2 Seven Samurai

[Mr Sausage]

I realize there is an updated version out. What I really want is all the OOPs, and the 203 minute version with the restoration demo is one such movie that I know will be hard to find.....

The one in the Samurai Box will be the reprint without the restoration demo.

[tholly]

The one in the Samurai Box will be the reprint without the restoration demo.

Ok, so it doesn't have the demo on it.

Is it the 207 minute version, or a 203 minute version that would be considered the 2nd pressing?

[Tommaso]

The one in the Samurai Box will be the reprint without the restoration demo.

Ok, so it doesn't have the demo on it.

Is it the 207 minute version, or a 203 minute version that would be considered the 2nd pressing?

I don't know where that 203 min. information comes from. I have the old version without the restoration demo (i.e. the 2nd pressing of the old release), and it clearly says on the cover that it's 207 minutes long. The transfer is exactly the same as the VERY FIRST pressing WITH the restoration demo, so that also should be 207 min. It's only 203 minutes if you take away the four minutes of the musical intermission.

[tholly]

Back cover for the 203 Minute version.

[manicsounds]

See DVD Beaver.

[Dr. Mabuse]

I read somewhere that TOHO insists on a six month window between a Japanese release and an overseas release.

[Anthony Thorne]

I'm late to the party but just watched the movie for the first time last night, after having bought the redone Criterion a year or more ago. What a film! Funnily enough, I'm keen to hear the commentary tracks for factual info about the film's production, but have less interest in hearing analytical discussion of the movie.

I wish Criterion would dump their Region coding of Blu-Ray discs. Or, alternatively, that someone would release a region free Blu-Ray player.

[skuhn8]

I wish Criterion would dump their Region coding of Blu-Ray discs. Or, alternatively, that someone would release a region free Blu-Ray player.

There are probably 400+ people on this forum who wish for the same on both counts. Criterion has limited say on region coding options. Modified Blu-ray players are starting to trickle into the market and should pick up steam and visibility soon.

Definitely check out [Edit:] Michael Jeck's commentary if you have the time. Particularly surprising insight into special effects (wood blocks and the long bow!). I haven't checked out the other commentary yet.

Thanks for the correction Tommaso: Jeck not Eder.

[Tommaso]

Definitely check out Bruce Eder's commentary if you have the time.

I guess you mean Michael Jeck?

Anyway, my favourite extra on this set is the long interview Nagisa Oshima conducted with Kuro. It's a run-down of Kurosawa's whole career, but thankfully we don't get the usual stories of how he met Mifune or how he won the Venice festival, but Kurosawa mainly talks about the situation in the industry after the war, details about how he approaches the music in his films, or gives advice to young filmmakers, for instance. Highly informative, and it's charming to see how the former enfant terrible Oshima is in utter reverence to the old man.

[Anthony Thorne]

I have a few Criterion Kurosawa's, with a few more to get (including the Eclipse box). SEVEN SAMURAI made an enormous impression on me, so I'm looking forward to eventually getting the others. I still don't have the YOJIMBO/SANJURO pack, for example.

Reading through this thread (or the REDBELT one) made me check out Tim Allen's comments about the movie on Youtube. I agreed with him and found his enthusiasm quite sweet.

[HerrSchreck]

I have a few Criterion Kurosawa's, with a few more to get (including the Eclipse box). SEVEN SAMURAI made an enormous impression on me, so I'm looking forward to eventually getting the others. I still don't have the YOJIMBO/SANJURO pack, for example.

Reading through this thread (or the REDBELT one) made me check out Tim Allen's comments about the movie on Youtube. I agreed with him and found his enthusiasm quite sweet.

