29 / BD 228 Kwaidan

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peerpee
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29 / BD 228 Kwaidan

#1 Post by peerpee » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:34 am

Kwaidan

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For the first time in the West, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the complete 183-minute original Japanese cut of Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan — one of the most meticulously crafted supernatural fantasy films ever made.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, Kwaidan features four nightmarish tales adapted from Lafcadio Hearn's classic Japanese ghost stories. For this lavish, 'scope production, Kobayashi drew extensively on his own training as a student of painting and the fine arts. Indeed, the breadth of the film's poetic expression is unmatched in all of Japanese cinema: breathtakingly photographed on handpainted sets, the film is at once a miniature writ large, and an abstract wash of luminescent colours that seem to hail from another world. On the soundtrack, an electronic score by avant-garde composer Toru Takemitsu plays hauntingly with the natural sounds — crickets, rain, the cracking of wood, the loud silence of snow. This interaction of the film's plastic and aural textures with the simple, aching humanity of Hearn's tales serves to accentuate the power of the storytelling: four episodes about mortals caught up in forces beyond their comprehension — when the supernatural world intervenes in their lives. Perhaps the definitive adaptation of Hearn's work, Kwaidan also presents the author's most emblematic tale — "Hoichi, the Earless", in which a blind young monk journeys every night to an abandoned graveyard, compelled by the ghosts of a famous battle to retell their story, over and over again...

Starring Tatsuya Nakadai (Yojimbo, The Face of Another, Harakiri), this complete print of Kwaidan — incorporating 21 minutes of footage never before released to Western audiences — also includes the uncut version of "The Snow Maiden", in which a woodcutter marries a woman whose true calling is to wander enveloped in swirling snowflakes, bringing death to mortals. The episode marks the apotheosis of the film's eerie atmosphere — anticipating, and arguably surpassing, Japanese cinema's recent excursions in the realm of "J-horror". Over forty years on, Kobayashi's film remains an unparalleled achievement.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New progressive transfer of the complete 183-minute Japanese version
• A selection of original trailers
• Promotional material gallery
• New and improved optional English subtitles
• Special 72-page illustrated book with reprints of Lafcadio Hearn's original ghost stories; a survey of the life and career of Masaki Kobayashi by Linda Hoaglund; and a wide-ranging interview with the filmmaker — the last he ever gave

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#2 Post by Cinéslob » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:36 am

'Hurrah!' encapsulates my sentiments quite well.

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Lino
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#3 Post by Lino » Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:41 am

Bastards! Now I'll maybe have to be triple-dipping on this one! Ok, calm down, girl - let's rationalize a bit. Deep breath. Full stop. Paragraph.

So, peerpee me boy, what kind of extras will MoC be providing for this one, hey? Full length running commentary by a team of experts, perhaps? And do you have any indication as to whether Criterion will be revisiting its own edition?

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Michael Kerpan
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#4 Post by Michael Kerpan » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:19 am

Thanks! Glad I held off from buying any previous versions!

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#5 Post by What A Disgrace » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:49 am

Selling my Criterion now.

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#6 Post by peerpee » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:46 pm

Annie Mall wrote:So, peerpee me boy, what kind of extras will MoC be providing for this one, hey? Full length running commentary by a team of experts, perhaps? And do you have any indication as to whether Criterion will be revisiting its own edition?
As the uncut version is over 3 hours long, we wanted to devote the entire disc to the film to maintain a decent encode. Not so sure the film lends itself to a commentary track?

Unless we can find something meaty relatively soon to make this a two-disc set, our initial instinct is to couple this release with a lavish reprint of Lafcadio Hearn's original ghost stories.

Keen to hear everybody's thoughts on this.

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Michael Kerpan
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#7 Post by Michael Kerpan » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:48 pm

I think a good background essay (and the original stories) should be FAR more valuable than any commentary would be.

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#8 Post by skuhn8 » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:07 pm

Yup. Got my vote; I'll buy it.

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FilmFanSea
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#9 Post by FilmFanSea » Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:03 pm

Pardon my ignorance, but I thought the Criterion disc contained the complete 164-minute cut of the film* (as opposed to the ~125 minute version that played theatrically oin the US). How will the MoC differ from the Criterion? (I recognize that the video quality of their 2000 release leaves something to be desired.)

