More Yasujiro Ozu Dual Format Edition releases from the BFI on 17 January.
In July 2010 the BFI launched The Ozu Collection; all 32 of the world-renowned Japanese director's surviving films made for the Shochiku Studio will be issued over the next three years. Following Tokyo Story, Early Summer and Late Spring, the next titles to be released in Dual Format Editions (both a Blu-ray and a DVD disc in one box) are Equinox Flower (1958) and Good Morning (1959) on 17 January 2011.
As previously packaged, each feature is accompanied by an early Ozu film that has never been available in the UK before.
Equinox Flower (Higanbana) & There Was a Father (Chichi Ariki)
Yasujiro Ozu's first colour film, Equinox Flower is a deft comedy that takes an ironic glance at the decline of paternal authority. Shin Saburi plays Wataru Hirayama, an old-fashioned father whose outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter tells him she wants a love-match. Outwitted and outflanked by his wily female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat. The director's playful use of colour, poetry and arch humour combine to make this tale of old versus new at once deeply moving and razor-sharp.
Paternal authority is unquestionably ascendant in Ozu's powerful war-time drama There Was a Father which is included here. Shuhei Horikawa (Chishu Ryu) sacrifices his teaching career after an unfortunate accident but refuses to sacrifice the education of his only son.
Special features
-Standard Definition and High Definition presentations of Equinox Flower and There Was a Father (DVD & Blu-ray)
-Fully illustrated booklet with newly commissioned sleevenote essays by Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns
-New and improved English subtitles
Good Morning (Oyaho) & I Was Born, But… (Umarete wa mita keredo)
A bright Tokyo suburb buzzing with gossip is the backdrop to Ozu's cheerful comedy, Good Morning. Disillusioned with the seemingly meaningless talk of the adults around them, two brothers take a vow of silence when their parents refuse to buy them a television. With a dexterously woven plot, built on mishaps and misunderstandings, Good Morning pokes fun at the silliness of everyday chatter whilst gently acknowledging its fundamental necessity.
Also included here is Ozu's superb early comedy I Was Born, But… The forerunner of Good Morning, this silent masterpiece contains many similar themes but a darker edge. As brothers Ryoichi and Keiji struggle to outwit the local bully and scale the pecking order in their new neighbourhood, they find out that injustice does not end with school.
Special features
-Standard Definition and High Definition presentations of Good Morning
-Standard Definition presentation of I Was Born, But… (DVD only)
-Newly recorded score for I Was Born, But… by composer Ed Hughes and the New Music Players
-Illustrated booklet with newly commissioned sleevenote essay by silent film curator Bryony Dixon and contemporary review by Jonathan Rosenbaum
-New and improved English subtitles
BFI DVDs are available from all good DVD retailers; by mail order from the BFI Filmstore Tel: 020 7815 1350 or online at www.bfi.org.uk/filmstore
Technical information
Good Morning Cat. No. BFIB1070, region B, RRP £19.99
Japan / 1959 + 1932 / colour + black and white / Japanese language, English subtitles / 94 mins + 87 mins / Cert U / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1
Disc 1: BD25 / 1080p / 24fps / PCM mono audio (48k/16-bit)
Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital mono audio (320kbps)
Equinox Flower Cat. No. BFIB1071, region B, RRP £19.99
Japan / 1958 + 1942 / colour + black and white / Japanese language, English subtitles / 118 mins + 87 mins / Cert U / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / PCM mono audio (48k/16-bit)
Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital mono audio (320kbps)
About Yasujiro Ozu
Yasujiro Ozu came into the Japanese film business in 1923; he was 19 at the time and a huge film buff, having spent much of his teenage life watching imported Hollywood films. He joined Shochiku (the company for which he made the vast majority of his films) as a camera assistant and soon went on to become an assistant director and script collaborator. He learned his craft on the job and quickly became competent in framing shots, staging scenes and building gags in the conventional Hollywood manner. Some five or six years into his career as a director Ozu began to formulate his own distinctive filmic style, a method of framing, pacing and cutting which was unique in both Japanese and world cinema. It was a style he pursued right up to his death in 1963.
In film after film, Ozu focused on the everyday lives - at home, at work, in bars or in school - of ordinary people, deploying stories shorn of big melodramatic moments, and balancing gentle comedy with a poignant awareness of life's limitations and transience.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
More Yasujiro Ozu Dual Format Edition releases from the BFI on 17 January.
Collapse
X
Collapse
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (272)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4162)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2513)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (391)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (300)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (497)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: February 22nd, 2022.
Director: Gianfranco Parolini
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance
Year: 1976
Purchase From Amazon
God’s Gun – Movie Review:
Directed by Gianfranco Parolini in 1976, quite late in the spaghetti western boom years, God's Gun (Diamante Lobo in Italy) introduces us to a bad, bad man named Sam Clayton (Jack Palance) who, along with his gang of equally bad, bad men, start wreaking...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:10 PM -
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: October 8th, 2019.
Director: Mario Bava
Cast: Christopher Lee, Reg Park, Leonora Ruffo, Gaia Germani
Year: 1968
Purchase From Amazon
Hercules In The Haunted World – Movie Review:
Directed by Mario Bava in 1961 and featuring a screenplay by Bava (and Sandro Continenza, Francesco Prosperi and Duccio Tessari), Hercules In The Haunted World (also known as Hercules At The Center Of The Earth and...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:08 PM -
-
Released by: Cinématographe
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jack Nicholson
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi
Year: 1978
Purchase From Amazon
Goin’ South – Movie Review:
Made at the height of his career as an actor, 1978’s ‘Goin’ South’ sees Jack Nicholson once again in the director’s chair, seven years after his directorial debut, ‘Drive, He Said,’ failed to set the...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:29 AM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: April 20th, 2024.
Director: Noburo Nakamura
Cast: Miyuki Kuwano, Mikijiro Hira
Year: 1964
Purchase From Amazon
The Shape Of Night – Movie Review:
Directed by Noburo Nakamura for Shochiko in 1964, ‘The Shape Of Night’ follows a young woman named Yoshie Nomoto (Miyuki Kuwano). In the opening scene, she’s working as a streetwalker on the outskirts of town and soon enough, she’s picked...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:26 AM -
-
Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: April 22nd, 2024.
Director: Bryce McGuire
Cast: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle
Year: 2024
Purchase From Amazon
Night Swim – Movie Review:
The feature length directorial debut of Bryce McGuire, a collaboration between James Wan's Atomic Monster and Blumhouse, 2024’s Night Swim opens with a scene set in 1992 where a young girl looks out her window and sees a toy boat floating...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:24 AM -
-
Released by: Film Masters
Released on: April 23rd, 2024.
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Cast: Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Lugene Sanders, Susan Gordon
Year: 1963
Purchase From Amazon
Tormented – Movie Review:
The late Bert I. Gordon’s 1963 horror film, ‘Tormented,’ is an effectively spooky ghost story made with an obviously low budget but no less effective for it.
The story revolves around a professional piano player...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:19 AM -