight of the set is the new transfer of Ran. Compared to the existing DVD version, this one has much more vibrant colours, better visual detail, a new Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that was mixed without any jarring channel transitions, new & improved subtitles, a restoration demo, and commentary (which I haven't heard yet) by producer Peter Grilli and Kurosawa biographer Stephen Prince.

Sadly, there's a downside: the original 2.35:1 format (also used by the previous DVD) was cut down to 1.85:1 (16:9)! Since Kurosawa always used the full width of the screen there are quite a few scenes where the outermost characters are partly cut off. I'm not sure if this was a technical necessity for the new "anamorphic" transfer but it's a damn shame. There is no additional footage, by the way -- it's the same old 160 minutes.

Finally, there's the first and only non-Japanese DVD of Madadayo, Kurosawa's last film, completed in 1992. That's just a regular though competent transfer without any extras. I have to admit that I didn't like this film at all -- I didn't see any point to it, unless Kurosawa's intent was to show just how weird the Japanese can be. Mostly you see drunk students cheering their aging professor who is occasionally missing his cat. Um. I'm sure they could have found a worthier companion to Ran among Kurosaw's many other films about contemporary Japan.

[Tom Chick]

Sadly, there's a downside: the original 2.35:1 format (also used by the previous DVD) was cut down to 1.85:1 (16:9)!

Ouch. Major turn-off. I've been meaning to watch Ran again, but I'll be sure to get the older transfer if they monkeyed around with the aspect ratio. Fortunately, it looks like you can get just the documentary disk from Netflix. Is that was this is, Christoph?

I watched Yojimbo last week, which was a little too goofy and raw for me. It was a pat little revenge Western with a nifty samurai wrapper, but it felt like a trifle, especially compared to Seven Samurai, which Kurosawa had done seven years earlier. The main appeal was Toshiro Mifune, who has an astonishing amount of screen presence, even when he's just scratching his chin.

-Tom

[Chris Nahr]

Ouch. Major turn-off. I've been meaning to watch Ran again, but I'll be sure to get the older transfer if they monkeyed around with the aspect ratio.

Well, the new transfer really is much better in every other respect, so after some pondering I decided to sell my old copy of Ran. But I'm sure they'll eventually release the new Ran transfer as a stand-alone DVD anyway, so you might as well get the older DVD in the meantime.

Fortunately, it looks like you can get just the documentary disk from Netflix. Is that was this is, Christoph?

Yes, I suppose so. The cover photo is the same, and Amazon also lists the "bonus interviews" that are on the Collection DVD.

By the way, when I visited Amazon I saw that Madadayo was also available separately, which makes the Limited Collection rather... pointless. Except for the new but chopped-down transfer of Ran.

I watched Yojimbo last week, which was a little too goofy and raw for me. It was a pat little revenge Western with a nifty samurai wrapper, but it felt like a trifle, especially compared to Seven Samurai, which Kurosawa had done seven years earlier. The main appeal was Toshiro Mifune, who has an astonishing amount of screen presence, even when he's just scratching his chin.

Yojimbo is definitely a "lighter" film compared to Seven Samurai, and not quite one of Kurosawa's great classics. But for some reason I still get a kick out of Mifune's attitude in this film and Sanjuro, constantly scratching himself, shrugging his shoulders, and feigning a surprised look with wide-open basset eyes. He has a barbarian or even animal-like attitude similar to his roles in Rashomon and Seven Samurai but carried to an extreme here. And I like how Yojimbo starts out like a stereotypical Western, with an empty dusty street and people hiding behind their windows. I just love that kind of exaggeration!

[Chris Nahr]

Warning! Error! Failure! Everything's wrong!

Not everything but I was wrong that the new transfer reduced a 2.35 format to an 1.85 format. I was just listening to the Stephen Prince commentary (rambling but occasionally informative) when I heard him saying, to my utmost astonishment, that Kurosawa shot the film in 1.85 format.

I compared the old & new transfer again, and indeed -- they have the same format! The actors that were chopped off at the side of the screen were chopped off by the old transfer in exactly the same way. (Pretty weird considering Kurosawa's usually perfect image layout -- did he plan for a 2.35 shot?)

Why did I believe they reduced the format? Because the opening sequence had been shot in 2.35, and the old transfer had actually switched format between the opening sequence and the rest of the movie!

In the new transfer the opening has been reduced to 1.85 to fit the rest of the film. I'm not sure why anyone would want to shoot the opening sequence in a different format from the rest of the film but that's apparently what happened here.

[Anonymous]

I watched Yojimbo last week, which was a little too goofy and raw for me. It was a pat little revenge Western with a nifty samurai wrapper, but it felt like a trifle, especially compared to Seven Samurai, which Kurosawa had done seven years earlier. The main appeal was Toshiro Mifune, who has an astonishing amount of screen presence, even when he's just scratching his chin.