* EDIT: looking at Criterion's specs, they list the running time at 161 minutes (as does DVD Beaver), so I must be wrong

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#10 Post by Lino » Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:21 pm

FilmFanSea wrote:Pardon my ignorance, but I thought the Criterion disc contained the complete 164-minute cut of the film
It doesn't. Gordon, you can cancel that australian order now! :wink:

Nick, will the MoC edition be including the original theatrical trailer, the teaser and the production teaser that are said to be present on the australian DVD?

Oh, and I'm keeping my CC. No completist would be without the 2 versions of this amazing film (not to mention this is one of my favorite movies ever)!

Nick, I am trying to think of other extras to be included but apart from interviews with surviving cast and crew (present on the french Wild Side Video DVD) and photo galleries (present on both the japanese and australian DVDs), I'm having a hard time finding something truly substantial. Clearly, the most alluring extra will be to read the original stories no doubt. Hmm, let me see... a video introduction by Ehrenstein, perhaps? What else...hmm...is there a documentary on Kobayashi out there? That would be a nice thing to have too.

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tryavna
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#11 Post by tryavna » Thu Feb 16, 2006 4:33 pm

I imagine most of you know my attitude toward yet more Ehrenstein on MoC discs. (I'm dubious about it, and I guess I'll leave it at that.) But I'd much rather have some stories by -- and info on -- Lafcadio Hearn. He's a really fascinating figure who deserves further study. So I welcome the inclusion of the original stories -- even though I probably already have them somewhere on my bookshelf.

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#12 Post by HerrSchreck » Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:02 pm

I feel like a black sheep here-- and I sure don't want to, after the image problems on the CC disc, threaten the image quality by cramping the bit rate-- but I would absolutely love a commentary for the film and don't get why other folks don't. Kobayashi is just indescribably magnificent to me-- always unjustly hanging under Kuro's shadow, not one of his CC titles warranted any satisfying extras and nary a commentary. And no BLACK RIVER or worthwhile HUMAN COND to speak of here.

The backstory on the making of the studio-sprawling KWAIDAN is a tale that could make for quite a riveting extra... be it in commentary, Making Of doc, etc. The wonderful thing about commentaries-- in the right hands of course-- is that it gives the individual permission to speak about Every Single Scene in the Film.

Lord have mercy do I ever love KWAIDAN and just Kobayashi in general. To me he's the perfect example of that rare filmmaker that would have resulted had silent films, and the means & techniques which were being used in the late 20's, had just a few more years to germinate.

But Perpee,I'll take what I can get. And yes, the stories would be excellent. Anyone ever note the similarity of UGETSU as filmed to the Black Hair & Hoichi the Earless? Ambitious husband leaves hearth & home, returns home & is greeted by comfort-providing & loving spirit of wife, now dead... lesson learned late. Aswell as the warding off of predatory spirits draining one's llife-force via the painting on the body of religious characters by a priest?

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Matt
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#13 Post by Matt » Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:10 pm

tryavna wrote:I imagine most of you know my attitude toward yet more Ehrenstein on MoC discs. (I'm dubious about it, and I guess I'll leave it at that.)
I think anyone who's even glanced at the Brokeback Mountain thread will agree: a little David Ehrenstein goes a long way. Don't allow him to become the MoC version of Peter Cowie.

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#14 Post by Andre Jurieu » Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:57 pm

I simultaneously agree with tryavna, matt, and Shreck. That's probably never going to happen again. At the very least, it's a first. Of course, I do understand there may be some difficulty creating a quality commentary track that runs that long.

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#15 Post by Lino » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:12 pm

I'm not so hot on Mr. Frankenstein either (that BBM thread has caused some serious damage to all of us in many varied ways, no doubt) and I only mentioned him because he seems to be a trusted collaborator at MoC headquarters (I will give him the benefit of doubt until I hear what he has to say on the audio commentary of the upcoming Faust and that's the best I can do for now).

BTW, Mr. Hare: aren't both of you pals or something? What's with the sudden change of opinion? :wink:

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#16 Post by porquenegar » Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:40 pm

Excellent news. I was just about to pull the trigger on the R4 but now I'll hold off for this one.

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Steven H
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#17 Post by Steven H » Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:43 am

I'm really just hoping for a big fat booklet for this one with the original stories, essays on the form or the music of the film, information on kwaidan (and of course, how it related to Black Cat and Onibaba, in order to remind people to buy those if they like this), anything.