I hope you've picked up Redbeard. I do really love quite a lot of Kurosawa-- especially his b&w period-- but I'd say Seven Samurai and Redbeard are his two most soaring, magically perfect masterpieces. Not to mention they are two quite different films, especially in the shooting styles. One of the really marvellous points Jeck makes in his commentary is his pointing out how in 7Sam Kurosawa & his DP Asakazu Nakai render magnificent shots.. but ones that nonetheless do not call attention to themselves as Nice Shots. He-- so to speak-- "throws them away" by keeping the narrative moving right along, minimizes certain pictorial effects while capturing them (rarely uses certain filters & lenses in conjunction with lighting effects, a la the gleaming setups of Sternberg or 1950's Miyazawa/Mizoguchi , which cause the setups the really sparkle and pop with luminosity and have them do so with a sense of quietude and subjective moving camera); yet in Redbeard he does this very thing-- punctuates his narrative with aesthetic high points which include the pictorial level-- in this manner he reminds me (in Redbeard) very much of a kind of Japanese von Stroeheim... particularly the EvS of Foolish Wives.

In this period beginning with No Regrets .. and running up to & including Redbeard, AK really didn't make a not Very Good film. There are some not-as-successful endeavors as some of his masterpieces, but the 19 films running from 1946/No Regrets for Our Youth to 1965/Redbeard is really quite extraordinary. I exclude the NRFOY-preceding films only because I haven't seen them.

[Michael Kerpan]

Another vote for Red Beard as one of the most gorgeous black and white widescreen films ever made. (Not to mention that I love the story too).

[Michael]

I love Red Beard too. Cemented as my favorite Kurosawa film. It's simply glorious, rich, emotional, complex.. I could go on. But Seven Samurai, on the other hand, left me with mixed feelings, not as awestruck I was by Red Beard.

[Mr Sausage]

I exclude the NRFOY-preceding films only because I haven't seen them.

You might want to check out Sanshiro Sugata (aka Judo Saga). His first film and he already has total control of the medium (a lesser director would consider something like this a career high). The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail is a strange, flawed, but still quite good film (I think there were rumours it was getting the Criterion treatment). Can't vouch for the rest, but a friend of mine called Most Beautiful a career anomaly in that it's just a failure all around, and Kurosawa's worst film.

[feckless boy]

Can't vouch for the rest, but a friend of mine called Most Beautiful a career anomaly in that it's just a failure all around, and Kurosawa's worst film.

In a blog entry David Bordwell compares the staging of The Most Beautiful to that of There Will Be Blood. This scene alone makes me think it can't be a total failure.

[Anthony Thorne]

RED BEARD is on my shelf, along with THRONE OF BLOOD, RASHOMON, STRAY DOG and RAN. This was part of a perverse plan I had to purchase all the AK Criterions and then watch them in chronological order. That won't be happening for a while now though ($$), so I've started to run through what I have.

On things Japanese, I like to imagine Criterion someday putting together extras-heavy season box sets of IRON CHEF, with duelling Donald Richie / Stephen Prince commentary tracks.

[BrianInAtlanta]

a friend of mine called Most Beautiful a career anomaly in that it's just a failure all around, and Kurosawa's worst film.

I certainly wouldn't call it a failure although it's not up there with Sanshiro Sugata 1. It's certainly interesting to see a wartime propaganda film from a country then fighting the U.S. as they're so rarely screened here (now there's an idea for a film festival!).

One part that was surprising was the opening where the women who work at the lens factory are all lined up being harangued by a terrifically harsh voice spewing extreme Japanese propaganda. When the voice ends, the film cuts to the office of the man making the address and it's kindly Takashi Shimura!

[HerrSchreck]

Not sure if this was mentioned elsewhere, but it deserves mention here at very least:

Toho has Seven Samurai On Deck for an October Blu Ray release.

[knives]

So April for R1?

[eerik]

Not sure if this was mentioned elsewhere, but it deserves mention here at very least:

Toho has Seven Samurai On Deck for an October Blu Ray release.

Here. 8-)

[perkizitore]

How long until the Criterion blu-ray you reckon?
The Toho release is too expensive and even if it had english subtitles i wouldn't consider buying it.

[Norbie]

Blu-Ray release:

I already have the 3-disc edition. With news that a BR edition coming soon i'm not so sure if i would purchase it.
However, if there are new features (not counting the the new HD transfer & lossless audio) i would not have any problem in double dipping.

Would you?

[unclehulot]

I got an email from Amazon this morning, which gives no release date, but offers up 7S for pre-order on BD:

http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Samurai-Cri ... 892&sr=8-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;