Kurosawa meant it as a satire, so it's meant to be a bit lite. I agree that Mifune is great in it, as he always is.

I find it odd that you refer to it as a "revenge western", when it seems like it influenced so many westerns, not the other way around. It was also remade as "Fist Full of Dollars" and "Last Man Standing", and I think there may have been a third as well.

[Gordon Cameron]

Yojimbo is a lighter film but it's technically very well made. I remember reading about how Kurosawa and his DP came up with an elaborate shooting scheme that used the geometry of the town's layout, etc. Another "lightweight" Kurosawa film -- Hidden Fortress -- is IMO the best-photographed of his films that I've seen. Just beautifully shot, really shows off Kurosawa's mastery of blocking and his skillful compositions that are never too self-aware, but are always subservient to the story. Toshiro Mifune always has great presence but my favorite of Kurosawa's stock players is Takashi Shimura, who has the best face of any actor this side of Bogart...

Interesting tidbit about the aspect ratios. I'll have to watch my 12-year-old VHS of Ran and check that out. (I think it's letterboxed.)

Christoph -- I don't understand -- is this the *complete* Kurosawa collection, from Sanshiro Sugata on up? It must have cost an arm and a leg if so.

As long as we are listing fave Kurosawa films btw, I'd put Seven Samurai and Ikiru at the top -- both are practically perfect movies -- then probably High & Low, Throne of Blood, Hidden Fortress and maybe Rashomon in the second tier. However I still have to see many of his films, most importantly Red Beard.

[Gordon Cameron]

I find it odd that you refer to it as a "revenge western", when it seems like it influenced so many westerns, not the other way around. It was also remade as "Fist Full of Dollars" and "Last Man Standing", and I think there may have been a third as well.

Kurosawa was himself influenced at least in part by Westerns. John Ford was one of his favorite directors, and I think the inclusion of the sixgun in Yojimbo is a nod to the Western genre. It is of course true that Kurosawa's films were then remade as Westerns (Fistful of Dollars and Magnificent Seven being the most famous ones), so the whole thing sort of went full circle. (In the early '70s, Toshiro Mifune and Charles Bronson even teamed up in a Western called "Red Sun." I haven't seen it but by most accounts it was pretty mediocre.) One thing I have wondered is whether the de facto sequel to Yojimbo, "Sanjuro," was used as the template for "A Few Dollars More."

[Chris Nahr]

Christoph -- I don't understand -- is this the *complete* Kurosawa collection, from Sanshiro Sugata on up? It must have cost an arm and a leg if so.

Good heavens, no. Is there such a thing as a complete Kurosawa collection? I don't think all of his work has been transferred to DVD yet. This box just contains Ran, Madadayo, and the Kurosawa documentary.

As long as we are listing fave Kurosawa films btw, I'd put Seven Samurai and Ikiru at the top -- both are practically perfect movies -- then probably High & Low, Throne of Blood, Hidden Fortress and maybe Rashomon in the second tier. However I still have to see many of his films, most importantly Red Beard.

I haven't seen Ikiru yet (there's no DVD version I think). I did get the recent Criterion DVD edition of Red Beard, and I have to say that... um... the film sucks. It's way too long, way too wordy, and Mifune is miscast as Red Beard. The one fight scene in the whole film sticks out like a sore thumb, as does the happy end (which was apparently a spoof on popular Japanese family movies).

The constant rambling in Read Beard is highly unusual for Kurosawa. The film is partly based on Dostoevsky's The Insulted and the Injured, and apparently Kurosawa tried to fit all the sub-plots of a 19th century Russian novel into a single film. The only way he could do this was by having characters tell stories all the time, which is something he wisely avoided elsewhere. His image composition is perfect is usual, though.

I agree that the other films you listed are very good, as is Kagemusha, by the way -- I didn't think much of it at first but it grew on me. Dersu Uzala and Stray Dog are also worth watching.

(In the early '70s, Toshiro Mifune and Charles Bronson even teamed up in a Western called "Red Sun." I haven't seen it but by most accounts it was pretty mediocre.) One thing I have wondered is whether the de facto sequel to Yojimbo, "Sanjuro," was used as the template for "A Few Dollars More."

I've seen Red Sun, it also featured Ursula Andress and Alain Delon. Pretty ridiculous but seeing Mifune chop up cowboys with his samurai sword is fun to watch, at least once.

Sanjuro has very little in common with For a Few Dollars More, the stories and characters are completely different. The only plot element the two movies share is Mifune/Eastwood infiltrating the enemy samurai/bandit camp.