This is neat (I think Polish):

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Lino
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#18 Post by Lino » Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:55 am

Steric Hindrance wrote:
Nick, I am trying to think of other extras to be included but apart from interviews with surviving cast and crew (present on the french Wild Side Video DVD)
Maybe i've missed something, but can't remember them being there on my French R2 edition.....
I'm sorry. My bad. I was thinking of the french edition of Kobayashi's Samurai Rebellion also out by Wild Side, I believe.

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Gordon
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#19 Post by Gordon » Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:36 pm

Annie Mall wrote:you can cancel that australian order now! :wink:
Bloody hell - two instances of bad timing for me today: FOUR Michael Haneke films on May 16th. I'd much rather own the MoC edition.

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#20 Post by ben d banana » Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:58 pm

matt wrote:I think anyone who's even glanced at the Brokeback Mountain thread will agree: a little David Ehrenstein goes a long way. Don't allow him to become the MoC version of Peter Cowie.
SING OUT LOUISE!

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#21 Post by htdm » Sat Feb 18, 2006 4:01 am

"Don't forget to wire!"

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GringoTex
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#22 Post by GringoTex » Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:19 am

David E's contributions to this forum aside, he's an excellent film historian and gives good commentary. The Savage Innocents disc is proof of that.

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#23 Post by tryavna » Sun Feb 19, 2006 11:58 am

Langlois68 wrote:David E's contributions to this forum aside, he's an excellent film historian and gives good commentary. The Savage Innocents disc is proof of that.
Well, that depends on how much you value well-researched and accurate information as opposed to unsubstantiated -- and frequently wrong -- assertion. See Matango's review of the commentary for The Savage Innocents at the top of page 2 of that thread. Or to relate it back to Kwaidan, just look at his misinformed assertions about Lafcadio Hearn in his original Criterion liner notes. (Contrary to what's written there, Hearn himself never felt he had "clearly achieved" "total assimilation." Quite the contrary, if you even glance through Hearn's final book "Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation.")

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#24 Post by GringoTex » Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:57 pm

tryavna wrote:Well, that depends on how much you value well-researched and accurate information as opposed to unsubstantiated -- and frequently wrong -- assertion. See Matango's review of the commentary for The Savage Innocents at the top of page 2 of that thread.
You (actually, somebody else) has a point here- although Plummer so badly pretended to be "British," I'm not sure what the difference is.
tryavna wrote:Or to relate it back to Kwaidan, just look at his misinformed assertions about Lafcadio Hearn in his original Criterion liner notes. (Contrary to what's written there, Hearn himself never felt he had "clearly achieved" "total assimilation." Quite the contrary, if you even glance through Hearn's final book "Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation.")
And here, you've ridiculously misinterpreted what Ehrenstein's point was. If you're going to try to impugn the the quality of a film commentator with 40 years published history, at least get your argument straight. You're the kid on the playground lecturing against the monkey bars.

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tryavna
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#25 Post by tryavna » Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:14 am

Since you simply state that I'm wrong without backing up your statement, I'm not sure how to reply -- or even if a response is necessary. However, based on how Ehrenstein phrases his (brief) description of Hearn's authorial identity, I'm not sure how my criticism could be a misinterpretation. He writes: "Hearn became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1895, and changed his name to Yakumo Koizumi. If total assimilation of his adopted culture was Hearn's goal, then he clearly achieved it, for it's impossible to tell that Kwaidan's source material is in any way Western." The fact of the matter is that, from a literary history perspective, Hearn was much more embedded in the "local color" movement of American literature, which much like the European fairy tale collectors was guided by an almost anthropological desire to collect, study, and then recreate folk stories from regions that they did not personally come from but that carried "exotic" appeal. Furthermore, Hearn always described himself as an outsider/observer -- an evaluation shared by other writers who claimed to know something about Japanese culture, including Jack London. None of this complicated background gets mentioned; instead, Ehrenstein makes a typically sweeping generalization that tends to elide the context of Hearn's writings.

What I really don't understand, however, is why you feel it necessary to belittle me for holding what I think is a fair opinion of a critic's work. Notice that I don't belittle him personally -- just his methodology, which I find incredibly weak. Is it childish of me to demand fuller research from people who get paid reasonably good money to provide commentary tracks and liner notes? Perhaps you consider multiple appearances on the E! channel as unassailable credentials for a critic, but I must confess that I don't.

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