[Tom Chick]

As long as we are listing fave Kurosawa films btw, I'd put Seven Samurai and Ikiru at the top -- both are practically perfect movies -- then probably High & Low, Throne of Blood, Hidden Fortress and maybe Rashomon in the second tier.

Ranking Kurosawa? Cool!

Seven Samurai is kind of a no-brainer for the top of the list.

However, I might have to pick High and Low. I was so taken aback by that movie, particularly since Mifune *wasn't* playing a chin-scratching samurai. I love the opening, the whole power struggle, like the beginning of one of Shakespeare's histories, but the business at hand is ladies shoes! And the final scene is really burned into my head. Give me more movies that end like they used to, with a bang rather than gently letting the viewer down with some dopey sitcom denoument to set the status quo back to zero.

You guys have me really curious about Ikiru now, but it's not frickin' on DVD.

And does Rashomon hold up beyond it's narrative innovation? I haven't seen it since I was in college

-Tom

[Gordon Cameron]

If you want to see Mifune *not* play a chin-scratching Samurai, you should check out "Record of a Living Being" in which he plays an elderly patriarch who is terrified of atomic annihilation. When I first saw the movie I didn't even realize it was Mifune. I doubt that one is on DVD yet, though.

I agree the final scene of High & Low is a corker. I think it's a difficult film but a rewarding one. It's got that weird bifurcated structure, bisected by the train/drop sequence. The first half all confined to a single apartment... not since "Twelve Angry Men" has a director had to do so much with such limited geographical space. It strikes me as being a very formalistic movie, very carefully thought out. I find patches of it dull but the overall impact is undeniable. I need to see it a few more times. Interestingly, David Mamet wrote a remake of it, which I believe had De Niro attached at one point. As far as I know it's not going anywhere at the moment, though.

As for Rashomon, I haven't come to a final assessment of it. I think the important point is that it was a major watershed for Kurosawa. That very same year (1950) he also made "Scandal," an intriguing but decidedly *minor* movie about the redemption of a scumbag lawyer. (Though he also did Stray Dog the previous year, which apparently is very good.) Rashomon was Kurosawa's "master-piece" in the sense that it took him to the next level and set him off on a simply dazzling decade and a half of excellence. Looking at the movie by itself, I wonder if (not unlike Memento?) it diminishes once you get over the structural conceit. I do think the forest location is beautifully photographed, the three main performances (Bandit, Samurai, and Woman) are all very good, and (barring the tacked on happy ending) the film is very clear-eyed about human weakness and vanity. Having said all that, I don't actually *enjoy* Rashomon that much, and it's far from the first Kurosawa flick I'd choose to watch on a rainy afternoon.

I'm surprised Ikiru hasn't been released on DVD yet. I'm sure it won't be long. There was a full Criterion laserdisc release some years back, which I saw in college. I think it is a superb movie and I highly recommend it.

[Chris Nahr]

However, I might have to pick High and Low. I was so taken aback by that movie, particularly since Mifune *wasn't* playing a chin-scratching samurai. I love the opening, the whole power struggle, like the beginning of one of Shakespeare's histories, but the business at hand is ladies shoes! And the final scene is really burned into my head. Give me more movies that end like they used to, with a bang rather than gently letting the viewer down with some dopey sitcom denoument to set the status quo back to zero.

Yes, developing half the plot out of a disagreement over the proper design of ladies' shoes is something you'd never expect to work, but it does. Also agree about the memorable ending, much more effective than seeing Mifune & wife happily sewing shoes at their new home (or whatever).

If you want to see Mifune *not* play a chin-scratching Samurai, you should check out "Record of a Living Being" in which he plays an elderly patriarch who is terrified of atomic annihilation. When I first saw the movie I didn't even realize it was Mifune. I doubt that one is on DVD yet, though.

No, not even as an RC2 DVD. :(

Rashomon was Kurosawa's "master-piece" in the sense that it took him to the next level and set him off on a simply dazzling decade and a half of excellence. Looking at the movie by itself, I wonder if (not unlike Memento?) it diminishes once you get over the structural conceit. I do think the forest location is beautifully photographed, the three main performances (Bandit, Samurai, and Woman) are all very good, and (barring the tacked on happy ending) the film is very clear-eyed about human weakness and vanity. Having said all that, I don't actually *enjoy* Rashomon that much, and it's far from the first Kurosawa flick I'd choose to watch on a rainy afternoon.

I think Rashomon's main weakness is its over-indulgence in pretty pictures. The best example is the woodcutter's looong initial walk through the forest. I gather from the documentary that at the time, shooting into the sun and having the camera drive around a walking man was revolutionary but from today's perspective it's just way too long and really quite boring. In his later films Kurosawa refrained from showing off complicated or innovative camera work like this, and as a result his other films aged much better than Rashomon.